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  • Facebook vs Website / Likes vs Promotions

I used to work on websites a few years ago, now being in Lebanon for 2 years and seeing businesses with @gmail and @hotmail email addresses are kind of a normal thing, then when I ask about their website to see their brochure or examples of their work they send me to a facebook page.

How do you guys feel about that?

Coming from outside I feel it's really unprofessional to have a facebook/Instagram account but not have a main website, like your social media should be supporting your website and not completely replacing it. And at a time when it's damn cheap to create a website why aren't people doing thing, what started this trend here?

I've also seen a few people who consider themselves "social media gurus" that are just provocative, dull, speak non sense but they have thousands of followers and they go around "promoting" products/stores and guarantee them more likes and followers and when I tell these store owners that "likes don't save lives" and "likes don't liberate Palestine" they agree but still go and do that.

Can someone please explain this to me and tell me your thoughts; what am I missing? Is this just a Bekaa thing?
beezer wroteI used to work on websites a few years ago, now being in Lebanon for 2 years and seeing businesses with @gmail and @hotmail email addresses are kind of a normal thing, then when I ask about their website to see their brochure or examples of their work they send me to a facebook page.

How do you guys feel about that?

Coming from outside I feel it's really unprofessional to have a facebook/Instagram account but not have a main website, like your social media should be supporting your website and not completely replacing it. And at a time when it's damn cheap to create a website why aren't people doing thing, what started this trend here?

I've also seen a few people who consider themselves "social media gurus" that are just provocative, dull, speak non sense but they have thousands of followers and they go around "promoting" products/stores and guarantee them more likes and followers and when I tell these store owners that "likes don't save lives" and "likes don't liberate Palestine" they agree but still go and do that.

Can someone please explain this to me and tell me your thoughts; what am I missing? Is this just a Bekaa thing?
It could be as simple as this, people mostly use smartphones nowadays, and most people that use smartphones crash Chrome/Browsers with thousand tabs let alone having them enter URL address. Much easier to open up and use Facebook. Most Generation X didn't touch a computer in mid 2000's in Lebanon unlike the west when it was required for businesses and other "developed country" motivations; and thus haven't heard or used a browser/WWW.
Nowadays, in the Arab world at least, for some businesses it is more beneficial to have a Facebook page rather than having a proper full website, since almost everyone uses Facebook and they can directly interact with people using comments or messages ... not to mention Facebook is free, easy to use and maintenance free and if you need a boost you can sponsor your post for a small fee to reach more audience.
On a side note, I know a group of Lebanese professional gamers who play Pubg, these people used to live stream their games on Facebook and get 1-2k viewers at almost any given time, one day they decided to shift their streams over Twitch since this is the best game streaming platform worldwide, but unfortunately their viewers dropped to 50-100 because people are not used to Twitch here and for some it was complicated to use ... eventually they went back streaming on Facebook.
So depending on your audience the optimal solution is not always the way to go.