Here\’s the dilemma: you have a new idea, product, or business and now you want to share it with the world. Do you create a website or do you thankfully embrace Mark Zuckerberg and create a Facebook fan page?

Guy Kawasaki, writer, 2.0 expert, and founder of Alltops, recently wrote that the Facebook Fan Page is the way to go.

It\’s free, it\’s popular, and it\’s easy to create, maintain, and advertise. Compare that to the long process of designing your own website or the expensive process of having others design a website for you.

From this angle it doesn\’t take a expert to see that a Facebook fan page is the easy winner.

But the truth is a little murkier.

Promoting your business, product or idea on the web isn\’t about cost, time, and ease-of-use. It\’s about style.

If you are in Guy\’s shoes and you want to promote a book–a Facebook fan page makes sense. He wants to appear relevant without looking like he tried to hard. He wants people too actively \”like\” his fan page so they might, if the mood strikes them, buy his book. He knows that the majority of people who stumble onto a static website dedicated to a book will most likely \’X\’ out of it because they will feel like they have  wandered into an online billboard.  He\’s striving for an authentic, lets-be-friends, style. Facebook can guarantee this style–a website can\’t.

If Guy was really interested in saving money and keeping an easy to use interface he wouldn\’t have spent $2,000 on a design firm to customize his fan page nor would he have bothered researching which Facebook apps could help him optimize his page. Guy isn\’t interested in the money or the time–he\’s more interested in style. He wants to sell his book, not save some money on advertising.

Before you decide who you want to promote your idea think about style. Use a fan page if you want your business, idea, or product to be represented in an informal, every-man, light. Build a nice website if you want your business, idea, or product to be taken seriously and appear large, busy, and successful. Reverse the rules if you want to be seen as a innovator within your field. It\’s that simple.

Money and time shouldn\’t be the prime considerations when you decide how you want to promote your ideas online. You first need to decide on how you want your message conveyed and how you want to separate yourself from everyone else.

Photo Credit: Laurie McGregor