Over 1 billion people use Instagram every month, so it comes as no surprise that a lot of budding entrepreneurs use this platform to sell a variety of products and services.

For bootstrapping start-ups and solo entrepreneurs, Instagram can be an easy way to showcase your offerings while facilitating customer interactions at a very low cost. Even if the platform is currently satisfying all your brand needs, from a long term perspective, your brand needs a stronger and more stable base of operations.

So whether you have or haven’t been wondering ‘Should Instagram replace my business website?’

We have some reasons why it shouldn’t.

Your brand needs its own space

From a demographics perspective, the audience on Instagram is highly skewed to a younger generation, with about 71% of its users being under the age of 35.

If your current target group falls within this, you’re in a good place for now, but from a long term planning perspective, it’s always smart to expand your platform strategy beyond the limitations of social media.

Solely relying on a secondary platform can be highly restrictive. Everything you do will pass through filters and formats, meaning that your creativity can only come to life once it’s passed through a sieve. You can’t give people all the information they need, this could be a price list, a detailed menu, a showcase of your events space, and more importantly, your backstory about what makes you so passionate.

Your brand needs a long term plan

Another drawback of depending solely on social media is the high variability and fickle nature of the platforms.

Engagement from your audience is not always guaranteed. Over the last decade, we’ve witnessed the rise and fall of several platforms like Orkut, MySpace, and Hi5. More people are shuffling from Facebook to Snapchat to Instagram.

There is no guarantee that your current audience will be active on the platform a few years or even months down the line.

Stability is the key to sustainability

Another popular form of entrepreneurship on Instagram is that of an influencer. While your popularity on Instagram may be allowing you to generate income today, even subtle changes on the platform, that you have no control over, could spell a career change.

As of late, Instagram has been considering a move towards hiding the number of likes on a post. In a world where numbers make or break, losing sight of them could be devastating for your business.

What you need is a platform with stability, a website that you have control over, one that gives you the same exposure to a varied audience and a streamlined means to showcase your offerings. On a website, you can give your customers the full brand experience and tailor it to how you envision your brand and how you’d like your audience to see you.

Getting to the point

Social media should be considered necessary, but a secondary means of promotion that lets you customize and adapt your messaging to match the platform and audience.

Getting a domain like .CO lets you spread your idea to a larger audience and build your web presence in a more holistic fashion. From facilitating smoother e-Commerce to being SEO-friendly, getting a website should be high on your priority list as an entrepreneur.

Fact is, convenient as social media may be, with a domain name and website at your disposal, your business opens up to, a very literal, world of opportunities.

Another bonus .CO gives you is that you won’t have to lose sleep over setting up your domain name. We’ve got an easy to use, streamlined process to help you select your name and decide on a retailer in a matter of minutes.

For a cool venture like yours, there’s no better fit than a .CO domain, a domain that works as hard as you do.