Facebook is no Google killer

Within social media marketing circles, there is a growing chorus of Google doomsayers. They believe that Google's demise as the leading search engine is imminent. Why? For starters, Facebook has more than 500 million active users who spend over 700 billion minutes per month on the social network. Add to this the influence that Facebook is having on web marketing, such as the proliferation of "like" buttons on sites and business Facebook pages, and social media marketers get downright giddy about the idea of Facebook becoming the new search tool of choice.

Not to rain on their parade, but there are a few problems with this conclusion. Facebook is not designed to be a search engine. It is designed to be a social network. The experience you're looking for on Facebook is to connect with friends and family and share photos, conversation, funny videos, must-read articles and the like. If you visit a business's Facebook page, it's most likely to take advantage of a specific Facebook promotion. By contrast, you go on a search engine to do research, learn about a topic or make a purchase.

In addition, you can't - and shouldn't - replace Google with a closed system. The beauty of the Internet (at least in free societies) is its vast openness. Google is a portal to it all. Facebook, on the other hand, is limited to the people or organizations that have decided to become members. And while more than 500 million users is a lot, it's not everyone. Imagine there's no Wikipedia. I wonder if you can.

And finally, realistically you just couldn't replicate all of the web content out there within the framework of Facebook. Practically speaking, there's no way for that to work.

So here's what I think: Facebook has a place in many organizations' marketing mix -- especially those that are B2C marketers. However, if you put all of your eggs in the Facebook basket, you're likely to end up with egg on your face.