LinkedIn Traffic Up, But Is It Enough?

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1. What's Hot Today.com
   

   July 13th, 2007 at 7:38 pm

   That’s a very good question and certainly a little more time will tell. Stay tuned

2. Chris
   

   July 13th, 2007 at 7:41 pm

   I wish my sites had that much traffic…

3. gettit
   

   July 13th, 2007 at 7:42 pm

   It’s obviously not enough to get back in the big game, and I doubt that LinkedIn would want to be relegated to a niche, but I do think there is room for niche players in the world. And if you’re not bogged down in venture capital money, you can actually be profitable long-term I think.

   Time will tell.

4. morris
   

   July 13th, 2007 at 8:05 pm

   Duncan - I’m puzzled as to why you are comparing Linkedin to Facebook? Have you used either of these sites? Linkedin is for professional networking. Facebook is for keeping in touch with college buddies. If I’m hiring a position I go to my Linkedin network. When I’m looking for Friday night drinking buddies I go to Facebook.

   You got it right in the second paragraph - this is an apples to oranges comparison.

5. egeez311
   

   July 13th, 2007 at 8:09 pm

   I was shocked when combing LinkedIn to find many executives over 40, from a Bank none the less (from Cleveland Ohio none the less!) registered and active on LinkedIn. Its certainly an relevant niche, without the hype and youth connotations that may steer the same folks away from Facebook (albeit a very clean social networking platform).

6. Nemrut
   

   July 13th, 2007 at 8:13 pm

   I’ve always thought Linkedin was overrated. It’s only a matter of time before similar/if not better networking features are available on Facebook. This combined wit richer profiles and ability to connect with others based on interests is what a true networking svc should be about.

7. Louis-Eric
   

   July 13th, 2007 at 8:17 pm

   A good number of LinkedIn users are also forking over money every month for expanded memberships (those are not cheap); that’s one source of revenue that FaceBook can’t claim. I’d rather have 10,000 users paying $20 a month than have a 100,000 seeing ads; it makes financial sense, shows that users are committed and believe in the platform enough to invest their discretionary income in it, and attracts people who are less likely to chase after the next big shiny thing. That’s a solid, viable business that is not hedging its bets on an exit strategy of some sort.

8. bob cobb
   

   July 13th, 2007 at 8:40 pm

   The thing is, people arent nearly as willing to pay for facebook. People will spend money on linkedin because it has to do more with their career. Your average facebook user is a broke college student(not all)

9. Dominic
   

   July 13th, 2007 at 8:55 pm

   Duncan

   Your question was, ” is it enough?”. Enough for what? Be really successful? Of course it is. I’m sure that when you compare ebay to amazon, one has more traffic and growth than the other. IS THAT ENOUGH? DUH !

   Dominic

10. Jason
    

    July 13th, 2007 at 9:09 pm

    Duncan, interesting post. Facebook seems to be the first pure social networking site where business professionals congregate (at least tech folks), and I agree Linkedin should be paying attention to this

    But I’ve always thought Linkedin was one of the best examples of a “nitche” play on the web. Its a fantastic product, and their premium services are generating them a lot of cash. Most people don’t realize how many heavy hitters are on that site, and I just don’t see top level execs in their 40s - 60s migrating over to facebook in droves anytime soon. My money is on likenin holding their own and continuing to grow.

11. Mark Coker
    

    July 13th, 2007 at 9:33 pm

    LinkedIn is underappreciated and underestimated by most folks, especially those who don’t use it. For those that do use it, it’s a valuable, well designed tool. They’ve only scratched the surface of what’s possible with the service. Facebook is interesting too, but as a business tool LinkedIn is the one to watch.

12. Rohan
    

    July 13th, 2007 at 9:42 pm

    I think it is too simplistic a method to compare niche social networks such as LinkedIn to the two big general social networks (Facebook/MySpace) on a surface traffic level. LinkedIn may have a much smaller userbase but I see them having a better chance of monetizing the userbase they do have with premium services since their users may be more willing to part with a few bucks if it may help their career along. I see value there.

    Although Facebook/MySpace have huge ad deals with Microsoft/Google, there have been indications that FB/MySpace click through rates for ads are less than impressive which is a major challenge they will have to overcome for long term viability. What’s the use of all that traffic if it doesn’t convert well for advertisers?

    IMO, LinkedIn may end up being considered a success even if it doesn’t keep up with the big 2 SNs.

13. Chandra Bajpai
    

    July 13th, 2007 at 9:53 pm

    LinkedIn needs a killer app. I only use it to keep track of old-coworkers. I’ve yet to have someone tell me they’ve gotten a successful introduction from it. It’s a great concept though. I just wish they figure out how to monetize it well beyond what they are doing today….I have an idea for the killer app, but I’ll wait until they have an API. If they don’t FB gets it! (hint: Question is how to get early API access..feel free to contact me via LinkedIn)

    My Score:
    +—+
    : 8 :
    +—+

14. Duncan Riley
    

    July 13th, 2007 at 10:07 pm

    Morris
    yes, I’ve used BOTH, and Facebook is being used more and more for business networking, indeed I, and others I talk to are getting more and more business networking requests via Facebook these days (in fact for me it would be 90% Facebook or there abouts). It’s also long since moved on for being used by “college buddies”…indeed you might be about 12 months out of date.

    Dominic
    Facebook is swamping LinkedIn in terms of networking traffic, People are using Facebook for business networking…DUH!

    Rohan
    point taken on some levels, although I think (and still think) that LinkedIn’s biggest competitor now is Facebook given the changing demographics and professional bent of Facebook. We’re quick to compare Facebook to MySpace but the more I use Facebook the more different I think it is in terms of that comparison. It’s also why I’m starting to think Facebook will never beat MySpace, the demographics are just that much different: Facebook is for adults.

15. Tech Untangled
    

    July 13th, 2007 at 10:10 pm

    hmm….the gap is getting wider over time. LinkedIn better come up with some good idea to make it more useful to people. It’s a great site, but I feel that facebook is a lot more useful, hence the higher traffic.

16. Tomas
    

    July 13th, 2007 at 10:21 pm

    I’m soooo tired of the facebook hype… LinkedIn is not going anywhere… Facebook… who knows…

    I’d take the 6 billion from MS and run while your company is hot!

17. Drama 2.0
    

    July 13th, 2007 at 10:22 pm

    “…given the rising popularity of Facebook as the social networking destination of choice?”

    Duncan: it’s well-established with data that, while Facebook is growing rapdily, MySpace is still by far the most popular social networking destination and is actually showing stronger growth in certain metrics. Therefore I’m confused as to where you come up with this notion that Facebook is becoming the social networking destination of choice. Maybe it will be at some point, but one of the biggest problems I have with many of your posts is that you frequently make bold statements that have no data to support them. Further, some of these statements are refuted by well-publicized data.

    You might want to consider making it clear that some of your statements are opinions. “I believe”, “I think”, and “I predict” go a long way. With these, your sentence could go from something that makes you look ill-informed to:

    “…is this growth high enough given the rising popularity of Facebook, which I believe is rapidly becoming the social networking destination of choice?”

    or:

    “…is this growth high enough given the rising popularity of Facebook, which I predict will eclipse MySpace as the social networking destination of choice?”

    It’s difficult for somebody to refute a personal opinion or prediction, even if he or she doesn’t agree with it. When you state things as fact when they are not, you lose credibility, which of course makes your opinions less relevant. After all, why would we take your opinions seriously if you can’t even present facts correctly? Sorry to be an arse but I’d personally enjoy your posts a lot more if you present fact as fact and opinion as opinion. Of course, you don’t write to please me so I’ll simply expect more of the same.

    In regards to real point of your post, comparing LinkedIn to Facebook is not a worthwhile exercise in my opinion. One is a focused, niche offering while the other is increasingly trying to be all things to all people. Furthermore, LinkedIn has built a viable business through diverse revenue streams, including paid services, and has criticial mass/network effects. There is room for multiple winners in most markets, and I think that’s true in the social networking market. Five years from now, both LinkedIn and Facebook could be very successful businesses, or they could both be gone. The outcome is more likely to be determined by their own internal decisions than it is by the other.

    Personally, I plan to keep using LinkedIn for business, Facebook to find keggers to crash and MySpace to meet other swingers.

    http://www.drama20show.com/200.....linkedout/

18. Michael Camilleri
    

    July 13th, 2007 at 10:33 pm

    Again with the blunt assertions about the dominance of Facebook. Only this week Arrington wrote a post about the continuing dominance of MySpace (http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/11/myspace-still-the-king/). What statistics indicate that adults flock to Facebook as their social network of choice? What statistics indicate that professionals are meeting this way?

    I believe you when you say your experience is that Facebook is providing the majority of your business networking but that’s not an objective statistic. That’s an anecdote. I can tell you that 99% of my friends don’t do any business networking over Facebook. Nor would they want to. Facebook has their blog entries about going out and getting pissed the night before and compromising photos of said going out.

    What is superior about the Facebook offering as a professional meeting point to the LinkedIn offering? You assert but provide no evident to back it up. The last time I used LinkedIn it was the only one providing tools that were useful for finding people or finding jobs. I would hate to try to use Facebook to try to find an employee. I mean what would my search term be?

19. Chris Craig
    

    July 13th, 2007 at 11:11 pm

    First of all, I think people who think Linkedin can (or tries to) compete with Facebook are dreaming. Why would a site filled with over 35 year old professionals compete with a site filled with 18 year old to 30 year olds.

    Second, Linkedin and Facebook are very different. You use Linkedin to get in contact with recruiters and hiring managers. You can’t do that in Facebook and I really hope Facebook will not try to get into business networking or job networking because that is not what Facebook is about.

    Third, I use Facebook to connect with “Friends” not business professionals. If i want to contact business professionals i will go elsewhere or Linkedin.

    Conclusion: Facebook should not try to be like LinkedIn and Linkedin should stay the way they are and not try to compete with Facebook.

20. Duncan Riley
    

    July 13th, 2007 at 11:26 pm

    Commenter 17+18
    If you go through the archives you’ll also see that I’ve written that MySpace is still dominant as well…you’re totally missing the context, which is serious networking Facebook vs LinkedIn. MySpace is for kids, Facebook is being used for serious networking. Drama 2.0, there’s little doubt that amongst adults that Facebook IS the social networking destination of choice, it’s not an opinion, its fact. Again, MySpace has 3x the traffic and about 4x the users BUT the demographic is different. Indeed, I’m at the stage now where I’ll be hesitant about ever comparing the two: they are very, very different services.

21. jeb
    

    July 13th, 2007 at 11:35 pm

    Facebook’s usefulness is going to fade. If their traffic is growing so much, why are their data center cages sitting half empty? Could it be that their click through ad rate is completely overrated?

    Linkedin’s model is simple and useful. If they expanded their job recruiting features with something like jobvite, they could take on monster.com.

22. Mo Kakwan
    

    July 13th, 2007 at 11:49 pm

    “nearly everyone who takes their social networking seriously (ie: adults) are joining Facebook”

    I meet folks at the various web related mixers in SF and there is a fairly clear division between the sort that add you on facebook and the sort that add you on linked in. The folks that didn’t have Facebook in college and don’t currently have a myspace page will probably add you on Linked-In.

    Facebook and Myspace are like your personal garden. You decorate them. You add little bits that personalize it for the person you are. Linked-In is like walking into a hospital. The stats are very clinical… “Your network is 65% complete”. No icons, no pictures (Which is a *HUGE* shortcoming, matching name to faces is necessary for even professional networking).

    How many of you Adults are on facebook? I’d love to expand my professional network on facebook, if possible.

23. Antje Wilsch
    

    July 14th, 2007 at 12:16 am

    I still think anyone over the age of 35 who is avidly using facebook seems kind of creepy. And I think a lot of people agree with me. Again no one I know (my age etc) is using Facebook unless to check up on their kids, but they use LI and MySpace a lot, for totally opposite purposes. Facebook has a long way to go to overcome their notoriety of being a social networking site for college kids. I know, I know it’s ‘worship Facebook in the Valley time’ but I’m just not seeing it.

24. Ralf
    

    July 14th, 2007 at 12:47 am

    I checked out Facebook now again since you give the impression that they are so great.
    For me the exact same happened though as 6 months ago.
    While I find lots and lots fo former colleagues and business affiliates on LinkedIn I cannot find anybody in Facebook. I repeat nobody. I work in IT marketing/sales and I am quite puzzled how you can claim Facebook is so much better than LinkedIn. This is definetely untrue for me so I will continue using LinkedIn and leave Facebook in peace until I read another hype story then I will check it out again and see…
    BTW, I am not sponsored by anyone I am writing here about.

25. Michael Vu
    

    July 14th, 2007 at 12:53 am

    I think Linkedin will continue to thrive as a professional social network. I’m beginning to know more and more people who are on LinkedIn and not Facebook - and vice versa.

    The web is getting so big, there’s plenty of room for everybody. Facebook, Linkedin, Myspace, FantasySportsMatrix.com, Bebo, everybody. =)

26. Michael Camilleri
    

    July 14th, 2007 at 12:58 am

    Duncan,

    I did find one post where you’d written about MySpace being dominant.

    MySpace is not in decline, MySpace is growing. At current growth rates Facebook may take several years to come close to matching MySpace in terms of traffic and user numbers baring a massive drop in user numbers by MySpace during that time.

    Good point. Why then kick the hyperbole machine into overdrive in your subsequent posts?

    LinkedIn to Open Platform in Response to Facebook

    LinkedIn helped define the professional networking space, and yet today it faces the real risk of long term irrelevance as Facebook becomes the social networking platform of choice for professional networkers.

    …

    The problem LinkedIn faces is a market suffering from too many social networking options; Facebook offers a one stop shop that for many is becoming their main and in some cases their only choice in social networks.

    MySpace Likely to Open Platform to 3rd Party Developers

    MySpace still maintains leadership in the social networking space based on user numbers and traffic, and has continued to grow; however there is little doubt today that the hearts and minds of the people who count have abandoned MySpace for Facebook.

    Now maybe I am missing the context (serious networking) but that’s because you didn’t provide it for me. You assert (again) that Facebook is what adults use (presumably for serious networking) and yet you provide no statistics and no evidence to back it up. No one I know uses it for serious networking and presumably this is the case with others who have raised questions. That’s all well and good, maybe we’re all the exceptions. But where’s the evidence for what you’re saying? I looked through your previous posts and you have not provided any statistical evidence in any of them to support your claims.

    Now at the risk of sounding crazy, I’d like to go on the record and say that I actually think you’re right. I’m 24 and I never understood MySpace either. I use Facebook as do all my friends. I think Facebook is becoming the dominant platform. I think it has the potential to be as revolutionary as Google. I think it really is the next big thing. But those are opinions based on intuition. They are not arguments. I’m allowed to have them, as are you, but if I’m writing for a major weblog and I make sweeping statements I want to have something a little stronger than what me and my buddies are using as the basis for it. Otherwise I run the risk of sounding foolish and making the outlet I’m writing for sound foolish as well. I want to believe you but I need some evidence.

27. jay
    

    July 14th, 2007 at 2:12 am

    I’m in complete agreement with the general sentiment here that this is a wasted comparison. I’m also in complete agreement that Duncan presents opinions as facts. Even in his rebuttal, he continues to boldly state opinion:

    “MySpace is for kids, Facebook is being used for serious networking.” With a claim like that, I would love to see some objective data on the average age and demo percentages of Facebook vs MySpace users. Simply saying that data is available “elsewhere” is irresponsible reporting.

    Based on my own “facts”, it’s not my own definition of “adults” who are flocking there — very few of my 30+ friends are on it, and those are all in media/tech. Many of my under 30 friends are on it, the most active under 25.

    Incidentally, after trying it out for a few months, I fail to see the hype. It’s simply Friendster 2.0, a clean but restrictive social network with the ability to add slightly more aesthetically palatable bling (read: “apps”) than Myspace. The “networks” evolution is minor, and is poorly conceived from the interaction design side. Yawn. In 9 months “adults” will have tired of all those very shallow “apps”, and something else will come along.

    If you’re going to _force_ a comparison, LinkedIn seems a much more viable product with a real revenue model and room to grow its feature set in a meaningful way to its core application. I’d bet on it outlasting Facebook as a “serious” product, traffic numbers be damned.

28. Duncan Riley
    

    July 14th, 2007 at 2:31 am

    What Jay
    so your saying that MySpace is for 45 year olds with adult kids? There was some data at one stage claiming older group participation on MySpace was high but that was later rebutted by other figures. It would take no longer than 5 minutes of MySpace to find that users of MySpace are (mostly) young. Blind Freddy could see that, I’m not sure how I’m suppose to prove the clear to see, blatantly obvious to all but the blind and infirm fact that kiddies like MySpace.

    As for Facebook, you need to do nothing further that search coverage across Web 2.0 on Facebook, from Facebook Apps through to the various business related groups that are booming on Facebook (a small number of which I’m also a member). People are flooding on to Facebook: I’m not saying that it’s going to pass MySpace, indeed (to those saying that I am) check my previous coverage; I’d be really surprised if Facebook ever surpasses MySpace (on evidence to date it never will)…however the demographic on Facebook IS different. From it’s origins in colleges it has a more qualified (tertiary educated) profile that is using networking in a different way to the glib and shallow “friend sharing” on MySpace. FACT. If you don’t like Facebook so be it, but it’s still being used in ways that were once the exclusive domain of LinkedIn FACT. That makes it a competitor in the space.

29. Tod Pedler
    

    July 14th, 2007 at 3:04 am

    What’s this got to do with the iPhone?

    Just kiding. The strategy for LinkedIn was obvious from the beginning. Enable professionals to build an organic network around individuals of interest. It’s an excellent model and it’s amazing who you can find. Facebook didn’t evolve around this, but Facebook could/will blitz LinkedIn as a business exchange marketplace because of the tools it provides to create rich collaborative experiences. MySpace is truly a phenomenon, an example where design and compelling user experience doesn’t matter. What would a MySpace influenced iPhone look like? Scary thought.

30. Ralf
    

    July 14th, 2007 at 3:10 am

    Duncan

    I suggest you go to sleep and maybe tomorrow you see the world of Facebook with clearer eyes. It is not a LinkedIn type of place simply because there are no people in there with the same demographical background, at least I have not found any… I’d be glad to use Facebook if it would be different but it is NOT, maybe in 5 years it is?

    BR

    RH

31. Duncan Riley
    

    July 14th, 2007 at 3:44 am

    Ralf
    it’s not even dinner time here as a type this, so maybe you should hit the sack.

    To those who don’t think that Facebook and LinkedIn are in the same market: explain LinkedIn planning to open up its platform ala Facebook style? What, you think it’s a stand-alone random act of genius that has nothing to do with Facebook Platform? lol

    Cmon people, even LinkedIn can see that Facebook is a competitor and is playing catch up to stay competitive in an evolving space. I’m not saying LinkedIn is dead, indeed there’s a lot to like about LinkIn, but it DOES face the possibility of becoming irrelevant in the MEDIUM term (as noted in the post) as Facebook continues to cover more and more of same people and market LinkedIn itself covers.

32. Patrick
    

    July 14th, 2007 at 4:35 am

    What can be seen in the historical evolvement of different industries is that after the initial pioneering efforts, a few dominant players emerge. After that a phase of niching begins if the total market is big enough, where more companies cater to a more diversified demographic. Then, convergence of these niches occurs again.

    Taking this analogy, the first league of pioneers in the social networking space such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Xing are obviously in dominant positions now. What we have been seeing since the last half of 2006 is the emergence of a broad variety of niche social networks (our http://www.iHipo.com is one of them for International Jobs and Internships) and I think this trend will continue for quite some time. Facebook disrupted this industry evolvement analogy by allowing these niches to be built into their platform, thereby creating a sort of operating system for social networks - wise move which has proven to be highly successful.

    Although I agree with earlier posters here that, looking at their initial branding and positioning, Facebook has that “fun” image, especially outside the US, and it will take a while until that changes. LinkedIn has always had that professional touch but I see their closedness and very limited interaction possibilities as a hindrance. In my opinion, Xing is the better LinkedIn by following a more open interaction strategy.

    The growth of niche social networks will continue and they can be obviously well sustainable in case they are attractive to a large enough potential user segment. These niche sites will use the API’s of Facebook and soon also LinkedIn as an additional way to drive traffic and promote their brand.

33. Dave
    

    July 14th, 2007 at 5:04 am

    Interesting to see this now after seeing a post earlier in the Blogosphere entitled: “LinkedIn - What’s the big deal?” The author joined for the first time and couldn’t figure out the appeal:

    http://www.techconsumer.com/20.....-big-deal/

34. Eran
    

    July 14th, 2007 at 5:05 am

    Apples and Oranges (for now).
    I believe that LinkedIn is more focused for the business network and have delivered to their users a wonderful place to network. In addition, I believe that some execs would rather use LinkedIn in order to be a little harder (only a little) than on Facebook. Furthermore, the answers platform on LinkedIn is very focused and is directed to the correct categories. This has previously allowed me to receive answers which are relevant to the question, from business execs who’s opinion is important.

    Eran

35. Ernie Oporto
    

    July 14th, 2007 at 6:38 am

    Facebook is worthless for those wanting to present a serious business appearance and networking with the business world. Two totally different niches. Will you be comparing Facebook to the Webkinz network next?

36. Jeremiah Owyang
    

    July 14th, 2007 at 7:11 am

    LinkedinIn’s making progress.

    I wrote my thoughts on their Web Strategy a few weeks ago, and they’ve already started to make progress.

    I have a feeling they will adapt

    http://www.web-strategist.com/.....-strategy/

37. Mark
    

    July 14th, 2007 at 7:58 am

    I agree with Chandra, it’s a good way to track contacts. BUT … it’s not helped me grow my consulting business.

    It will be interesting to see what 3rd party apps can do.

38. Mike
    

    July 14th, 2007 at 8:41 am

    I sure hope that LinkedIn sticks around. I am a small business owner and I use LinkedIn a great deal for keeping in touch with contacts and tracking down names at companies I want to call.

    I love facebook as well, but I use it to scope out chicks, post silly videos of my buddies and stay in touch with primary school friends.

    I also enjoy myspace for looking up new music artists.

    I can’t say that facebook won’t overtake linkedin, but i’m in the apples and oranges camp. They both have very different use cases. At least for me.

39. Jay (living in First Life)
    

    July 14th, 2007 at 9:04 am

    Both are useful sites. I don’t want to be involved with any company that uses Facebook for business networking. The only thing you should do with Facebook is to check future recruits to make sure they aren’t psychos or closet alcoholics from State School X.

40. AnonTroll
    

    July 14th, 2007 at 9:09 am

    I haven’t seen a mass migration of my LinkedIn contacts to Facebook but I am getting more and more contacts from my previous companies asking to connect with me on LinkedIn, not Facebook. Might be my age, I am 40+, so I think that the 18-35 crowd might have a huge presence at Facebook, by and large, LinkedIn is known for professional contact and Facebook is not. Sure they can add that feature to their site but they won’t be as well known for it. Think about it, does adding videos to MySpace put Youtube out of business? Hardly.

41. A Different Book of Links
    

    July 14th, 2007 at 9:24 am

    Isn’t it conceivable that 2 social networks with completely different purposes can co-exit? Despite the droves of adults and professionals now crowding onto Facebook, the site remains largely a friendship-based network, offering none of the tools for meeting new useful contacts that LinkedIn does.

    As a heavy user of both, I think I speak for a lot of professionals when I say that Facebook is for later-stage relationships whereas LinkedIn is more of a dating site for job seekers, human resources and biz dev — you go to check somebody out, maybe broker an introduction but not to build on your relationship.

    Facebook could make a play into the professional networking space, but it would be a bold move. LinkedIn has a strong, established network and a product tailored to the mores of professional decorum. If Facebook made a play, I suspect they would be trying to evolve professional networking more so than their product.

    Assuming the trend continues and professionals and others elect to join more specially-targeted social networks, then the question becomes how to organize all that activity on disparate networks. In that case, an aggregator like Slipstream is a good bet.

42. Rick
    

    July 14th, 2007 at 9:36 am

    While I’m listed on LinkedIn, you’ll never see me on Facebook. I will stick on a business-focused social web site. You won’t see me on Facebook, Orkut or MySpace, LOL…

43. SteveC
    

    July 14th, 2007 at 10:08 am

    Is it enough for what? Seems better a better question would focus on revenue and revenue growth not number of users. Just throwing out numbers, if linkedin can make $100 from one user, they are better of than facebook which might only make $1 per user. LinkedIn users are buying high end sports cars, Facebook users are paying of student loans. Who would you rather sell to.

44. Reality Check
    

    July 14th, 2007 at 10:11 am

    Posts like these clearly show that TechCrunch writers run in different circles than the rest of the “business” world. Facebook is not a mainstream business platform today. Period. End of story.

    It may evolve into one, but few business folks would consider asking people to connect via Facebook. Even those who frequent TechCrunch, which one can assume are a more “connected” audience, aren’t buying the facebook is a business social networking site. Ask the 95% of folks who aren’t nearly as up-to-date as the TechCrunch crowd, and most will think Facebook=Myspace.

    Duncan, it seems you have to realize that your perspective and anecdotal Facebook evidence is just that- yours. Not the mainstream.

    I admire Facebook’s strategy and growth, it just isn’t a business networking site. LinkedIn leaves a lot to be desired, but one clear advantage is that it lacks the stigma of a “teen” networking site. That’s still a huge competitive advantage at this stage of the game.

45. Moshe Maeir
    

    July 14th, 2007 at 11:55 am

    Bottom Line - My Linkedin profile says now “Left for Facebook!” http://flatplanetphone.com/wordpress/?p=263

46. DiMitri Hage
    

    July 14th, 2007 at 12:27 pm

    I have been one of the early users of LinkedIn and in the top fifty over 8000 contacts, without publishing my email like many do.

    Unfortunetly, LinkedIn was/is a spamming heaven for recruiters and that’s a very serious problem as I get so many unsolisited invites. What’s the value add to connect to spamming recruiters.

    I’ll continue to use LinkedIn. It’s simply another tool. But Facebook is the place to be for social networking.

    Go facebook.

47. Chris Craig
    

    July 14th, 2007 at 12:49 pm

    Facebook and Linkedin will never try to compete with each other to bring either one down. Why would they since both companies have the same investor. It makes sense for them to make both of them successfully distinct.

48. Michael Bauer
    

    July 14th, 2007 at 1:07 pm

    Duncan,

    I’m certain there are a fair number of people who WANT to keep their business networking separate from their social networking. Do we want customers, suppliers, outsourcing partners etc. to see the personal information we share with our personal friends on facebook? The hell no.

    People will always have a private and a professional persona (at least the smart people will - we all know what happens to the careers of folks who got too drunk at the last company outing, customer dinner, etc.).

    What’s the best way to keep sure that the two aren’t mixed? Separate the respective online profiles as far from each other as possible - easiest by maintaining them on two completely different sites. Even if Facebook comes up with 5 million tools to enable that separation on their site, the vast majority of folks (including myself) will not trust themselves enough to use these tools correctly at all instances, so the safe alternative to keeping the two profiles separate is still the same: different sites.

    Is LinkedIn the site to keep professional profiles? They got a good lead in the US. In Europe, Xing has been very sucessful and is already public.

    IMHO, there is a space and a use for both professional and social networking sites. The two, however, are unlikely to ever merge or mix.

49. Dave Barnes
    

    July 14th, 2007 at 2:26 pm

    I see companies such as Plaxo getting crushed in this situation.

50. Jason
    

    July 14th, 2007 at 3:49 pm

    I don’t know about everyone else, but I don’t like disclosing my industry connections nor want to make new ones via the net. It’s like how Facebook began and you tried to befriend a lot of people to your profile, but it never meant you would ever end up talking to the person. The same goes for LinkedIn. I have a friend on LinkdIn who is the second most well connected person in southern california, but who cares! Also, I really dont care what they end up doing with Applications. What kind of application, a virtual rolodex of people I don’t know well enough to call or get some imporant information? Give me a break, build your career the real way and get started by deleting the false hopes that you might hit it big with Linked In.

    Jason
    1daysports.com

51. Marc Burch
    

    July 14th, 2007 at 4:31 pm

    LinkedIn adds real value when you are looking for contacts. I like their business model.

52. Antje Wilsch
    

    July 14th, 2007 at 5:02 pm

    I’m curiou about the idea that people are ‘flooding to Facebook’. I’d be interested in the stats. Friendster & Bebo still have 25M+ users. I’m not saying that they’re not going to FB, but who are they?
    Nielsen states: Myspace reaches 51% of 13-17 year olds online (which is 85% of all 13-17 year olds). 79% of the site is 18+, and 25M users who are 30+.

    I work in tech, I’m involved with a large tech non-profit and have been attending technology events regularly (2-3 per week) for the past 4 and a half years. No one I know is on Facebook, or if they are they don’t talk about it. [I’m in my late 30’s.] I’ve gotten one FB request from a reporter, period. I get LI requests all the time.

    And I too would find it weird if companies started soliciting me via FB, I would automatically critically assume they were doing to be “cool” or that recruiters had found this as yet another source for people; & I too definitely want to keep my personal and business networks separated.

    Would be ironic if Friendster came back with its patent and wiped out all the others. “The patent refers to a ’system, method, and apparatus for connecting users in an online computer system based on their relationships within social networks.’” at least LI could fight back with its Six Degrees patent it bought.

53. Stephen
    

    July 14th, 2007 at 6:02 pm

    Facebook and LinkedIn are completely different markets. LinkedIn is business, and Facebook is college students augmented by the new influx of retiree Baby Boomers.

54. David
    

    July 14th, 2007 at 6:14 pm

    Does anyone have data on the % of corporate wrokplaces that block Linkedin vs Facebook?

55. Neil J. Squillante
    

    July 14th, 2007 at 6:19 pm

    Louis-Eric, would you rather have 100,000 people pay you $20/month or 10,000,000 people view ads that work out to $2/person? Google has proven that the latter is the better model on the Internet.

56. HSBC Credit Card Application
    

    July 14th, 2007 at 6:59 pm

    Never really understood what make LinkedIN any different than lets say facebook or myspace. I guess you can say that LinkedIN is the myspace for professionals.

57. Alex
    

    July 14th, 2007 at 7:00 pm

    I agree with Stephen, I wouldn’t put Facebook and LinkedIn in the same boat, LinkedIn is completely different when truly compared to Facebook. You could compare Myspace and Facebook, but not with LinkedIn.

58. HS
    

    July 14th, 2007 at 7:06 pm

    I am a 43 year old executive who has no interest in collecting thousands of online “friends” that I don’t know. I have just over 200 contacts in LinkedIn. They are all current or past colleagues, business partners, or classmates. Almost all (with the exception of Michael Arrington, who had only a couple hundred contacts when I first accepted his invitation 4 years ago) have relatively small networks. I would be surprised if more than a couple dozen of my contacts have Facebook accounts.

    The enhancements made by LinkedIn in the past year have been excellent in terms of usability, and have helped me get back in touch with some old colleagues.

    I have happily paid for LinkedIn premium services, having successfully used the site for recruiting at the Director and VP level. It blows away the pure career and job-focused sites.

    If I went to college in the past few years, I’m sure Facebook would have the inside edge; but from my perspective, LinkedIn serves a different purpose, and is the ONLY networking site for my needs.

59. Viet
    

    July 14th, 2007 at 9:16 pm

    Facebook = fun
    LinkedIn = money (jobs)

60. dave mcclure
    

    July 14th, 2007 at 9:43 pm

    @viet:

    let’s guess:

    facebook = 30m users, 50% active, 5% business = 750K business users
    linkedin = 12m users, 25% active, 100% business = 3M business users

    i’m making up the numbers, but maybe i’m not so far off? in any case, theory aside i’m noticing a lot more facebook invite requests from older / business types i would normally have thought would send me linkedin requests.

    however, i think the [correct] point you make is that LinkedIn has a lot of business-focused functionality that enables more business use. but with Facebook Platform, perhaps it’s not so insane to think someone else could provide that feature set.

    which is why i think LinkedIn should build a business networking app for Facebook (not the hiring one they already tried out).

    - dave mcclure

61. Don Wilson
    

    July 14th, 2007 at 10:30 pm

    With nearly $30m behind it, it’s definitely hard to believe that they’re at such a little user base.

62. David Scott Lewis
    

    July 14th, 2007 at 11:25 pm

    In reality, neither is a good platform for online social networking, but LinkedIn has an advantage across industry sectors. Maybe in the Web 2.0 world Facebook is better than LinkedIn (but I doubt this, although things may be trending in this direction), but the two really serve different purposes. Bottom line: They both add value; they just add it in different ways.

    Shouldn’t this be a comparison between LinkedIn and Xing? It’s LinkedIn vs. Xing as it is Facebook vs. MySpace.

63. Shlomit
    

    July 15th, 2007 at 1:01 am

    As an international user FaceBook is almost useless for me- my high-school is listed, I did not recognize anyone, which means there were no users listed from my age group (1972), none of the companies I worked for (some of them true industry leaders of 1000-5000 employees) is listed.

    On the other hand LinkedIn is constantly used by me for business purposes. For example for developing new business relationships, re-connecting with colleagues, and adding new business contacts for my network. I see that people from Poland, Germany, and Turkey always add me to their network after we establish a relationship via other media. Needless to say that ALL my previous employers small and big are listed in Linked in.

    Bottom line- I think Linked In is still the standard social network for business users outside the US.

64. Tangerine Toad
    

    July 15th, 2007 at 10:45 am

    Duncan:

    I stumbled on to your site from a fellow advertising industry blogger and I have to say I could not disagree with your hypothesis more.

    As many of your readers have pointed out, LinkedIn appeals to the more serious business user precisely because it is NOT Facebook. People like it is the first site of its type that allows you to keep your business life separate from your social life.

    I think you severely underestimate how crucial this is to a demographic that has no desire to ever mesh the two. It’s why LI is able to get the sort of senior executives who’d never dream of exposing themselves on a Facebook.

    Now Facebook does have an opportunity to capitalize on its popularity by creating a Fabebook/Workplace type site which would allow people to keep their social lives out of it.

    Jared Sandberg, who writes “Cubicle Culture” for the (unlinkable-because-it’s-a-pay-site) Wall Street Journal, had a very funny column last week about the pitfalls of business networking on Facebook.

    But a site that allows users to strictly keep to business is going to have huge appeal to professionals in every industry. What we all need to remember, however, is that the percentage of people working in professional jobs is still a relatively small one.

    TT

65. Small Business Mentoring
    

    July 15th, 2007 at 10:49 am

    LinkedIn is for working professionals. Facebook is still for socializing on a personal level.

66. Durk Price
    

    July 15th, 2007 at 3:53 pm

    I’ve used Linked in for years and never really saw anything “happen”. I’m going to Facebook and give it a whirl.

67. JonJonson
    

    July 15th, 2007 at 11:14 pm

    Facebook’s open platform is working against them. It is cluttering up their platform(Newsfeeds, profiles) with garbage. What this means for the business professional is that facebook is turning into more of a myspace with very childish app’s(top friends, super poke, music on profile) . FB no longer has control of the classiness of it’s site. Also, your privacy settings don’t apply to facebook apps.

    Although I see the growth of facebook users increasing, the frequency of their log-in’s are greatly going to decrease.

    Spam is starting to become an issue with FB. I get many spam friend requests on a daily basis.

    No one mentioned that high school kids make up a large percentage of FB.

68. Jay
    

    July 16th, 2007 at 7:17 am

    JonJonson, I think you nail it. Facebook vs MySpace isn’t about age, it’s about demographic. Facebook is simply MySpace for the wealthy, college-educated, and college-bound (see http://www.danah.org/papers/es.....sions.html — Duncan, take note, data! and attributions!).

    I have yet to be convinced that an accumulation of shallow “apps” like SuperPoke are going to evolve the internet, let alone create a new “platform”. And as many point out here, there’s plenty of room on the web for multiple social networks that address different demos.

    LinkedIn has its demo, and the more juvenile “apps” that emerge, the less Facebook looks like a competitor to LinkedIn for that market.

69. Concrete Stain
    

    July 16th, 2007 at 10:05 am

    Your comparison suggests they can’t co-exist.

    - also the light hasn’t been shed enough on the Goog, Y! mashup of all the social networks (coming soon)

    - Later, RB

70. Mayer Reich
    

    July 16th, 2007 at 12:51 pm

    As a user of both Facebook and LinkedIn I can tell you facebook is much better for business networking. I have contacts on facebook that would be much harder to get to through LinkedIn. My company is marketing products and brands through social networks so we have a whole dedicated team to this research and we have found that Facebook is just so much faster and easier to use. By the way most of the marketing is to Business Professionals.

    If you have not found Jigsaw that is by far the best direct networking tool for Business Development.

71. David Mackey
    

    July 16th, 2007 at 8:14 pm

    I am a fan of LinkedIn, but prefer Facebook…I still use LinkedIn b/c of its different focus, but if Facebook can pick up in this area…I’d drop LinkedIn.

72. Ben
    

    July 17th, 2007 at 8:14 am

    why isn’t there a website or application which fully integrates all main social and business networks in to one user interface? of course this would be a programming challenge but absolutly possible and i guess big business for the inventor.

73. anon
    

    July 19th, 2007 at 12:00 pm

    More like comparing apples and automobiles.

74. LinkedIn IPO watcher
    

    July 26th, 2007 at 1:39 am

    LinkedIn seems to be on a steep revenue ramp, close to $30M already this year. The company thinks they will hit 100M by next year. They are definitely on the IPO path. Plus they are sending all the right signals - hiring key execs, investing in product and community.

75. Simon
    

    July 26th, 2007 at 5:05 am

    I like LinkedIn.. it is more forcused on the business networking.. I can not see VCs, CEO’s networking on facebook. I also came across a new website called zmobs, which is the linkedin model for the classifieds world.

76. Jakob
    

    July 27th, 2007 at 3:40 am

    This is exactly what I expected to find out after reading the title o.us poetry. Thanks for informative article