I see evidence of more and more businesses getting online via Facebook pages. And that’s a good thing!

But consider this. Everything you post there, every image you upload becomes their property, not yours.

You don’t even “own” your Facebook account. And that means Facebook can close it at any time they want – for a terms of service violation, or for any other reason. And if that happens, all your data will simply disappear.

That’s why you must have your own web presence, and why you need to “Own” your online brand.

Yes, Facebook is a terrific place to be right now and a great opportunity to promote your business.

But it may not be that way for ever – look at what happened to My Space.

So use Facebook, and Twitter and any other platform you enjoy, but use them as outposts, to drive traffic to your own web presence. Then, if they do disappear, your business won’t.