Are you Faced or Linked?

Picture of boxers from Nantucket Inquirer & Mirror: photo by Jim Powers   

How often are you asked this question -- Do you use Facebook or LinkedIn? I get it a lot. Currently I use both. Right now I have more connections than friends, which is probably true of most people my age. But I have to say that I am now spending more time on Facebook and I think that this trend will continue. To me, Facebook is now setting the agenda for social networking. Sure they've had some recent missteps with their Beacon strategy, but their approach to make it a platform for applications is paying off. For example, this week InformationWeek introduced their first two Facebook apps which provide RSS based blog and news updates. As a PR person, this kind of development matters because it continues to signal the power that social networking now possess due to its ability to not only garner users, but to offer focused services that appeal to specific communities. LinkedIn is now playing catch up and adding functionality similar to Facebook. Certainly, LinkedIn's positioning as a social network for business professionals has differentiated it in the past, but how long will this hold? 

Today I attended a Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council event on social media. The featured speaker was Paul Gillin, former technology editor, current blogger and author of The New Influencers. Paul provided us with many insights and great examples of social media. One comment he made about social networks rang true for me. People will probably participate in several social networks. One of the major ones, like Facebook or MySpace, and then several others based on their personal or professional interests.  Where does this leave LinkedIn? Are they stuck in no mans land? Will their business contact network be specialized enough? What about the new generation entering the workforce? Facebook appears to have a lock on them, able to leverage that built in network affinity that people have for their college or university. Can Facebook leverage that advantage and parlay it into long-term stickiness as their member's careers progress? It will be interesting to see how this battle plays out. I'd be interested in hearing who you think the winners and losers will be.