Any business these days, even a tiny work-from-home business, needs some type of internet presence. No matter who your customers are, consumers or other businesses, they will almost certainly check you out on the web no matter where they first learned about your business.

The smaller businesses, particularly work-from-home and single operator or freelancing gigs, must decide if the effort, time, and expense of a website is worth it for marketing and growing their business. The alternative is using social sites, particularly Facebook, instead of building a website.

Sure, there are cookie-cutter website services out there that make it easy and fast to throw up a business presence. The problem is that unless you spend that time and effort to change and customize the site, it will never be found in the search engines due to the lack of original content.

Yes, you may only want your site to be a place to send people from other marketing like business cards and print ads. If so, then just putting your domain name on your marketing materials will get them there. However, there is still the thought that maybe there’s another way, especially if you can avoid the monthly fees for that site.

You’re used to the Facebook interface, and you can have a free business page on Facebook, so why not? It’s a good question, and it just may be the answer for you. A Facebook business page can be used for posts about what you do or what you sell. You can promote it with inexpensive Facebook ads, and you can work your social network for business.

The Facebook solution with Twitter and other social site marketing promoting your page can work well for you. There really are only two significant things you may consider drawbacks of using Facebook as your online business presence.  First, it is a lack of control. Facebook is known for changing its platform interface, functions, and features whenever it sees fit. Many of these changes are not damaging to the basic profile and business page interface, but you never know when it could be. It wouldn’t be in Facebook’s best interests to mess up business pages, so it isn’t likely.

Second, your content isn’t yours to control. Sure, you can keep a copy and use it wherever you want, but ultimately Facebook can move it around, share it at will, and even copy it into other places. You could consider this more exposure, so this may not be important to you, but it is something to consider.

Many very small crafting, local, and freelancing businesses rely on social sites as their online business presence, so you would be in good company. It’s your business and your decision. Any internet presence is better than none, so make a decision and get to it.