Summary
What is wrong with LinkedIn? I have a theory or two.
Analysis
I like LinkedIn. Just about every professional or consultant I know or have heard of is on LinkedIn. But why is it not doing as well as Facebook? The answer is they are two different types of social networking sites.
I am stunned any financial analyst is even thinking of comparing LinkedIn with Facebook.
Facebook is about the self promotion of people for personal and professional reasons. Facebook is for people who want to show-off or are artistic. If you have bothered going through Facebook or listened to the news stories about Facebook, you may even note that there are a lot of people doing very unusual things on Facebook. LinkedIn is about the self promotion of people looking for work. In other words, Facebook’s target audience is bigger than LinkedIn’s target audience. FaceBook’s target audience is also different than LinkedIn’s target audience.
The downside of LinkedIn is that it’s about attracting people to you or your business by showing everyone how many people you know and even showing people the names of those people you know. The problem with LinkedIn is that professionals and consultants do not want to share their contact list. In the old days we used to say that we would not share our rolodexes unless someone paid us. LinkedIn allows the user to block their list from being seen by other users. Hence, the question now is what good is LinkedIn if you cannot show off whom you know?
Okay maybe I am being unduly critical. My gut feeling is LinkedIn has a place in the life of a professional, the question is: What is that place?
