Facebook #Winning?

There’s Charlie Sheen crazy then there’s Facebook owns your interwebs crazy.

“Rhymes with winning? That would be us. Sorry, man, didn’t make the rules.”

However, Stephen Haines (above), commercial director of Facebook’s U.K. operation, has said: “A day might be coming when the power of Facebook means that major companies no longer bother with their own Web sites.”

“To bolster his argument, Haines showed statistics comparing how many times Facebook users have clicked a company’s “like” button with how many times per month people visited that company’s Web site. For Starbucks, a top Facebook advertiser, the ratio was 21.1 million likes to 1.8 million site visitors. For Coca-Cola, it’s 20.5 million compared with 270,000; for Oreo, 10.1 million compared with 290,000; and for Dr. Pepper, it’s 4.1 million compared with 325,000.”

Now we’re talking two soft pops and a cookie – none of which do anything than keep people aware of their brand by whatever means necessary. These kinds of company sites are outliers in that their only goal is part of a ubiquitous branding strategy.

It’s no surprise people get hold of the stubby end of the stick and make the inference nobody will need a website by the year 2017.

Look, people who are using the Web seriously to drive leads and/or sales need to use all weapons at their disposal rather than choose one basket to throw all their eggs in.

Smart businesses and smart marketers know this.

Enterprise and corporations are a long way off ditching their sites and servers for a poorly customizable, insecure platform that owns your content.

Conversely, a small business with limited resources can have a field day utilizing the likes of Facebook and other free-ish tools to their advantage without blowing thousands on designers, developers and Internet marketing costs.

As Charlie Sheen would say: “Vintage Balderdash.”

But, not every small business will see the same benefit from every strategy or tactic. There’s never been a one-size fits all, and it’s becoming less so by the month.

Only an idiot would take one of the most recognized brands on the planet then make the suggestion all other products would see the same traffic split between Facebook likes and site visits.

Most small businesses are desperate for any kind of recognition in the first place. So, a bit of local SEO in the form of a Google Places page never goes amiss. Y’know, because people round your own neck of the woods might be on the lookout for the types of things you do.

But, it really does make more sense for you to have a place for your own content then share elements of that content on other properties such as Facebook. It may be your blog’s RSS feed or a reworking of a PPC landing page.

That way, you’re in complete control of your content.

Not Facebook.