Yet another survey is out saying that Facebook damages business, this time to the tune of £130 million a day.
That’s equivalent to about £3.8 billion a month. Or over £45 billion a year.
Such extrapolated numbers are even less credible than the Aussie report recently which said Facebook costs Australian businesses A$5 billion (about £2 billion) in lost productivity.
Here’s the angle in the latest survey:
[…] Mike Huss, director of employment law at Peninsula called on all firms to block access to sites such as Facebook. He asked: “Why should employers allow their workers to waste two hours a day on Facebook when they are being paid to do a job?” He said that loss of productivity was proving a “major headache” for firms. “The figures that we have calculated are minimums and it’s a problem that I foresee will escalate,” he said.
Good grief.
As you might expect, there is a lot of opinion out there about such sensational claims.
At the opposite end of the bash-Facebook spectrum, Ethan Kaplan has this:
[…] if Facebook cost your business “dear,” then you shouldn’t really be in business. If you can’t figure out how to leverage any social network for your own business, and the tendencies of your employees to enjoy them, then time to rethink your strategies.
Hmm, while I like a lot what Ethan says, the reality for most organizations will be somewhere in between the two extremes.
As I’ve said before, guide don’t ban.
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