With all of the social media options available to us, it’s very easy to get swept up in the excitement and abandon traditional online marketing tactics. Suddenly the "enhancement" to your web presence becomes your entire web presence.

Is there really anything wrong with this? Is it okay to use social media sites in place of a standard website?

This is what InboundMarketing.com member Kim Kolb recently wondered. Her client, a restaurant and bar, was using their Facebook and Twitter profiles to spread the word about their business in place of a standard website. Kim reached out to the InboundMarketing.com discussion forum members to ask “… as much as I do think a website is necessary [what are] some thoughts from the community? I think that all their social media and networking would enhance a website …”

Here are the top take aways from the forum:

Owning Your Own Content Is Vital

By solely using Facebook, Kim’s client is giving up a lot of control over their content. As user Bee Hobson points out, Facebook states that "Profiles can only be used to represent an individual, and must be held under an individual name." If Facebook finds that a business is doing just this, they can remove the profile and wipe out the bulk of the company’s online presence.  Not to mention that Facebook or Twitter could make site changes that negatively impact a business and there’s nothing that the user could really do about it.

Bee suggests that businesses create a blog on a custom domain as part of their online strategy.  This way not only do they own all the content they are creating and are still building a community, but they can use the blog entries to feed their Facebook and Twitter pages. The effort they have to put into the blog is balanced by the time they’ll save on other sites.

Let Your Creativity Shine

A creative, well-built website says a lot about your business. But, as HubSpotter Rick Burnes points out, with Facebook and Twitter you have to operate within their platform, and there’s only so much that you can do with those tools. No matter how much time and money you spend, there are always limits.

Instead, use these resources to build a website. If finding someone to build the site is an issue, there’s also the option of using a CMS.

All that said, this doesn’t mean that you should totally abandon Facebook. Instead of a personal profile for the business, consider creating a Fan Page. Pages have unique features that allow Fans to further engage with the business more than a simple profile allows. If allowed, users can post pictures, comments, start discussions and more.

Don’t Underestimate the Value of Search Traffic

Facebook and Twitter only allow for so much search traffic to occur. And often times, those customers that seek out a business’ profile on Facebook already are familiar with it – it’s great to engage your current customer base, but what about new customers? How do they find you? Having a website and building landing pages are vital to increasing your search traffic and leads.

In conclusion, while Facebook is a great tool to use as part of your online marketing strategy, it’s not the be all to end all. And, as InboundMarketing.com user Bee Hobson says “the world is spinning towards inbound marketing, no longer can we just tell consumers what they want,” we have to engage them in multiple ways on multiple channels.