Use Facebook More Productively

The great thing about Facebook is that all of my groups of friends are consolidated on one network.  So learning how to use Facebook effectively for me is very important

Techradar presents a way that Facebook can be used more productively especially at work.  At my work, we have a filter that blocks Facebook so I cannot use the features of Facebook in work setting.   However, Techradar describes how it can be used for team working and add-on application

The team-building aspect of Facebook is accomplished by using groups.  Since the description of the process to create the group is fairly technical, I am going to include an exceprt from the article to describe the process. 

“There are usable productivity tools built right into Facebook’s main interface. One of the best is the Groups feature. This application includes valuable collaboration features like event listing and a full discussion board. They’re ideal for scheduling work and – because they’re online – can be accessed from any computer with Internet access. You’ll also find the usual Facebook stalwarts: a public ‘wall’, posted items board, photo album and news feed.

Any Facebook member can create a group and invite users on their friends list to join. To find the Groups application in Facebook, click the ‘Home’ link to go to your Facebook homepage (rather than your Profile page) and choose ‘Groups’ from the Applications panel. If you can’t see the Groups link, click ‘More’. If you still can’t see it, click ‘Edit’ next to the Applications label and check the full list of installed applications for the Groups app.

When you’ve found the Groups link, click on it to see a page showing groups that your friends belong to – alongside a list of groups you may already belong to. To begin making a new group, just click the ‘+ Create a New Group’ button. A form prompts you to give the group a name, brief description and category. You can also add other information such as an email contact or the group’s geographical location.

At the next stage, you can customise your group’s available applications, upload a profile photo and set privacy levels. It’s all very similar to setting up a new Facebook profile.

Be careful when choosing whether to make your group open, closed or secret. A secret group is desirable for work-related activity, but it won’t show up in search results. A closed group may be the best option, enabling all Facebook users to find the group but requiring administrators to approve membership before a user can see the group’s content.

When you save the changes that you’ve made at this stage, you’ll be prompted to publish the story to your Facebook feed.

The final step is the trickiest. You’ll be prompted to select people from your friends list to join the group. Simply ticking the box next to their name adds them. You can also invite people by email. Either enter their address manually, separating each with a comma, or click the ‘Import email addresses’ link to upload details from your webmail account.

The next area where Facebook can be used is for applications.  There are two applications that the articles suggest for Fonobook and Cagoo Calendars.  Fonobook synchronises your Facebook contacts with Outlook 2003 or 2007.  Cagoo Calendars synchronises with Google Calendar, 30 Boxes and other scheduling services, enabling you to share all of your appointments from all of your calendars with 30 Boxes on Facebook.

Social Media Does Not Work in Federal Government

I look at the following blog and I thought that it does not have a lot of application to the contract auditing environment (http://tinyurl.com/47ymgj). Trying social media in a DOD environment requires a visionary GS-13 IT Tech Specialist and not some random hack GS-12 auditor. As a government auditor, I got deal with the bureaucracy and if the higher-ups do not want use social media, than it is fine with me. I can do my job without social media. In reality, my coworkers are not the Myspace and Facebook nation so there is not a need to use social media.

Look I got to become a big-time manager before I can ram these changes through. So you will not see those changes in DCAA and in reality, we do not really need it.