SOUTH African companies are beginning to follow their international counterparts in blocking workers‘ access to popular social networking site Facebook.
They cite concerns over productivity – but some experts defend the site, saying it holds huge potential as a business tool.
Standard Bank is among those who have moved to include it on its list of the company‘s blocked leisure sites, to prevent people spending non-productive time on non-work-related issues, said bank spokesman Erik Larson.
And, according to Absa, the banking group has done the same although it will consider access based on individual requests.
“We don‘t see any business need for Absa staff to access the site,” said a spokesman.
Facebook users report Wesbank and other smaller companies are following this trend.
According to the site‘s own research, its 31 million active users spend an average of 20 minutes a day interacting with “friends”.
But most newcomers to the phenomenon – which has at least 170 000 users on the South African network – say they are addicted and spend far more than that interacting with their “friends” locally and globally.
Website traffic monitor www.alexa.com ranks Facebook as the second most visited website in South Africa, after Google, and Facebook ranks South Africa in the top 10 user countries.
“I can completely understand why they are restricting access to Facebook and Youtube (a video sharing site, also popular),” said Alan Levin, chairman of the Internet Society of SA.
“They can be incredibly addictive and in 99 per cent of cases it is not productive.”
The impact on infrastructure could be established by determining which business model a company had chosen – whether it had a constrained pipeline or a system capable of handling higher traffic volumes.
But, said Levin, Facebook formed part of the global knowledge economy, and companies were beginning to recognise and explore the possibilities beyond the purely social, for their own uses as well as the potential it held for research and development. The site gives users a chance to list their likes, dislikes, interests, religious and political beliefs, schools, colleges, workplace and profession, as well as birth date and hometown.
A keyword search for “journalism”, for example, will bring up a list of all Facebook members who have included this in their profile details. The user can then ask someone to become a ”friend”.
This can be accepted or denied by the targeted friend. If accepted, they are listed on a group of friends with an accompanying picture, and can communicate with each other.
It began as a social network within the US‘s Harvard university, accessed through a student number, and has been rolled out gradually internationally.
Users can reconnect with long-lost friends already on the network by joining existing groups – like an old school group – or create groups where they interact with people with the same interests by writing on a “wall” or through private messaging.
People selected as friends can also see each other‘s personal details and wall posts, although privacy settings can fine-tune that. Users can also use or create a group and invite others to join.
These range from ex-university pals and support groups, to quirkier groups like the “I don‘t care how comfortable Crocs are, you look like a dumb-ass”.
“There is such a big market – Facebook‘s target market is 18 to 35 – and this market is highly desirable. These issues have to be weighed up,” said Levin.
Eric Edelstein, who runs an affiliate networking company www.trafficsynergy.com, said: “It can hamper productivity, but it is also a fantastic marketing tool.”
He said he had tried unsuccessfully to make contact with a potential business partner in the US. As a last resort, he searched for the person‘s name on Facebook and sent him an instant message. “Within five minutes he replied,” said Edelstein.
“It allows you to find the right person in a company very quickly. A lot of people are now using Facebook as a means of contacting people for the workplace.”
“It‘s taken off like crazy in South Africa,” said Steven Ambrose, who heads the strategy division of technology research company World Wide Worx.
Although its function was still mainly social, companies were making a lot of contacts and getting information from it, he said.
As with all networking sites, privacy is an issue and concerns have been raised about possible risks to minors‘ safety. “Young and vulnerable people shouldn‘t have totally uncontrolled access to the web,” advised Ambrose.
Source: The Herald
