Whenever Unspun tells his clients in Indonesia to consider using social network applications for their marketing efforts, they all look at him like the affected cousin – you know, that nice-chap-but-not-quite-balanced look.
Can’t blame them as its all new to them. Here are a couple of Interesting takes on whether social network applications like Facebook are useful to businesses, and Unspun is glad author charlene mentions Linkedin as it comes closer to a social network for business types.
Why Your Company Needs To Be on Facebook
Charlene Li is a Vice President and Principal Analyst at Forrester Research.
(For a different take on social media and business, read Tom Davenport’s Why Facebook and MySpace Won’t Change the Workplace.)
As an analyst, I’m often asked by people why they should bother with services like LinkedIn, Facebook, and MySpace, both from a personal as well as corporate perspective.
Let’s start with a fundamental premise – that all business is social and personal. Business involves people and communications and we all prize “networking” skills and opportunities. Businesses don’t strike deals with each other – people do. And we build bonds by talking about everything from sports teams and the weather to our families and hobbies.
So we as business people already engage in social networking every day, primarily through phone calls, emails, meetings, and events. The same activities take place on social networking sites – people share the tidbits and moments that build relationships.
Yet, many people when they first go and experiment with a site like Facebook, don’t find it relevant to their professional lives. There are two reasons for this: 1) Your professional colleagues are likely not actively using Facebook; and 2) Most of the applications today aren’t designed for a business context.
Let’s take the first problem – you may not have many friends in these social networks. Read the rest of this article here
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