I have been immersing myself in all things web 3.0 (2.0 is so passé) and I have hit a stumbling block. Can Facebook ever be leveraged (sorry, USED,) effectively for business?

I recently heard a statistic that 98% of people that “like” a business Facebook page will then never engage with it. So what’s the issue – the platform or the business? Should businesses just steer clear, or fundamentally change the way they engage with users?

Quick office poll shows that our top three fave organisations on Facebook are:

www.facebook.com/bbcbreakfast

www.facebook.com/Google

www.facebook.com/clinique

So what are they doing well? Most importantly they seem to be asking questions and tailoring content to talk to users as individuals – rather than spamming them with marketing messages.

With proclamations from Mr Zuckerberg that Facebook is the website killer, not to mention social media gurus advising that investment should be directed into fostering communities and brand advocates through the likes of Facebook… It looks like our generation will be witness to a huge change in the way businesses talk to their customers. Power to the people and all that

Munching on my lunch and perusing the BBC website, I was horrified to see this story:

“BBC seeks older female newsreader”

Remorse over Arlene aside, it sends out totally the wrong message. It looks like the BBC is looking to up its old biddy and women quota, in order to appease grouchy viewers.

This positive discrimination approach is rife across the UK. I also saw it at a recent Girl Geek Dinner gathering, whereby some die-hard feminists were complaining that women were discriminated against in technology and there should be more jobs open to them…

Now I for one do NOT want businesses to feel pushed into employing women over men. In my opinion, it should always be the best person for the job. These whiny women are doing the rest of us a disservice, because quite frankly, when I get to the top I don’t want anyone tarnishing my achievement by claiming it was easier for me to get there… I want my success to be my own!

There’s an hilarious spoof story worming its way around the web today, claiming that last nights ‘Twestival’ was thwarted by a group of fanatical Facebook fans. Scenes akin to the recent Milwall/ Westham riots ensued, whilst delegates from each camp updated absent friends on the fight status via their PDAs .

Joking aside, it’s interesting to see exactly how much competition exists between the two social networks, especially given the news that Twitter has expanded its terms of service to allow advertising on the site.

Facebook is currently the world’s largest social networking site with 200 million users, but Twitter is fast catching up with 44.5 million users  and 15-fold  growth  year-on-year.

Let the fight continue…

Normally the NHS can’t do anything right. Health and politics is always a volatile mix, but couple that with the British predilection for a good moan and it understandable why it’s the perfect gear-grinding subject over an afternoon tea.

That also makes it the perfect election topic. The Conservatives were on quite a roll with their NHS-bashing “we’ll just rip it all out because it smells of Labour” manifesto. Until now.

Turns out there’s something we Brits do better than moan: we look after our own. As soon as the  Americans  started bashing the NHS, all our hitherto grumbles were forgotten and replaced with big fat NATIONAL PRIDE. Akin to our kids and parents, we can say what we want but everyone else can just keep their big mouths shut.

All thoughts over over-investment; under-delivery; waiting lists and postcode lotteries were cast aside as a distant memory. Instead we started joining Twitter groups to talk about the beautiful institution that is our wonderful National Health Service  – check out the #welovethenhs stream .

In fact, it’s been so successful at resurrecting some NHS love that I’m getting a little suspicious that there may have been some underhand PR wizardy at play… Thoughts on a postcard please ;o)

PR 101 tells you that you need to develop a third-sense antenna for tracking industry issues may be relevant to your client.

Every PR company has their own name for it: news-jacking, issue jumping, trend tagging – but let’s be fair, a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet ;o) Any PR worth their salt is like a raved dog when an issue breaks and they want to get in first with their client comment.

I mention this because sometimes I see examples in the media that can only be described as shameless and I am rather annoyed I didn’t think of them.

The most recent and, in my humble opinion, FABULOUS example was by accountancy firm Baker Tilly that jumped on the release of the film Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and worked out that Hogwarts wouldn’t be able to retain its status as a charitable independent school without offering almost £1m in bursaries to disadvantaged magic folk.

Its fun, interesting & refreshingly NOT about the “current economic climate.” Pure genius!