VoIP Applications for Social Networking?

There are a few major reasons that businesses use Facebook instead of many of the other online social networking sites that are out there.

One is that there are such a vast number of people on Facebook that it is an excellent platform for social networking. Another is that Facebook has gained some credibility over the years for professional use as opposed to many of the other social networking sites which remain more for kids than adults. But one of the biggest reasons that business professionals use Facebook as their primary social networking tool is that it offers users so many different applications to improve their business practices. (Read "A dummy's guide to social networking" to find out why you should be using this tool in your business.)

Unfortunately, VoIP is not yet one of those applications.

Well, that's not entirely true. There are applications available for Facebook which include some aspects of VoIP technology. However, as was recently pointed out in an overview of those applications by VoIP News, there is no official VoIP application for Facebook professionals to utilize.

Why would you want to integrate social networking and VoIP? One of the main purposes of VoIP is to streamline your business in order to increase efficiency and productivity. Social networking should be a major part of your business life and since you should be doing a lot of online networking, you should do what you can to streamline your efforts.

Let's use an example of why VoIP would be great for use on a social networking site like Facebook. Imagine that you have developed a strong network of Facebook connections but they aren't people with whom you regularly do business. You write an article for your site that points to a new product you have just begun to offer. Using Facebook, you make an announcement about the article to every one of those connections. If a VoIP application were available, people in your network with an interest in the product could easily place a call to you to get their questions about it answered. This would clearly facilitate sales of the product.

As multiple services are integrated, this will become even more important. An article at Disruptive Technology last month discussed applications which allow for increased use of social networking sites on Blackberry phones. Additional phone advancements are making it more possible than ever before to do your social networking on your cell phone while you're waiting in lines or traffic. As phones add VoIP capabilities, your social networking and other aspects of business will begin to get even more streamlined.

Of course, Facebook isn't the only social networking site out there which is being used by business professionals. It's just the one that is most likely to see VoIP developments because of the fact that it allows use of so many different applications. As the trend grows, it would be nice to see streamlining of VoIP technology for use with other business networking sites as well.

Would you be more likely to contact a Facebook friend if VoIP services made it cheap and easy?
Source: pcworld.ca