Wouldn't it be better to have a Ning (or other) social network AND a connected Facebook business page vs. a Facebook page alone?

We run two networks on Ning (http://www.tudiabetes.org in English and http://www.EsTudiabetes.org in Spanish). We also have a Facebook page for our organization (Diabetes Hands Foundation). This makes sense to us to the extent that a significant portion of the members of our community also dwell on Facebook and to the extent that one of our goals as a nonprofit is to conned people touched by diabetes and millions of them dwell on Facebook. Most definitely running a FB page alone is simpler and entails far less resources from the stand point of a comparable network on Ning. However, the depth of the experience you can offer members through a dedicated social network is richer. The question is more one of: do you have the resources to manage it (1) and is it ultimately going to add more value to those you are serving/tending to?

In addition to our FB page http://www.facebook.com/storiesmynanatells which helps promote the business website http://www.storiesmynanatells.com, we also have a social networking site on Ning at http://www.notallpoppies.com   Through Ning, we are developing a different, but complimentary, network of social interactions and have built the Ning interface so that it has multiple Social Media connection points: Twitter, http://www.twitter.com/nanastories Facebook, LinkedIn, http://www.linkedin.com/in/lesleydewar  two external blogs as well as the blog on the individual profile page.  http://www.notallpoppies.com/profile/lesleydewar As Manny says, the depth of interaction on Ning is much deeper and richer with Ning than it is on Facebook.  By using Groups, members can develop special interests with others to what ever depth they want.  The Ning profile page is also an excellent portal for each Member to their own Social Media network.  For many users, five or six links; four or five groups and being able to email links direct from their own page offers as many resources as they are like to ever use for personal interaction.   The other advantage of a Ning membership is the ability to access information that doesn't disappear down the timeline.