Facebook and LinkedIn are two very important mediums to social connection in the business world. I think many of these bloggers fail to remember that Facebook has been around since 2004.
Business Week in March of 2006 wrote an article on the importance of Facebook to college students and how it is targeted towards:
The leading social networking sites are an increasingly popular form of communication among college students because of the tools offered by each site including photo posting, messaging, blogs and friend lists which gel perfectly with the digital lifestyle habits of today’s college students. Facebook adds an additional element of exclusivity for college students since a user needs to have an “.edu” email address to register.
It was created as a social network for college students. Therefore, many of the aspects on the site were developed to target the interests of the 18 to 23 year olds who joined to network and keep friends up to date on what’s happening in their personal lives with their profiles. According to TechCrunch in March 2005, 85% of college students then had a profile on Facebook.
As stated by Forbes, only within the past year has Facebook been opened up to anyone without a “.edu” address. The basic layout of Facebook has not changed since then, but there are many little changes that have taken place. I feel that Facebook sees the problems that are discussed in many of the blogs, and the opportunities that a business population can provide and are working to fix this. They also see that their current audience is moving into the professional world. They see the opportunity that is available to be the social networking site for professionals, and are aiming to keep their current audience and expand into the future. On the contrary, LinkedIn was specifically created for the purpose of networking for businesses. They have the competitive edge in captivating the business audience, but I have a feeling that Facebook knows that they have an untapped market and will aim to capture this audience.
So who will be around in ten years? I believe it will be the site that truly captures the interest of the generation who is entering the workforce now. Today’s entry level college graduates are already comfortable with Facebook; will this give Facebook the edge. Will this prove to be the edge? LinkedIn is built to support business networking, will this foster their edge? What system do you prefer? Whose future do you think is leading the networking into the future?
