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Harm your business, block Facebook

Written on 29th October 2008 8 COMMENTS
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief

His research concluded that trying to control the use of sites such as Facebook, which alone boasts more than 100 million users worldwide, could even harm organizations.

This is a line from a news message Reuters pumped in the blogosphere today. Obviously, we can expect a lot of blog coverage about this matter. It’s saying exactly what we, early adopters, already knew: companies shouldn’t think you can control social networks. Better try to benefit from them.

British think-tank knows better

Demos, a British think-tank, studied the effects of social networking on business. Author Peter Bradwell concludes that when employees gossip, talk and share photos on Facebook, MySpace and others – it could actually benefit firms. It’s all part of professional networking and helps people keeping in touch with colleagues and customers.

However, there should be practical guidelines to limit non-work usage – Bradwell said. But blocking is not the way to go: “Allowing workers to have more freedom and flexibility might seem counterintuitive, but it appears to create business more capable of maintaining stability.”

“Banning Facebook and the like goes against the grain of how people want to interact. Often people are friends with colleagues through these networks and it is how some develop their relationships.”

How can companies get the most out of Facebook?

Demos doesn’t give firms any practical tips on how to get the most out of Facebook. Maybe we can get some together in the comments here. Moving some of the business related communication to a certain network might stimulate the right usage. But with my zero corporate experience, I think you guys should do the talking.

8 Comments »

About the author: Ernst-Jan is blogger and co-organizer of BLOG08, who previously worked in New York to cover news at the United Nations. Next to writing, he's also a singer in the band Christina Five. Follow him on Twitter or read his personal blog Dutchproblogger.com .

8 comments/trackbacks to “Harm your business, block Facebook”

Oct 31, 2008: Social media: with great power comes great responsibility
[...] should allow and/or stimulate employees to ‘represent’ the company online. As recent: Harm your business, block facebook and the somewhat older Pay your people to waste time on facebook all have noble goals… [...]
Nov 2, 2008: Demos says Facebook is crucial | Strive Notes
[...] Harm your business, block Facebook [...]

By Tom Vanlerberghe on Oct 29, 2008

I reckon every industry has to find their specific use for FB and communicate this clearly to employees. If customer relations is a part of your core business it can harm you more to give your employees the freedom to explore FB than if you’re not. My guess is that’s also the reason why companies like Coca Cola or Nike have a certain level of succes on FB, rather than banks, telecom,…

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By Ernst-Jan Pfauth on October 29th, 2008:
Thanks for the comment Tom, would you please eloborate on this:

“If customer relations is a part of your core business it can harm you more to give your employees the freedom to explore FB than if you’re not.”

I wonder why that would be the case?

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By Tom Vanlerberghe on October 29th, 2008:
The more you communicate with your customers (for whatever reason, to make a sale, helpdesk, information,…) the more risk at negative customer feedback.
If the person or persons handling this are on FB and didn’t have any training, information,… on how to handle ‘difficult’ customers it can mean more harm. Depending on what you put on FB or how you comment, customers won’t take you seriously or even use that content against you.

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By Luca F. on October 29th, 2008:
agree on the proper training…

if somebody shows up and says:”I am a XYZ employee” then all he/she says will be taken as a direct expression of the XYZ company…

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By David Petherick on Oct 30, 2008

I covered this in oooh let’s see August 2007? Yes, let’s look back.

Here we are: The headline was “Why you should pay your people to waste their time on Facebook” at http://digitalbiographer.com/2.....-facebook/

Here’s a little sound bite: “Oh yes, I’m serious. I’m actually advocating an approach where you pay your staff to use facebook and similar social networking sites to network, and promote themselves, and your business, to the world.”

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By Luca F. on Nov 6, 2008

interesting article on the Economist…

http://www.economist.com/busin.....d=12566818

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