Linkedin: Facebook for grown ups

Posted on May 9, 2013 by Ian Byrne

Who remembers back in the day when you first signed up for Facebook and started friend requesting everyone you’ve ever met at a party, classmates, or old high school buddies that you probably will never see again? I sure do. For shame.

Now fast forward a few years and ask yourself if your old Facebook habits are translating to Linkedin.

Now, I speak purely from my own experience but I’ve found myself falling into my O.G Facebooking days and sending out connection requests left right and centre.

Sure, it’s for a more honourable reason than to boast about how many Facebook “friends” I have, but in essence it’s pretty much the same thing.

Linkedin is one of my favourite social media platforms for so many reasons. First of all it’s a GREAT professional tool. Second of all it’s growing in stature and presence literally by the day. And third, it’s easy to navigate and doesn’t overload you with info (VERY important for me).

So here I find myself 8+ years into my Facebook career and I’m barely on it any more. I find myself more interested in what’s happening on my Linkedin network over pretty much anything that’s happening on Facebook.

Part of this can be attributed to the much discussed “ Facebook Fatigue ” which a lot of my generation are experiencing – been there, done that. Boring. What’s next?

And then the other part could be just part of the whole ( shudder ) “growing up” process. Facebook was great for a time. It kept me up to date on all the latest social gatherings and vacation photo albums, but saturation can be a dangerous thing.

Nowadays I see daily increases in network activity on Linkedin much more so than Facebook. Maybe it’s due to fatigue, maybe it’s the maturation of my offline social network. Either way, Linkedin is most definitely Facebook for grown-ups.

Do you see a similar trend?

Ian is VP of 88 Creative. Follow him on Twitter @ianobyrno