Why You Should Be Reading Facebook at Work (Pt. 2)

There is a great deal of value available to us at Facebook and from what people tell me, most of us are leaving the money on the table.

Here's what I mean.  Facebook is more than just a cheerful little place to see our friends' baby pictures.

It's actually a vigorous marketplace and news source.  But you won't get that experience by simply logging in, and scrolling down the default news stream.  Where you get the power is when you start reading what you want, and when you add meaning to your social media graph.

Don't worry, you don't have to dredge up your recollection of Boolean Algebra to do this.  There are some very simple (and logical) actions you can take to make your social media graph more accurate and useful. There are also some simple actions you can take that get you to the pot of gold hiding in the Facebook update stream.

Let's talk about how to get there with Facebook.

Why You Should be Reading Facebook at Work (pt 1)

Okay, so we're all grownups here and we each want to fulfill the promise we made when we took our jobs. What promise? Well, I can't really speak for you, but I'd guess that it amounts to something like: Because of what I do, this team will succeed. It's up to each of us (with varying levels of input from the boss) to determine what that looks like.

So it's easy to relate to the time you spend reading Community, or your email as a part of that. Both of those sources carry important information about what the team needs to succeed. You might even consider that reading Wall Street Journal or listening to NPR's Marketplace is a contribution.

But did you ever consider that what you might read on Facebook, or Twitter, or on Google+ can also be a contribution to that picture?  You see, those platforms (when you know how to read them) each contain a steady stream of insight into what's happening in the marketplace, what's happening to our customers, and what's working in business.