Facebook as you all know is the biggest social media platform out there. This year, it was recorded that it has roughly 2 billion monthly active users, which says that a whole lot of people use facebook. I have encountered a few restaurant owners who have mentioned that the reason they do not have a website is that they have Facebook and that’s all they need. Hmm, is this really true and is this a good idea? Well, provide knowledge and information to my readers, I have put together a few pros and cons regarding the topic. You can judge for yourself by checking out the pros and cons below.
Pros
Customer Engagement
When you have a Facebook page, you are able to directly engage with your customers through comments, videos, and images. The people who like your page are usually interested in your restaurant, which makes them a great audience to target.
It's Free
Facebook has no costs involved unless you plan on running ads with their platform.
Easy to Update
Facebook has become the norm so most of you out there know how to use the basic function of Facebook on multiple devices. This makes it a tool that is handy for restaurant owners to use get information out there to their customers immediately.
Pool of People
Hey, almost everyone is on Facebook so people are sure to find you if you get in front of them.
Cons
Unable to control your branding
Since Facebook is its own entity, you are unable to control the look and feel of your Facebook page. Facebook owns the right to make any updates that work for their brand and not yours. You are limited to uploading your logo (profile image) and a cover photo to make an effort to keep it consistent with your brand.
No control over content placement and hierarchy
You have no control over where you would like your content to be placed to support the needs of your restaurant. You are therefore unable to make use of lead strategies to get your customers to certain areas of your page that can help promote your restaurant and grow your email list.
Limited ability to educate your customers about you
On Facebook, you are limited to posting daily and the use of a small “about” section to describe of your restaurant to your audience. You do not have the freedom to add different sections of information that tell more about how you got started, your food menu and other important details. It’s not a good thing when these details get buried in post after post or when your menu is hard to read because it’s been uploaded to a gallery that resizes it without any consideration of legibility.
No control over search engine optimization
You have no control over search engine tools that could possibly control where you appear in online search results.
No control over uptime
I know Facebook is a behemoth when it comes to companies out there but who is to say that they won’t have downtime. Who is also to say that they will not decide to change their algorithms again or even restructure how comments are posted. Would all these changes be for the betterment of your business or for theirs? You as a business owner have no control over these things.
In summary, Facebook is a social media platform and it’s great at what it is meant for.
So, what do you think? Is Facebook really a replacement for a website?
