Social Networks’ Missed Opportunity
Posted by Greg on June 12, 2009
According to a recent study, businesses find Twitter more important than LinkedIn. On the one hand, that’s not really a fair comparison; Twitter is a communications platform, closer to email or IM than social networks such as LinkedIn or Facebook. Still, the study raises an interesting question: Why haven’t social networks made more of an effort to provide value to businesses?
Compare and contrast: The other night, after dinner out in our neighborhood (Fort Greene, Brooklyn), we stopped by an ice cream stand that a local restauranteur had opened around the corner from our apartment. It was fantastic, with natural ingredients and exotic flavors that change daily (I highly recommend the Salted Caramel Pretzel). We chatted with the owner for a few minutes, and he mentioned that he had set up a Twitter feed to broadcast out each day’s flavors. The thing is, it’s not like the guy was some social-media geek jumping on the latest fad; he seemed almost sheepish telling us about it. More likely, in spite of his misgivings, he recognized Twitter as an effective marketing technique to drive repeat business. In other words, Twitter’s benefits are so obvious, even reluctant businesses feel they can’t pass them up.
Meanwhile, my current employer is a hybrid B2B/B2C company that should theoretically be able to use both Facebook and LinkedIn to connect with our users. We have cursory presences on both social networks, but we don’t get much use out of them. (In case you’re wondering, we’re all over Twitter, with numerous feeds and more than 30,000 followers) For awhile, I felt like that was our fault. But then it occurred to me that I really couldn’t think of any companies with whom I regularly interact on those networks. Nor, does it seem, has either one gone out of its way to make itself more useful to companies. In fact, they’re rather difficult for businesses to use effectively.
LinkedIn allows companies to create generic information pages (here’s the page for Google). Facebook Pages is slightly better (check out the New York Times and Harley-Davidson pages), but I can’t really see why I would go there instead of the companies’ respective websites. In addition, it can be confusing to distinguish between company pages, fan pages, groups and the like. Take a look at this search result and tell me which link takes you to the official Google presence on Facebook. (It also appears that Facebook’s much ballyhooed vanity-URL launch, which takes place in less than 24 hours, will offer yet another example of companies getting hosed.)
Why are they passing up this opportunity? Facebook got burned a few years ago when they launched Beacon, which was seen as overly intrusive. But with the right tools, companies with strong followings could easily extend their presence on to these social networks in a way that benefitted, rather than annoyed, users. For example, why not encourage referrals among networks of Facebook friends, allowing the entire group special discounts or access to special content? Why not allow allow HR departments to turn their company’s LinkedIn pages into recruitment vehicles for potential employees? There are tons of possibilities. More importantly, there are tons of possibilities that companies would pay for. Facebook has had problems developing alternate revenue streams beyond advertising (though supposedly a payment system is on the way); LinkedIn is more diversified, with premium subscriptions, paid job postings and advertising. Still, if they figured out a way to provide value to businesses — and then showed those businesses how to extract that value from their audiences — companies would be lining up to write them checks. They could offer a bare-bones company page for free, a more dynamic presence for a small annual fee, and an entire business-services department for hire as consultants for companies that needed lots of help.
Am I missing something here? This seems like a total no-brainer. But hey, what do I know? They probably have more important things to focus on.
stevenwaseda said
I’ve had that ice cream (at General Greene’s) and can attest that the Salted Caramel Pretzel is really, really good. Also the green tea pistachio, which I wasn’t expecting to like.
jetwit.com - TheDigitalists: Making sense of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. said
[...] Another good post from Greg at TheDigitalists.com, this one on why Twitter and Facebook are effective for small businesses, but not yet for large companies. And what they might want to do about it. http://thedigitalists.com/2009/06/12/social-networks-missed-opportunity/#comment-205 [...]
Half of top online retailers have no meaningful Facebook presence [STUDY] said
[...] Greg actually blogged about this a while back, check it out: Social Networks’ Missed Opportunity. [...]