Facebook as a platform

By Ademola MorebiseTMP

Let us shake things up a little, let us redefine your office as a place where you meet people who wants to do business with you.

In that case, that little gadget you carry around in your pocket or bag all day is not really a phone, it is an office because it can connect you to people who wants to do business with you as effectively as a building would have done the same for you in 1920.

A little step further, you realise that Facebook is not really a social network. It can be transformed into an office – the place to meet people who would love to do business with you.

I know what you are thinking: Facebook? The place crawling with silly pictures, daily (pointless) motivational quotable quotes, bible verses and recycled jokes? Morebise must be joking.

I am not.

Just like any crowded city, think Lagos, Nigeria or Mumbai, India for example, you have to sort through millions of people and reach out to the people who might want to do business with you. In the same way, please see Facebook as an overcrowded city, a digital city with *just* over 1 billion citizens.

I think more of us needs to sit down and brainstorm about how we could build a business office on Facebook. Over the weekend, I sat down with members of the CloudPitcher team and as we brainstormed about how we could reach out to business owners we set out to serve, I realised that we had completely ignored the potentials of Facebook to do the job for us. That was when this whole thing dawned on me.

The new challenge for the team now is not about where to find business owners, but investing the time to connecting with them authentically through Facebook.

I know some people who are actually making money through their Facebook operations, top-of-the-mind would be Mute Efe, a “personal leadership” coach who makes money by demanding his readers pay an access fee before they can read his notes. He also charges a fee for him to chat with you over Facebook, he charges per hour. The same way consultants charge you for physical meetings with them. The best part: He actually runs an online school exclusively on Facebook!

Yesterday night, a friend showed me a 5,000 member group exclusively for women, where women advertise whatever they wanted to sell, the group administrator moderates and ensures the authenticity of every deal, money changes hands and goods are shipped via courier services. That is ecommerce! It doesnt need to get more sophisticated than that! The group creator doesnt live in Nigeria, she uses the group to also sell her wares.

All these things just added up in my mind.

If your business needs customers and those customers are human beings not ghosts or animals. You ought to find a way to use Facebook as a platform and build a solid business presence.

P.S

Using Facebook remains 100% FREE (for the most part)

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Watching The World

About The Author

Ademola Morebise Posted on

Principal Ademola Morebise, aka "He That Watereth" is a teacher, creator and magnate. Morebise.com is the home of his writing and work.