Is Facebook The Next LinkedIn?

Posted by Nick O'Neill on June 13th, 2007 9:29 AM

Many in the blogosphere have been wondering if Facebook is the next place to organize all of your business contacts. I myself have been having similar thoughts. After returning from a week of networking in New York City I proceeded to add many of the contacts that I made to my Facebook friends. I also proceeded to add all of my contacts to my LinkedIn contacts. So will we have to choose between the two or are we going to use both?

I think both networks serve a purpose and will continue to thrive. LinkedIn is strictly professional. Facebook on the other hand is a place where the lines can get blurred between professional relationships and friendships. Additionally, if you grew up in the generation that was on Facebook throughout college, there is a chance that unprofessional photos of yourself could pop up randomly. When another one of your friends decides to upload a picture depicting yourself in an unflattering situation they could easily tag you and suddenly this shows up on your profile. For the older generation, this risk is practically non-existent. I think we will hear more Facebook stories similar to those of MySpace stories where recruiters decide not to hire a potential employee due to random pictures that popped up on their profile.

Bottom line: I think there is room for both networks. Facebook allows people to randomly tag photos of you whereas LinkedIn has no potential of unprofessional photos to suddenly pop-up. If Facebook built in a system that forced you to approve any photos you are tagged in prior to them appearing in your profile, there is a chance that much more networking will take place within the network.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 13th, 2007 at 9:29 am and is filed under Analysis, Applications. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.