What Proportion of E-Commerce is now about the Website?

I used to think that having a website was the be all and end all for having a business on the internet. I was wrong.

Following a really interesting training session on SEO, I have finally moved onto understanding how much of having a business on the net revolves around your site.

Very little really and what I am finding out, is that it is good to have one, but there is a lot more focus nowadays on the Social Networks to drum up the business that we drive towards every day. And, it is the Social Networking sites that actually aid your web presence and gets you up the list.

So much so, that my site is now only a small slice of the pie and in fact, there is more emphasis on the social networking links than the once massive portfolio that I used to have which was my 54 page Behemoth. Its become almost like a business card, that like my network accounts are, just to check for updates and go.

In my working day, I am now starting to analyse my own browsing and I have to say, that most of the time, I have Facebook open and am communicating more often through here than actually getting out a pen and paper and writing some letters.

Social Networking is growing at such a rate, that people are using the tools as their mode of business. What is better marketing than having Thousands of friends? All looking at the work you do? Thousands of people trafficked straight to your site? This is what is going on nowadays and let me tell you, that's some power for business. The Facebook page is the way forward and a must have in terms of getting in business over the internet.

This is pretty worrying for people like myself that does provide Web Design for businesses. The question that I need to ask is, are websites going to become an obsolete mode of communicating business services? Will you need a web site to run a business soon? Thanks to that guy in America, has the Web Design business become a one horse race? Or, do I need to come up with a new format for Social Networking?

If the answer is no and someone can comment on this and as I write this late at night, I have missed a major piece of the puzzle, let me know and phew! If it is, then do Facebook pages take Flash? Can I spruce up my Facebook page so it looks better than the Blue and White ones and better than the rest of my competition? So that I can get more people to look at my Facebook page and go I want one of those? - I think I know what I have to learn to do. I'm getting on that slice of the pie....................