As businesses struggle with the problems created in the workplace by Facebook and other social networking sites that do not necessarily have a related business focus, we provide here some links to help formulate guidelines. While often there are no right or wrong answers, greater care and vigilance is required now more than ever.

Facebook's own promotional literature as of March, 2011 indicated that the average user was spending over 4.5 hours per month on their site. That amount may have been quite low as some sources were estimating 7+ hours per month a year earlier and by September 2011, several other sources were estimating monthly hours spent from 8 to 15. With well over 500 million (750 million by Sept. 2011) claimed users worldwide, this may mean that a colossal amount of employer paid time may be getting spent on Facebook with the resulting loss of business productivity (aside from the basic philosophical questions such as: Is this really a valid use of one's time? Are there not more vastly important and interesting things to pursue and accomplish? Is Facebook self-actualizing? Does it nurture any real relationships and personal growth, or is it a hindrance? Are any true friendships made or enhanced via Facebook? Have we become as shallow and sophomoric as the "Like" mentality suggests?). As of early 2012, the number had risen to roughly 800 million users spending 740 billion minutes per month with the U.S. leading the way with some 20% of the total users. Facebook users are estimated to reach the 1 billion mark by August 2012, for better or worse.

For businesses catering to consumer interests, a Facebook presence might perhaps make sense. Even then, business-oriented Facebook pages in general seem to be greatly lacking in substance. We believe in our case that it makes more sense to focus on our existing web presence and to continue to strive to improve in every other way rather than interact on social networking sites designed really for non-business purposes and that tend to usurp productivity, and where the attention of users are so fragmented, they are not likely to be focused on any given subject. You will therefore not find us on Facebook, and we do not Tweet and we try to avoid texting, and we try to limit the distractions caused by cell phones and instant messaging to the greatest extent that we can to avoid those kind of constant distractions that lead to lower quality work.

We do think that LinkedIn is different in light of its business focus and therefore, with some amount of hesitation, are participating, although its value to businesses (other than those in the recruiting industry, and probing into work history references in "new hire" situations) remains to be seen and its groups and other activities can similarly usurp much of one's time and provide relatively low value. Despite its boon in popularlity particularly starting in 2010-2011, its value from our perspective (and even though we have participated at some level since 2006, long before more recent waves of hysteria) remains somewhat marginal at best.

But, please, get in touch with us at any time including using one of the most important communication devices ever invented: the telephone. Call us at 800-648-6258 or 801-277-9240 (unless we are all on the phone or it is after hours, your call will not be handled by an automated voice attendant) or send us an e-mail with any question, concern or comment you have at any time at info@addsuminc.com. Or leave us a comment (or scroll to the end of the page) here to provide your insight or advice for other business users with respect to social networking site policies. Links will open in a new browser window or tab.