Tom Meloche: Enterprise Applications on Facebook

By Bud on October 27, 2007 TrackBacks (0) Comments (2)

Tom describes why Facebook might make an ideal delivery platform for training products targeted at the enterprise.

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Filed under: Ann Arbor, MI | Defining New Markets | Education | Enterprise Software | Procuit | Tom Meloche | Web 2.0

In this 9 minute segment (download iPod compatible, 46MB), Tom Meloche, Senior Partner at Procuit describes his company's product offering as an enterprise ready Web 2.0 knowledge transfer solution. Essentially, Procuit is looking to upend the delivery of corporate training over the Web. To do so, it will utilize its own web site and social utilities such as Facebook which over a year ago opened its doors to corporate as well as educational communities.

There are a few reasons to consider Facebook as an enterprise delivery platform:

  • Since opening its doors to corporate customers, membership has been growing at the phenomenal rate of 3% per week.
  • Facebook membership currently stands at 45 million but is expected to grow to 200 million by the end of 2008.
  • Unlike other enterprise platforms that require active searching to uncover information, Facebook provides a river or stream for each user to simply observe what is happening in his or her network.
  • In sum, the size of the platform and the ease of observing the activities of your own network within it should greatly enhance the impact of viral marketing effort.

Readers of this site may recall that Lou Rosenfeld is using a similar viral marketing approach with his own network that is not based in Facebook.

[n.b., Pure Visibility kindly provided the physical location for this interview.]

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2 Comments

Allie Gerlach on November 20, 2007 12:10 AM
Dear Mr. Tom Melcohe, I understand that Facebook as become a means of advisement and word of month from friend to friend, but I do not really think you are seeing this as means of invading other peoples privacy. As a Facebook user for two years I have seen firsthand what companies are trying to accomplish. I honestly believe it is a waste of time and effort. It is so hard for any company to successful advertise on the internet as is, but then to try and passively try and advertises is total a different way. Yes people will listen to what their friend s have to say on a product or a class that they may be taking but none of it ever has to do with what they did on the internet. Another point is that companies that send advisements through emails are just wasting their time since people seem to get a new email every minute they just don’t get read at all and just deleted. The same thing is happening with the messages on Facebook. When you have a Facebook account they send you an email every time you have a new message. So there is another waste of space in the electronic mail that nobody reads and just deletes. It is a nice idea but in reality it is just a waste of money that companies will not see a result from. Another aspect to understand is the ‘friends’ that are on peoples profiles. Young people now a day’s don’t really pay attention to who their friends are and very little or if ever look at their ‘friends’ profiles. It is just another vain thing for young people to see who has more friends. Sorry but that is the reality of the story and that people will say what they want to say to their real friends and leave out what everyone else thinks. Passive advisement is just another way for companies to spend money with little or no results. Sincerely Allie Keely Gerlach
Anonymous on March 30, 2008 11:15 AM
HMMM??? I am a little on the fence with this topic, on one hand I see the potential and on the other I am skeptical on the return. I think one thing that Tom Melcohe will have to over come is the corporate world’s negative image of social networking sites such as Facebook. Companies are banning the use of these sites at the office because as he said it can become addicting. It also allows people to bring their personal life and put it on display for their co-workers which depending on what they do in their personal life can cause conflict within an organization. I do on the other hand like the idea of using facebook as a training tool. It would work fabulously if there was a way to have a form of facebook that only the company could access. This way they can pass on different training tools, messages without all of the added distractions and addictions Facebook brings. I also think it would be good for networking new employees into an organization; they could access this facebook site to connect with everyone in the organization, before they may have a chance to meet them. I think this is an opportunity for Facebook, or another organization to establish another site that Companies can use. This has opened a new market; just think someone could use the growth and success of facebook, along with their added benefits and securities to sell a new product to companies. One other thing to Mrs. Gerlach, just to let you know you can choose to receive the emails from facebook or not, there is a way to turn off the email alerts so you are not overwhelmed with 200 emails a day. Best of Luck Lena Heyn Emu Student E00243434

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