A couple weeks ago in my Marketing 181 class, my professor brought up an interesting question that to this day has me still thinking, "How would you feel if LinkedIn and Facebook integrated thus giving someone dual social membership?" This had everyone in my class arguing about what the future holds for two major social networks competing against each other. Since then, we have explored how the marketing strategies of these two social networks are too different yet they're compatible to some degree. Although the two have been designed to play in different areas such as Facebook's personal communication and LinkedIn's professional/business interaction, they eventually stack up and people start to use them in both ways. Although I am not a member of LinkedIn, I asked my uncle, the CEO of a real estate investment trust, what he thinks about integrating LinkedIn and Facebook since he is a member of both. I remember him saying to me that comparing the two and getting past the different numbers is like comparing apples to oranges. I believe he was telling me that although they both offer great value of themselves, the comparisons will quickly go away once you start comparing specific measurable differences. Facebook encourages more active members with enjoyable communication and collaboration with its Wall and features. On the other hand, LinkedIn misses the useful features of images and is more geared up for business purposes. Recently, Facebook has gotten more innovative with a platform strategy that has opened itself up to numerous entrepreneurs creating numerous applications. Therefore, a question that I ask myself and intrigued my class was, "Do LinkedIn professionals need all the "cool" stuff in business interaction like there is in Facebook?" This question poses an interesting idea about future innovation like, should Facebook and LinkedIn create a link with each other and create applications with each other?
Although an integration between the two sounds like an interesting idea, many people say that comparing two networks with different markets and targets is nearly ridiculous, the possibility of joining the two should not be completely rejected. The cultures of both are very different but to me it seems as if their paths are crossing. When I asked my dad who is in the financial industry, what he thought about the two sites joining together, he mentioned that the culture, numbers, and demographics of the two are far too different to be an agreeable unity. Although I am not 100% sure, how I feel about the integration of the two social networks, I believe there is some kind of value in separating the personal and professional life. But wouldn't it be innovative and more efficient if it happened someday in the future? Is there an obvious division between casual personal and formal professional networks?
I found this post very interesting. In my opinion, merging these two companies would be a bad idea. As you pointed out, the demographics and aims of these sites are too different. Facebook contains apps and gadgets to make social networking fun, while LinkedIn, in my opinion at least, is only for serious business. I also agree that people should be able to separate their personal and professional life, even though many employers and even some colleges will look at a person's Facebook to gain some hidden information.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the integration of Facebook and LinkedIn is not a clearly positive or negative action. While Facebook is geared towards socializing and LinkedIn is centered around the professional life, perhaps their overlap is the LinkedIn developer's attempt at catching up with Facebook's success. I think that distancing LinkedIn from the features of Facebook and Twitter would would be more successful than trying to emulate them. LinkedIn would still attract users due to its variety in features that Facebook lacks. LinkedIn users would be able to maintain the distinction between their social and professional lives which is extremely important in person and on the web.
ReplyDeleteI have never thought about the proposal to join Facebook and LinkedIn. I feel like they are very different websites with contrasting purposes that are better off separate. Facebook has a much broader age target and less specific purposes whereas LinkedIn seems to be geared toward business professionals and have less of a social atmosphere. If they were joined I feel like it would hurt the legitimacy of LinkedIn. As a user of Facebook I personally enjoy just having Facebook and do not need all of the connections with other social networks. More is not always better.
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ReplyDeleteAfter reading this post, I have also never thought of joining Facebook and LinkedIn together. I feel as if it would take away the purpose of both websites if they were joined together. Facebook has less specific purposes and is more for social interaction and communicating with friends whereas LinkedIn seems to be geared toward professionals who need a website such as this one for business purposes. As an active member of Facebook, I feel as if the purpose and uniqueness of each website would be taken away if they joined together. I am okay with keeping up with Facebook and having it be used for the purposes that I like. As for the people who use LinkedIn, I am sure many of them would not like if Facebook joined because it would take away a lot of the "professional aspect" of the website.
ReplyDeleteI never really thought about these two companies collaborating but when i first heard it i thought it would be a great idea but as i read on i changed my mind. The change of mind came when i began thinking about how different these social networking sites, me personally i wouldnt want my boss that i was working with on Linkedin to see what im doing with my friends on facebook. Keeping them separated is the way i think it should stay because most would want to keep work and pleasure separate as well.
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