A few weeks ago, Facebook launched its newest product – Facebook Groups.
A welcome addition to the site, Groups lets users create mini-networks of their Facebook friends around commonalities. For example, I could add my Facebook friends into my “Ravens Tailgate” group, which we could then use to plan upcoming tailgates, upload pictures from games and link out to maps of upcoming tailgate locations.
Where Groups really shines is in providing its users with a means of collaborating with one another. Up until this point, communication with multiple friends through Facebook was cumbersome. If you wanted to discuss something with more than one Facebook friend, you were limited to an open conversation on your Wall or a constant barrage of messages through Facebook’s messaging system (if you’ve ever been on one of Facebook’s message chains, you know how obnoxious that can be).
Groups consolidates multi-user conversations into an easy-to-read, ongoing thread. At any time, users can go back and read and/or comment on items that have been posted to the Groups page. And this potentially offers huge benefits to businesses of all sizes…
In many ways, Facebook Groups eliminates the need for an internal blog or long, painful email chains. If I needed feedback on an idea, I could post it to my “Work” Group and instantly have feedback from coworkers, without the pain of receiving email after email. I’m then able to read through the chain of conversation, and make a decision based on that simple discussion.
A few weeks ago, MGH’s social media marketing department began testing Groups by replacing our department emails with Group posts. Rather than clogging our email inboxes with links to industry articles and back-and-forth about certain pieces of creative, we moved everything to our Facebook Group.
It obviously came naturally to us, as we spend a good deal of our waking hours on Facebook. But we’ve benefited from having everything archived and consolidated into one location. We no longer have to scroll through email after email to find the information we may need. Everything is in one place.
And everything is easy to read and follow. Maybe it’s just me, but following certain email chains can be a herculean task. Groups simplifies the conversation.
Work email will always have its place (probably), but Facebook Groups makes life a little easier. Especially when your I.T. guy has placed a limit on the size of your email inbox because you refuse to sort things into folders. Not like that actually happens or anything…
