Facebook-driven marketing initiatives must safeguard companies

Published 30th June 2008

London, 27th June 2008 - WorkLight, the Web 2.0 security specialist, says that Visa's plans to launch a small business community on Facebook is a clear indicator of the B2B and B2C value that the social networking site offers companies, but it also highlights emergent security needs.

"With over 80,000 businesses currently hosting a corporate page on Facebook, the potential for driving more business and generating buzz among consumers, employees and partners is significant. Yet, the number of employees at these companies that are actively collaborating on the popular social network is considerably higher and may be putting their organizations at a security risk," said David Lavenda, WorkLight's vice president of marketing and product strategy.

“Therefore, any community launched on a popular Web 2.0 platform such as Facebook, must include adequate security safeguards to protect sensitive information that is shared and distributed on the network,” Lavenda added.

Lavenda's comments come as Visa USA is offering $100 in advertising credit to the first 20,000 start-up firms that download the required application via Facebook.

"Visa’s latest initiative will likely help small businesses reach potential customers and partners, and grow their operations more efficiently but without mitigating possible security loopholes, these companies may be faced with adverse consequences," he said.

According to Lavenda, companies should ideally only access social networking services using a secure environment such as WorkLight's server-based software, that allows companies to do business securely using any popular Web 2.0 service, such as iGoogle, Microsoft Live, Facebook, del.icio.us and more.

For more on Visa's small firms Facebook initiative:

http://tinyurl.com/6owgfv

For more on WorkLight:

http://www.myworklight.com

ENDS


To arrange an interview with David Lavenda to speak about these issues, contact:

Darshna Kamani
Eskenzi PR Ltd
Tel: 020 7183 2834
Email: Darshna@eskenzipr.com
www.eskenzipr.com