Don’t Tolerate It, Don’t Accept It, Just Embrace It

SYNOPSIS IN POINT FORM

• In most working environments you will not be able to restrict employees from using FB
• In many cases such restrictions could even result in other destructive consequences
• Accept the fact that everyone is constantly on FB and use it to your advantage
• FB may become your main business platform due to the enormous exposure it offers
• Most of FB functions and usage is also totally free
• Establish your page/s with all functionality such as apps
• Build a community with Likes and contacts
• Start migrating all your communication and interaction onto this platform
• You can market, advertise, promote, prospect, sell, source, purchase recruit
• Employees may then be lead to use much of their time productively in this way on FB

FULL ARTICLE

I thought it was a typo the first time I saw someone post this. “I won’t be on FB much tomorrow as I’m not working”. Surely that word ‘not’ was misplaced, I thought. But no, this has become very much the norm for so many people. If they are off work they have things to do – shopping, errands, jobs in the house, outings, leisure time. Whereas when they are sitting at work they are constantly logged on throughout the day, unless something very important and intense such as a management meeting is called, which is only when they log off temporarily.

Otherwise the typical pattern today is to do a few minutes of intermittent work, constantly interrupted by posts and comments in favourite FB fora. We talk about our pets, our offspring, our cooking adventures, what to wear tomorrow evening, our current constipation and literally anything else under the sun. And sometimes, to justify our presence there and to slightly ease any insignificant remaining notions of guilt, we also give ourselves pointless and nonsensical work-related reasons for being there. “I use FB to calm myself down between irritable customers”. “I get important work opinions from my FB friends”. “I need the occasional break so I can perform better”.

But we all know that the only reason is that most people today are totally hooked and can no longer survive without it.

So employers tried to ban it. They blocked FB on computers, they warned their employees and they tracked their online activity. But even if there was any remaining glimmer of hope this was totally extinguished when everyone got their smartphone, making any form of control a thing of the past. I know of cases where FB is still strictly forbidden, which in practice have resulted in personnel constantly going to the loos to catch up on things. Others where, along with the smokers, non-smokers too take constant Facebook breaks. And also instances where absenteeism and staff turnover was increased.

But before employers throw in the towel and resign themselves to the conclusion that the Facebook battle has been totally lost, there is more to this story. As the old saying goes “If you can’t beat them join them”.

Start off first of all by forgetting the past. Facebook is here to stay. It has permeated all levels of society. It is now also capturing users attention to the extent that most never leave its platform or rarely so. It is used to chat, to play games, to watch videos, to work on one’s person profile, to search for contact numbers and details, to search and purchase products and services, to take part in quizzes and competitions, to look for employment and for most other uses in the net.

Businesses too are now catching up by prominently featuring themselves and their offers, with a marked shift from websites to FB pages. More and more are gearing themselves up to function entirely within this platform.

Naturally when compared to a site FB has its pros and cons, like anything else. But never underestimate the biggest pro of all – exposure, traffic, visibility. Nothing could ever even come close to this one omnipotent aspect. Yes it is true that FB still lacks functionality and convenient features compared to sites, but my verdict on this would simply be – who cares.

I would always blindly prefer limited functionality with great exposure to full functionality with virtually none.

Your current online strategy might focus on driving traffic to your site, which is a good thing. But FB doesn’t work in this manner. You can place little posts and links and ads and comments all over the place, all leading to effective networking, community building, and above all, full interaction with your customers and contacts.

Based on all these factors the way forward is no longer to block or to forbid the use of FB, but to fully embrace it as the principal means your business uses to communicate with the outside world.

First of all establish yourself perfectly well with the page/s you require utilising all of the available functionality such as apps. Build yourself your initial community in the form of Likes and contacts and interlocutors. Then slowly but surely start migrating as much of your communication and interaction onto this platform.

You might want to continue feeding material onto your website, but gradually more as a reflection to what you are doing on FB. It would be inconceivable to stop using email, however more and more may be communicated on Fb with clients, prospects, suppliers and collaborators.

You could start marketing, advertising, promoting, prospecting, selling, sourcing, purchasing and recruiting mainly on FB, if you aren’t already. And this for two main reasons – this is where everybody is and most of it is scot-free.

So knowing that your employees are spending much of their time there already, rather than pointlessly trying to drive them away, drive them onto it and to use it more and more for every possible company function.

This will automatically turn much of their downtime into productive time. Furthermore, they will most certainly enjoy this type of communication more than formal emails, they will not have to find the time and the motivation to force themselves to change platforms and they still associate FB to fun. So overall they will be much more productive and efficient.