It is Time for Facebook Fridays: A Idea that Should Spread
by Bill Ives
I wrote about Letting Facebook and MySpace into the Enterprise? a while back and just got a comment with a great link I want to share to those who are not scanning the archives. Derek Abdinor sent me a link to an article somewhat mis-titled, Serena Software Adopts Facebook as Corporate Intranet. They are not really going that far, but Serena has adopted “Facebook Fridays.” As the article reports, “each Friday, employees are granted one hour of personal time to spend on their Facebook profiles and connect with co-workers, customers, family and friends. This initiative will start today and will be rolled out in 18 countries where the company has offices.”
This is much better than “casual Fridays” and actually involves a commitment by the organization. It is one that should pay dividends. I remember one client, which shall remain nameless, that actually “rewarded” employees by letting them wear casual clothes on a Friday if the firm reached a major business milestone. Some of the employees thought they were just being cheap.
Kudos to Serena. I hope they get some good press for this. I have written about Serena on this blog. They provide tools for enterprise mashups. Given their market space and the likely age and views of their employees, they should recognize the value of Facebook. It also makes more sense to recognize and channel social working. I do wonder how it works. Does each Serena employee have 800 friends, their fellow Serena employees?
