Decima Report's Stefan Dubowski dropped me a note to ask me my opinion of Facebook. He asks:
Would it work as a business tool? Definitely. Business is a social environment. With Facebook I can find out what business associates are doing, who is attending an event (for instance, there are a number of people I know of going to Mesh, and I learned through Facebook), and who is connected to whom. It's better than Twitter because it gives me control of that information, and also acts as a central information gathering tool.
What do you think of businesses that are banning Facebook? It's a knee-jerk reaction. They don't understand that people socialize for business reasons as well as personal, and they certainly don't understand that firewall bans can be defeated easily and quickly by determined people.
How does it compare to LinkedIn? Well, they're different. Yes, they have overlapping functionality in terms of profiles, but Facebook is about socializing with people you know, whereas LinkedIn is about discovering relationships that you don't know. Facebook is a great tool for organizing an event or a discussion, but would make a terrible recruiting tool. LinkedIn is a great recruiting tool, but not so good for organizing an event.
Alec Saunders is the Vice President of Developer Relations for BlackBerry make Research in Motion. This is his personal blog, with his personal viewpoints. Prior to this Alec was the CEO and co-founder of Calliflower — the easiest way to hold a meeting, online, on a conference call, or on the go. A double-decade veteran of product management and marketing, he spent nine years at Microsoft where he helped launch Windows 95, the first two versions of Internet Explorer, the Universal Plug and Play initiative, the push into home markets, opt-in email marketing and what might well go down in history as the very first direct email list ever.
