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Major Social Networks will come and go, and they are all essential. You should be active on as many as possible. They are all great places to expand your website, expand your company and existence. But everything should return to your website. 
It’s 2012 and you would think it is obvious why you need your own website. I can not tell you how many interactions I have had where the other person says “I have a MySpace web page, or I have a Facebook web page or I have a Reverbnation page… I do not need a website.” Or how many individuals have their own website, but focus all their attention to driving everyone to Facebook. All they seem to be concerned with is how many likes they can get. You should pay more close attention to how many visits you get to your website. Some people do not look at a website as an important part of their business or company brand. They may see it as a postscript, something they guess they should do. If you were to open your own restaurant is the developing and location that last thing you would think about? It is your upcoming, everything you hope to achieve will depend on it. Your website is your bit of property on the internet and it will be yours possibly for a long time. Make sure you treat your online existance with all the severity you can.
Here are some essential items to keep in mind.
1. Own your website and site
Easier said than done, but you should ensure you maintain possession of your website and website. Don’t modify the Administrative Contact for your domain over to someone else unless you absolutely must. Try to avoid deciding upon agreements that when they are ended leave your domain and website under the possession and management of another party. If that happens you will have no management over what happens and you will not see any income from a website with your name on it. During an agreement you can let someone else handle and work your website, but do not let them own it!!
2. Do not redirect your website to MySpace or Facebook
You should be using Facebook, Tweets, Reverbnation or any of a number of other social networks to drive visitors to your website. To redirect your website to a social page is to send your visitors to somebody else, for them to profit and you to not share in the income. Traffic on the internet is cash. When you are finally ready to release your own website how do you plan to get everyone who is going to Facebook or MySpace again to your site? You have already programmed them to just visit Facebook or MySpace.
3. It is your company brand which you own and control.
Your domain and website is your company and you have complete management over it. You choose how you are going to be represented. Use MySpace or Facebook and you are not the company, they are!! You will never be more important than their own company. They will always come first over your company and your desire to advertise your company. Don’t let someone else management what you can do with your company.
4. What is the long run of MySpace, Facebook?
Ok this will date myself, but I remember when AOL was “it”. When everyone was trying to start their business venture on AOL. Everyone was advertising their AOL keyword. Where is AOL now? Ok, how about Geocities? Everyone was developing their website on Geocities for no cost. Nobody wanted to shell out any cash in their website and Geocities let them get on the internet for now cost. Where is Geocities now? And just how excellent were all those no cost websites? Or what about MySpace? Everyone knows about MySpace. Just five decades ago they were “it”. Everyone had to be on MySpace. Everyone was growing their friends list on MySpace. We were all directing a bit of your energy and effort to creating our MySpace web page and running a blog on MySpace. Where is MySpace now? MySpace lately declared a relationship with Facebook in desires of inhaling some life into the ghost town. What is the point of all this you ask? Do you know where Facebook is going to be in five years? I do not think they will be non-existent but they sure could change. Don’t put your future, your company brand, your hard earned money into the hands of another website. Tomorrow they could be the latest fade or worse sold to someone who has different plans.In the case of Facebook, why would you send your traffic to a website that requires registration for any sort of interaction. You don’t get to gather that registration information, Facebook owns it. You are delivering your fans to Facebook, for Facebook to market and make money from.
5. TOS, Terms of Service – you want to determine them, not the attorney from another website.
This is directly related to #4. Don’t set yourself up on a website that the Terms of Service, TOS, clearly state they do not support articles you might wish to publish. Anything of a adult or sex-related characteristics is going to get removed by Facebook. Nikki Sixx lately tried to publish a graphic from the new Sixx AM project and Facebook kept deleting it. Even in rock and roll you might have something that Facebook seems is too sex-related. MySpace and Facebook are clear illustrations. You spend your time and money establishing yourself and sending your visitors to Facebook or MySpace and then one day you log in and your account is deleted. What happened? Your articles was most likely reported by someone and without any notice your account and work is gone. Create a website where you choose what is appropriate and what is not. Don’t let the attorney at some other company choose if they like what you are doing. I am not saying to not use Facebook or MySpace, I am saying DO NOT cause them to become your primary website. Use them as visitors resources to reach your website.
6. Sales – you can keep a larger element of the pie.
You want your own website so you can sell whatever you want, and keep a larger element of the pie. Although promoting on other websites is possible there are usually hoops you need to leap through, and again to #5, what you are promoting might be against the TOS and be cause for your account to be deleted.
7. SEO
Good luck trying to control the SEO on a Facebook or MySpace web page. If you have your own website you have complete management over your SEO, over how Google and other search engines will see you and what your targeted keywords are for your company brand. If you have a strong existence on the various social networking sites with hyperlinks to your website, Google will see those hyperlinks and provides you some SEO juice.
8. Stay on the cutting edge
With your own website you can experiment with all of the new internet technologies and tools when they are released. You are not at the mercy of a corporate giant who will decided when and if they want to adopt a new technology. If you build a WordPress based website you can play around with 1000s of plugins that add new functionality to your website. One click and you are streaming audio, one click you have a podcast being served through Apple iTunes. One click you have a events calendar.
Your website should be the epicenter of your online universe, with all the various social networks revolving around it. Use the social networks to send visitors to your official website. Use them to be social, to interact with your fans and customers. Don’t spend all your time and money to build up another website, spend it on your brand… spend it on yourself!
