When it comes to social networking, it seems everyone is obsessed with Facebook. The big meme is that Facebook will soon surpass MySpace as the biggest social networking site on the Web.
Regardless of who wins this race, both sites have amazing growth numbers and don’t seem poised for a downturn anytime soon.
The more interesting question is this: Will Facebook kill LinkedIn to become the primary career networking site on the Web?
When I look at Facebook, I see a social networking site perfectly designed to capture professionals from cradle to grave. Facebook’s heavy emphasis on college students and do-gooders has given it a lock on the middle class and upwardly mobile demographics.
LinkedIn is a social networking site designed to capture the same demographic but it faces two big limitations. It’s not big with college students and given LinkedIn’s stripped down format, it doesn’t offer any multimedia or graphics to appeal to them.
Facebook has just the right amount of bling. It’s not as overdone or kludgy as MySpace but it has enough graphics and video for both college kids and 40-year-old professionals and that’s a killer combo.
Regardless of what you think of Danah Boyd’s recent class analysis of the two social networking sites, she does get a thing or two right. Unless you’re a musician or an artist of some kind, you don’t use MySpace to advance your career.
You probably use LinkedIn for business networking and if my personal experience is any barometer, your LinkedIn connections are all rapidly going over to Facebook.
If you are a college student you probably use Facebook and there is a chance that you also use MySpace but once you graduate, I suspect you’ll stick with Facebook and ditch MySpace, especially once you settle into your first job.
And if you’re a graduate student (especially in business school or law school), you probably use both Facebook and LinkedIn. And if the majority of your LinkedIn connections migrate over to Facebook, you will probably stop using LinkedIn at some point in the near future.
What do you think? Will Facebook kill LinkedIn? Will it become the primary social networking tool for professionals? Or is there a place at the table for both Facebook and LinkedIn?
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Actually, I think there’s room for both at the table, but in limited, discreet seats.
FB is going to change, and not for the bettere. As it opens the gates to commercial pursuits, it’s going to have to find reasons to exist (as it were). The track record for its predecessors (failed portals, mostly) and competitors (like MySpace) is not good. I just wrote about this challenge at Dim Bulb and would be curious to know your thoughts.
There is actually room for both. But i will say that Facebook allows professionals to discover and share content in more compelling ways. Facebook also allows multiple levels of privacy that i really like.
Additionally with Facebook having new and useful applications being added daily there is a compelling reason to believe that Facebook will win the race undoubtedly.
Wanna get your linked in connections into Facebook. Check out the review we published a few weeks back.
also worthy to note that Linkedin also already has an app on Facebook. Guess they just couldn’t resist.
Cheers!
Rodney Rumford
I don’t really care for Facebook. It is really time consuming and a lot of the people – even the 25 and up set – are incredibly immature. The social drama I’ve seen in others’ lives because of Facebook would make most people never log on again.
I took the Facebook hiatus about a month ago, and I’m glad I did. The time I wasted on Facebook adding/deleting friends, reading/replying to notes, etc. is now spent making MONEY.
Facebook should not be used for business networking as it is not set up for it. Facebook is slowly turning into a myspace(cluttered and busy). LinkedIn and other business focused site are set up to help out in business networking more effectively.
I definitely think of Facebook as a purely social network, but having said that, I’ve been offered two jobs on there through people I know.
LinkedIn is still an incredible system for recruiting and business networking. Facebook is now too cluttered with random information, but with LinkedIn you know exactly what you’re going to get and where to find it.