We saw it for the first time this weekend and because the devil is in the details, I mean in the Terms of Service, with Web.Com we just had to go look and see how this one will be biting unsuspecting business owners in the rump later.

For those who haven’t seen the commercial click here.  The gist of it is they’ll build you a “free” Facebook page, get it likes and manage it.  The “free” word is thrown in there a lot, but hopefully most of you realize it’s not free, as in without money changing hands.

By appearance the page itself may be created at no charge, but everything after that is definitely charged for and, like other services created for business owners at Web.Com, is not owned as your intellectual property, but rather that ownership is retained by Web.Com.

Here are the clarifying bits out of their Terms of Service for “Facebook Boost and Custom Facebook Page Services”:

• “with the exception of content you provide for inclusion on the Facebook Page, ownership interest to the Facebook Page, including, but not limited to, the URL address, HTML coding, scripting, copyrights, domain names, and all other intellectual property rights, shall remain exclusively with Web.com and/ or Facebook.com;”
• “if you limit Web.com’s access to the Facebook Page, via changing your login credentials or otherwise, you will still be responsible for paying Web.com the related monthly service fees;”
• “upon cancellation of the Services, the Facebook Page will be deleted and will not be recoverable under any circumstance.”

Well there it is in a nutshell – it’s not really free, you don’t own it, and should you decide to no longer utilize their service it will be permanently and completely deleted.

How many business owners just got duped by the offer for a “free” Facebook page?  How long will they work to cultivate their social media presence and build followers only to one day figure out it’s not really their Facebook page?

So you’re a small business owner you’d really like to be on Facebook and eventually some of the other social media platforms, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, etc, but if Web.com isn’t the way to do it, where do you go to find the right company to help you?

For starters stay local, it may be an online world, but it is still good to do business with someone you can meet face to face with. In every community there are numerous companies that work with businesses social presence every day.  Some may specialize in social media management, some may do social media management along with website development.  If you’re struggling to find the right company for you, call a local computer repair shop they should be able to provide you several names of companies in the community to talk to.

If you’ve discovered you’re in need of these services Right Now, in the Reno area take a looking at Waking Girl or MarkUBiz, if you’re in the Las Vegas area take a look at NetMouser.

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