If you think Facebook is all rubbish, think again. There are some institutions that make the best use of Facebook. Some have even dedicated employees handling the company's Facebook account. The reason: The vast pool of youth that's waiting to be tapped.

At a recent media conference, the editor of an Indonesian newspaper talked about how he sent a new recruit to visit college campuses and make students sign up for the paper's Facebook page. The ‘youth ambassador' was generously compensated for his efforts.

There are schools that use Facebook to communicate with students and parents. Communications include discussions about the student, classes and school programmes.

I am not aware whether any school in India does this, but there are companies that make full use of Facebook. Recently Titan offered an additonal 15 per cent discount for Facebook fans. All you had to do was to log in to the Titan Facebook page, generate a unique code and take the code to the Titan dealer to get the discount. Many companies also discuss complaints by consumers and sometimes even solve them by providing solutions.

There are companies that have created closed user groups for their employees and convey even important information through the Facebook group. The employees also have the added advantage of using the Facebook Group Chat to have lively discussions.

The Hangout feature in Google+ is also something companies use for internal discussions. Unlike the Group Chat in Facebook, the Hangout feature in Google+ allows multiple video chat - ideal for small conferences.

An editor of a news agency of a neighbouring country has almost decided to hold bureau meetings through Google+ as the daily international phone calls lead to huge bills.

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