Valleywag
It's assumed that Facebook's main rival is Myspace. Facebook, with 23m unique visitors in the US in April, according to Comscore, is the only social network that comes within spitting distance of Myspace's 67m. And both gigantic sites took off when adopted by young audiences, Myspace by music fans, and Facebook by college students. But Facebook's immediate challenge is not to Myspace, but to another social network, which might surprise you: Linked In.
On the surface, the two couldn't be any more different: Mark Zuckerberg's social network has only recently expanded beyond college students; and Linked In is a tool for recruiters, job seekers, sales execs and other corporate drones. But Facebook's interface is sufficiently clean, and efficient, that it's attracting a new class of user, the professional.
Browsing through my feeds a few minutes ago, I came across a plea by Scott Heiferman, founder of Meetup, who has obviously been barraged by invitations to connect from Facebook users. "No, I really don't want to spend hours moving from LinkedIn to Facebook," he writes.
The central truth of social networks is that they are only as valuable as the people that join them. By that measure, Facebook will soon overtake Linked In, at least in my world. Since I joined, a month ago, I've had 38 invitations to connect on Facebook, compared with 17 approaches from Linked In users. (Charted, above.) Some of that gap may be to do with my longer tenure on Linked In: many people who want to connect, already have.
But Facebook invitations seem to be, at least for the moment, of a higher quality: people I might want to list. And, because it's a general-purpose networking tool, rather than simply for the purpose of business, it feels less cheesy. We're getting everybody at Gawker Media to set up Facebook accounts, if they don't already have one, and migrating our staff directory to the system. I would have been mocked for using Linked In for that purpose.
Comments
It almost makes sense for Facebook to buy LinkedIn. People using Facebook aren't just college students, they're job hunters, and a good portion of anyone's professional network is comprised of old college buddies anyway, so it fits. Also, as you mentioned, a lot of LinkedIn users are Facebook users too, and nobody likes to keep two separate profiles.
It would also be a good move on Facebook's part to sort of show to the world that it's not kidding around. No, they don't want to be bought by Yahoo or Google or Viacom or anyone else -- they want to be a player on their level. How better to show them they mean business than by switching from seller to buyer.
Of course, given the way Facebook's been doing things (implementing their own features instead of buying other peoples', it's possible Facebook is already working on a Facebook Jobs or something similar that mimics what LinkedIn does already.
You may have missed the point of LinkedIn here; I know many people I work with have. I don't invite just anybody to connect in LinkedIn, I only invite people I think are really good at what they do and that I would want to work with again. Likewise, I don't accept invitations on LinkedIn from just anybody. Being connected to someone on LinkedIn is an implicit endorsement: I take it as saying you'd recommend hiring the target.
On the other hand, for social networks like Facebook, MySpace, or 360, I'll invite just about anybody I know, or accept invitations from just about anybody. There are people I like to spend time with that I would not work with.
If there are other people that feel similarly, you may be receiving fewer invitations on LinkedIn than you do on purely social networks because you may not be as good at what you're doing as you think, or because your friends have not worked with you and don't feel comfortable recommending you for a job. These are both reasons why I ignore LinkedIn invitations, and why I limit who I invite to connect there.
i agree that facebook has presented a nice value prop for the professional community. i was pleasantly surprised with facebook after first trying to see what the fuss was about myspace (still don't get myspace).
fyi: reid hoffman, chairman and former ceo of linkedin, sits on the facebook board.
that graph contains precisely zero molecules of information.
you should mocked anyway. just for the hell of it.
It makes total sense to me. For valleywag, professional connections and work *is* photosharing. So, facebook is a much better application than Linkedin. Linkedin would be used -- say -- for reference checking, or finding an expert on a subject, or even soliciting some opinions from people who would back their comments up with their names and reputations. Valleywag prefers a list of who's a friend now, and perhaps some pretty pictures. Makes sense to. Go team!
CC 4tw!
Michael Moritz, most influential venture capitalist — Moritz, a partner at Sequoia Capital and early backer of Yahoo, Google among others, is the only VC to make Time’s list of 100 most influential. “Many people see Mike as a loner.
There is also of course the small matter of the rest of the world outside the US, where I'd say LikedIn is more popular among professionals than Facebook...
I have 124 connections on LinkedIn, and have received only a couple of invites to facebook through a nephew with friends in the US. I'm sure my experience is not unique in Europe...
are u kidding?
LinkedIn is for business.
Facebook is for personal.
NFW is Facebook worried about LinkedIn, nor are they really even in competition... ok, so maybe LinkedIn is worried Facebook might creep into their higher-end / older market eventually, and perhaps LinkedIn aspires to get younger & hipper, but seriously now. if there is overlap, more likely the person has profiles on BOTH systems.
Matt Cohler left LinkedIn with Reid Hoffman's blessing (& previous investment) to join Facebook. I'm sure Reid would have loved to have had Matt stick around, but he also knew Facebook was a big story that was getting bigger. Still, Reid's also proved that LinkedIn has become successful in its own right.
Facebook may have an extra digit on LinkedIn when the eventual tale of the tape is told, but they'll BOTH be quite fat & happy regardless.
now let's all raise a glass to the PayPal Mafia, and hope that when they completely rule the entire world they'll piss gently & regularly on the rest of us mere mortals...
All it will take for Facebook to surpass Linkedin in the business networking world is the right application.
We think Kuhnektid is that application.
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