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• Websites for Trades Allow Greater Control
  • Control How Your Company Looks Through a Website
  • Retain Rights to Content
• Glitches and Technical Issues Could Ruin Your Facebook Peresence
• How to Use Social media and a Website for Your Trades Business

Although Facebook is a popular marketing outlet for good reason, it should not be relied upon as your business’ central online platform. Facebook pages are excellent for reaching potential clients at little cost, but they do not allow you much control over your brand or where your content ends up. Because of this, you should develop a tradesmen marketing strategy that centres around using social media to push users to view a website that you own and fully control. That’s why you need websites for trades business marketing.

Websites for Trades Allow Greater Control 

Facebook pages can be great as a direct social-based point of contact with current and potential customers, but hosting on a social media platform limits your control over how your company presents itself. Without a website for your trades business, you don’t have a chance to show customers what sets you apart. Plus, Facebook’s terms of use outline the fact that Facebook reserves the right to use your content however it pleases. 

Control How your Company Looks Through a Website 

When building a website for your trades business, you can extensively customize the design, flow, and style of the interface that clients use to interact with your brand. On Facebook, however, you are pretty much stuck with the tools and formats that Facebook gives you. Not to mention, you are essentially at the mercy of Facebook’s algorithm when it comes to getting eyes on your posts. This can not only be frustrating, but also makes it hard to stand out from the crowd and prove your legitimacy. 

Because Facebook essentially lets you establish a business presence by providing a few details, anyone could set up a Facebook page that looks as legitimate as yours without much expense. Fraud Facebook accounts can even pay for fake reviews that make them appear even more real. Credibility is critical for tradesmen marketing strategies, so having a website that helps vouch for the legitimacy of your business is well worth the investment. 

Retain Rights to Your Content with WordPress Websites for Trades

Facebook’s terms and policies outline the fact that, by using the platform, you grant Facebook the “…non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, and worldwide licence to host, use, distribute, modify, run, copy, publicly perform or display, translate, and create derivative works of your content (consistent with your privacy and application settings).” Basically, Facebook can do whatever they want with your content once it is out there. 

Other Facebook users are also able to share and even download the content you post, making it unappealing to use Facebook as the primary location for all of your photos, company info, and marketing materials. On a regular website for your trades business, your rights as the owner of the content you post are much more clear-cut. 

Glitches and Technical Issues Could Ruin Your Facebook Presence

Facebook is simple to use – until it isn’t. Glitchy updates and random technical issues could leave you in trouble. Your ability to access meaningful technical support is very limited with Facebook, so you don’t necessarily have anywhere to turn if you run into problems editing your information or posting through your page. Although it might be unlikely, if your Facebook page or parts of it got removed (intentionally or accidentally) by Facebook, you could lose your posts, reviews, and information with no definite way of recovering them. 

Facebook’s limited customizability can also mean that putting your best foot forward requires extensive editing, or is simply impossible. For example, when uploading multiple photos to one post, Facebook automatically creates thumbnails for the first several photos. Even if you change the order of the photos, Facebook’s photo preview might crop out essential parts of the image, making it hard for you to share your latest project or advert with clients if they don’t click to see the full photo. When designing a website for trades business marketing and branding, you can have much greater control over how the content you post is presented. 

Another Facebook feature that could cause issues for your business is the reviews section. Facebook encourages individual users to leave reviews, but doesn’t allow businesses to edit or remove them. While honesty is critical for your business when it comes to not representing client feedback, it is also important that you can remove false information from your page. If a competitor or even a random tech-challenged Facebook user leaves a false review, you cannot remove it from your Facebook page. This is where a trades website of your own could help set the record straight by allowing you to remove fake reviews and show the true breakdown of your ratings. 

How to Use Social Media and a Website for Your Trades Business

Despite the disadvantages of using Facebook as your company’s primary online platform, it is a great choice for promoting your website and some of your trades business’ information – especially a basic overview of your services. Most people will expect to find you on Facebook, and having an active page can be a great tool for reaching new audiences. A Facebook page also creates an extra channel for connecting with clients and reminding them about your services without having to spam them with emails, calls, or mailers.

A great strategy for running a business Facebook page is to frequently link posts back to your website. By directing social media viewers to the main website for your trades business, you can use the power of social media to share your message while retaining control of your content. As you develop your website, make sure to put digital marketing and design tools to use to drive lead generation and support the client booking experience. 

However, not all website hosting platforms are made equal; website hosting services like Wix and Squarespace are subscription-based. If you use these companies to host your website, you ultimately don’t own the site’s domain name or content. Instead, it is best to use a hosting site like WordPress, which allows you to keep your website for trades and the information you upload onto it as your assets. 

As an example, here at Digital4Trades, we are actively collaborating with review sites to build our brand. Check out our DesignRush status below. 

Need help building a trades website that supports your social media presence but unsure where to start? Find out how Digital4Trades helps create effective tradesmen websites here!