to be or not to be, that is the question

so many times recently i have been asked “should my business be on facebook?”. in many of these instances i have replied “no”.

shock.

but the reality is, there are many businesses that just dont align with the need. in particular those who are purely in the business to business market or those with a specific client base ie a law firm.

unless you have a client base that is heavily using facebook, why would you bother creating a company page?

dont get me wrong, there are some instances that can work well, for example: a staff/employee group for foto sharing works well as an alumni tool and i have seen good examples of global companies using facebook for recruitment.

however, many businesses use communication methods as a way of lifting customer service ie a direct communication such as a newsletter with privileged knowledge and information as part of the benefit of being their client. if this information was placed onto a facebook business page well i would advise that the privilege is reduced.

the reason i share this – it is just as important to understand why you need to be on facebook, as much as it is not to be.

-charlie