This is one of the most common questions I get when discussing websites with new clients. Sure, Facebook is free, easy to set up and tonnes of people use it every day. And, it even outranks Google as the most popular website of all time. But does this make it right for your business presence online?

Branding

When you create a Facebook page you get to upload your logo and a cover photo to be displayed at the top of the page. Great, but that’s where your branding stops. The rest of your Facebook page is designed for Facebook, not you. You get a pale blue background, blue Facebook logos, lots of Facebook designed buttons, and (dare I say Facebook one more time?) lots of Facebook ads. One third of your page is actually advertising other peoples’ businesses!

When you create your own website, you control everything. You decide what colours you’d like to use, where your logo goes, how may pictures you’d like and how you’d like to link to other pages in your website. And, no annoying ads!

Layout

Facebook controls the layout of Facebook pages. Remember when the new timeline layout was introduced? That was Mark Zuckerberg’s idea, not yours. What about pages to categorize your content – such as services, products and so on? Simply posting your services or products isn’t always good enough as they eventually get lost down the page. So you could create a Facebook page within your page, for that you need to create a Facebook app. And then things get pretty tricky!

On your own website you can have as many pages as you like! You can place content wherever you like and you can constantly change the content to suit your business.

Content

On your Facebook page you can generate content in the form of status updates. You can also add photos, videos and documents. Unfortunately, other people can also add content, and its not always very nice. If a fellow Facebook user adds a not-so-sweet comment on your Facebook page right after you go to bed at night, then the whole world can read that comment until you wake up in the morning and delete it. If your page has 500 likes and each of those likers has 200 friends each, that nasty comment has the potential to reach 100,000 people before you even know about it. Scary stuff!

On your website, you control the content! Yes you can have a blog allowing comments, or perhaps a guestbook, but you can moderate those comments in a number of ways – such as blocking comments that contain certain words, or even preventing publication until you have double checked their worthiness.

SEO (search engine optimisation)

Basically, Google doesn’t like businesses with only a Facebook page. There is no way to apply the search engine optimisation techniques that attracts Google to a Facebook page as you have no control over the coding that creates the page. So, if you only have a Facebook page, how will non-Facebook page users find you? Short answer: they won’t – or they will have to scroll to page 385 in Google’s results to find you. And that’s 6 BILLION people and counting.

So why bother with Facebook?

Because Facebook is the most popular site in the world and regular status updates can really promote your business. I suggest to every client that, if they are a Facebook user, they should create a Facebook page, alongside their unique website. It is easy to cross link between your website and Facebook by using buttons and news feeds. It is important to remember, however, your unique website is ALL ABOUT YOU. Facebook pages are, ultimately, all about Facebook. And, what happens when Facebook declines and the ‘next big thing’ comes along? Anyone remember My Space?

In an endless quest for creativity and originality, where better to explore than the Great Barrier Reef? And, of course, its on our doorstep.

Living in Bowen, the reef is such a big part of our lives. It governs the fresh fish we eat, encourages the flow of tourists we meet and shapes our plans for each weekend. Well, the reef and the weather!

As our lives push forward and many of us spend our days sitting in front of computers, hypnotised by blinking lights, it is a great relief to step outside, take a plunge and be overwhelmed by nature’s glory. Breathing fresh air without any beeps to distract is one of life’s simple, yet most sought after pleasures in this age of information and instant content.

Whether its a sunrise or sunset, a deep reef or a magnificent mountain range, life outdoors can really inspire creativity online. Hence the theme for the Green Turtle redesign. Let’s bring a little bit of the outdoors inside. Let’s remember what a splash of saltwater feels like. And most importantly, let’s remember our greatest source of inspiration! Life!