Social Media vs Traditional Websites: A Battle for Consumer Attention

Have you ever wondered why social media platforms might make a better home for your digital presence than a traditional website?

With over 3.8 billion users zipping through feeds and stories, this episode shines a light on the untapped potential of social media for influencing buying decisions and winning customers.

We share our personal experiences and strategies for successfully navigating these platforms, the power shift in consumer attention and marketing, and the intricacies of appearing confident in front of the camera.

In the second half, we’ll guide you through the maze of social media marketing strategies.

We are offering insights into the rise of influencer marketing, the charm of user-generated content and the benefits reaped by businesses advertising on Facebook.

This episode is a deep dive into social media, where every like, share, and comment can be a step closer to success.

Listen now to discover the power of social media and transform your online presence.

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Joining the community on Instagram @itsthenoexcusespodcast and learning more about what we offer @alannabankscoaching and www.alannabanks.com and @ryanmontisnlp and www.ryanmontis.com

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

So, ryan, last night I was having a conversation with someone who's kind of just getting started in the coaching space, in the energy healing space, and we were kind of just talking about getting started and what you do and the things that hold you back from putting yourself out there.

Speaker 1: 0:22

And the one thing that was kind of preventing this person was the fact that they don't have a website. And it seems very daunting to have a website. And the first thing I said is like scrap the website, start putting yourself out there with friends and family and get yourself on social media. And that was kind of surprising information to her, because she was thinking I need a website, I need to be polished, I need to have something professional. But really, when you think about it, social media can really become your website. It can become the thing that you share with people and then, once you're out there and talking about it and creating a community of people, then you can do the website. At least, that's my opinion on this whole thing. And so I think this kind of ties in nicely to what we're talking about today, because we're talking about 10 shocking facts about social media and the first point is really going to help people understand what I'm talking about.

Speaker 2: 1:29

By the way, listeners, if you hypothetically had a choice between a website and social media to establish your online presence on, I'd pick social media. 10 times out of 10, personally.

Speaker 1: 1:42

Yeah, me too.

Speaker 2: 1:44

Hey, to each their own, although this is the social media season. Yeah, anyways.

Speaker 1: 1:50

Well, and even if you're on the fence about do I do a website or do I go after social media, this might be the episode for you, the episode that might push you to the social media side. If you've been leaning towards getting that website up there and if that's the kink in the hose that's preventing you from just going out there with your business, you may feel differently after you hear these facts.

Speaker 2: 2:16

Cool.

Speaker 1: 2:17

Okay, are you ready to shock and awe?

Speaker 2: 2:19

Yeah, I'm ready to dive into these shocking facts that nobody's talking about, that they don't want you to know that. I don't know who needs to hear this today, but here they are to give everybody a whole bunch of cliche click pay-dways to introduce this list.

Speaker 1: 2:36

Number one yeah, wait, hold up, I'm ready to go there, let's tell people where they can find us.

Speaker 2: 2:43

I'm currently in the city of GettoKneel, Quebec still free coffee for anybody that swings by my office. Oh, you mean online? Where they can find us? Yeah, At Ryan Montes NLP on Instagram, and the Simple Social Sanctuary is the membership to join for social media coaching If you're a coach or a hypnotist or have an online service that's me Cool.

Speaker 1: 3:11

You can find me at Alana Banks Coaching on Instagram. If you want to get a private poem reading, send me a message at Alana Banks Coaching, because that's what I'm doing right now. I'm doing poem readings helping people figure out themselves through their poems.

Speaker 2: 3:32

Yeah, I had a public poem reading with Alana Banks a few months ago. I'm in the middle of a bar. Everybody could see we're going to know all my secrets from my poem. Yeah, so I do recommend the private. Don't put a private for me.

Speaker 1: 3:48

Yeah, the private one is the way to go. Just in the last month I've read about a hundred poems, so I'm really good at it.

Speaker 2: 3:58

Yeah, you must be tired of people's hands. Yeah, no, you know what?

Speaker 1: 4:02

every time I see a poem I'm always like oh, oh cool.

Speaker 2: 4:12

All right, let's get into the list.

Speaker 1: 4:14

Let's do it.

Speaker 2: 4:16

Number one on the list. It was shocking to many people. I'm sure there's over 3.8 billion users billion with a B users as of 2023 on social media 3.8 billion pretty good, a lot of potential customers and clients.

Speaker 1: 4:35

Yeah, and you're gonna have more people, you're gonna reach more people with social media and that 3.8 billion users, then you are with your website, most likely probably. And there's only half the world's population.

Speaker 2: 4:52

That's what I was gonna say, this where we're, you know. Nobody knows the exact population of the earth, but we're approaching 8 billion. Yeah, you know, and so 3.8 billion people on social media I mean, when you factor in of the world's population, a lot of those people are, you know, very small children who don't get use the internet. Whatever, like 3.8 billion is a lot, of, a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot of people, right?

Speaker 1: 5:25

Yeah. So if you're limiting belief is like there's no, my audience is not on social media, that's a lie. Yeah your audience.

Speaker 2: 5:35

Maybe not everybody in your target niche, but a lot of them, if not most of them. All right Number. Next, number two is user influence on Purchasing decisions. So it says here around 70% of users learn about new products or services through social media and Over half of social media users use the platforms like Instagram and Facebook to research products, purchases, etc. Making social media a powerful platform for influencing buying decisions, and this is Absolutely true. This is absolutely more than ever, people are factoring in the research that they do on social media into their buying decisions, and there's been a lot of high-ticket things that I purchased that I found out about on social media, researched on social media, connected with the seller via social media, and the whole like research and buying process happened all on Social media platforms, and that's how most of my high-ticket clients and students have come to work with me.

Speaker 1: 6:37

Yeah, yeah, that that is really important. And Like, I don't know about you, but whenever I am doing any type of research for something, the first place I go is social media. Right, yeah, and if they don't have a social media presence, I'm like that's weird. Yeah that's immediately what I think. Yeah, and I might, you know, bypass that person if they don't have a social media presence, which is why it's really important. If you don't have one, maybe start using it.

Speaker 1: 7:08

Yeah, because you never know who you're gonna meet right and the opportunities. Like you know well, you know this, ryan. But like, I'm in Southampton, ontario, for the summer and I just happened to put out on a Facebook group that I'm Offering palm readings in person because I'm here and that group for me there's 9,000 people in the group and and that group for me has given me all of my business this summer. Well, it's only been one month, but that's the power that social media has, and a lot of those people then, you know, start following me on Instagram or, you know, did a deep dive to figure out who I am and where I've come from. Then you know what else I have to offer. Like, I'm not just a palm reader, so it's really important.

Speaker 2: 7:57

Yeah, definitely, definitely. I'll give you a small metaphor, audience. I don't know if you'll remember this, elena, because most people weren't even aware that this was happening, but back around the time the internet was starting out and we had dial-up internet.

Speaker 2: 8:11

Mm-hmm and there was like the internet. You connected to the internet and then you had access to the worldwide web, which was what we used to call this network of websites. Now we just call it the internet, right, but around the time the internet was starting out, there was these things which had a sort of similar feel, and they were. What were they called? I can't even remember what the term for it was. But rather than dialing into the internet, you would dial directly into a person's business or computer or website. Right, so you are not website or site, and so the way you'd access it is, instead of having your computer connect to the internet in your dial-up modem, you'd have your computer connect directly to another computer by dialing their unique number, and then you could access information.

Speaker 2: 8:55

I think it was called like a BBS or something like that, and so like yeah, a lot of people don't remember this or were not aware that this was happening at the time, and there was a time where it was like people were making the decision Do I have a this I think it was called the BBS where people dial into me and can access my information and see a page that kind of looked like a website, or should I have a website on the internet? And here's the thing you know flash forward to today.

Speaker 2: 9:21

Obviously that dialing directly into a company or business has long since made it away. But you know at the time those people who were choosing only to have that BBS thing rather than have an internet website. That's like the people today who are choosing to have only a website and not embrace social media.

Speaker 1: 9:42

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 9:42

Everybody's over here on social media sharing information and thriving and doing research and making deals and connecting with each other. The people who are shunning social media and only have a website you don't even know what you're missing. They don't even know what they're missing, just like the people back in the day who had the BBS, like this other thing. They didn't even know what they were missing on the internet. When they found out, they left that other thing behind and embraced the internet. If you're a listener and you know what I'm talking about, if you remember this technology where you could dial into somebody's site, shoot me a message and tell me. Anyways.

Speaker 1: 10:25

Yeah, the other thing I want to add to that is there are seven, eight figure coaches who don't even really have much of a website and they're running their business through social media. I mean, you want to have some type of a website, but the thing is it doesn't have to be this super profess looking, amazing website. It can just be a little corner that you have, but most of your work you're doing on social media.

Speaker 2: 10:52

Yeah, exactly, I looked it up and I was right. It was called the BBS, which stood for a bulletin board system. It's an article on the Atlantic called the Lost Civilization of Dial-up Bulletin Board Systems. I'm getting a little bit nostalgic, because there was like you felt like a hacker when you would connect to these systems and it was like there was information and stuff you could download. Anyways, that's not what today's episode is about. Google it, though BBS. Number three on the list is the Generation Z dependence. Over 90 percent of Gen Z, which is anyone born in 1996 or later, say that social media is their primary source of purchase inspiration, putting it above all other media forms like television and print.

Speaker 2: 11:42

Yeah, I believe that so 1996, yeah, so that's a big part of the population, big part, and I agree with this.

Speaker 1: 11:52

Yes, I agree too.

Speaker 2: 11:53

Yeah, that's very simple. Last couple of points yeah for sure.

Speaker 1: 12:00

Well, I mean, when you think about it now, I mean, who watches TV? We don't watch TV anymore, so we're not like seeing ads. Really, social media has become TV. Do you ever find that when you're just scrolling through Instagram and I just feel like I'm watching a whole bunch of ads, when I'm scrolling through Instagram and then there's a few people who I tune into?

Speaker 2: 12:23

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 12:24

But sometimes, if you're just doing the doom scroll, it really feels like you're just flipping the channels of a whole bunch of advertisements, like it used to be on TV.

Speaker 2: 12:34

Yeah, yeah, I know what you're saying. I know what you mean.

Speaker 1: 12:38

Number four yeah, number four short attention spans. So with the rise of social media, attention spans are decreasing. The average person spends only a bit 1.7 seconds on a single piece of content on their mobile device. So really this means like you have to create really engaging content in order to attract your person, because it's like when you're scrolling right, like it's unless they know you already.

Speaker 2: 13:10

Yeah, I want to unpack that number 1.7 seconds, because that kind of makes it sound like people are looking at a piece of content, consuming it in 1.7 seconds and then go into the next piece of content and that's not what this?

Speaker 2: 13:23

means it means that's the average, meaning they skip over most pieces of content and then, when they stop on a piece of content that they want to consume, they spend as much time as it takes or as they prefer to consume that piece of content. So I don't want anyone to be fooled by that number and also I don't think it's appropriate. There's a lot of judgment like oh people have these short attention spans these days. This is not necessarily a negative thing. I mean, there's room for debate here but we're just consuming information differently than we did in the past and I would say it's not better or worse, it's just the way people consume. Information has changed.

Speaker 2: 14:05

The point of this is you need to catch your audience's attention early on in your content and likewise musicians have adapted to the way people consume information. If you listen to songs from the 70s, 80s and 90s, a lot of them have these long, slow intros that build up to kind of the main part of the song. The music made in the last 10 years is very different. A lot of songs have hooks right in the first few seconds because musicians recognize that if you don't catch your audience's attention. In the age of streaming, where the audience has total control over what they listened to and for how long, which we didn't have in the past, they're going to go on to the next song.

Speaker 1: 14:50

Yeah, yeah, same with content.

Speaker 2: 14:53

Same with videos. Again, I, you know I people can say that's horrible or that's great or whatever. I say it is what it is. That's where we are right now and embrace it.

Speaker 1: 15:04

Exactly like that's what we're doing and that's how people are consuming content, like it's no different than when people used to watch TV or listen to the radio or read the newspaper. Right like this is. This is the age we're in now and we have information at our fingertips. So if you want to be relevant, you need to be that in for information that's at people's fingertips. Yeah, absolutely yeah cool, okay, all right number five is increased ad spend.

Speaker 2: 15:34

Global social media ad spend reached nearly a hundred ten billion dollars in 2021 and Continues to grow annually. The growth rate Signifies the increased importance and dominance of social media marketing in the advertising world. So, yeah, there's been a shift. People are spending more money on social media advertising than on traditional advertising like TV and, you know, newspaper and all that stuff. This shift is really not new, no, and it just goes to show like, if people are spending a hundred and ten billion on social media ads, what do we think the value of transactions, transactions that are occurring via social media sales are? If people are spending a hundred and ten billion on the ads and you know we want to see a return on investment for ad spend, the overall, you know, money that's moving through or because of social media is way, way, way more than that, right? Yeah, and so is there an opportunity for sales and connecting with your clients and making transactions via social media? Yeah, undeniably.

Speaker 1: 16:42

Yeah, and when it comes to the analytics side of it too, right, like it just makes so much more sense to do your ad spending on Social or digital, because you can figure out how many people are clicking, how many people are watching, how many people are buying as a result. Right, you put a billboard up on the Gardner Expressway in Toronto. Yeah, you have no idea what's happening with that ad.

Speaker 2: 17:08

No idea, no idea. Somebody draws a mustache on it with spray paint.

Speaker 2: 17:15

Exactly Cool. All right, that one works. Number Next, number six video content dominance. This one should not be a surprise, you know is the most engaging form of content, with post-containing videos having 48% more views. By 2022, online videos were predicted to make up more than 80 to 82% of all consumer internet traffic, which was 15 times more than in 2017. The moral of the story, the moral number six, is if you've not yet embraced being on video on social media, it's probably a good idea to do so. There's a lot of coaches that you know have fears around this or reluctance Don't want to be seen, and that's fine. No one's gonna force you. But if you're interested in marketing and making sales of your valuable product or service, there's not much that beats being on video, either live or recorded videos.

Speaker 1: 18:09

Yeah, this one I'm kind of like, because I mean, obviously I love watching video too, but I feel like if you're the type of person who doesn't really want to show up on video or, you know, just Can't for whatever reason, you know, I think it puts you at a disadvantage and that kind of sucks, you know.

Speaker 2: 18:42

But it's not anybody's fault.

Speaker 1: 18:43

I mean, that's the way yeah, that's the way it is.

Speaker 2: 18:46

That's the way the consumer wants to consume information right.

Speaker 1: 18:49

Yeah, but it's just kind of like you really. I feel like now, as a solo entrepreneur, you almost have to become like an actor. In addition to like doing your Doing your business and, like you know, going out there and putting yourself out there and your content, it's like you also have to have this persona Right and like for some people that's just like not something you want to do necessarily, or or, you know, have a lot of reservations around that and that might be holding you back, but like you're brilliant, for example.

Speaker 1: 19:25

A lot of people yeah yeah, and I mean this also goes back to kind of like the biggest fear being that of public speaking, right like there's a lot of people who are brilliant, who have awesome businesses, but just are very shy about putting themselves out on video.

Speaker 2: 19:41

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 19:43

It's doable to be successful in business without, oh, totally totally, but it's it's, it's better, it's advantageous if you also have like a witty, cute, cool, sensitive humor and you know you can put yourself out there on video and, like you know, be attractive Right and you know what I think.

Speaker 2: 20:06

Maybe I mean witty. You know all those things.

Speaker 1: 20:10

I think those are all optional.

Speaker 2: 20:11

I think a person can, as long as you're able to show up and genuinely share information. You don't need to be funny, you don't need to be a snappy dresser there's a lot of people out there online who share tremendous value and they're not sort of witty or really sharp or really true?

Speaker 1: 20:29

Yeah, that's true, that's true. Is that gonna?

Speaker 2: 20:32

help you and maybe make it easier. Maybe, yeah, maybe, but I think well, let me put it this way A person who's not all that great of a public speaker but still shows up and shares valuable information is light years ahead of the person who never shows up. To begin with, True, yeah. Yeah, yeah, cool All right. And hey, folks, if you want to be on video and you have apprehensions because you're afraid of public speaking or whatever, there's lots of really good solutions, right.

Speaker 1: 21:05

Talk to your land of bank hypnosis talk.

Speaker 2: 21:08

Go join Toastmasters to build your confidence. Like there's a lot of good options to help out. Okay, enough of that.

Speaker 1: 21:16

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 21:17

Enough of that.

Speaker 1: 21:18

Number seven.

Speaker 2: 21:21

What's number?

Speaker 1: 21:21

seven Impressive ROI. So businesses earn an average of $5.20 for every dollar spent on advertising on Facebook. Interesting. So this is 2020 through July 2023. We're talking about this. This high return on investment makes social media marketing a cost effective strategy for businesses of all sizes.

Speaker 2: 21:44

And that's an average ROI. A lot of people make a lot more on, a lot more of a return on investment because a lot of people spend zero on social media and make five or six figures a year or more for some people. Yeah, if you're, if you play your cards right on social media, you can spend zero other than your time and energy investment and make a lot of sales and connect with ideal clients. You really can. I have any of my colleagues that many of my students have totally doable.

Speaker 1: 22:23

Yeah, totally doable. And then if you wanna go the ads route, right, I think it's a matter of really kind of like finding that sweet spot right, of cracking the Facebook ads code when it comes to getting yourself out there with ads, because it can be daunting, like I would say, if you're gonna go the ads route, really like invest in an expert who knows what they're doing.

Speaker 2: 22:53

Yeah, of course, that's kind of my opinion because I've done the Facebook ads.

Speaker 1: 22:57

For when I had my fabric store and God, I was like that's a whole other can of worms that I don't like to Hold on.

Speaker 2: 23:05

Cool Agreed, all right. Number eight influencer impact. Influencer marketing is not a fad. In fact, nearly 89% of marketers report that the ROI return on investment from influencer marketing is comparable to or better than other marketing channels. So all influencer marketing means is that you get somebody who already has an audience to trust them to talk about your product or service, and it can be. They might explicitly state that they're promoting you, or it might be a more indirect promotion where they bring you on to interview you or whatever. This type of marketing, when done in integrity, can be highly profitable for, and a win-win scenario for, the consumer, the so-called influencer and the service provider. And it works right. There's weird connotations, weird negative connotations these days attached to the word influencer, but we don't need to Like. There were people who were influential, existed well before the internet.

Speaker 1: 24:11

Oh, totally yeah.

Speaker 1: 24:13

Just a trusted person that has an audience, right, yeah, I love this one because, well, in a way, we've kind of done that right, like it's like I trust you, you trust me, we have this podcast together. We have kind of different audiences, but it creates more opportunity, right. And I've seen I think I talked about this another week, I didn't talk about this specifically, but there's this tarot card reader that I love, following Chris Corsini, and he like blew up during COVID but he did this as well. He kind of like not partnered, but he became digital friends with an astrologer and then another woman who reads tarot cards and they would just kind of like talk about each other and then all of their audiences started to grow because they were kind of promoting each other and they're all in the same, like in a very similar niche, and it's cool. So, like find your digital friends who are gonna promote you and cheer you on and all those things. Don't look at everyone as competition.

Speaker 2: 25:31

Yeah, definitely agree, yeah, cool.

Speaker 1: 25:36

Okay, number nine is social commerce. Shopping directly through social media platforms is becoming more popular, and estimated 55% of online shoppers have made a purchase through a social media platform. I mean, who hasn't bought an Instagram outfit, an? Instagram shirt, an Instagram pair of pants, a beauty product a coaching.

Speaker 2: 26:02

I've been talking about the information products from social media, like e-books or little mini courses or stuff like that. Yeah, social media is like the new internet. It's like everything's happening on social media now, yeah, okay.

Speaker 1: 26:22

I don't think we need to really say much more. I think everyone would agree that they're buying stuff on social and whatever it is they're buying. Who knows what that is, but if you're listening to this, it might be coaching stuff.

Speaker 2: 26:35

Yeah, okay, number last, number 10. The power of UGC hot new, trendy term in 2023, which stands for User Generated Content. There's some jargon for you. Ugc has a 4.5 percent higher conversion rate than brand created content. Ugc just means like content that your clients or your customers have made about your product or service.

Speaker 2: 27:06

If I sell water guns and some kid down the road takes a fun picture of him spraying his body with a water gun and post it on the internet, that's user generated content that features my product. That's actually better for selling the water gun than me going like holding up my water gun. Here's my Super Soaker 75 and you should buy this. By the way, I don't sell water guns. This is just an example. Consumers trust their peers more than brands, meaning marketers can leverage user generated content for better results. That's that we go back to the rules of persuasion from Robert Sildini social proof when people believe other people like your thing, they're going to like it more. If you have videos of your clients talking about how great you are, or you have videos of you presenting to a big group and everybody's captivated and excited and throwing their money up on stage whatever it is throwing their tops up on stage, or if you're a rock star. Whatever the case may be, that looks good on you, right? That's good for business.

Speaker 1: 28:14

Yeah. Oh totally Think about all the people who you start following on Instagram. Usually it's someone you know tagged that person in their content and then you're like who's this? Then you look through it and then you start following them.

Speaker 2: 28:31

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 28:31

Take people in your content. People love being tagged. Take me and I'll reshare you. I love it.

Speaker 2: 28:39

Take me, tag everyone, tag us Take everyone. Agni, it's the no Excuses podcast.

Speaker 1: 28:45

Yes, please, if you're listening to this, pick up your phone and be like I'm listening to the most amazing episode. It's the no Excuses podcast, because we've kind of been stalled at like not that followers are everything, but we've been stalled at like 188 for a while.

Speaker 2: 29:09

Yeah, by the way, folks, if you've noticed a dip in new followers or engagement on social media in July, that happened pre-pandemic. That was a normal thing, right? We would see a dip in traffic for all of July and August as more people, especially people from North America and the UK and et cetera, are just outside doing outdoor activities during these summer months, so that kind of didn't happen as much. We saw consistent like high traffic during the pandemic because a lot of people were staying home more frequently. So I think a lot of people have forgotten that there's a normal and predictable reduction in social media and internet engagement during the western summer months. So don't panic, things tend to pick back up in early September. Everybody.

Speaker 1: 30:04

Yeah, totally.

Speaker 2: 30:06

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 30:06

Fortunately, our listeners have been listening all summer, so there's been no dip.

Speaker 2: 30:11

Yeah, it's like here's what you do you go to the beach, you grab, you know you cold beverages, grab your little grill, you put on the no Excuses podcast for everyone at the beach to hear and it's like blasted maximum volume.

Speaker 1: 30:25

Yeah. Or when you go out for your walk, just put in your earbuds and listen to the no Excuses podcast while you're walking. Or two birds with one stone Exercise and learning.

Speaker 2: 30:38

Boombox on your shoulders like the 90s. That's another no Excuses podcast. Ryan Montes, lana Banks.

Speaker 1: 30:43

Yeah, love it.

Speaker 2: 30:44

Down the street in your neighborhood. That's how I listen to podcasts.

Speaker 1: 30:49

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 30:50

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 30:51

Question for the audience, actually, because we're like approaching. Well, we're like about halfway through season three, so what do we talk about in season four? Send us your ideas.

Speaker 2: 31:07

Yeah, send us your records.

Speaker 1: 31:10

Yeah, because this is the social media season, but it's not going to.

Speaker 2: 31:15

It's not the social media podcast, or I don't know, we can do whatever the heck we want, but I think next season we should just discuss French cooking Recipes, the history we can bring a sommelier on that's a blind expert yeah. Yeah, yeah, just forget the whole coaching and internet thing. Just do like olives, olives and figs.

Speaker 1: 31:42

Are olives a French food thing?

Speaker 2: 31:45

I don't know. We'll find out next season. No Excuses Gourmet French Cuisine podcast.

Speaker 1: 31:54

I love it.

Speaker 2: 31:55

Yeah, anyways, yeah, so tell us what you want to hear about next season. All right, we got it. We got all 10. We talked about who we are, what we do. That is this episode of the no Excuses podcast, coming to you from a 90s boombox on the beach. Love it yeah, sunscreen, everybody, sunscreen, be safe.

Speaker 1: 32:15

OK, Thanks everyone.

Speaker 2: 32:17

All right, bye Hurry.