OK, I know I'm swimming against the tide on this one (and also contradicting myself)... but is Facebook *currently* the right platform for professional communities?

By professional communities I really mean some of the more technology, marketing averse sectors - often they might be the more conservative 'professions', although perhaps also in more low tech industry sectors too. So not the typical tech/new media/marketing or PR people who evangelize Facebook so loudly, and to whom the style and tone of a Facebook profile is second nature.

Paul Walsh stirred up the debate about LinkedIn vs Facebook with his post: Please no more LinkedIn invites. But then again, he references the people among his contacts as:

...you’ll find very senior, connected and respected people from organisations such as Microsoft, Vodafone, O2, emap, BT, New Media Age (NMA), Haymarket, Conchango and the BBC to name but a few.

So, again, very tech/new media/marketing.

We help a lot of companies who market to banks and financial institutions and - at present - we can't see much evidence of senior decision makers or influencers using tools like Facebook. So its difficult to advise our clients they will get much payback from joining the conversation inside Facebook.

Sure many of the banks have huge Facebook populations but at what level of the organization and for what purpose? Typically, in banks, senior managers aren't aggressive early adopters of technology, they are time starved, compliance constrained and already have a host of communications tools to choose from.

Perhaps its a generational thing - or perhaps I'm simply thinking too hard about this (and Hugh's law will prevail).

Alternatively, what features or capabilities would make existing social networks more compelling for these communities?

Tags: Facebook, LinkedIn, Social Networks