Lucas Rollings
What is the value of LinkedIn over Facebook in business? Is there a difference? When do you use one or the other or both? I’ve discovered that some businesses prefer LinkedIn; some prefer Facebook and some use neither. In this article we’ll take a look at the two platforms to help you distinguish which is best for you.
The ultimate decision about which social network to use lies with your company culture,Guest Posting goals and customer. Nonetheless, it’s important to recognize that you cannot choose “none of the above,” if you want to survive the new digital economy. Therefore, the question is which do we choose and how do we begin?
This post will help you begin to distinguish between the value of LinkedIn for business and the value of Facebook for business. In a previous article, I looked at Facebook vs. Twitter.
It helps to understand the evolution of these two platforms to get an idea of what works best for each. Facebook began as a social networking tool for college students. Launched in 2004 in response to MySpace which linked young people together throughout their high school years, Facebook targeted the student entering a college campus. In the early days it was a highly social network, similar to MySpace.
LinkedIn began, not as a social network, but as a business network. In contrast to Facebook, LinkedIn disallowed opportunities to post photo albums or to converse freely with the contacts. In the early days, the founders of LinkedIn saw an opportunity to create a social media site that was a little less “social” and a little more “professional.”
Even though LinkedIn has expanded with applications to allow for many of the things we can do on Facebook and Twitter, it maintains its identity as a professional networking community. The restrictions for connection with people on LinkedIn are tighter than either Facebook or Twitter. Those restrictions have been loosened in recent years, but you still must say how you know a person before you can connect.
In the early days LinkedIn began as a job search resource whereas Facebook began as a social site for college students. Headhunters as well as human resource professionals used LinkedIn to identify potential candidates. LinkedIn still serves this purpose, but it has grown to be a lot more than a hotbed for people looking for jobs. A strong professional network of trusted connections gives you a career advantage. Furthermore, the ability to quickly gain access to information and resources in this global economy will give you a significant competitive edge. If you see LinkedIn as merely a place for job hunting, you’ve missed a lot!
Knowing how the two platforms began helps you understand the strengths of each and how you might best capitalize on those strengths.
