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Why Facebook matters to your business

Posted 23 July 2007 at 8:36AM by Simon Dickson in Doing business online

Social networking site Facebook is still the biggest story in town at the moment. About a week ago, it reached the milestone of 30 million active users, and it's still adding 150,000 new members daily. It's rapidly catching up on the two biggest players in its field, MySpace and Bebo. There are blogs dedicated to Facebook, and even interactive websites charting the popularity of the hundreds of add-on 'applications' available as part of the Facebook Platform.

All very well, you may say, but what relevance does this have for my business?

For one thing, it may well have become an unofficial company intranet, outside the remit of your company IT policy. When you sign up to Facebook, you're asked to say where you work (and you may have to supply a company email address as evidence). This adds you to a network of people working for the same company, with whom you can share your ideas and frustrations. There are 14,000 people signed up to the BBC network: reportedly more than half its entire workforce. The enlightened view would probably be that it's good to allow 'off-site' conversation like this: but I can imagine some managers panicking about what's being said.

Then there's the marketing angle. Paul Walsh is chair of the British Interactive Media Association, a man who clearly understands this sort of thing. He recently declared that Facebook had become his 'shop window, into which you can see who I am, who I know, what I stand for, what I'm working on, where I am and anything else I'd like you to know.'

All of these could be useful and potentially powerful tools, particularly for the self-employed consultant. On several occasions, I've found myself having unexpected meetings with business acquaintances, purely because I mentioned on Facebook that I was in a given place - and who knows where those conversations might lead. Or, if you mention that you're working on a specific project, you may well find a friend has some advice or insight which you wouldn't have thought to ask for.

It could also open some interesting doors for you. Once someone is your friend on Facebook, you can browse the list of all their friends too - and communicate with them, should you wish to do so. Blogging legend Robert Scoble describes his Facebook profile as 'a who's who of the Tech Industry'. Nobody will thank you if you go crazy with a cold-calling strategy, but it's a foot in the door if you need it.

And intriguingly, I'm seeing a number of people preferring to communicate with each other via Facebook messages, rather than conventional channels like email. Rationally, it's nowhere near as powerful as email; but Facebook is a fun and friendly environment, where email programs typically feel cold and soulless.

The 'Facebook Platform', which lets developers write mini-programs to slot into your profile, is certainly an interesting prospect, but I have yet to see anything which really excites me. Well-regarded tech site Read/WriteWeb produced a list of its top ten Facebook applications for 'work' - none of which I raced to install. But at least it's all heading in the right direction.

Speaking to Time Magazine this week, Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg - who looks even younger than his 23 years - says he just intends to keep going along the same path. More members, more applications, more languages. Inevitably with such a large following, he sees 'a whole new opportunity for a new type of advertising model'. But he rejects the gossip putting a billion-dollar price tag on the company, pledging to stay independent and 'just focus on building things'. A young man's idealism, perhaps, but it hasn't done him any harm so far.

Tags: bbc, facebook, marketing, social networking

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