Social Media Sites Should Add These Business Features

0 Comment(s) | Posted Jan 29, 2010 by Peter Wylie

Peter Wylie

Executives from major social networks Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn held a session at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Swtizerland to discuss ways they can improve the sites’ use for business and humanitarian efforts.

Though the sites draw tens of millions of users per month (more than 100 million in Facebook’s case), profitability has been hard to come by, and businesses are still unsure of the value of the networks.  As the companies consider IPOs, moving past consumer adoption to viability for paying customers is crucial. 

Several brands, such as Dell and Outback Steakhouse, have been successful in monetizing the communities on social networking sites.  Many companies also have begun to use LinkedIn as a major part of their hiring process.  But the services have still yet to demonstrate general utility to businesses regardless of size and industry.  Here are some thoughts on how each service could improve their use case for businesses.

1)     Facebook – Mark Zuckerberg’s creation has lead in developing useful applications for business with its development of Fan Pages and Insights metrics for them.  But the one big area for Facebook to conquer next is payment.  Certain businesses already drive fans to purchase pages off the site, but if Facebook could team with PayPal or another payment vendor to accept direct purchases, it could become a force in e-commerce and a necessary utility for businesses of all sizes.

2)     Twitter – The service is apparently in the process of developing its “killer app,” commercial accounts with greater insight into followers’ behaviors.  Allowing business accounts moved the dial for Facebook in this regard, and you have to think Twitter will catch up soon with increased functionality designed for businesses that use the service.  Twitter needs to generate revenue, and they have data businesses will pay for.  Sounds like a good match.

3)     LinkedIn – Allowing businesses to be more proactive in outreach would make LinkedIn a more compelling service.  While LinkedIn has a robust jobs listing page and dozens of groups and forums about specific business niches, actual businesses cannot interact with individuals. 

The thought behind keeping businesses from interacting directly with individuals is sound, as the site wants to maintain integrity and keep spammers from bombarding users with offers.  But legitimate businesses, LinkedIn’s target customers, lose out here as a result.  LinkedIn should develop tools to allow businesses to form connections with individuals while protecting against spam.

Filed under: Online Communities, Twitter-related