How Facebook Can Hurt Your Business

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Facebook As A Website

Facebook is awesome for small business owners.

I know I’ve probably said that about a thousand times, but I stand by my statement. Facebook is easy to use, fun to use, and FREE to use.

But Facebook is merely a marketing tool for your website. Its purpose is to direct traffic back to your website where you can collect leads and close sales. Facebook is not a substitution for an actual website.

If you’re one of the many small business owners who are riding the Facebook unicorn without a care in the world while having no website of your own; consider these 5 not-so-fun Facebook facts.

Branding & Design Is Limited

You don’t have a ton of creative control over your Facebook page. You can add pictures, cover photos and app icons. But you can’t change the page layout, navigation or color palette. When Facebook goes through a design change, everyone has to change with it whether they like it or not.

There Aren’t Quality Analytics

Even though Facebook has Insights, which allows page admins to see traffic, it’s nothing compared to Google Analytics website tracking.

Google Analytics allows the website admin to see just about anything they can imagine. Wondering about time on site, browser used, unique visitors? Google Analytics can give you a detailed report on those topics and so many more.

You’re Not In FULL Control

There are a lot of crazies out there who find fun in being mean jerks. And hiding behind the shroud of the Internet, many of these people use Facebook as their sanctuary. They can leave mean comments on pages that may not be deleted by admins for days, even weeks.

On the other hand, a website is controlled 100% by you. You can even set up blog comments to be approved before going public.

Some People Hate Facebook

I know it seems like everyone has a Facebook account, but that’s not necessarily the case.

A few weeks ago Founder and CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, announced there are “more than one billion people using Facebook actively each month.” Sounds great, but bear in mind the term “active” can be used quite loosely. Not to mention all those bots and people with multiple accounts so they can avoid becoming friends with their moms and bosses.

This news comes after reports of unique Facebook users hitting a peak of 166 million last November. Since then it’s gone into a steady decline. The analyst firm that reported this number, comScore, determined this is likely a long-term trend.

It’s hard to say how engaged Facebook users really are and how much it’s really used by humans. By using Facebook as your primary web presence you’re not going to be talking to everyone. Facebook may seem like the best bet, but actually you may be shutting out those who don’t have an account or aren’t active users.

Facebook Doesn’t Joke Around With Terms Of Service

Have you read all of Facebook’s Terms of Service? Everything we agree to, but never read, ends up being about 22 pages. This includes:

With all these rules, you could be violating Facebook’s Terms of Service and not even know it. If you break the rules, even if accidentally, Facebook can delete your account.

If all your connections are through Facebook, that’s a whole lot of work that can disappear over night.

Now What?

If you don’t have a website, you need one! Don’t panic though. You can get a quality website for much less than you think. Join us over at the DIY WordPress Creator to find out how.

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  • http://twitter.com/gcpets Aunty Vanessa

    I’ve been saying this especially your last point for years to a lot of business people whom think they don’t “need” a website. HEAD > WALL !

    There is a huge problem in the pet sitter/carer community with that line of thinking because it’s so easy to create a page compared to a site (in a lot of peoples’ minds). Then when they do with a site they go with a crappy Vistaprint (google it) version that “everyone” uses :-/

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