Is Social Network a Waste of Time

Another new report about what a waste of time social networks are - but is it missing the point?
More grist to the mill for bosses unhappy about the impact of social networking sites on staff productivity: a new survey from technology company Morse claims that the use of these sites is costing British business somewhere in the region of £1.4bn a year in wasted time. And that’s just the conservative estimate: around half of office workers admitted to Morse that they accessed Twitter and Facebook for personal use during the working day, thereby ‘wasting’ around 40 minutes a week (though they put the amount of time their colleagues spend visiting social networking sites at a full hour a week, so someone’s telling porkies). But what’s to say that all this time is wasted?

It’s certainly true that the use of these sites can have a damaging effect on a company’s reputation. Just look at electrical retailer Currys, whose staff were recently found to have posted unflattering comments about their customers on Facebook. Indeed, one in three of the 1,460 office workers questioned for the Morse study said they had seen sensitive company information posted on social networking sites. This is the kind of reason employers will seize upon as an excuse to block access to these sites (although the approach doesn’t seem to be consistent across the board - three-quarters of those surveyed said that their employer hadn’t issued them with specific guidelines on using Twitter, for example).

But while checking out your friend’s holiday snaps is never likely to be classed as a productive use of company time, it seems short-sighted to dismiss the business benefits of these sites out of hand. Far from being a waste of time, the likes of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn may help to improve communication, collaboration, creativity and knowledge sharing. So an outright ban might not only go down badly with staff; you might also be cutting off your nose to spite your face.

Unfortunately, some businesses are clearly still failing to take an enlightened approach to the brave new world of Web 2.0. Or even Web 1.0 – figures from Notting Hill Internet Services, released this week, suggest that over half of small businesses still don’t have a website. A slightly worrying proportion – although at least that’s one less ‘acceptable use’ policy to worry about…

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Twitter Weakens Memory?

Playing video war games and solving Sudoku may have the same effect as keeping up to date with Facebook, according to Dr Tracy Alloway.

But text messaging, micro-blogging on ''Twitter'' and watching YouTube were all likely to weaken ''working memory''.

Working memory involves the ability both to remember information and to use it.

At a job interview, a candidate will employ working memory to match answers to questions in the most impressive way.

Dr Alloway, from the University of Stirling in Scotland, has extensively studied working memory and believes it to be far more important to success and happiness than IQ.

Her team has developed a working memory training programme that greatly increased the performance of slow-learning children aged 11 to 14 at a school in Durham.

After eight weeks of ''JungleMemory'' training, the children saw 10 point improvements in IQ, literacy and numeracy tests.

A number who started off close to the bottom of the class ended up near the top.

''It was a massive effect,'' said Dr Alloway, who today gave a talk on working memory at the start of the British Science Festival at the University of Surrey in Guildford.

Video games that involve planning and strategy, such as those from the Total War series, may also train working memory, Dr Alloway believes.

''I'm not saying they're good for your socialisation skills, but they do make you use your working memory,'' she said.

''You're keeping track of past actions and mapping the actions you're going to take.''

Sudoku also stretched the working memory, as did keeping up with friends on Facebook, she said.

But the ''instant'' nature of texting, Twitter and YouTube was not healthy for working memory.

''On Twitter you receive an endless stream of information, but it's also very succinct,'' said Dr Alloway. ''You don't have to process that information.

''Your attention span is being reduced and you're not engaging your brain and improving nerve connections.''

She said there was evidence linking TV viewing with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) while extensive texting was associated with lower IQ scores.

SOURCE : Facebook 'enhances intelligence' but Twitter 'diminishes it', claims psychologist

What do you think?

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Best Deals Now on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube

For the past years, companies are traditionally telling their customers about sales and special discounts through newspapers, advertisements, radio spots and in-store announcements. But now, most of the companies are turning into a more avant-garde form of communication which is Social Networking.

On my recent blog post, I've discussed there that some Car Manufacturers get their prospective clients thru Twitter. Other companies like Starbucks, Scottrade, Zappos and many others are among those using Twitter, Facebook and Youtube to talk to the customers and to hear from them. According to Amber Talbot, online public relation specialist for Scottrade, both the company and the customers benefit. They have two twitter accounts, two Facebook acoounts, and YouTube account where they post educational videos.

Talbot spends the majority of her day interacting with customers online. After the customer posted a question, she answers them immediately and forwarded the concern to their customer service team. The customer service team will directly call the customer within 10 minutes to answer his/her queries.

According to Bridget Baker, spokeswoman for Starbucks, "It's a great way to connect with customers". Her twitter account has over 245,000 followers and occassionally hosts contests for free giveaways. On the other hand, Starbucks has 3 million fans on Facebook, where it is giving away 800 coupons for pints of ice cream each hour through Sunday. Last 2008 election day, the company's coffee ad got the fourth most popular video on YouTube.

Click on the link to know other companies that you might find popping up on your favorite social networking site.
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Torrent Now on Twitter

After the Pirate Bay launched its Facebook Connect application, the group around TorrentTwitter is planning to combine file sharing with micro-blogging. Now it's clear that torrents will be going mainstream

Given that the largest torrent sites in the world such as Mininova, IsoHunt, The Pirate Bay and others actually are around the Top 100 sites on the Internet, it will be interesting to see how this interactive micro-blogging feature can develop. If TorrentTwitter stays online or doesn't get sued by Twitter for using the concept or name, these guys could propel themselves into the Top 100 sites on the internet.

Even though in beta, TorrentTwitter is really an easy site to use and navigation through the site to a wanted content is easy as having a piece of cake. Using a hash sign for a group is a good old legacy of IRC [Internet Relay Chat] services, not invented by Twitter and looking at TorrentTwitter reminded yours truly of the good old days of combining news groups and IRC channels.

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