By Andy McCue, 11 January 2008 16:24
NEWS
Social networking website Facebook is being snubbed by professional executives because of the increasing number of "silly applications" and lack of business use.
Just one of the 12 IT executives in silicon.com's weekly CIO Jury IT user poll said they use Facebook for networking or business-related activities, with most favouring rival social networking tools from either LinkedIn or Plaxo - and good old-fashioned face-to-face contact.
Nicholas Bellenberg, IT director at publisher Hachette Filipacchi UK, said he is on Facebook but only to see how it works.
He said: "It doesn't strike me as being a business tool. I am signed up to LinkedIn and Plaxo. LinkedIn seems to be used most by the people I know, and does seem to generate useful connections or re-connections. Plaxo doesn't seem to do much for me, apart from provide the promise that my contacts are backed up somewhere."
Richard Steel, CIO at the London Borough of Newham, is also on Facebook but again purely for social rather than business-related contacts or networking.
He said: "I actually don't use it all that much as I get irritated at the constant stream of silly applications. I also have concerns about its default privacy settings. I am also on LinkedIn and Plaxo, but haven't actively developed my network. I'm not sure whether that's laziness, lack of time, or failure to prioritise my own future opportunities."
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Florentin Albu, ICT manager for the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), uses several social networking tools with a "varying degree of success" and said for business-related networking Facebook scores lowest.
He said: "The most useful tool for me is by far LinkedIn. The only drawback is that it is largely US and UK oriented. My business is pan-European, and for the EU space I found Xing [ex- OpenBC] to be more effective and popular than LinkedIn. The drawback of Xing is that it is also somewhat less flexible than LinkedIn.
Albu said that as he owns various personal devices he is interested in the Plaxo Pulse sync tool.
"I have to say it is quite far from delivering on the promise though. The company states the service is still a beta - for which they charge, by the way - but it is more an alpha stage to me. Plaxo Pulse has a great potential though, bringing together business contact details from LinkedIn and various other address books."
But Paul Hopkins, director of ISS at the University of Newcastle, urged IT executives to give Facebook a chance so they can understand possible users of it for their staff and customers.
He said: "For all of us 'oldies', Facebook et al seem awkward and don't fit our way of working but I would urge IT managers to persevere - because this is the environment that your new employees will be expecting to use. I would urge people to look at the possibility of developing some simple Facebook apps for their customers, suppliers or staff to use."
Others simply prefer face-to-face networking. Mark Foulsham, head of IT at eSure, said: "I use LinkedIn occasionally but it's a little too overrun by recruitment organisations and it doesn't beat keeping up with network contacts face to face.
Andy Pepper, director of business IS at Tetley, uses no social networking tools and joked "what a philistine I am".
Mike Roberts, IT director at Harley Street practice the London Clinic, added: "I prefer to network face-to-face. I think the electronic networking is flawed as it is vital to interact in person to get a relationship to be of any value."
Today's CIO Jury wasÂ…
Florentin Albu, ICT manager, EUMETSAT
Paul Allen, CTO, Selftrade
Nicholas Bellenberg, IT director, Hachette Filipacchi UK
Mark Foulsham, head of IT, eSure
Ric Francis, executive director of operations, The Post Office
Paul Hopkins, director of ISS, University of Newcastle
Adrian Hughes, head of IS, Amlin
Peter Pedersen, CTO, Rank Group
Andy Pepper, director of business IS, Tetley
Mike Roberts, IT director, the London Clinic
Richard Steel, CIO, London Borough of Newham
Gavin Whatrup, group IT director, Creston
Want to be part of silicon.com's CIO Jury and have your say on the hot issues for IT departments? If you are a CIO, CTO, IT director or equivalent at a large or small company in the private or public sector and you want to be part of silicon.com's CIO Jury pool, or you know an IT chief who should be, then drop us a line at editorial@silicon.com
Comments
There are 4 comments. Join the discussion
1. anonymous
Quite agree with the comments. LinkedIn far more use than Facebook, Plaxo handy, but a way to go to meet claims - although "Pulse" looks interesting. Xing is good at expanding reach to non English speaking world, but significantly less active as a community compared with either of the others.
Like it or not, business is a serious business and the over-riding casualness of Facebook and the "silly apps" (here here!) do not fit with business life.
That said, fine for social existence!
2. Eric the Disillusioned
Facebook is an interactivity phenomenon but the corporate types won't like it because it is too freeform for them. Perhaps they should see it another way - after the initial flurry of wild activity most users develop a level of technology self-discipline that the corporates could only wish to see in their workforce with regular group communications, cleaning up and managing of the interface and dead applications, and regular updating of status and personal information.
It is also a fascinating spectacle to watch how some applications spread and survive and others spread and die. If desktop apps and functions were as organic as this then investment models and business cases would be much much more simple and pilot applications would get real beta-testing.
There is something for the corporate to learn from Facebook but they have to have the guts to look and to trust their employees to demonstrate their professionalism.
3. K Morgan
I definitely see LinkedIn as more of a professional tool and facebook more as a social tool - I love the 'keeping in touch' and relocating old friends aspects but the number of 'popularity' and 'spam' type applications stop me from taking it seriously as a professional networking tool. I like that LinkedIn has a reasonably clearly defined purpose where as facebook is all over the place in terms of direction - jack of all trades, master of none.
4. anonymous
Until about a week ago, I would have agreed with these comments. But recently, the company I work for got a new CEO who is a big social networker. He is getting to know the staff (and they, him) via his blog and Facebook and the response among staff has been absolutely phenominal. For instance our company Facebook network membership rose by about 200 (almost 10 percent) in a single day.