Last week I was off from work.  I was quite happy because I thought I would be able to go to my local baker every day and sample each and every daily specialty they had.  Unfortunately they chose the same week I took off to complete renovations to their operation so no bread unless I went to the not-so-local farmers markets where they also sell their wonderful bread-seriously, their bread and pastries are awesome!

In any case, I noticed that they have a facebook page and they would keep their customers abreast of any information on this facebook page.  They also have a website, which is not updated nearly as often as their facebook page.  Walking back home on the last possible day I could get bread from them I started thinking - this facebook fan page thing is like the AOL keyword of the 90s.  Back in the day, while most companies had websites, a lot of action seemed to happen on AOL (where I was not a member). Radio and television ads (probably print ads as well) would have the WWW address and then "AOL Keyword: xxxxxx".

While I do see the benefit of having interaction with your customers, keeping them informed of what's going on, responding to their concerns AND to their praise of your products, I think that this interaction should take place on your website, and not on facebook.  A lot of websites these days are like brochures, or flyers. You see what's offered, but you don't get the interaction, and you certainly don't get the updates that the proprietors put on facebook fan pages.  I wonder if this is because facebook "is just easy" compared to editing a page, or if there is that mental barrier that says "this goes on the website, this goes on facebook". Seems to me like facebook pages are the AOL Keyword for this decade.