According to Paul Berry (CEO of RebelMouse and former CTO of The Huffington Post) and Josh Elman (a partner at Greylock Partners and former platform manager at Facebook), many companies choose to lose customers. Most businesses abandon the idea of working with their own website platform and instead, attempt to drive traffic to their sites exclusively through social media outlets, without even trying to cultivate a following directly to their own sites.

While understandable, it is not advisable to rely completely on this method, given that a company will win fewer loyal customers when using other party sites. Loyal customers are the true driving force in the building blocks of a company’s future. If you want loyal customers, you have to engage them directly from your site, not solely through networks where you are only one among many others.

The traffic to your website via social media is crucial, and you should never abandon that form of marketing. But, as with anything in life, balance is key. An example of a well-balanced company is Instagram, which has successfully lead its users to engage directly from their site. “Users who came to Instagram via links shared on Facebook and Twitter quickly learned to visit Instagram directly.” Creating followers from every avenue is certainly important, but a loyal and consistent customer base that visits your site directly will be the most beneficial to you in the long run.

Using social platforms to drive your traffic is called “The Side Door,” whereas the traffic to your website directly is “The Front Door.” Companies such as RebelMouse, Dodo, and Meerkat, to name a few, all understand the importance of keeping the traffic coming through the front door, and they successfully drive traffic through that portal.

The best companies will demonstrate that they can use the side door not merely as an endgame, but as an opportunity to increase real, front door traffic. Companies who abandon the quest for a loyal audience are deciding — consciously or not — to build a much less ambitious company that relies on an ecosystem whose rules can change on a whim. They are also unlikely to be able to reach beyond their audience because they lack the consistent seeding of content that loyalists bring.

The loyal members you will create in practicing traffic driving through front door will help build a strong company: a business whose audience follows, shares, and uses your website and company, directly.

Source and quotes from Business Insider (Read Full Article Here).