Friends Overload *
Everybody
is talking about Facebook or Myspace. For those of you who are familiar with
the most important social networks, I would like to clarify a couple of things
related to their business potential. This is a very heated issue nowadays and
you have to know what’s going on to make sure you don’t miss an opportunity but
you also don’t waste time and money.
The first
thing I would like to clarify about Facebook and Myspace is that things are
totally unclear! I know, I’ve just ruined my chance to sound smart, but you
need to be patient and read further. Here are a couple of things you need to
consider when you decide to create a business account on these social networks.
First of
all, Facebook is a fantastic platform for PERSONAL social connections, keeping
up and communicating with close friends and family. But business and
professional needs are NOT the same as personal needs. Unlike my personal
friends and family, whom I’m connected to (I hope) forever, I don’t want to
collaborate or communicate with ALL of my professional colleagues or potential
customers ALL the time.
Pete
Blackshaw wrote recently** about the overwhelming number of friend
invites: “Lately I’ve been getting so many darn friend and connection invites
that my head is spinning. From LinkedIn to Facebook to the all-too-common (and
bogus) MySpace invite from the girl ‘who just broke up with [her] boyfriend and
is just looking for fun,’ it’s all getting a bit crazy. Is spam king Sanford
Wallace running this gig? Or am I just reliving Groucho Marx’s famous quip,
‘I’d never join a club that would accept me as a member?’”
 We’re
experiencing friends overload and this is why I urge you to give a deep
consideration to this mixture of business relationships with social networks
before you make any important online business decisions. Here’s a hint: we live
in a family vacation destination and I bet it’s not
the teenagers in the family who make the call when it comes to choosing the beach
or restaurant or hotel for the summer. The key concept here is: social networks
demographics. Do they match with your business target? Humh, I thought so…
Second,
Facebook Platform makes Facebook infinitely extensible, but the core, native
Facebook apps and features are ABSOLUTELY UNCHANGED since it was originally
designed for students to socialize.
Facebook
is riding a brilliant wave of hype that has professionals of all stripes
setting up an account and trying to figure out how to use it for business, but
generally scratching their heads. Really, how much more fragmented could our
professional apps be? Do you want online Word or Excel? We’ve got Google Docs.
Do you need a project management or collaborative software? You have Basecamp.
Do you need to connect to people in your professional network? You’ve got
LinkedIn. Do you need to ask your friends, family and co-workers “What are you
doing”? You’ve got Twitter. How does Facebook help us? By creating and joining
professional interest groups on Facebook, so we can stick our professional life
in more silos? So we can see photos of colleagues from a conference? Hello,
Flickr!
Let me be
clear — I’m NOT anti-Facebook or Myspace — they are fantastic platforms and they
are pulling the Web into the future. But there are very few one-size-fits all
platforms when it comes to business needs. See ya’ll online!
* Max
Kalehoff - "Please, No More Friends!" August 3rd, 2007, posted on
Online Spin, a MediaPost blog
**
Pete Blackshaw – “Meaningful
Relationships With Social Networks”, posted on clickz.com
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