The Social Facts about Facebook, LinkedIn and Plaxo.
After a couple of months of social networking I have ready to make some calls on what will and will not succeed as viable social networking in today’s erratic economy.
My first exposure to the social network platform was an invite from a business colleague to join LinkedIn.Com. After exploring the site, and what it had to offer I was intrigued. I especially like the daily updates to what I am doing, and the ability to join special interest groups such as IABC and PRSA. The downside of LinkedIn was that only a limited amount of features were available for free.
To fully access all of the sites features, such as email, profile review and reference searches, a fee range of $249/year to $4999/year is charged.
During the same time frame I also signed up on Facebook.Com. Word on the street about Facebook was that it was a much more social network, and not that conducive for business connections. It had all the same features as LinkedIn, without any of the fees.
The same special interest groups like IABC and PRSA are available on Facebook.
What makes Facebook unique is ability to actually be social and interact. Free exchange of notes, email, links but most important the ability to easily post and exchange photos and videos.
Facebook makes it easy to find friends and make new ones. In just a month I have added my cousin Marianne Huerter in Houston, an old client, John King, one the founders of Perot Systems and the daughters of my best friend growing up in Topeka, Ks. I have also added new friends like Jean Cochran of NPR and Bob Pearson at Dell.
Adding friends is not the key, I have done about the same on Linked, the key is that on Facebook we actually communicate, weekly, daily, hourly. Often more frequently than we should. Facebook also has an excellent iPhone application that makes it way to easy to keep up with everyone while on the go.
After a month of using both services, I am fully convinced me that LinkedIn is a social network model that fails mainly because it fails to be social. Operators of LinkedIn are hoping to cash in on the list of free contacts, and reselling that list to those willing to pay. There is really little or no benefit for those using the free service.
Oh yes, I forgot about Plaxo.Com, mainly because Plaxo.Com is very forgettable.
A social network aimed at the artistic community, Plaxo is a model that is somewhere between Facebook and LinkedIn. A free site with has some added features that do require a monthly premium, it falls drastically short in fulfilling the social networking needs. I have found very few worthwhile contacts on the website. It seems the majority of those on that sign up for the service do not even fully fill out there profile, much less interact.
For the moment I will continue to make status updates and try to find contacts, but I seriously doubt the worth of expending too much effort on the Plaxo site.
If you want to have a successful online social life, my suggestion is to bookmark Facebook. If you add Twitter to that you will have a twitterful good time, but then again that is a topic for another online social comment.
You’ve come to pretty much the same conclusions that I have, Ed. I use Facebook and Twitter. I am signed up for LinkedIn and Plaxo, but only for the free services and I hardly ever visit either of them – only when someone asks to be a contact on one or the other. I love Facebook and Twitter because they are free and easy to use and really social. One can have e-conversations with people via both platforms (and I frequently do). And they are both good places to notify people of blog postings, etc.
I tried Plurk for a while, but the interface is really horrible and I couldn’t find any advantage over Twitter.
I shall be interested to read any other conclusions you come to.
I agree with your conclusions as well. I first joined Linked-In (when invited) and hardy ever go there. It’s a clunky site. FB is sooo many things, from a great time-waster to valuable networking system. I enjoy the occasional game of Scrabble and keep up with my relatives and friends. And people are darn funny!
Agree with all you said…and I find Facebook offers another feature that will help some of us. Our event ARTS Encounters is entering its fifth year and people have asked to be notified. These result in a database that is now difficult to send out, because due to the large numbers, even though we break them down, could be read as spam. So I have built an ARTS Encounters page and a separate Benini page and people can become fans and thus notified of the events through Facebook. Am shifting over to that now.
Ed,
Terrific piece and valuable perspective. Thanks.
David
After reading your post about Facebook I decided it was about time to give it a try. Thanks for eliminating the others for me. I too am embarking on the social networking experiment.
At first I thought LinkedIn would be my social media of choice, but totally agree with you. A friend showed me the ins/outs of Facebook about 10 days ago, so I didn’t make the mistakes she did:) Now I’m hooked and building up this network vs. LinkedIn.
Thanks for your thoughts – confirms my direction. Deb
Ed-
I enjoyed reading your comments about all these social media sites. It will most likely save me a lot of time.
Do you belong to and/or know about the “Social Media Club”? I would like to hear your thoughts?
Thank you for your time.
Cheers,
Chris Chandler, CA
What’s best? Depends on what you’re looking for.
LinkedIn’s growth is more than double that of Facebook. LinkedIn provides things that Facebook can’t, such as the ability to provide and check online written references – which is critical in this age where HR will reveal nothing.
The serious business people that I know say that LinkedIn is like Facebook for people with jobs. They’re content with being able to update their status at will, and receive the updates of their contacts. They aren’t looking to chat or become fans. They’re surprisingly open to mutually beneficial alliances and opportunities. LinkedIn is a little antisocial, as has been implied, from the standpoint that it’s really built for business. On the other hand, your LinkedIn account is a form of social collateral that really comes in handy when you become available for work and have people to assist you in finding your next gig. I guess it’s social, but not interactive.
Recently I added a Facebook profile. To me, I may ask business contacts who I meet to LinkIn, but I wouldn’t ask them to be a friend on Facebook. I just feel like that would be strange. On the other hand, the friends I’ve added on Facebook are my buddies who care about me as a person, but I’m not linkedin with most of them. These people want to hear about my life, my kids, my family.
You could have a more business-like Facebook profile, but what fun would that be? The statistics imply that the executives prefer LinkedIn – possibly because of its simplicity and relative quiet. If you’re in certain lines of business, I think a LinkedIn profile is a must-have. I’m not an executive and I have really found the free service to be of tremendous value to me.
If your customers are not high-level executives though, perhaps a more informal media would work better. : ) Good luck!
It seems that Dot is very committed to LinkedIn. It also seems that he is using the paid features of the service for his job, and benefiting from free information listed by the non-paying users. I would be curious to find out whether the money is coming out of his pocket, or the company he works for.
I do take issue with the fact that professionals are only on LinkedIn, and not Facebook. It seems that Mark Cuban and many other executives have found the benefit.
There will be disagreement. But for my money (free), Facebook is a better deal.
Very interesting article and I agree with what you are saying. I have both a Facebook and Linked In Profile and I use them largely for different purposes.
Linked In is all business, not a bad thing but don’t expect to make friends there and the platform is showing it’s age compared to Facebook.
Facebook is both personal and professional and I do like the different apps available and it is just so much more user friendly.
Cheers
Bill
Ed –
I am of the opinion that you may have judged LinkedIn a little harshly. It really does have value as a business networking tool – and I mean with the *free* services *only*. I have never seen a need to upgrade. I also use Facebook and Twitter. Each of these services has great value to me, and I can’t give totally clear-cut boundaries between them. (Yes, to some extent LinkedIn is “business” and Facebook is “personal”, but I don’t like making such distinctions anyway.)
One clear benefit of LinkedIn is the ability to have colleagues or clients write independent recommendations.
Read more about how I have used these services in my article: “Wanted – used car for $8,516.58″. Perhaps start here and refer back: http://delarue.net/blog/2008/03/found-car/.
– Keith.
OK, add me to the middle ground too. I’ve been on linked in about 6 years now and have loved the work aspect and networking aspect of it. I recently got on Facebook and – while I love it – it’s a little broad and busy for a ADD person like me. Also, a practical point for those of us living behind corporate firewalls: many companies block Facebook but allow LinkedIn.
And one more thing. I’m a geek, but also anxious to keep the lines a little distinct between work and home, and I’m not so sure I want my boss trolling my personal wall and public discussions and pictures with friends.
I have been feeling guilty about not visiting my LinkedIn profile, not “connecting” with people there, and not spending enough time in the network.
How ironic, then, that with some random clicking about in LinkedIn, I found this article, which alleviated my guilt entirely and prompted me to update my LinkedIn status to “Nikki is rarely on LinkedIn but often on Facebook. Same name, better status lines, I promise.”
Thanks. There’s already enough stress in my life.
I wanted this article to live up to its title and provide the social facts of social networking. I want to know: After initial contact, how are users remaining “social?” Now that I have a list of friends/contacts, what do I do? How do I stay keep my online presence relevant? Someone, please, write that article.
Ed,
I have to agree with Keith De La Rue’s comment that you may have been a bit harsh on LinkedIn. I’ve been a devoted user of LI’s free service for several years and with great success.
For further details on the value of LinkedIn, check out my recent post: Are you a networking LION or lamb?
I also have a Facebook profile that is intended (mostly) for non-business use only.
I have revised my opinion just slightly of LinkedIn, partially because of all the great comments that have been left. I have still seen no real compelling reason to choose it over Facebook, but I have an open mind.
If you are going to control your online visibility for business purposes rather than have it control you, my vote is on LinkedIn. It is much more robust and focused than FB and the chances of finding your kids on it is a lot lower:). If used well (and it can be for free) you can generate an amazing number of contacts and get to someone you need to. My experience with FB was reading about people doing the most trivial things – like getting their haircut! While that may be interesting on a social level it certainly doesn’t do the trick professionally.
I have accounts on Facebook, LinkedIn and Plaxo. Each of them has some advantages and disadvantages.
Facebook is the definite winner for social interactions, fun and mobile integration (the iPhone app is really nice), but is fiercely controlling about what information you can export (basically you can’t export almost anything). So really a failure at any sort of connection/contact management that is somewhat critical in business.
LinkedIn has focused on business connections and tools instead of social ones. Features like the ability to show a connection chain, recommendations and searching by company can be invaluable in business applications. I have recently decided to seek out a career move. LinkedIn has been very useful in checking out companies I’m talking with. I search for the company and see who works there, or has worked there that I may have a contact in common with. That way I can get a more reliable sense of the company environment and culture when considering any offers. I think it’s a real disadvantage that you have to pay a subscription for simple features like sending messages or getting introduced, and wonder if it’s a sustainable long term business model given the pressure from Facebook. Although, unlike Facebook, you can easily export your connections from LinkedIn.
Plaxo entered the game with focus on contact management and syncing, which can be very useful, but not sure enough people will pay for the features necessary to really make it effective. I think it wants to be the best of both Facebook and LinkedIn, but the boat has already sailed, and I really doubt it’s differentiating feature of automatic contact syncing and updating is enough for its network to reach critical mass to make it useful.
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