“Are we too obsessed with Facebook?”

It was a question posited by CNN, and one that I field regularly with my client base.

Firstly, to understand this question from a business perspective, we need to understand what Facebook is. Facebook–on the face of it–is a social networking platform.  It has its share of pluses and minuses, like any given endeavor.

No one goes to Facebook to look up a business that sells shoes, for example.  That’s what Google is for.

Currently Google and Facebook are warring for ad revenue, and Facebook members may block Google searches into their member areas.

Tick-Tock

Nextly, we need to ask ourselves what is the value of time?  Facebook eats up a lot daylight. Where is your precious time best spent?

“Facebook is ‘FREE’ advertising.”  Nothing is free once you calculate the time revenues expended fiddling with Facebook.

Facebook is a business model that grows with each new member.  As you invest in Facebook, your site and brand suffers.

Your-site.com IS your brand, your business, and rightfully deserves your full attention.  Adding a blog to your site and then blogging there builds your brand and bolsters your search engine rankings.

As brands go, having a centralized “voice” means that people can find your business regardless of Facebook’s privacy woes and platform bug-a-boos.

Who Am I?

Privacy woes include Facebook’s marketing of members’ confidential data to advertisers, and occasional lapses of security that open up that data to the world.  Do you care where your clients have been on the web?  Facebook does, and so do their advertising clients. Tacking cookies, data sharing and Fire Sheep hacks, are among the latest of breaches that unwary business need no part in.

We Err On the Side of Excellence

Live long enough and a person witnesses fads coming and going (mostly going).  To CNN’s question, people may indeed be obsessive about Facebook.

At The Main Street Web Company, however, we lean toward smart, scalable, and auditable web development. Our outstanding media design is geared for those elusive search engine rankings that build brand awareness and “core-centeredness.” Our W3C valid sites drives the competition mad.  Your web presence deserves nothing less.  That’s where our investment grows.  You win, and so do we.

“But I Want To Be ‘Liked’”

Time spent on your site may not win you a Facebook “Like” button.

Want "Liked?"

This gimmick netted a flurry of emails to my address from the likes of Pepsi, Wal*Mart, et. al., who wanted me to “Like” them when Facebook launched the concept.  Prizes, freebies, and discounts abounded.

Why not spend a little more time and money on producing a useful and “like-able” web presence that will withstand the test of time? Leaders lead.  Facebook is a leader in the social marketing world.  Following is a natural response–unless you’re a leader.

We don’t have or maintain a Facebook presence because our focus is on creating a hub that supports and encourages leaders.

That’s why we “like” you.