The latest cat-and-mouse battle between Facebook and Google is being fought in the business world – specifically, the world of business as it appears on each company's social network. And Facebook's newest salvo, a guide to "Facebook for Business," is a direct thumb of the nose against its scrambling competitor. The company unveiled Facebook for Business earlier this week, but don't be alarmed by the title – it's not a new feature or page setup on the site for businesses. Rather, Facebook for Business is a small portal that Facebook created to show companies how they can maximize their social presence on the site.
"Businesses can learn how to find new customers before they search for them using Facebook's targeted Ads, and bring customers from the Web into their stores. And we want to inspire small businesses by seeing how other businesses have found success on Facebook by sharing their stories," said a Facebook spokesman in an emailed interview with InformationWeek.
The five-page guide covers everything from a general overview of the relationship between businesses and Facebook pages to categorical, step-by-step instructions for helping neophyte companies navigate the world of Facebook (and its many features) for the first time. It's quick, powerful, and easy to digest for businesses that just need a quick hit of information in order to start using the service.
And the creation of Facebook for Business is undoubtedly tied (or at least, timed well) against the recent struggles of Facebook's new competitor, Google Plus. With businesses snapping at the door to join the service, Google Plus' inability to cope with the demand – and, indeed, doing much to prevent it by banning most branded pages from its network – has become a growing criticism of the upstart social network.
"The platform at the moment is not built for the business use case, and we want to help you build long-term relationships with your customers. Doing it right is worth the wait. We will continue to disable business profiles using regular profiles. We recommend you find a real person who is willing to represent your organization on Google+ using a real profile as him-or-herself," said Google product manager Christian Oestlien in a post on Google Plus.
Oestlien does note, however, that Google's planning to have its full-featured business profiles up and running within a few months. But with Google failing to realize the large corporate potential of its social service upon its release, Facebook appears more than happy to pick up the pieces during Google's downtime.
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