In this super-competitive world where everyone is on the bandwagon of being an influencer and the sheer amount of different social media readily available to us, it leaves us in a big debate: which one is better, Facebook or LinkedIn, which one is for you?
Let’s dive right into it and find out!
While LinkedIn and Facebook do share some common features, are they any different?
Everything has its pros and cons:
Facebook has over 2.4 billion users, whereas LinkedIn has just over 260 million users. While Facebook has a large user base, on the other hand LinkedIn is a business-driven platform, helps you climb the career ladder and find networking tools, great opportunities for thought leadership and recruitments, whereas on the contrary, it has a smaller user base as compared to Facebook.
LinkedIn is the choice of 260 million registered users, business people, professionals and students. This also might be a great population for corporate recruiters, but it is a limited population, and it’s still a far cry from reigning-proponent Facebook’s around 2 billion monthly users. You must be thinking why one shouldn’t invest money in Facebook and reach twice as many people? Because a higher audience doesn’t necessarily guarantee higher lead generation or return on investment (ROI).
And as the founder of LinkedIn states, Reid Hoffman states:
“It is better to be the best connected than the most connected.”
Facebook and LinkedIn for business
Undoubtedly, when it comes to talking numerically, Facebook wins the battle. One billion people socialize on an average of 3.2 billion times regularly. So having a business page and connecting with your customer is crucial. From a marketing perspective, creating a Facebook business page and actively posting and engaging with your customers gives you an upper hand on reliability and credibility.
Businesses are often created on LinkedIn to create corporate firm, to recruit, acquire talent, initiate conversations with potential customers, create leads, and connect with prospects or other industries.
Advertising with LinkedIn or Facebook
If you’re looking to manage advertising to connect with audience prospects, target market, and other related businesses, both LinkedIn and Facebook groups provide a variety of ad format options.
Facebook offers diverse options including Image, video, stories and carousel Ads.
When it comes to advertising, LinkedIn offers sponsored posts, sponsored mail or display ads.
Facebook ads, with a larger user base, give you the ability to reach out to more people. This enables you to sort out your audience demographically based on:
- Age
- Gender
- Interest
- Education
- Job
- Marital Status
- Behaviour
- Life milestones.
Whereas LinkedIn provides its own targeting attributes and analytics that allow you to target users based on:
- Academic Title
- Job Description
- Groups Joined
Facebook Ads are far less expensive than LinkedIn, making it an obvious platform for people with a limited budget. It’s not new that LinkedIn targeting options are professional centric, focusing on micro audiences, whereas Facebook targeting options allow you to get a macro audience. With that said, whether it is Facebook or LinkedIn, a consistent, strategic, eye-popping targeted focused plan and appealing visuals can help lead your social media to an effective level.
LinkedIn Groups vs. Facebook Groups
The groups feature on both LinkedIn and Facebook gives the chance to interact and connect with other like-minded people and other business associates. However, people’s objectives are distinct when they’re on different sites. When users are engaging with others in LinkedIn Groups, they have a professional approach.
On the other hand, in Facebook Groups, people are more likely to connect on a personal level and tend to share opinions on everything, whether it’s lifestyle, food or personal experience.
So, which group’s feature is best for you depends on the audience you’re targeting. For instance, if you have a brand related to food or clothing and if you’re targeting general consumers with an interest in day-to-day activities, Facebook groups are ultimately your best solution. Though, if you’re selling high-priced or B2B services for top-tier management personnel, LinkedIn groups are the way to go.
It’s quite obvious the objective, usage and audiences of both these social media platforms are distinct, but which one you decide to use depends entirely on what niche you want to cater to, who you’re trying to reach, and what you aim to achieve.
It’s also pertinent to mention that you don’t necessarily have to choose. Though you can use LinkedIn for targeted lead generation and get B2B consumers, while Facebook for brand awareness, targeting mass audiences and engaging with your customers at a granular level.
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