The Emergence of Facebook for Business

An increasing number of bloggers and others are moving into Facebook. Some of these, such as Jeff Pulver, are abandoning LinkedIn . Jeff wrote, “In LinkedIn, everything centers around establishing a connection. In Facebook, connecting is just the beginning. Facebook is all about community. And this can been seen by doing things like leaving messages on users' walls, joining groups and having discussions, as well as some of the more social applications built for Facebook.”

Many web software developers are now including integration with Facebook as a major communication channel. CNet is one. I learned about this through John Payne, CEO of CircleUp a web-based social communications service. CircleUp allows you to send out messages in multiple channels (e.g., email, IM) and, starting in September, through Facebook. Then the sender gets an aggregated message that aggregates the responses from all channels. I will write more about this useful tool next week.

So I joined Facebook and now am connecting with a growing network of people who also made the same move. I am not prepared to give up on LinkedIn but I like the more robust communication with my community of friends that Facebook offers.

There can be some improvements to enhance this increased business use. The interface and questions still reflect the more social and consumer orientation of Facebook. I think they should improve the options available to reflect business choices. For example, it does not provide enough options for how you meet people. The emphasis is too much on personal relationships. I noticed that a lot of people choose that they met randomly or hooked up when it was more likely through a web connection or business connection that was not really random. Getting hooked up usually refers to more personal interactions. These are minor points. I am very glad I moved to Facebook. Perhaps I will see you there. web 2.0 Facebook Business

Comments

[Greg]

It's best not to mix business with social. Facebook is more a social networking site, LinkedIn is more exclusively for professional contacts and business. CircleUp is cool.

Greg

[Scott McArthur]

I tend to agree with Greg and use LinkedIn much more than I do Facebook. However I suspect the next generation will be the Facebook generation so I guess it's time for me to change my habits!

S

[Bill Ives]

Scott

Thanks for your comment. Happy to connect on LinkedIn and also Facebook when you join. I liked your blog and added it to my list on this blog and Technorati. Thanks for bringing it to my attention. Bill

[Mario Sundar]

I for one, personally would like to keep my social and professional lives apart. I have a thriving LinkedIn network (Disclosure: I'm the community evangelist at LI) and use Facebook for social activities ranging from movies to music.

Also, we're releasing an upgraded LI groups at the beginning of next month. Stay tuned for more on our LI blog.

[Bill Ives]

Mario

Thanks for your comment. As I indicated, I remain a LinkedIn user and I have alink to my LinkedIn profile on my blog. I see Facebook and LinkedIn different applications. Since my of by business colleagues are also my freinds, I like to mix the communities. Bill

[Annalie Killian]

Well, funny that I should stumble upon this the day after I led my work team on a visioning day where we explored exactly FACEBOOK as the perfect model for our intranet collaborative network to support Knowledge management and cuture transformation because of the very fact that human beings are primally wired as herd animals and social creatures and the Net Generation dont seem to make a distinction between work and play....and, in innovation, we love that sort of serendipidous learning. This very post...I discovered....where..? Serendipdously on FACEBOOK ...thos would NEVER happen in LinkedIn which is boring, I dont ever log on there (in 5 years I've had it) to simply browse for the sheer joy of it. Its NOTvisual...its all list based, and, nothing much has changed in YONKS! It was a good network ...but, something infinitely richer and better has come along.

[Bill Ives]

Annalie - Wonderful comment and I agree about the visual aspects of Facebook and the increased discovery that I have also experienced. Will you be my Facebook friend?

[Phil Dunn]

Have you ever considered using Facebook as a project management portal? I found this post while Googling on the topic. For me it would be nice.. create individual facebook pages for each client then use apps as necessary (like 30boxes and others for calendar, messaging, milestones, updating, file sharing etc..). Q: Would it be secure? Q: Will facebook allow multiple accounts?

[bill Ives]

Interesting idea. I know that Serena is using Facebook as their intranet and Worklight provides front end to offer security for those who want to do this. See the Workbook application from Worklight for the security issue.