This one is mainly for the student groups here in NUS but is quite relevant to small businesses as well. I must confess now itself that it is always tempting to have our own website. This is understandable but then, more often than not, this is just about owning a unique web address, is it not? We'll get to that in a bit.

Anyway, so apart from the obvious fact that Facebook pages are free, why should you consider moving?

The Social Web: The web is becoming increasingly social and the reasons to own a website today with no social integration are becoming fewer and fewer for we have evolved from the time we were happy to just look at beautifully styled yet static web pages. 

Today, users have grown to expect more. For one, people expect that your website is updated frequently ie they are looking for fresh and relevant content on every visit. When your site doesn't project that feel, you have lost them already. On the other hand, if it does, then users expect an integration with their social network so that they can like and share your content.

The approach to a website: I think the problem has largely to do the approach. People are reluctant to use a platform despite the fact that it is free is because it would make their site seem like just another page. This is a mistake. I have made it so I know. It is crucial to realize that content is the backbone of your website. Students come to your group's website to be informed, to be updated about your events and not to see and appreciate the look and feel of your site. It helps, yes but that is not the point at least not for student groups like us. And also, like I said, the web has evolved.

Content has taken precedence and the best way to go would be to use a content-based platform that can reach out to people - a Facebook page.

Mass Email versus the Subscribe/Unsubscribe modal: Our primary means to reach out to a lot of students has always been to send out mass emails. Get their email addresses somehow and spam them till they plead you to stop. This has proven to work, yes but it often leaves you with a disgruntled user base unless of course you explicitly provide an option to unsubscribe in your email which most of us dont.

A Facebook page solves this issue almost immediately. This is not surprising for the email was invented 40 years ago and change was bound to come at some point in time. Anyway, so when a user "likes" a Facebook page, he gets notified of your group's updates in real-time, and when they become overwhelming, he unsubscribes. Simple. Easier for you, easier for him. Win-win.

The IT Director: He serves as the single channel of communication of the team with the website. So, even a simple task like content revision (correcting a spelling error) goes through him and him only. Not only is this tiring for everyone involved, it is not productive.

Now consider a Facebook page. You can quickly add your team as collaborators and allow each of them to have access to the site which if you think about it, is the point of having a team, in the first place. You simply now have more people to answer queries that your users might have, on behalf of your group and users also get to know the people that make the team.

Okay, so does this mean we chuck the poor IT guy out? Well, having a webmaster is always useful when you want to do something extra like forms for eg. but then you can use Google Forms. So I will leave it to you.

The People: Lets face it - The members make your group what it is. And by having a socially integrated website or a Facebook page, you are saying just that by providing them a way to stay involved and in the loop. If your only source of communication with them is through email, this cannot be done. If you think about it, the comments section even serves as a forum in itself and enables member-member interaction and sharing.

Through Facebook, you get an opportunity to personally connect with people who care about/are interested in what you do which is just awesome, I think?

In conclusion, I believe that the best way for a student group or a small business to reach out to people effectively in the social web that is the Internet today, is to either build a socially integrated website/blog or use a Facebook page. Creating the latter is easier.

If you still dont want to forfeit the luxury of having your own web-address, you dont have to. You can always forward the domain to the FB page. Have we made the jump? Yes. You can find ours here.