Facebook has come up at most major trade shows this year, touted as a professional networking tool, advertising medium and communications hub. As someone new to the industry, it took me awhile to grasp that Facebook actually was being taken seriously. I've clearly had to let that go; however, I'm not yet convinced of its merits for professional networking.

As an (all-too) active Facebook member since 2004, I can't help but see it for what it's always been: a social site. The transformation to include professional networking, if that is in fact the vision, will be a tricky one. The primary reason people turn to Facebook is purely social, mostly insignificant interaction with current and long-lost friends. For most of its 45 million members, this has always been enough.

In October, Facebook announced the ability to keep your professional network separate from your personal one, but the line is still blurry. On one hand, privacy controls mean search results usually are limited and not useful for recruiters and job seekers, but on the other, both profiles still are potentially accessible.

Information on most members' pages is personal — something professionals simply wouldn't care about. If members truly wanted to present themselves professionally, all Facebook would become is a résumé-posting site with a picture.

When it comes down to it, if you wouldn't “poke” a potential employer, then you shouldn't introduce yourself on Facebook. There are other sites for that (networking, not poking) such as Doostang, LinkedIn and Plaxo. I don't see a problem with maintaining two separate networks; there needs to be a separation of business and censorship-free play.

But before Facebook gets carried away with its professional guise, I'd ask it to remember its original purpose. It may have added a “looking for networking” check-box under “relationship status,” but it still is primarily a social network.

ONLINE

Social networks surpass e-mail

For the first time last month, traffic to social networks overtook traffic to Web-based e-mail services in the U.K.
http://blog.telephonyonline.com/telephony2