How to Use Facebook in Business

Tim Worstall Contributor

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I'm a Fellow at the Adam Smith Institute in London, a writer here and there on this and that and strangely, one of the global experts on the metal scandium, one of the rare earths. An odd thing to be but someone does have to be such and in this flavour of our universe I am.

The author is a Forbes contributor. The opinions expressed are those of the writer.

 

John Timpson is a very good businessman indeed. Outside the UK you’ll not have heard of him but he’s built a very large and thriving business out of shoe repairs and key cutting. You know the sort of little store, they’ll put a new heel on, cut you a key while you wait, that sort of thing. He runs a chain of such stores.
The thing about this sort of business is that direct, hands on, management is very difficult indeed. You’ve three to five employees at each location, each location is small and they’re all spread around the country. You just can’t manage a workforce like that in detail, in the same way that you can 5,000 people on an assembly line, or 500 people in an accounts department.
So Timpson doesn’t even try. Decision making is devolved down to the lowest level: the worker in the shop. Anyone can issue a customer refund for example: all that’s required is that in the opinion of that worker on that day a refund should be issued to keep the customer happy.
Similarly, hiring decisions are made by the current staff in each location. A potential new hire joins the company, starts work, after a couple of weeks those they work with get to decide if they should stay. Not just the do they like them, get on with them, want to work with them, but they are the people who have actually seen, in detail, how they work and are thus those best placed to make that judgement.
And here’s Timpson on how to use Facebook in business:

You hear about big name companies banning their employees from using the likes of Twitter and Facebook. Does my small business need a policy?
Employees have always spent a significant chunk of the working day chatting to workmates, the difference today is that the internet now enables them to gossip in the company’s time with friends right round the world.
Facebook has its faults but it also gives you a hidden benefit. With employees constantly posting their opinions for all to see you have a good way of checking out the backstage gossip. It is a rare opportunity to find out what your team members really think about the business.
Don’t start drafting rules about social sites. Let them log on during the working day but watch what they are writing about the company and their colleagues.

Use Twitter and Facebook as what they are: rich information sources which will tell you what your employees really think about what’s going on in the company. Not in the sense of spying on them, rather, they do know more than you the management do about what is happening at the coal face: so listen to them.

Sumber:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2011/08/01/how-to-use-facebook-in-business/?utm_source=%3Fpartner%3Dsocialflow