For portions of 2008, I used Facebook for business purposes. But in recent weeks I’ve soured a bit on Facebook for business. Apparently, I’m not alone. I’m starting to hear from managed services professionals who are drawing a clear line between LinkedIn (for business) and Facebook (for personal contacts).
There are days when I’m tempted to set up business-oriented groups on Facebook. No doubt, the majority of my Facebook “friends” are business and industry peers.
However, a meeting I had on Tuesday — with David Schafran, president of Transformation Strategies — reminded me why I’m not a huge Facebook-for-business fan.
Schafran’s company helps aspiring and established managed service providers to bolster their businesses. Much like me, Schafran uses LinkedIn and Twitter for business and Facebook for personal contacts. It’s impossible to fully enforce the line between business and social networks, but the artificial line helps Schafran to focus his discussions on each site.
Will I have a change of heart and use Facebook for business? Perhaps. But I think my bigger concern is integrating more social media capabilities directly into our own sites.
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I was pleasantly surprised at the adoption of our FB page with our Solution Provider and Vendor partners. It’s been a great place for us to stay connected on the more “human interest” side of ConnectWise as well as another touch point for our User Group schedules and Partner Summit recaps. It’s really a small part of our social media initiatives, but very effective. A great additional variable for creating community. I’ve also come across several of our partners’ sites as well.
Jeannine: No doubt Facebook groups can be valuable. I wonder if I’m just burning out on Web 2.0 social networks/media because I’m already focused so much on our own sites and Widgets.
We’ve built a couple of very successful private social networks on Ning (a free platform from Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen). But I’m so busy with my day job I don’t have time to visit my own Ning creations, where nearly 2,000 members chat away pretty regularly.
I hope Web 3.0 consolidates all this into one large meeting room where everyone can find everyone — but you’re allowed to hide if you want to.
All the best for 2009.
-jp
I agree with that separation. I don’t even have co-workers as my “friends” on Facebook. To me, Facebook is only for personal information and friends outside of our business.
I don’t have clients on Facebook, when they find me and send a friend request, I send them to LinkedIn. I do have industry contacts on Facebook. Some of these people I’ve known for years. I know their interest and about their families. We don’t interact much but it is nice to know if someone is going to be in town or at a meeting and you can grab lunch together. However, I try to keep things in their proper places.