Facebook Vs. Linkedin: Which One Is Better for Professionals?

There’s this unofficial debate (more like a doubt really) on which social media platform works best for business professionals. By default, Facebook would seemingly take the win with its impressively large number of members which is between 900 million to over a billion users; however, LinkedIn is more suited for business having more than 300 million members that come from over 200 countries worldwide. LinkedIn is practically the largest professional network in the world to date.

If you want to find a date, or like-minded people, or engage in a debate on topics that appeal to you or just chat with friends – you go to Facebook. Of course Facebook offers a business page to professionals where they can advertise their business. But if you want a hard, straight up and raw business profile without any chasers, then you go to LinkedIn.

Since LinkedIn will be the obvious choice for business professionals who are looking for a new job, career path, or launching/expanding their business, it is a viable tool for business. Here are some ways you can use LinkedIn to your advantage:

Ideal for Business
LinkedIn: The most obvious advantage of LinkedIn is that it has a lot of active members who are potential candidates for jobs with their qualifications highlighted on their profiles. Human resources people and hiring managers don’t even have to require them to submit a resume, because it’s easy to sort out and shortlist users and then invite them for a job interview. Recruiters can search by keywords, qualifications, title and company to find candidates. This saves time and effort on the part of the HR people and it narrows down their search to accurate information.

Facebook: By comparison, Facebook has a ton of unorganized users which will give you a hard time even if you’re looking for specifics.

More Convenient for Opportunities
LinkedIn: A typical LinkedIn profile places relevant information about the user for recruiters to see, whereas a Facebook account has more photos than text descriptions. There are areas on the user’s profile where if you’ll hover your mouse to, will show a pop-up window expanding where you can review important details about him or her. LinkedIn’s own data reveals that users have a 40% chance of getting hired whether they will initiate the job application process or the HR of a certain company will. That’s higher than any other social networking site thus far!

Facebook: Again, Facebook doesn’t measure up in this category as the news feed, background and profile photos are the most visible parts of the user’s profile.

LinkedIn Benefits

• Highlights your expertise and relevant work experience
• Friends and work acquaintances (i.e. your former boss, co-worker, assistant executive director etc.) can recommend you as a very proficient professional
• Work history list and highlight great achievements throughout your career
• Get traffic to your website
• Visitors will be interested to read your blog
• Share posts your followers will enjoy
• Establish a professional relationship with other LinkedIn users
• Reminds your contacts regularly about you
• Get traffic to your individual blog posts
• Communicate with experts on other fields
• Large professional networking makes finding a job easy
• Send emails to 50 users at once
• Search for other users who are in the same field as you and search old friends too
• Export connections
• Ask other users in your network to introduce you to people whom you don’t have access to
• InMail

Numbers Doesn’t Do You Justice
LinkedIn: Reid Hoffman, the founder of LinkedIn said it best when he said that “it is better to be best connected than most connected,” because numbers does not guarantee a win. You’ll have to manage your connections in order to take advantage of the best features of LinkedIn. Connecting with various companies and executives as well as choosing the right connections with contacts who will help you improve in your industry knowledge is the best way to go. Besides great connections, LinkedIn also has groups that you can get involved with and gain more knowledge and more connections.

Facebook: Using a Facebook paid advertisement, you can promote your business page that will, sooner or later, gain hundreds or thousands of followers. It may seem like a tie, but you can use LinkedIn for free, so the tide flows back to LinkedIn.

Mobile/Home-Based/Online Office
LinkedIn: Your LinkedIn profile becomes a mobile office or a resume, whichever you want to call it, because it does the job application for you even when you’re not around. Still, it’s advisable to regularly check and update your account in order to make it look impressive and get people’s interest.

Facebook: Great for online chat, trolling other people or waste time, but it does have good points in serious business as most social media marketers use Facebook for business also.

The Victor: LinkedIn
To sum it all up, I’d definitely recommend people to use social media sites for personal and professional reasons; however, the best place to find the right people for your business, or find the right companies to work in – there is no current alternative yet than LinkedIn. Whatever your life’s pursuits are, be it in business or personal professional image, LinkedIn was designed specifically for that purpose. Exploit it to highlight your professional prowess and then experience the benefits that you have never had before.

“Active participation on LinkedIn is the best way to say, 'Look at me!' without saying 'Look at me!”
― Bobby Darnell

Your LinkedIn profile must be consistent with how you portray yourself elsewhere. Not only should your official résumé match the experience you list on LinkedIn, but it also should be consistent with Twitter and public Facebook information.”
― Melanie Pinola, LinkedIn In 30 Minutes: How to create a rock-solid LinkedIn profile and build connections that matter

“When recruiters, co-workers, old classmates, and other people Google your name and click on a link to you on LinkedIn, your profile page is what they will see. They’ll learn about your work history, education, skills, interests, reputation, and other details you provide. It’s like your own 'Who’s Who' entry on LinkedIn.”
― Melanie Pinola, LinkedIn In 30 Minutes: How to create a rock-solid LinkedIn profile and build connections that matter

“LinkedIn is not a site where you share with everyone the general “I had salmon for dinner” or for “I am reading my book at Starbucks right now.”
— John R. Math