Critics and analysts often love to pit one social media network against the other – be it Facebook vs. Twitter, Facebook vs. Google+, Twitter vs. Google+ or Facebook vs. LinkedIn – we’ve seen nearly all permutations of comparisons over the last couple of years. In fact, the comparisons and the so-called battle between Facebook and LinkedIn has been a well-documented affair at smedio.com

In the past, we’ve debated how Facebook vs. LinkedIn once represented the modern-age war of personal vs. professional networking, how both these social networks serve as effective lead generation tools and last but not the least – which out of Facebook and LinkedIn is a better hiring tool.

The Facebook vs. LinkedIn debate has been reignited by the latter’s co-founder Reid Hoffman, who says LinkedIn has stayed “incredibly steady to its original vision,” and Facebook isn’t a competitor to that strategy. It’s interesting to note that social job search startup BranchOut recently launched a new product to enable recruiters to search and find job candidates through Facebook. Several social media experts suggest this is a sign of things to come and Facebook is much more than just a threat to LinkedIn.

I beg to differ and here’s why.

Personal vs. Professional

There’s no doubt that Facebook and LinkedIn have completely transformed in the last year or so. Though the former is the undisputed king of all social networks, it has launched several features worthy of a high end professional network. Similarly, though the latter operated as a pure professional network earlier, it has been ringing in the changes to improve its social quotient.

Despite these changes, Facebook still is a personal network while LinkedIn at its core is a professional community. It’s an interesting battle and it’s hard to pick a winner.

Same end, Different Means

When it comes to hiring, it’s fair to say that Facebook and LinkedIn serve as different means to the same end. The eventual goal remains the same – hire the best-suited candidates to fill a position.

Despite the fact that Facebook now boasts of 700 million+ members, not everyone is comfortable sharing their professional information on a personal network. I know of several people who use Facebook purely for personal means. Therefore, it would be unfair to pitch Facebook as an alternative to LinkedIn as a professional network.

It’s the platform

Whether it’s a social or a professional network, I strongly believe it’s all about expanding as a platform rather than offering a solitary app. There’s no denying that Facebook’s platform strength is unparalleled in the social media world – be it Facebook Connect, Graph API or other means to integrate Facebook into third-party sites, the world’s leading social media network has left no stone unturned.

It’s no surprise that several companies are leveraging Facebook’s platform strength to build new innovative social applications. BranchOut is a case in point and it already claims customers like HP, Salesforce.com, and Box, as well as Levi’s and Target.

Coming back to the original question – is Facebook a threat to LinkedIn? I’d say – no, at least not for now but knowing the dynamism of the social media industry, I’d not rule out any possibilities. What do you think? Please share your opinion by leaving a comment.