FACEBOOK KILLS BUSINESS; USE LINKEDIN INSTEAD.

Loss of productivity has been a major concern for business owners and companies all around the world. Employees have been known to spend working hours doing other things apart from work: socializing, gossiping, and the sort. With the advent of the Internet, a new time-waster could be a threat to productivity in businesses.

They are the famous online social networking websites: You know them- Facebook, Myspace, Bebo, Hi5, and the likes of them.

Let me state categorically that I have no personal beef with social networking. As a matter of fact, I am a big fan and addict. I have an account on one of these sites where I spend at least twenty of my time everyday. I believe that Forums, bulletin boards and blogs on these networking sites are an excellent way to communicate business ideas, views, opinions and policies.

Facebook is a good site. It's a beautiful thing that through facebook you could reunite with old friends, acquaintances and loved ones. You could also make new friends and build on already existing relationships. Facebook's founder, Mark Zuckerberg calls it a great social networking device through which company owners and employees can follow-up on business contacts and possibly seal business deals.

I beg to differ.

If truths must be told, Facebook is a big time-waster which eats seriously into the working time of millions of company employees all over the world. We all know that in many organizations round the world, many employees burn several minutes or even hours of working time socialising on Facebook. Instead of working, employees spend time accepting friend requests, event invitations, and loading a battalion of applications, most of which in the real sense are silly, pointless and irrelevant.

Last year in August, some of South Africa's biggest companies blocked access to Facebook because it was slowing down productivity on the part of company staff. All companies may want to do the same thing. Alternatively, companies could limit access to Facebook and make the site accessible only during lunch-break hours.

While so-called internet marketing experts and employees may claim that such sites could be used as a huge business tool in connecting with other businesses and other potential customers, what ever happened to the KISS principle: Keep it simple stupid?

Facebook, Myspace and the likes make social networking complicated and time wasting with the battalion of applications friends request you to upload. In Facebook, for example, the numerous number of substantive features are redundant. You are constantly distracted by friends who are updating their profiles, giving you virtual drinks, chocolate, punches, hugs and kisses. You also feel an obligation to respond and so you send the same back to them. You are tempted to send wall posts as well, comment on pictures and poke some of your favourite people. By the time you are done with all that, you've wasted an hour or more, and you've got a pile of workload on your desk. In the long run, your productivity is derailed, and you end up postponing work until later.
Considering how much you have to do in managing your facebook life, you are better off on LinkedIn if you really need to connect to your workers through the web.

LinkedIn is a business-oriented social networking site which provides one with less distraction. Basically, it allows you to create and maintain a list of your professional contacts, and its purpose is strictly to network with your professional customers and potential ones. LinkedIn keeps it simple. There are no irrelevant features, applications and walls to consume your time. All its features are strictly for business purposes. The LinkedIn Groups feature for example, allows users to establish new business relationships by joining alumni, industry, or professional and other relevant groups mainly used for professional networking. Just what you need for business.

Facebook could be the best social networking site for maintaining and building and maintaining informal relationships. It's also a great tool for wasting time at work. But if you are really bent on online business networking, why not stick to LinkedIn? You cannot go wrong that way.


Mfonobong Nsehe is a web copywriter. E-mail: [email protected]