A little reminder to those who don't know me...I'm blogging from London and offering a British perspective...thanks!
So it seems that a quick check of who’s ‘poking’ you can render you unemployed. 70% of employers are planning to ban access to Facebook in the office and many city firms already have. So is it really fair that social networking sites are being branded along with hardcore porn sites by the company network filters?
In my opinion, hell no. Some employees will always be slacking, take Facebook away from them and they’ll still be on Wikipedia trying to find out how to groom squirrels. But to people who are actually ‘switched on’, using Facebook is not a waste of company time at all. Used the right way a bit of time on Facebook could be as important as a networking dinner. The clue is in the category, it’s a social networking site. It is for networking! Most bosses are desperate for their staff to be making business connections, meeting the right people and being in the know, so why is Facebook being persecuted?
I admit that when I log in to Facebook I might spend a couple of minutes looking at my friends holiday photos or playing with the latest application, but I will also be browsing industry groups to make connections, I’ll be adding that guy from that company as a Facebook friend so we can easily stay in contact. Facebook allows you to show people what events you’re attending, and anyone who appreciates the power of the web will be posting their event on Facebook to allow people to mingle pre-party. Facebook Groups are no longer just about a bunny with a pancake on it’s head, there are groups for companies, groups for professionals in different industries, groups that allow you to enhance your company. And then there are Facebook Flyers that allow you to market to specific groups.
You could spend half a day achieving nothing on Facebook, but used correctly it’s a powerful business tool. If companies need to monitor staff performance then fine, but to ban them from arguably the most important networking site seems ridiculous. The power of Facebook should be embraced, applications should be built, groups should be created…let’s not just lump it in the same category as Girls Gone Wild without fully understanding what it has to offer.
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