By Rory Jones The benefits to business of embracing social media are much lauded. Some 500 million people are estimated to use the social-networking site Facebook to update friends on their whereabouts, hobbies and what they ate for breakfast. More than 2 billion people will use the internet this year, according to the UN. Theoretically, businesses can engage with a quarter of the world's population of browsers through Facebook. If a company can persuade a user to become a fan of their page, they have immediate access to that person's personal details - their likes and dislikes. In the Middle East, use of social-media sites has soared, with 5 million people in the GCC registered on Facebook. This has prompted marketeers and consultants to continually push businesses to tap into this growing market. But is Facebook all it is cracked up to be? A number of experts in the Middle East are now questioning the site's value as a marketing tool. For more on this article - .