In a world dominated by social media the last thing I expected to hear was “Hey, you should create a website.” Over the last couple of years I have become accustomed to creating accounts on Instagram, and linking them to blogs I posted on Blogger. Additionally, I follow most of my favourite authors on Instagram and keep myself updated on the information I don’t get directly from their account by being a member of Facebook groups dedicated to said authors, such as the ‘Stephen King Lovers’. It’s basically like an online forum, where fans of the author, or simply or one story, discuss the books, announcements, film releases and more. Therefore, I pretty much keep myself in the loop. Personally I don’t recall ever visiting an authors website to check for anything specific, let alone have I ever thought of creating one for myself.
I have created blogs before. They require passion, time, patience, they typically target a specific niche and involve a lot of planning. Again I’m asking myself, why on earth do I need a website?
Firstly, employment. I’m 22-years-old and have only just come to terms with the fact that I want a job in media. In media careers, more so than others, employers look for a portfolio of your work. They look for work samples, or articles you have written, therefore a website can serve as a digital portfolio or your online work and identiy. Websites point recruiters in the right direction, instead of having them input your name into Google and try find you among the hundred’s of people with the same name, a website in your CV links them directly to you and your work, and if you want, to your social media accounts. It basically takes out the guess work of finding you.
According to this report, there are 3.5 billion searches daily on Google, and according to Google’s algorythm, priority is given to websites relevant to searches over social media accounts. Which is why Twitter and Instagram are perhaps simply not enough.
For authors, having a website provides the additional benefit of showing certain analytics such as, how many people have visited your site, from where, what time, what pages they visited the most. Social media accounts do not provide that.
Websites allow you to control your branding, uploading photos, customising your own text and fonts, controlling their placement. It is basically a visual representation of who you are. What Labi Francis writes in his blogpost ‘Why you need a personal website’ is that once you create a website you can upload a photo of yourself, a personal statement, sample of your work, link your social media accounts and finally, if needed, contact information so that readers or viewers can get in-touch with you [1].
I looked up Stephen King, Jojo Moyes, Veronica Roth and Cecilia Ahern, who are amonst some of my favourite authors and they all have websites. While all of them are professional, and nothing compared to what I can actually afford to execute at this moment in time, they all explore important aspects of each of them. Cecilia Ahern’s homepage is her latest release and an ‘About Me’ section. Stephen King’s homepage is his latest and most popular releases. All authors have pages about themselves, their books, their latest releases, their books which have now become major motion pictures, some even have blogs, basically all you want to know and more in one location.
84% of online consumers believe that small businesses with websites are far more credible than just simply ones with an online presence [2]. This works for authors too. Seeing what they post and share on their own merits makes it appear far more credible than just simply typing into Google and looking at some Wikipedia page.
After seeing all this, will I be creating a website? Probably, as soon as I get the hang of how the editing tool works. Will I stop relying on my social media accounts? Hell no! While a website is a good idea professionally, you still cannot deny the success in gaining a following on Instagram for example. I have three separate accounts; one is my own personal account; the other is a health and beauty related account linked to a blog, where I post reviews and informative posts; and the final one is a ‘bookstagram’ where I post photos of books and add little reviews or thoughts on what I’m reading at the moment or something related to books. At the end of the day, the trick to a website, blog or social media account, is how you market it. It has to be easily accessible, provide the right content to the right audience and be consistent. However, I will be linking all my accounts on my new website so that everything that has to do with me can all be in one place and not scattered all over the internet with no trace back to me.
[1] Francis L. (Francis L. (2017, September 27). Why you need a personal website. Retrieved from https://medium.com/your-brand/why-you-need-a-personal-website-5caa661a711
[2] McEvoy E. (2016, August 16). 7 Reasons You Need a Small Business Website. Retrieved from https://www.webpresencesolutions.net/small-business-website-benefits/
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