The Business Web 2.0
As CEO of business-based social networking site WeCanDo.BIZ, read my take on the role Web 2.0 technologies can play helping businesses to grow.
Wednesday 25 June 2008, 12:41 PM
VISA helps Facebook to woo small businesses
The first 20,000 businesses signing up to "friend" VISA will get a free $100 voucher to spend on Facebook Ads, the platforms advertising product. There will also be a facility for small business owners to meet others in a similar position. Both VISA and Facebook suits have been spouting the normal stuff about everbody winning etc.
This is an intriguing move as Facebook has not proved itself to be a social networking platform that lends itself well to business, regardless of size. I would imagine a large number of its members are IN businesses, but I think they possibly share my view that, much as in real life, you keep your professional life and friends & family quite seperate. Atempting to friend both on Facebook leads to you looking starchy to your mates, but verging on the unprofessional to your work contacts. You are never quite sure whether to post a picture of you in a suit or a gorilla costume without it rubbing one or the other up the wrong way. Then there is the fuss the Facebook membership kicked up when the Beacon adertising platform was launched, forcing Facebook to tone it down.
A quick search amongst UK members shows that only about 28,000 of the 8 million on Facebook mention "business" on their profile at all, whilst the BBC have reported that there is 80,000 small businesses on Facebook worldwide. That's amongst a base of 120 million members. And you can't say it's because business people haven't heard of Facebook.
But here's the rub -- none of the leading social networks really serve to do much for small businesses. MySpace and Bebo are too dominated by teens. Fine if you are selling Heelys, but of no use at all to B2B businesses or those counting on customers with a good income.
Business focused sites like LinkedIn and Xing should offer a better capability to network with peers and get access to wealthy new customers, but both have roots set in the technology and media sectors (just because that's where the early adopters are, not because of a vertical focus) and are little more than job sites anyway. LinkedIn is further positioning itself as a social network for people who happen to be in business, rather than FOR businesses, by adding a Time Out alike restaurant listing to its forthcoming release. I think small business people would rather see and pay for sound business advice from experts and get a HR or tax helpline from their online network personally.
My own site at WeCanDo.BIZ seems to be one of only a few targetting small businesses with tools to help get business done. So with the VISA announcement is Facebook going to wipe the floor with us? Little doubt they'll get the 20,000 small businesses they want signed up to the VISA programme (mainly in the US, which isn't our target for now). But once all the $100 vouchers have gone, I wonder how many of those small business managers will be advocating Facebook as the best social network on which to get business done?
Ian Hendry
CEO, WeCanDo.BIZ
http://www.wecando.biz
PreviousComments on this post
I think Ian Hendry's comments are correct.
People visit social networking sites to find new friends, share experiences and also discover old friends; very rarely to do business.
The mindset of the professional networker is very different; they expect to be sold to and expect to make commercial gains through participation and the functionality of the professional sites reflect this.
The issue here, I beleive, is one of monetization and that Facebook has realised that through trying to bring the business community into their site, greater commercial gains can be made from this user base than from the mainly social one they currently have.
Thanks for your comments Darren. You may also want to see my post from yesterday, as I go into what you are saying a little further. Specificly, how weird I think it is that LinkedIn is taking a community of 20 million business people and is likely to start trying to sell them posh shirts and fancy meals when sitting in their database is all a B2B business person could ever want if they could use it properly!
Ian Hendry
CEO, WeCanDo.BIZ
http://www.wecando.biz
I can see where its a win for Facebook, but where is it a win for Visa, are they just looking for friends?
"There will also be a facility for small business owners to meet others in a similar position." Do they really need Visa for that? anybody can setup an interest group on facebook and there are already hundreds.
Maybe the plan is to develop a facebook app that makes it easier for small businesses to sell their goods on facebook. If that's the case, the second half of this masterplan should be to woo users into using their credit cards on facebook!
Hi Ian: We’re received an email from LinkedIn responding to a couple of things here. We’ve agreed to post these on their behalf as they are not members of the community (that is, these comments are not in any way ZDNet.co.uk’s comments ). Here we go: “The technology and media sectors are just two of many sectors well represented on Linked In” and “Linked In is not a job site, it is an online knowledge network for professionals.” Also, they wanted to note that LinkedIn is not launching a listing guide to London (rival to Time Out). The venture in question is one chaired by Kevin Eyres, LinkedIn’s European managing director, separately.
