Three Things LinkedIN Does Better than Facebook
Jeff Pulver has signaled that he’s shifting his social networking efforts from LinkedIN to Facebook. I’ve been doing a little exploring between both platforms as well. I love a lot of what facebook gets done, and I advocate for it often. But the more I spend time there, the more I find things that bug me (Dan York points out sorting issues here.) To that end, here are a few things that LinkedIN does better than Facebook.
Sorting Contacts- I found myself needing to find someone in NYC to offer a couch for a friend. In Facebook, I searched around the Friends tab and couldn’t find a way to sort. Turns out, the way to sort friends is you go out to the main page, to the search bar, click Advanced Search, and then search your network and friends by the criteria you want.
In LinkedIN, you go to Contacts, click Advanced Search, and click sort by location. Done.
Passing Through Mail- Facebook sends my email account a message that says, “Rod Begbie has sent you a message.” And then I have to go log into Facebook to read it. LinkedIN sends me the whole thing, and then I can go log in and respond later. And Facebook doesn’t have FORWARD. I can’t send mail elsewhere. It’s not that I really want to use the in-system mail platform. It’s a little redundant. But if you’re going to give it to me, make it full-featured.
In LinkedIN, you get the straight email sent to your inbox, and you CHOOSE to go to LinkedIN to respond.
Reputation Management - If I’m using Facebook to manage my social network, there’s nothing there that tells a new visitor to my profile page if I’m worth engaging in a conversation. You can read my Wall (where people leave messages). You can view my friends. But that’s it.
In LinkedIN, there’s a recommendation system with a good sense of detail and authority.
Other Notes
LinkedIN needs a profile picture. There’s been a debate there as to whether that’s professional or not. I think it is.
Facebook stands to be the winner in this fight, simply because they’ve got the api open already. They also have a lot of informal conversational touchpoints built into the app.
But I wouldn’t count out LinkedIN. Once people get over themselves and realize it’s a great community/networking tool instead of a digital resume, people will get a little more community-centric on LinkedIN. With some open APIs, and or with someone willing to export data, if only via RSS, I think LinkedIN could recapture the ground that people are seeking in a social networking tool.
I’ve said in the past: Facebook seems to have lots of ways to DO something. LinkedIN is a profile, and then you write some recommendations, and then not much exciting happens. There’s some rough work ahead for LinkedIN to turn this platform into something even more valuable, but then again, there has to be an incentive and momentum.
What do you think? Is this even relevant to you?
If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed to receive future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
Totally relevant.
I agree with the photo on Linked In…
But I also enjoy what it represents by not having a photo, too.
Facebook seems easier to navigate upon first glance, but I’ve done less business networking there.
In fact, I’m finding that I’m “saving” Facebook for people I actually know, or want to have meaningful interaction with.
MySpace can be difficult to navigate with 15,000 friends - and I’m not sure I could handle that kind of load on another social networking site.
One thing is for sure. They’re all addicting.
How do you ever find time to not only USE all of these sites, but then to critique them and write meaningful articles about their affect on society?
You rock Chris.
:)
It’s always worth remembering that LinkedIn started as a professional tool for employment recommendations, and in that sense (and in the EEOC sense), photographs really shouldn’t be part of it.
LinkedIn has subsequently been hijacked by the mass-adders, which is too bad for those of us who valued the personal recommendations that were once a reason to be part of that site.
Mike O’Hara has a great interview with Dan Nye on Episode 33 of the Cold Calling Podcast (http://coldcallingpodcast.com/). It must be an interesting situation to be in… watching something you’ve developed and nurtured getting pushed onto a completely different track.
I just rediscovered the most amazing social networking tool… my Apple Address Book! Now I would be happy to share it all with friends, and parts of it with groups, so whatever happened to Peer to Peer social networking tools? Why do we all have to go to web sites to share? And so many different sites? There’s an entrepreneurial opportunity here for someone… The Sync Address Book with Social Media Network according to rules and categories plug-in?
First to comment on David Tames comment. Not to be too disappointing but syncing an Apple address book between two people is a serious challenge. Phew…can’t imagine multi-to-multi! (Yes, I recognize a Joke, but sometimes I have to play the straight “man”)
I think Linked-In is going to be slow to change. We see the value in social networking and friend sourcing, but a lot of people aren’t ready for that kind of openness. They still work the old network style. As long as they have a good customer base like that it is going to be in their best interest to stay a one focus tool - provide employment networking.
I guess I’m somewhat of a social experiment myself as my “professional” presence is on Linked-In at least my old profession, but my new media persona (which really just me) is on Facebook.
So far I’ve had more people initiate contact with me from LinkedIn, than I have from Facebook. We’ll see how that evolves as I do more new media.
David Tames: you may still be able to hunt down FacebookSync, which syncs your Facebook team to Address Book. The develoeprs got a C&D, but that doesn’t stop free software for long.
Chris Brogan: each network serves its own purpose and does the things it’s supposed to do well.
I’m glad Goldie got the humor of my comment, but of course, I was only 1/2 joking. I hate having to have a profile on different sites. The semantic web was supposed to make it easy these things to happen. Time will tell. Software is getting smarter. Now let’s see if I can find FacebookSync :-)
I agree with the photo, I do NOT like the paid service from LinkedIn though, I think it should add supported (like Google NOT like Yahoo in-your-face-ads).
I have continued to use my LinkedIn and have found many old friends and co workers. Perhaps a better integration into Facebook is the answer?
Stating the obvious: someone needs to write the “Open portrait” (like OpenID with the same challenge, getting someone to use it) application. Oh wait, that’s been done, it’s called a “web site”. If all networking and CV sites featured an unmissable link to your own site or blog, then there’d be no problem.
Facebook has one thing that drives me nuts. I see pages I can never find again, something’s wrong with the navigation (or my brain) that makes finding things unintuitive.
here’s a profile photo for Chris - or is it Stephen Baldwin? Or is it Chris?
http://www.cnn.com/SHOWBIZ/Movies/usual_suspects/baldwin.gif
I’m already burned out on these networks and will continue to mostly network via email, phone, website. You know, everything we’d been using prior to sites designed to suck us in and use up all our time.
Actually, blogging has been my best social networking tool. It brings people to me and also gives me a base of contact with fellow bloggers.
I had a MySpace page and it got swamped by wannabe rap stars.
I’m helping with a Ning network. That’s such a clunky interface without having that much. It’s awkward like YouTube’s control panel is awkward. It’s hard to figure out where to go to do things that you should be able to view and alter from one control panel and they both disperse everything in a way that’s counterintuitive.
I set up a Facebook account, tried to do something, it didn’t make sense, I can’t stand to learn another interface. I’d rather be learning WAP or PHP or something like that.
I’ve got LinkedIn and I’ll keep using it cause it’s simple and more of a “digital resume”.
I doubt Facebook will be a part of my life and I really only expect to continue on LinkedIn where I’m open to getting more social since I’m happy with the basics.
What I like about LinkedIn are three things: 1) when a person has a LinkedIn page you know they are serious about networking with other professionals, 2) I like seeing the LinkedIn resume, knowing where a person worked in the past helps me understand what skills and network the contact has and how the person intersects with my network and skills, and 3) LinkedIn gets serious with showing the six degrees of separation. If I need an introduction, LinkedIn can show me instantly who I should talk to for the introduction. Facebook can not do any of the above. I am 100% in favor of including the photo. Such a small thing. A picture is worth a 1000 words.
Barlow Keener makes excellent points regarding LinkedIn. If LinkedIn added some “Facebook” like features as the photo being described, I would welcome that. It does what it does very well, and it’s streamlined and focused. I like that, but dear LinkedIn, lighten up a little, a little fun would be nice like photos and such.
Something I learned from Christopher Penn at PodCamp Toronto (hi Chris!): register your name as a domain and have it point to whichever social media site you prefer.
Or what I’m planning on doing with my domain name is creating a page with all the relevant social media sites I have a profile on. I won’t put my Facebook link on there but I will definitely list my LinkedIn.
Very relevant, Chris, thanks.
I came here after finding your LinkedIn profile linked to your response to Chris Heuer’s “Who is your favorite food or wine blogger?” question–another thing LinkedIN does better (that adds value and builds community, actually) than Facebook.
the most relevant reason for me to keep a hand in LinkedIn is because people I want to reach are there but not necessarily in Facebook– yet. This could change. The main point is staying in networks where the people are.
More thoughts at: Tech PR Gems
Just networkin’…
Look out kid It’s somethin’ you did God knows when But you’re doin’ it again — “Subterranean Homesick Blues” by Bob Dylan Jeff Pulver says he’s abandoning LinkedIn for Facebook to focus all his “professional business social networking contacts…
I watch employee’s get completely lost in Facebook and MySpace daily. I just can’t stand to loose the time.
Million Impossible is worth a look, all feedback welcomed
Absolutely relevant to me. I’ve been completely bogged down in project work and new-baby duties since before the F8 announcement, but in my normal groove I’d have been all over Facebook last couple months. My chief interest in social networking is in its utility for nonprofit organizations, and in that frame LinkedIn and Facebook are two of the very biggest games in town.
I so much want to fall in love with the wide-open architecture of Facebook Platform. Here’s the thing, though — I definitely haven’t spent enough time tinkering with it to know for sure, but my initial impression is that Facebook is literally an ill-fitting suit for me in its present incarnation. I use s/n tools for *professional* networking and to participate in exertions of collective power. I’m 20 years out of college — for me, my alma mater is an irrelevant context for networking. I like the way my LinkedIn experienced is centered around *my* professional network. I’m not sure yet if I’m going to be able to achieve that in Facebook — will I be able to literally move my college stuff and Facebook’s own apps out of the way, so that I can put the networks and web services that I do use front and center?