Business Opinions: Facebook vs. LinkedIn

Pick a side or use them both to your benefit?

When I picked this topic automatically it passed through my mind the fact that some readers will argue the absence of the other social media tools. Meaning Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram and Google +. The reason behind choosing to write only about Facebook and LinkedIn is that in Romania all the others didn’t really catch and Google+ looks like is admitting it was not really a success. So hoping I answered the question let’s see how Facebook and LinkedIn can help and most important when to use them.

            As everyone knows the real world has also a virtual reality, another world where most of the people in the real world go every day in search of information, advice, fun and business. The advantage is that you have access to a lot of people easier and with minimum expenses but the disadvantage is the difficulty in creating real relationships with profiles or avatars.

            A couple of weeks ago I had a 8 minute mentoring session talking about LinkedIn in an Open Connect event. I was surprise that people considered that it was about how LinekdIn is better than Facebook for example and of course there were some arguments explaining how Facebook is better. I wasn’t actually trying to do that, there is no fight between Facebook and LinekdIn per se, they are both great tools for business online promotion, but there is a difference in regards of when to use them according to your agenda.

            Facebook started as a social online network, a place where you can find friends and share your life, ideas and opinions. Of course in time the business factor find its place here promoting business ideas and offers but in my opinion what you get on Facebook is appreciation, likes and comments. You can build awareness and get people interested but the end result is not always transformed in money and partnerships but mostly in likes, comments and sharing.

            LinkedIn started specifically with business in mind, recruiting specialists, finding partners for your business and getting specialized advice from people in your virtual area. People in the LinekdIn world go there looking for business opportunities and finding partners or employees not for sharing personal opinions and plans. You don’t see holiday’s photos of your future business partner and comments are objective and useful.

            Using one of them has to be related to your business and your needs. When you are selling something that anyone needs (flowers, toys, food, clothes) it is a good idea to use Facebook and try to reach as much people you can. It is a numbers game so you must reach as many people and hope they will like and buy your product. The more specific your product or services, the more complex and professional it gets you should use LinkedIn. People on LinkedIn have a greater understanding of the business and you can find and contact them exactly for that.

            The biggest trap of Facebook has to be the fact that the users go there mostly to relax, connect with friends and often get irritated if assaulted with offers unless they are really interested, opposite LinkedIn users expect to get business offers.

            Talking about my opinions I have to admit I am a fan of LinkedIn first because I got good contacts, partners and deals there but also because the numbers speak for themselves. You get a 3 times higher conversion visit to lead on LinkedIn than on Facebook and Twitter and 64% of visits from online social media channels to company sites come from LinkedIn. You also have 2.2 million groups where you can find partners interested in the same topic, of course we can find groups also on Facebook but the interest in the topics is not as big.

            Closing the topic i hope the idea of a battle between Facebook and LinkedIn is eliminated and you can understand the utility of both but remember you have to use those wise and correct. Final conclusion from my experience in using them is that you can promote a B2C business very well on Facebook, looking for customers in the almost 5 million Romanian users but if you are looking for partners or customers for a B2B it will be a better idea to use LinkedIn and the 740 000 Romanian users.