Strive Notes

Anyone who picks up a newspaper these days knows that the much-hyped social networking site Facebook is a lot of fun, addictive, a security risk and a productivity suck. Yes, it has been called all these things.

But, as its membership continues to grow, there is one important fact about Facebook that makes it increasingly important to business.

It is a rich source of data on trusted relationships. Some might argue that the depth of Facebook relationships can be superficial and in many cases this is true. People do tend to befriend individuals they may not actually know that well or at all.

But, for each one of these weak alliances, there are just as many ‘real’ relationships.

A lot of people have been asking me about Facebook and how they might use it for their businesses. Results have been mixed so far, but I am convinced that social network marketing is viable.

Increasingly sophisticated tools are being developed to help us understand the Facebook data. I have recently learned about Socialistics, an application developed by Facebook specialists Techlightenment. Click here to read the rest of this Tech Talk column.

Filed under: public relations