LinkedIn vs Facebook – Do You Use Them Differently?
I signed up for Facebook several years after I joined LinkedIn. In fact, I even joined Twitter six months before becoming a Facebook member. A year ago you could of said that a Gen X guy on Facebook was not the norm. But now that there are as many Facebook users aged 25 to 54 as there are those that are aged 18 to 24, I would consider my demographic fairly average these days.
So you can imagine how surprised I was when I uploaded my LinkedIn contacts to Facebook and found an acceptance rate of only 10 to 15% to become my “friend”. So, you’re OK connecting with me on LinkedIn, but not being my friend on Facebook? What’s the scoop?
I know what you’re going to say: “I use Facebook for personal uses and LinkedIn for business, so I prefer to connect with only close friends on Facebook.” And I had many people say this to me.
But, as I say to people on LinkedIn, if you are on Facebook and don’t want to connect to new people, why are you on a social networking site to begin with? Why not just email and phone them?
I understand that Facebook gives you the ability to upload and share photos and videos. And maybe some of those that you posted are not for public consumption. Why would you put these things on Facebook to begin with? There are photo-sharing and video-sharing sites out there that give you the same ability to do this with complete privacy.
You see, from a Windmill Networking perspective, all of these social networking sites are all different flavors of the same social media. Yes, each site has different functionality and a different networking environment, but I don’t have any different policy for Facebook than I would for LinkedIn, Twitter, or any other site.
I simply don’t put any personal information on the Internet that is not for public consumption. Period.
You can see how from my perspective, there is a case for Windmill Networking on every social networking site. Facebook is particularly appealing because it has 200 million members. That’s five times the 40 million that LinkedIn has! Can you imagine all of the wonderful people out there that you can potentially connect with and mutually add value to? And the ability to post valuable photos and videos, not of the personal nature but in helping you brand yourself or educate others, is tremendous.
And you still only connect with people you know on Facebook?
Let me end with a message to those that are still afraid to venture out onto Facebook. You don’t have to follow my connections policy if you don’t want to. But you should remember my point of just not putting anything up there that you wouldn’t want the public to see. Avoid the temptation to put embarrassing things online. And remember there are many privacy settings on Facebook that you can utilize to further protect yourself.
Don’t be afraid of joining or Windmill Networking on any social networking site, including Facebook. Just remember your objective and make sure that everything you do is helping market your brand. Simple!
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=1b14aad1-2e6f-4728-81eb-44cee78b6972)
Neal Schaffer is recognized as a leader in helping businesses and professionals embrace and strategically leverage the potential of social media. An award-winning published author, frequent speaker at social media events, and an avid blogger, Neal is President of 
Comments
RT @nealschaffer LinkedIn vs Facebook – Do You Use Them Differently? | Windmill Networking http://bit.ly/81AiS
RT @nealschaffer LinkedIn vs Facebook – Do You Use Them Differently? | Windmill Networking http://bit.ly/81AiS
Neal –
Great post. I find it interesting how people are nervous about leveraging Facebook as a networking tool. One reason is that they feel it is social and will not gain them any business value and too they do not have to leverage it to their success.
Best –
Chernee Vitello
LinkedIn vs Facebook – for business? – http://bit.ly/l2BAJ
The privacy settings on Facebook are massively customiseable. You can limit the display of photo albums to individuals/groups. It can be totally separated off into personal and business content. Very useful indeed.
I’m not going to use Facebook for job hunting until there is a broad consensus that it is “needed”, or “everyone is doing it.” So I’ll join the silent protesters trying to avoid it. My Facebook pages include information about my age, my family, my lifestyle, my religion and my politics. None of them are embarrassing, but none of them are the business of any employer. Employers can’t ask if you’re married, if you have children, etc., on an interview, so why should they have easy access to that info as a normal part of the hiring process? Yes, you could block that stuff, but what would be left? Things will go very backward in job hunting if employers are fully supported to have easy ways to find these things out.
Hi Chernee,
Thanks for your vote of confirmation and I couldn’t agree with you more! I do find people take Facebook a little bit too personal, if you know what I mean
- Neal
Dawn,
It’s amazing how many people know very little about these privacy settings. Thanks for reminding all of us!
- Neal
Hi Mary,
You bring up a valid point. If you want to use Facebook for personal use and not job-hunting, that is valid. I just think, with the right objective and thinking, that you can potentially get much more out of Facebook. I put up the fact that I am married but I don’t put up what year I was born, my religion, my politics, etc. They are not for public consumption. And because of that I have no issues with Facebook.
- Neal
“But, as I say to people on LinkedIn, if you are on Facebook and don’t want to connect to new people, why are you on a social networking site to begin with?”
Neal, I fully agree with this statement, which makes me wonder why LI places so much emphasis on connecting with only people you know. Isn’t one of the key reasons to network to reach out to people one doesn’t necessarily know?
~ Scott Woodard
Hey Scott,
I am glad that someone agrees with that
And as for the subject of LinkedIn, I did a pretty thought provoking podcast today related to that and other quirky things about the platform. You can access it through this link: http://budurl.com/tfdf It’s an hour long so only listen to it when you have the time 
- Neal
I sure do.
Facebook for friends/family… where Linkedin is for friends/family AND business professionals/contacts/classmates/coworkers/managers…
- Steven Burda
RT @nealschaffer LinkedIn vs Facebook – Do You Use Them Differently? | Windmill Networking http://bit.ly/81AiS
I’ve seen this question a few times and always with interesting perspectives provided. For me it is fairly simple. The answer to the original question is yes, I use them very differently.
Facebook I use very much for friends and family and for keeping in ‘social’ contact with them. In this context is like going to a bar with friends and chatting about the day, or girlfriends what the kids did on the weekend etc.
LinkedIn I consider very much a business networking environment, as such I treat this as a professional, business focused environment, where I would discuss strategies, seek advice on business issues or contribute to business related subjects.
Of course there will be overlap in who is a friend and who is a business contact, and there may be a little overlap in subject matter. However each is as different to me, as a business networking function is different to a family Xmas dinner.
I get a lot of the same obsolete thinking, that Facebook is for family and friends and LinkedIN for professional purpose, unfortunately that’s ignoring a number of important facts about Facebook.
Facebook has become an important tool, be it for business, branding or networking for a job.
A recent survey from Jobvite shows that 59% of employers used Facebook to find candidates, 44% used Facebook to research candidates, those are impressive numbers by any means. +
Facebook has become an important source of information for employers and hiring managers, their ability to view a Facebook profile allows them to learn about the candidate, get a feel for their ability to interact, gauge their potential fit in their team.
For the candidate, the interviewer’s ability to learn about them personally creates instant rapport.
Of course, that implies some self censure, but no matter where, online or not, Facebook or any other social network, as the saying goes, you should not post or let other post anything you would not want your mother to see.
Facebook has come a long way to help members decide what is public or not and who sees what.
By the way, everybody should google, bling and yahoo their name to find out what about them is already online, as far as online goes, what you do not know can hurt you.
Richard –
Your response is a pretty common one. My argument is, with the potential for Windmill Networking that exists on Facebook, why limit yourself?
- Neal
Pgadeyne- I agree with you 100%! Thank you for sharing those invaluable stats with us as well! Glad to know that I have found a soul mate in you
– Neal
[...] LinkedIn vs Facebook – Do You Use Them Differently? I signed up for Facebook several years after I… [...]