Account executive Maya Torres is living a double life. On top of her demanding job dealing with a host of clients she handles for a multinational, she is also pressed to update her ever growing number of friends on a popular social networking site daily. Although she says she still manages to turn in her work on time, she finds that tending to her virtual life is taking more and more of her time.

“In the beginning, it was a helpful tool for me, staying connected to friends, being able to stay abreast with things. Then, as my list of friends grew, I became more attached to my online profile, so much so that sometime I find myself rushing things at work so I can log on,” she said.

Torres, 23, says one of her motivations for devoting time to grow her social network is also work driven. She hopes that her extensive list of online friends may give her valuable leads and business opportunities for her company. After all, with the world becoming more and more ‘connected’ she figures that portals such as these would be the best way to network.

It’s been three years now, and she has yet to close a deal with a lead she found online.

“Our company used to think that social networking was a better way to get the word out and get more clients or referrals. So far, my hundreds of ‘friends’ have yet to produce results,” she said.

More and more companies are finding that social networking can only do so much to promote their products to a wider audience. In the United States, some firms are even banning their employees from using social networks in the workplace. The old argument against internet networking as a counter productive tool is slowly gaining ground.

WHEN SOCIAL NETWORKING MEANS LESS PRODUCTION

In an article for Forbes.com , Fredric Paul the publisher of small business website bMighty.com argues that using social networks to expand a client base is simply a waste of time.

He cites a recent forum he attended together with some 20 small business owners, where they shared some of their experiences about social networking as a business tool. What he found was most of them thought an online presence on Facebook and Twitter were essential for staying in the loop, but a wasteful exercise when it comes to growing a business.

One of the speakers, Ian Boyd of digital studio Cosmic Planet, says his company calls it “Social Notworking”, because he finds that he doesn’t get anything meaningful when he’s updating or surfing social networks in the office. His statement goes against the argument that social networks increase a company’s chances of growing the business by creating a new and expansive database of potential leads.

On the local front, Vintel Logistics Inc. President Paulo Tibig said he has instructed employees to refrain from logging on to their social networking sites while at work. Aside from decreased productivity, Tibig says he finds that workers are distracted when they should be working.

“This is not a way to be a strict boss, but I have yet to see evidence that social networking really helps a business like ours in the Philippines. For one, decision makers still prefer a formal meeting instead of a virtual one. Even if I have my own online account, I keep it to stay in touch with our customer base, but never as a way of selling products or services because it still seems impersonal,” he said.

WHEN SOCIAL NETWORKING IS USEFUL

For her part, Torres believes that although social networking isn’t a sales tool yet, it still has its merits. For one, she applied for and got her job through online job portal Jobstreet.com (www.jobstreet.com ) and her Twitter feeds let her clients know what’s new with her company.

“Some of the people who follow my tweets are also clients, so I make sure that some of my updates are about the company, too. Also, growing my network gives me a good backup plan when I plan to move to a new job, or gain new sales leads,” she said.

Paul echoes this sentiment, saying that most of the business owners he talked to maintain an online personality to make their presence felt. He cites as an example that of pedicab company KwickCart, which uses Facebook to let clients know they’ll be at local events and even make pre-bookings using the service.

While the value of social networking as a business tool remains to be seen, its long term potential seems to be very promising indeed. By harnessing the power of the internet, even smaller companies can compete for customer’s attention by simply creating and maintaining an online version of themselves.

Tags: social networking social notworking marketing sales

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