I had an interesting discussion with an internet marketer recently. He was shifting his business exclusively to Facebook marketing He argued that with the advent of FBML he could create complete web experiences for his clients, and they no longer needed their own website. While I think Facebook as some extraordinary applications for small business owners, I am not ready to abandon my own website.
In a recent blog post Michael Grey gave some compelling reasons why business owners should hold on to their own site:
When you redirect your website to a twitter page, facebook page, wikipedia page or any other page not under your absolute complete control, you are no longer your own master.A lot of web 2.0 companies have a spotty track record and have been known to make some really bad decisions in the past, and I’d put Facebook near the top of the bad decision makers list. Anyone remember the beacon fiasco, holocaust denial incident, or recent privacy kerfufle? When you put all your marketing eggs in the Facebook basket you put the fate of your company under the guidance, regulations, and terms of service of a company that has shown increasingly poor decision making with alarming regularity.
Do you have a social media strategy?
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