Facebook Series : For Business and Useful for Business are Two Different Things

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I promised a series of shorter Facebook posts and here’s the first one. The series will continue throughout August.

There’s a question that keeps popping up around the topic of Facebook that’s clearly confusing some of the people I run into. The question is: Is Facebook a Social Platform for Business?

The anwer is, so far, no.

Facebook was created for a certain college group, then expanded into Ivy league groups, then to all manner of college students, and onwards until it began to welcome people outside that box. Business professionals now see its usefulness for business.

However useful for business and for business are not the same thing.

No one, I repeat, no one, will appreciate you joining Facebook with five different alias and talking to yourself about how great your business is. That’s a bad marketing idea overall. You’ll get kicked out, though there’s no need because you’re not going to get much attention.

On the other hand, business is about relationships, especially online, your relationship to people in your industry, your relationship to your clients, your clients relationship to you, how they feel about your company, its products, etc. In this digital age, we even seem to have relationships with content, on or off the web.

(Jericho fans will back me up on that.)

Is YouTube for business? No. Does it have business applications? Yes.

Is web search for business, specifically? No. Can optimization help your site get found? Yes.

Is blogging made for business? No. Does having a blog dramatically increase your visibility and help your sales if done correctly? Of course it does.

So yes, Facebook has some business use, from the networking you can do, to having access to a new crop of people, and marketing your business via a Facebook App.

Is Facebook designed for business people? No.

But why would you want it to be? It’s great the way it is.

And unless you get off your duff and go start playing with it, you’ll never know how much.

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August 4, 2007 | Filed Under Web 2.0

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