Who owns your online real estate

If you use a Facebook Page as your main business presence, you don't own it at all.

Photo by Paul Swansen

If you rely on your Google Places listing to tell people everything they need to know, you don't own that either. You can only add the information they say you can add. They choose what online reviews to display on your listing. They decide what order you'll appear in search results, and you have to appear along with competitors.

Should you ignore these services? Of course not! You should have a Page and a Place and whatever else makes sense for your business. Those are your outposts, built in someone else's territory. The main game is a home base. Build it on your own territory.

Only on your own site do you have room to stretch out and tell your story. Only on your own site can you build something of lasting value. Only on your own site can you bring together your other presences. Use the widgets or rss feeds from your many presences to enhance your main site with activity.

"But what about Facebook? Isn't it the future? I saw a Budweiser ad, and it directed people to their Facebook page, not their website. Shouldn't I follow their lead?"
[Based on an actual statement by a small business owner.]

Use Facebook for what it was intended for: to provide social interaction. (See the 6 Big Facebook Tips for Small Business.) Post things people want to share. If you post a photo of a customer in your ice cream parlor (Pride Dairy), they are more likely to share that with their friends. Same with stories about customers and other local stories. They are the type of thing that get people to click "share."

Where do you put your product notes, your founding story, your reviews, or your glowing testimonials? Those go on your own website. Facebook is not the right place for glowing testimonials. Glowing faces in photos, yes. Detailed product information, no.

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