MarketingProfs

Mashable asks, “Is social media making corporate Web sites irrelevant?” and points to a Facebook Page set up by Vitamin Water. Paul Dunay, in a recent MarketingProfs Daily Fix post, asks,”With Facebook Pages, who needs a Website?”

Following suit, I ask the question, should a Facebook Page be part of your online marketing strategy? Echoing the above questions let me take it step further and ask, could a Facebook Page suffice as your small business Web site?
What is a Facebook Page?
First, let’s define just what we mean by the term Facebook Page. Note that the “P” is capitalized. It’s a formal noun. We’re not talking about generic pages within Facebook, but a specific platform component. (Officially, the term is Public Profile, but no one uses that. Even Facebook uses the term sparingly, opting instead for the Pages moniker.) Lots of people refer to it as a Fan or Business Page.
According to Facebook, a Page is a…

“[C]ustomizable presence for an organization, product, or public personality to join the conversation with Facebook users. The Page focuses on the stream of content posted by the Page administrators.

“By leveraging the real connections between friends on Facebook, a Page lets Fans become brand advocates. Posts by the Page will start to appear in News Feed, giving Pages a stronger voice to reach their Fans.”

Why should a business consider setting up a Facebook Page?
There are a number of advantages:
Search Marketing
You recall I referred to Facebook Pages as Public Profiles? What I mean is that they sit outside the firewall and are indexable by Google and other engines, no different than your corporate Web site or blog. Given the incredible amount of authority Facebook has with Google, the chances are your Page will rank well.
For example, if you Google the term Bizzuka, the company I work for, our Facebook Page ranks as one of the top results. The fact that Pages are indexable is a very important feature and one that sets it apart from other components.
Interactivity
Facebook Pages are highly interactive. You can incorporate your Twitter feed, blog RSS feed, YouTube videos and Flickr images; you can ask poll questions, have forum discussions, write blog posts (called Notes), offer coupons, update your status… the list goes on and on. Few small business Web sites offer that degree of interactivity. It’s certainly a huge plus.
(I highly recommend a suite of applications developed expressly for Facebook Pages by a company called Involver. Their apps are easy to setup and work extremely well. At the base level, they are also free.)
Brand Advocacy
Pages enable Facebook members to become Fans (lets refer to them as brand advocates or, even better, customers). When someone becomes a fan, that and any subsequent activity they engage in on your Page shows up in their Newsfeed (and their friends too). Posts by your Page show up in your Fan’s Newsfeed. It’s a way for word of mouth to take over and for your fans to spread the marketing message on your behalf.
Low-cost
One of the best reasons to setup a Page is that it costs nothing to do so. You can purchase third-party applications to enhance the experience, but the basic features are free.
Could I use a Facebook Page as my main Web site?
For small, small businesses, yes, for all the reasons listed above. By “small, small” I’m referring to mom and pop operations, home-based businesses and the like.
For example, in considering ways to market my upcoming book, The Digital Handshake, I thought of using a Page as the main Web site. In the end, I decided to use it as an ancillary channel (still under construction), and have set up a site for the book using the WordPress wpremix theme.
The advice I give most small businesses is, let your Page serve as an outpost on Facebook and connect to it from your company Web site. (In fact, your Web site should become a hub, connecting to everywhere else you exist online — Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Flickr, YouTube, etc.)
For more on this, see Paul Dunay’s post referenced above, paying particular attention to the comments.
Are there disadvantages to using Facebook Pages?
None that I can think of, unless you are planning to have a Facebook Page serve as your main Web site. In that case, there are those who would argue that you’re giving up branding control.
It’s true, you’re subject to Facebook’s color scheme, layout and style. And, without using a custom programming application called FBML that Facebook makes available, you can’t offer things like contact forms.
Personally, in the era of the social Web, maintaining “control” of your brand is a misnomer anyway, so I’m not dissuaded by that argument. Still, if you prefer to have a custom Web site, a Page is not a viable option.
What about Facebook Groups, Events and personal profiles?
I see a lot of businesses using personal profiles or Groups. Facebook now puts emphasis on Pages as preferred choice for business use, so I’d highly recommend a shift away from other options.
For one, personal profiles limit you to 5,000 friends. While that’s a lot of friends for any one person to have, not so for a business. Pages don’t carry the same restriction.
As to Groups, I see them as being more useful for causes, conferences, individuals who have a shared interest (alumni groups, for example) and other short-term applications. In essence, they are extension of your personal profile, whereas Pages are business-focused and, thus, are better suited to long-term relationship development.
Not only that, unlike Groups, Events and personal profiles, Pages are indexable by search engines, a point worth repeating.
(Mashable has a blog post which outlines the differences between Pages and Groups. I’d encourage you take a few minutes and read it.)
Regarding Events, in the “event” that you need it, they can be launched right out of your Page.
One more thing, if you’re interested in using Facebook Ads, they’ve recently rolled out a version expressly for Pages.
Thanks to social media, we’re seeing a shift toward the Internet as a place for shared connections, not siloed destinations. A Facebook Page should be a key component of any marketing strategy that’s in sync with that mindset.