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How to Get the Most from Your Facebook and LinkedIn Accounts

Guest post by: David Anthony Watson

Article Overview: With the outburst of social media in recent times, many people still want to know how they can utilize them effectively. There are so many options available to people that it is sometimes hard to know where to start. In this article I will talk through two key social networking sites and explain their uses and how you can get the most of out them. Facebook and LinkedIn are online social networking sites where people interact with each other virtually. Facebook was launched in 2004 and now has 500 million users worldwide. LinkedIn was launched in 2003 and has around 70 million users worldwide. They are both free to join and user friendly.

How to Get the Most from Your Facebook and LinkedIn Accounts

The key difference between the two sites is LinkedIn is a business-oriented social networking site whereas Facebook is a traditional social networking site focusing more on the ‘social’ aspect of networking. A simple comparison could be that LinkedIn represents your resume whereas Facebook represents your personality.

The purpose for the LinkedIn user is business related so you can network with likeminded people, look for new career opportunities and add contacts who you trust in business. The purpose of Facebook for the user is to socialize and keep in contact with friends. However you can use Facebook for business purposes and networking with likeminded business people.

There are some similarities such as having a personal profile and posting your photo on the sites. You can use both sites to add friends or contacts and adopt a similar approach to find them. If you already have friends on the sites you can view their friends and add them to your network.

LinkedIn allows you to add your full resume detailing your career experience and your achievements. Once you have completed this you can add contacts that you work with or have worked with in the past. You can follow companies and join networking groups that are relevant to your field or that you are interested in. One of the key benefits of LinkedIn is that many headhunters use it to search for talent. It is important to spend time updating your profile so potential employers are impressed by your resume. You can also ask for and give recommendations of current or former colleagues or business partners. This is a great example of social proof confirming that you are a talented individual.

Facebook allows you to add a profile and has a simple step by step process. You can add unlimited photo albums to your site and up to 5000 friends (if you are very popular)! You have a wall where you and your friends can post updates and the option of sending private messages. The great benefit of Facebook is you can connect with people worldwide regardless of geography. So if you are passionate about a certain country you can easily make new contacts there.

From a business perspective, both sites allow advertising to generate revenue so you can take advantage of this option depending on your target audience. Facebook also allows you to add a business page for free linked to your personal profile. These pages are ranked in the search engines and can be advertised from your blog or website. Both sites allow you to link with Twitter and post updates onto your site. The key to social media is linking all your content so it is easy for your friends and contacts to see your activity across a number of mediums.

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Article Tags: difference between facebook and linked in, facebook and linked in differences, facebook and linkedin differences
Referred by: http://jaykubassek.com/



Related Forum Posts
Re: Facebook or Twitter? - Thanks for the feedback guys! I personally started with Twitter and am now moving over to Facebook. I polled people on both my accounts and (not surprisingly) the Twitter people said Twitter and the Facebook people said Facebook! The actual order of my social media presence looks like this: 1) LinkedIn (with little success) 2) Twitter 3) YouTube 4) Facebook
Re: Twiiter an sales - [quote="soldlab":1ycb8vnm]I guess though LinkedIn is better for actual leag generation and personal contacts. What do you think?[/quote:1ycb8vnm] I've had a lot more success (thus far) with Twitter than LinkedIn or Facebook.
Re: Twitter vs Facebook - I use Facebook pages for Business and rarely ever use Twitter. I hace lost count of the no. of Hotels that I have visited, regarding their marketing campaigns, that may have 5k Facebook Fans and only 100 followers on Twitter. It is a lot more difficult to engage with people on Twitter and thus harder to gain traction. If you are a business like Nike, then Twitter is great, but if you are an SME, then focus on Facebook or LinkedIn (if you are providing a professional service.) You can always have your Facebook feed directly in to Twitter, so you can have a presence on both, but do the work on one. Also check out ping.fm for managing campaigns - it is a free tool, and a great time saver.
Re: How many social networking sites do you regularly visit? - As for myself, I'm a part of Facebook, LinkedIn, Tennisopolis, Hi5, Friendster, Zoodango, and 2-3 other ones about travel or pictures. However, I only visit Facebook on a daily basis and aside from Tennisopolis, I don't visit the others at all (nor can I remember the last time I did).
Re: On Which Social Media Sites Are You Most Active? - Definitely Facebook and also somewhat on Twitter and LinkedIn. I'm a member of IMFaceplate and several others but not very active on them.


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