tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20873433.post-73900861578123490992007-12-09T10:53:00.000Z2007-12-09T10:54:09.396ZThere is a new social networking phenomenon taking the internet by storm. If you haven’t heard about it yet, you soon will. It’s called Facebook and you have to see it in action for yourself to see what all the fuss is about.<br /><br />Facebook (<a href="http://www.facebook.co.uk/">www.facebook.co.uk</a>) was founded by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004 and was initially restricted to students of Harvard College in the USA. It was subsequently expanded to other Boston area schools, but since September 2006 it has been available to anyone.<br /><br />As of July 2007, the website had 34 million active members worldwide with networks set up for geographical regions, interests and much more.<br /><br />But what exactly is Facebook and how does it work?<br /><br />Once you have registered you have your own page, listing as much or as little about you as possible.<br /><br />Now the fun starts. You can then search for friends and acquaintances, join special interest groups, post photographs and generally have fun. You may have read last month that CG Business Communications was the first CiB member company to have its own corporate cartoon character on Facebook. Called “Chandler Gooding”, he lists his interests as: “Coming up with great ideas, bike riding, watching Star Wars, social networking and computing the molecular mass of various minerals and metal oxides.”<br /><br />Nick Andrews of CG says: “Internal communicators have traditionally been seen as controlling the information that employees receive, but the advent of social networking sites has changed things - and we have to recognise and embrace the concept.<br /><br />“Harnessed correctly, social networking media can mark a sea change in business communication. We can learn from sites like Facebook in terms of the way we share best practice and encourage thought leadership.<br /><br />“On a different level, CG recognises the marketing potential of Facebook, and also, its actually fun to communicate!”<br /><br />A quick search around Facebook revealed a whole lot more CiB members use the system too, including Paul Brasington, Alan Peaford, Geoff Thomas and Amelia Clark.<br /><br />Each of them lists their interests and who their “friends” are. And this is where the real point of social networking starts to come into play.<br /><br />Within five minutes of playing with Facebook I had rediscovered people I had lost contact with years ago. They were listed as “friends” of people I know and a few quick clicks and there they were, with all their contact details on the screen.<br /><br />This may sound trivial, but Facebook will let you find people that you hadn’t even realised you had missed!<br /><br />So what else can it do? You can post videos and photographs, have virtual foodfights, play poker, nominate bumper stickers for people, dare people to do things and generally play silly devils all day long.<br /><br />According to some users they are now using Facebook to e-mail their contacts rather than use conventional e-mail software. One user even reports that his company’s competitors are using the system to try and poach staff – it’s a brave new world out there.<br /><br />And it gets worse. According to the BBC, workers who spend time on such sites could be costing firms over £130m a day. According to employment law firm Peninsula, 233 million hours are lost every month as a result of employees "wasting time" on social networking.<br /><br />The study - based on a survey of 3,500 UK companies - concluded that businesses need to take firm action on the use of social networks at work. One, Kent County Council (KCC), has banned its employees from using the site.<br /><br />Paul Brasington thinks: “I can see that in its original incarnation as a way for students to mess around in an online gang it could be fun, posting pictures and comments. But that has limited appeal at our age I think.<br /><br />“Having said all that, thinking about it in the light of CiB, I see you can create administrator-controlled groups and I think that would be a much more potent way of operating because people could share pictures, and functionality like the Facebook “Walls” gives more flexibility than posting emails.”<br /><br />So is Facebook and social networking a communications boon or a recipe for lost productivity? The answer is I don’t really know – and neither will you until you try it.Steve Nicholshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03564402221894277279noreply@blogger.com