There is a tremendous amount of chatter about Facebook in social media circles.
Remarkably, this site continues to grow, and now boasts over 300 million world-wide members. It has even grabbed the #2 spot in the whole Internet, second only to Google.
But, here is the very important question for businesses, organizations, and nonprofits: will Facebook suffer AOL's fate, and become yesterday's swan song?
You see, the great potential problem for Facebook is that in order to play in their garden, which is a walled garden, you must pass through their doorway.
If you play in their garden, you will be telling people that you have a Facebook page, or Facebook fan page, or Facebook group.
Currently, as Facebook is trying to figure this out, they seem to be continually cranking off their patrons with their updates.
I greatly enjoy Facebook for my personal connections. However, I am not convinced that Facebook will become the end all of your business social media strategy.
Should you have an outpost in Facebook? Absolutely! But I use Facebook with the idea that it may not even be here five years from now.
In my humble opinion, the key for business, organizations, and nonprofits is to build their own social media properties.
Here is a recent Advertising Age article on this very topic.
Note: this photograph is a creative commons offering from Tony Hammond on Flickr.
