I'm glad you ported your Facebook v. LinkedIn comparative advantage argument here and I've Linked Into it. In fact, I think this blog post will be on the LinkedIn blogging mailing list next week.
It's all horses for courses, this FB vs LI debate. In my case, the guys I knew in the 80s only see Facebook over the shoulders of their college kids. They're the ones with the numeric e-mail addresses I cite, including several general officers in the military, an assistant secretary of a major US government department and three Executive Office staffers. Those are the ones in the "silent LinkedIn generation" I inferred and on further investigation, several of them did not know their names (nothing else) were on LinkedIn. I sent them a short note and we're back in touch.
It will be good to see Facebook evolve into this kind of community too. But for the moment, I cannot handle the Facebook noise nor do I have the energy to meaningfully engage in Facebook groups when I'm tapped out in real world committee work. So I'm planning on using the Scoble Scraping Script to enjoy the fastest ejection from Facebook available.
Paul Walsh
· 1 year ago
@Bernie - you demonstrate a point with an extreme example. I mean, "general officers in the military" are probably amongst the last I'd expect on any social network, let alone Facebook.
Facebook, unlike Twitter for example, is mainstream, whether we like it as a tool or not. It has been adopted by all walks of life and continues to grow. It's important to point out that it was only opened up to professionals a year ago. So, Facebook as it is today, is a year old ;)
As for the SPAM, it's your friends that SPAM you, not Facebook. If you don't want to be invited to new groups then ask your friends to stop sending you the invitations. If they don’t stop, de-friend them. I wrote a post about this specifically. Perhaps I should republish it here also.
Evert Bopp
· 1 year ago
"It’s all horses for courses" is the best statement made in this discussion. It's just funny to see this sparking up again just days after I started sending messages to my FB contacts letting them know that I was dumping FB and would only be using LinkedIn. It netted me several messages in agreement with my sentiment as well as a spate of very good new Linkedin contacts. So yes Facebook was interesting but the "noise" was just getting too loud for my tatste...
E.
Paul Walsh
· 1 year ago
@Evert "So yes Facebook was interesting but the "noise" was just getting too loud for my tatste…"
It's your friends making the noise. If you don't like it just ask them to stop. If they don't stop, defriend them. Simple.
I don't get much noise at all - with more than 500 connections. Perhaps it's the quality of those connections that makes all the difference. You should stop being friends with people who spam you.
Bernie Goldbach
· 1 year ago
One's social network most certainly deserves to remain of their own culling. In my case, I've got more real favours due me through people in my immediate LinkedIn network than I could ever expect among the several hundred Facebook friends I've collected. In my mind, a friend isn't worth the title unless he or she can offer at least a couch for a late night, short-notice stay. Everyone has their own well-thumbed Filofax (Daytimer, address book, name your flavour) entries. In my case, the most-cherished one aren't on Facebook. But it's horses for courses and there are certainly people who have just as valuable a set of linkages on Facebook.
Paul Walsh
· 1 year ago
@Bernie - along with the business contacts, Facebook is home to my most cherished friends who do put me up at night.
Scott Allen
· 1 year ago
I use Facebook because I'm intrigued by what they're doing technologically, and there are a handful of interesting conversation spaces. But people's profiles on Facebook are, on the whole, not filled out as well as the ones on LinkedIn, and Facebook's search capabilities are, frankly, embarrassingly bad.
So while it may be an interesting interaction space, as a way to leverage my existing connections in order to find and meet new people, it falls short of LinkedIn.
I don't get dropping one for the other. That's like saying, "I'm putting away my hammer because for the rest of my life I'm going to use screws instead of nails." Different tools, different benefits. If you're not finding LinkedIn as useful, I would contend that you haven't explored its applications sufficiently.
Robin Blandford
· 1 year ago
"People are products. Contacts are clients. It is the client that should have the choice in which way to purchase the product."
@Robin - I don't disagree. But I'm unsure how that relates to this post. Please explain if you will.
Evert Bopp
· 1 year ago
@Paul But the point is that it's not spam as such. It's "application spreading" as promoted by facebook. It's not a side effect. Facebook without all the applications etc. is just a weaker version of Linkedin without the business focus and search capabilities. But again that's my opinion, if it works for you that's great. It just doesn't add any value for me whatsoever...
Paul Walsh
· 1 year ago
@Evert you prove my point well, thanks. So, choose the applications you want so Facebook does what you'd like.
Evert Bopp
· 1 year ago
@Paul you must be reading a different comment than me? Without all the social apps Facebook adds no value for me whatsoever. Continuing to use it would just be wasting time for me. Linkedin on the other hand gives instant, useable results..
Paul Walsh
· 1 year ago
@Evert - But read my comment again. You're saying without ALL apps it's no value. What part of the 'install what you want to make it useful' did you not get?
Evert Bopp
· 1 year ago
@Paul Let's agree to disagree. Facebook has value for you but it hasn't for me...
All Comments
It's all horses for courses, this FB vs LI debate. In my case, the guys I knew in the 80s only see Facebook over the shoulders of their college kids. They're the ones with the numeric e-mail addresses I cite, including several general officers in the military, an assistant secretary of a major US government department and three Executive Office staffers. Those are the ones in the "silent LinkedIn generation" I inferred and on further investigation, several of them did not know their names (nothing else) were on LinkedIn. I sent them a short note and we're back in touch.
It will be good to see Facebook evolve into this kind of community too. But for the moment, I cannot handle the Facebook noise nor do I have the energy to meaningfully engage in Facebook groups when I'm tapped out in real world committee work. So I'm planning on using the Scoble Scraping Script to enjoy the fastest ejection from Facebook available.
Facebook, unlike Twitter for example, is mainstream, whether we like it as a tool or not. It has been adopted by all walks of life and continues to grow. It's important to point out that it was only opened up to professionals a year ago. So, Facebook as it is today, is a year old ;)
As for the SPAM, it's your friends that SPAM you, not Facebook. If you don't want to be invited to new groups then ask your friends to stop sending you the invitations. If they don’t stop, de-friend them. I wrote a post about this specifically. Perhaps I should republish it here also.
E.
It's your friends making the noise. If you don't like it just ask them to stop. If they don't stop, defriend them. Simple.
I don't get much noise at all - with more than 500 connections. Perhaps it's the quality of those connections that makes all the difference. You should stop being friends with people who spam you.
So while it may be an interesting interaction space, as a way to leverage my existing connections in order to find and meet new people, it falls short of LinkedIn.
I don't get dropping one for the other. That's like saying, "I'm putting away my hammer because for the rest of my life I'm going to use screws instead of nails." Different tools, different benefits. If you're not finding LinkedIn as useful, I would contend that you haven't explored its applications sufficiently.
http://www.bytesurgery.com/blog/2008/02/11/its-not-your-choice-its-theirs/