Will Facebook replace websites?

In short, the answer is ‘no’. You can stop reading now. I’m sure a lot of people could argue that Facebook is the way of the future and in 5 years no one will use websites anymore. To a certain level this may be true, but for a business, a smart business rather, Facebook simply should not replace a website.

Here are 10 reasons why:

1. You can’t sell products or services through a fan page without finding a third-party application that is compatible with Facebook.
2. You can’t maintain product inventory through Facebook.
3. You can’t fully customize the appearance of your page so often times it looks free and cheap.
4. It’s not secure. Where’s my secure URL? VeriSign, are you there? Don’t expect me to hand over my credit card number.
5. Facebook owns all of the data on your page (read their terms).
6. You don’t have any control over the domain name.
7. Facebook is always the dominant brand. The name is always at the top of the page. You can’t miss it!
8. Facebook’s brand image will impact your brand. What if Facebook went and pulled a move out of Mel Gibson’s handbook? A PR nightmare for Facebook won’t be good PR for your fan page.
9. Not everyone is on Facebook. Let’s face it, for the most part Facebook is a huge waste of time; especially if you have a full-time job…or a life.
10. You’d always be dependent on Facebook. What happens if Facebook one day decides to shut down fan pages? You’re screwed! Facebook probably wouldn’t alert you of this change so it would come as a surprise. Now what do you do? Large websites can take six months to a year to go live. Can you afford that amount of downtime? Can you imagine if Bank of America’s website was down for a year. How would you pay your bills? Who writes checks anymore? The smart answer would be to use one of our financial clients to avoid this kind of nightmare.

I do think that Facebook is a great complement to a website. Facebook should be another outlet to drive traffic to your website. For a financial institution, rather than flood your Facebook page with competitive rates, use it to share your involvement in the community. Another great use of Facebook pages is to provide superior customer service. Let your customers voice their complaints in a public place and then work with them on resolving the issues. If they can’t voice their concerns on your fan page, then they’ll do it on a site like Yelp or trash talk your business at a cocktail party (2 places where you’ll have no way to be respond). Facebook does attract a very large audience so do try and take advantage of that. Facebook is free and for the most part easy. A well developed and designed website is expensive, but most often worth the investment. If you don’t have a website for your business, use Facebook as a stepping-stone while you build a website that falls within your budget. Don’t let Facebook be a substitute.