Website or social media: which to choose?

A bakery that posts its batches on Instagram, a hairdresser who takes bookings by message, a craftsperson who shows their jobs on Facebook: many independents have found customers on social media, and wonder what a website would add.

The two do different jobs. Social media gets you discovered by people who weren’t looking for you. The website answers the questions of those who are looking for you, helps them decide, and stays yours.

What social media does: gets you discovered

Social media is where people pass by: 90% of French internet users use social networks or video-sharing platforms, and one user in three posts or comments there every day (Crédoc for Arcep, 2026).

Its strength is showing you to people who don’t know you yet. On Instagram, most of what people see in the Explore tab comes from accounts they don’t follow, and Reels work on the same principle (Instagram, 2023). A video of bread coming out of the oven, of a great haircut or of a sunny terrace can travel far beyond your followers.

It also serves everyday conversation: a dish of the day, a new delivery, an exceptional closure, a question asked in a comment.

What a website does: answers and prompts action

A website is your reference. It says what doesn’t change every day: your services, your prices, your opening hours, your address, how to reach you. It can be read without an account or an app, and search engines index it.

It is also where people come to check. In the United States, after reading good reviews of a business, 54% of consumers go and look at its website, and 24% at its social media (BrightLocal, 2026). The review sparks interest; the website helps decide. Is it within my budget? Is it open on Sundays? Do you work in my town?

The website is also where people act: call with one tap, book, ask for a quote, get directions. To learn more, see what a website is for.

Who decides what gets seen

On a social network, your followers don’t see everything you post. Meta describes the Facebook Feed like this: the system gathers posts from friends, followed pages and groups, keeps about 500 of them, gives them a relevance score and orders them by that score (Meta, 2026). Instagram ranks its feed the same way, based on the likelihood that people will react to each post (Instagram, 2023).

These rules change, and you have no say over them. On your website, the page shows what you wrote, in the order you chose, to everyone who opens it.

The risk of depending on one platform

An account remains subject to the rules of the platform that hosts it. Meta’s terms of service provide that it can suspend or permanently disable an account it considers in serious or repeated breach of its rules.

In 2025, small businesses in beauty, fitness or photography saw their Facebook or Instagram page deleted without notice, even though many disputed having broken these rules, reports the Queensland Small Business Commissioner, in Australia. Overnight, they could no longer take bookings or reach their customers. Its advice: have a site of your own, keep a contact list, and depend on no single platform.

Hacking is the other risk. In France, the hacking of online accounts is the leading threat affecting professionals, up 45% in 2025 (Cybermalveillance.gouv.fr, 2026). A website in your name and a customer list leave you a way to warn them, whatever happens to an account.

Where your customers look for you

Your customers come through several doors. Google and its map, of course. Social media. Messaging apps: among French people who use one, 87% go through WhatsApp, 76% through Messenger and 60% through Instagram (Crédoc for Arcep, 2026).

And more and more, artificial intelligence assistants. In France, 48% of people used generative AI in 2025, and 73% of these users use it to look for information (Crédoc for Arcep, 2026). In the United States, ChatGPT and other AIs have become the third source of recommendations for local businesses, cited by 45% of consumers (BrightLocal, 2026).

These assistants read web pages. A website that clearly states your opening hours, your prices and your specialty gives them what they need to answer accurately about you.

Making the two work together

1. Link them. Your website address in each account’s bio, and links to your accounts on the website.
2. Sort the information. On the website, what must stay true: prices, opening hours, services, contact. On social media, what is of the day.
3. Change a piece of information everywhere on the same day: summer hours, a new rate, a closure.
4. Reserve your name on the main networks, even the ones you rarely use. Cybermalveillance.gouv.fr advises it to keep a scammer from passing for you.
5. Keep in touch outside the platforms: a customer list, built with their consent, that you can warn if an account goes down.
6. Make every post lead somewhere: to the menu, the booking, the quote form on the website.

In short: social media gets you discovered, the website makes people decide and belongs to you. Keep both, link them, and don’t hand everything to a platform that can change its rules or close your account.