With the recent decision for Facebook to start offering a job platform similar to Linkedin, there has been discussion if this will be the end of Linkedin. However, there are a lot key differences between the two platforms that will affect the success of each. Most of this can be chalked up to professional qualities of each. This along with other user functions can help show the effectiveness of these two social media giants in regards to how they will succeed as a job hunting site.
Professionalism
The one thing that always gave Linkedin an edge is that it is a professional community. Both job hunters and seekers are on the site for professional networking. Facebook is anything but that. A site where people put up their drunken nights is not going to mesh well with a site for those looking for future employees. Facebook is pretty notorious for getting people fired, and I can’t imagine that the same site is going to function to help people get employed. Linkedin has a professional appearance, and people tend to put their best foot forward on that site, making it easier to connect employer to employee. On the other hand, since Facebook is so popular, it might make the process easier since everything is in one place.
Redundancy
Supposedly Facebook is going to source in a lot of jobs by third party sites. There are already sites out there that do this, and do so effectively. I doubt people are going to want to apply to a job linked to their Facebook profile due to the aforementioned reasons. But Linkedin offered something novel. It gave a platform for people to not only search jobs, but have the ability to connect with those that they might be working for. This is a substitution for actual face-to-face, but one that is effective and has been proven to work. There is nothing fresh about Facebook’s approach, so it’s effectiveness is questionable.
Overall, Linkedin should weather the storm fine. Facebook exposes too much of people’s private lives to also offer employment help. Linkedin serves as a professional meeting ground for people interested in hiring and getting hired, and Facebook’s substitute doesn’t seem to be quite effective enough.
Guest Author Jordan Mendys is a social media and SEO blogger. He also writes for DX3, and currently lives in North Carolina.