What Is the Difference Between LinkedIn and Facebook for Business?
Let’s take a look at these two social media powerhouses – LinkedIn and Facebook: and highlight what some of the differences are between them when it comes to marketing your business and finding your customers online.
How are each of the
networks used?
People tend to use LinkedIn and Facebook for two very different reasons. Facebook is a true social network, meant for sharing and engaging in conversations. It’s like hanging out with your friends and family. LinkedIn was originally established primarily for job recruiters and job seekers to connect. Even though it has since evolved far beyond that, LinkedIn is still primarily professional focused.
LinkedIn users tend to be white-collar college graduates, making the LinkedIn environment appealing to the business user. All businesses need employees. All businesses need to sell. So the network is very active with white-collar professionals, sales people, job seekers and corporate recruiters. It has not been very successful in attracting a large blue-collar audience.
LinkedIn vs. Facebook
Stats
Beyond
the educational and occupational differences seen between the social networks,
the shear difference in the amount of people on Facebook versus LinkedIn, as
well as the amount of monthly visitors is enough to make some businesses,
especially businesses with consumer products or services, choose Facebook for
their advertising.
This
shows that people are much more likely to visit Facebook over LinkedIn on a
regular basis.
How Businesses are Using
Facebook and LinkedIn
According to Facebook, over one billion people "like" and comment an average of 3.2 billion times daily. Having a business page and connecting with your customers allow you to participate in these ongoing conversations. From a banding perspective, creating a Facebook business page and actively posting and engaging your customers give you an upper hand for the people who search for businesses in Facebook to prove credibility.
Businesses often use LinkedIn to create company and corporate pages, post job openings, attract talent, start and nurture conversations with customers and prospects, create leads, and promote other social media channels or initiatives.
LinkedIn Ads vs. Facebook Ads: Which Should You Use?
Both LinkedIn and Facebook have a wide range of advertising options – with some key differences.
While Facebook uses demographic and interest-based targeting as their main way of targeting consumers, LinkedIn focuses on more professional targeting, such as job titles, industry, or even where you work. Where this leaves us is that LinkedIn is more suited to B2B commerce, while Facebook is generally better for B2C.
Another difference between advertising on these platforms is the price. Of the four major social networks, the median CPC for Facebook Ads is the lowest at $0.51, while that for LinkedIn Ads is the highest at $5.61. However, LinkedIn ads aren’t necessarily overpriced. In one survey it was discovered that ad clicks on LinkedIn are 500% more likely to convert to quality leads compared to Facebook.
Know Your Audience
Both
Facebook and LinkedIn have proven to be beneficial social networks, but for
different reasons. Ultimately what it comes down to is what your audience
interacts with more and what they prefer to use. When you know where your
customers spend their time on social media, you can develop your strategy and
interact with them in that space.
Let’s strategize what your social media marketing plan should be. Call us today at (407) 682-2222 for a free strategy session.