Facebook is failing to attract creative business owners who are keen to generate new leads, client companies and business proposals.
A poll by FreelanceUK reveals that despite being hungry for new business, most self-employed creatives say the popular website is only suitable for socialising.
The findings echo a recent survey by Barclays Business which found only eight in 100 small firms use online social networks, like Facebook, to promote their outfit.
Slow uptake of Facebook by the self-employed is in spite of the site’s new marketplace, which allows marketers, designers and editors, among others, to look for work.
But at the time of writing, not a single marketer, designer or editor had declared their services available in the London network, Facebook’s most populous on-site community.
For Michele Bayliss, a freelance PR consultant, this is because Facebook “seems to be…more for tracing old school friends than for making business contacts.”
She told FreelanceUK: “The Facebook site still appears to have more of a social function, like MySpace, than a business function, like LinkedIn.
“Like many busy freelancers, I haven’t had the time to seek new clients in such an indirect way.”
With 20 years’ experience in public relations, Bayliss knows her business thrives on the personal touch, first and foremost.
“PR is very much a people-facing business,” she says. “Whilst technology has made our work lives more efficient, it is still important to meet face to face.”
Another believer that Facebook is less about business and more about looking up people you already know is David Owens, a freelance photographer.
“I don't use Facebook as a business tool,” he said, “probably because I don't know that much about it; however I do use Facebook to keep in contact with friends, but as a fun thing.”
Yet by making full use of their Facebook profile, creatives can showcase their interests, achievements and projects, says Jim Callender, a freelance web developer .
“I wouldn't say [I have] gained 'new' business from [Facebook], however, its a great way to show your current clients what you working on, what your thoughts are on current web trends and…you can link in events,” he said.
The Brighton-based freelance also said Facebook can be used to stream RSS feeds from his blog, allowing his peers, and prospective clients, an insight into his activity in the Web community.
William Knight, a freelance journalist, is yet to subscribe to the social networking revolution and its apparent boon for business or friendships.
“I have joined LinkedIn and Facebook but really I've not done any more than taken a cursory glance,” he said yesterday.
“To my mind they [social networking websites] offer nothing except ‘life leeching,’ and I have to be very careful where I spend my limited concentration.”
But Knight says Facebook developers could potentially change his view.
“Years ago freelance writers used to approach editors with posted query letters. Now it's all done with e-mail. If in the future editors start to accept queries with a post on their Facebook ‘wall’ then I guess I'll follow the trend.”
He added: “For now I think e-mail is excellent for the purpose, and instant enough to increase productivity without sapping too much time.
Similarly, Ms Bayliss, who has been self-employed for the past 15 years, also believes Facebook could become more business-friendly in the future.
“There is a limited list of businesses that appears in a special search area” on the site, she said, referring to the Facebook marketplace.
With the current architecture of the site “you’d have to put in a lot of effort to find new business using these sites,” she added. “Perhaps Facebook could make the job easier.”
And in line with creative freelancers’ suggestions that business types would do better on Facebook’s rival, one Midlands-based lawyer said of LinkedIn: “I’ve found it fairly useful for building contacts and having my own professional network online.”
Oct 25, 2007
Email this article
Printer friendly page
Previous Page
