There is an idea in my bubble that running your own website is A Very Good Idea. I subscribe to the idea that running your own website is A Very Good Idea and will continue to help that along in my career.
But there is a heaping helping of It Depends involved here.
Perhaps the biggest reason having your own site is a good idea is that you are in complete control. Platforms come and go, but your site is your site. You control the content, the design, the URLs, the everything. It’s a direct connection between a visitor to your site and you.
But I got some very valid pushback on this on a panel I was on last year.
For some, it actually feels like less control.
Not everybody knows how to update a website. Even if they do, they might not feel particularly good at it or do everything they want to do. And even if they do it, they aren’t sure anybody will see it, particularly in a timely manner.
If you’re a restaurant, it could be argued, it’s better to make an Instagram post saying you’re doing a BBQ popup on Monday from 5pm until sold out there rather than putting it on your own website. It’s probably faster and easier, reaches more people, and doesn’t need to be edited again later. That’s more control using a third-party platform, not less, even if you are ceding control in other ways.
The thing is: it’s not an either or situation. You can do both. POSSE is both, but the technological requirements there are even stiffer. I don’t have any answers here. Except, of course, that everyone on Earth should both do the thing that they need to and love to do the most and be incredibly technologically proficient at the same time.
None of those things are about control. They are about convenience and market reach. Both absolutely valid. And of course a website for a restaurant is not a substitute for advertising.
They may “control” their instagram account today. But tomorrow? Who knows. Plenty of businesses wake up to their social accounts being terminated. Then all that time they spent cultivating a following there is gone. But again, that is about their marketing strategy more than control over their content.
I also don’t think everyone needs a website. But every business? Probably these days. Even just for credibility.
If you are a content creator and want control of your content, then there is no other way. You have to have a site. But if you also want social interaction, then you need to be where the people are.
If you are a content creator and just care about the social interaction, then being on other people’s platform is fine.
Thanks for your blog. I read every post by rss.