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.
Douglas,
First, I agree Facebook isn’t a major threat to LinkedIn right now. It is worth considering here the various types of recruiting as well. Wanted ads: I believe both offer a great opportunity, at times for different positions of course.
However, for actively identifying and recruiting individual candidates, I don’t think “which” social network is the best question. Ultimately, recruiters will need to reach across multiple networks to identify and engage the best candidates. I believe we will see new applications emerge that do exactly that, removing the decision about which platform to focus on and allowing recruiters instead to focus on the purpose at hand, recruiting.
It also has to do with what I call Brand Concrete. People see Facebook as a personal networking tool and LinkedIn is their business networking tool. In regards to jobs, it’s who you know and either network will suffice since FB friends don’t necessarily translate to connections on LinkedIn.
When thinking about the Facebook vs. LinkedIn argument, I think it’s most important to look at the user statistics for both sites. As a recent college graduate, I can say that there are very few of my peers on LinkedIn right now, and if they are it is most likely because of a parent urging them to create a profile. The statistics also show this. People under 35 just aren’t on LinkedIn, and this is because of a variety of reasons. These people are spending their time in Facebook, making Facebook a better tool for recruiting those belonging to the 18-34 demographic that LinkedIn just doesn’t reach.
From the time I created a Facebook profile I’ve been reminded over and over to be careful about what I share on Facebook, because whether I like it or not parents or recruiters will be looking at my Facebook profile. When I began my job search I was originally nervous about my Facebook being seen by recruiters, but I’ve come to realize that it’s a great way for these people to see a more personal side of me, like my interests and brands that I follow and how I network with other people who are my age. It’s an important part of me and it’s something that I would like companies to see when they are considering me for an open position and I don’t feel like this is an aspect of me that can be seen from my LinkedIn profile.
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I don`t know about Linke, but I love Facebook ))
Well i don;t know why people always try to compare these things. Even i have seen some threads on forums with title “Which is best, Google or facebook??”
But personally i believe that both have different domains. Basically Google is a search engine and Facebook is a social media site, then on what basis people try to compare them?
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