Social Networking: The More Social the Better?

Got a question for ya.

Which of these seems more immediately compelling to you? Notice a. I didn't say more practical. b. Don't you love my picture? I love my picture. Its WAY better than that other picture....

Okay, ( Greenberg shakes his head to clear the reverie out of his synapses), which is more compelling?

The reason I ask is that I read something on TechCrunch a couple of weeks ago that was surprising and yet, as I look at it now, not surprising at all. Facebook is being used increasingly as a business networking site - at the expense of LinkedIn - even though LinkedIn is growing. In fact, LinkedIn traffic, according to Comscore is up 323% - a hefty leap, if I do say so myself - and I do. But according to TechCrunch, its only a matter of time before Facebook meets the market need and improves its "relationship" features and becomes more of a business platform.

What I find interesting is the anecdotal evidence supporting this. I find myself communicating with my business contacts more frequently with Facebook and, more importantly, they answer me a lot faster than either via email or via LinkedIn. LinkedIn makes internal "email" communication - peer to peer communication - with the exception of introductions - awkward really. I love it and have almost 4X as many contacts on LinkedIn as I do on Facebook, but Facebook seems to do the most important "business thing" for relationships better - break down the barriers so that the conversations are human. And that is a PRICELESS business benefit. Its why my contacts are more prone to quickly converse with me - its personal.

Since CRM (and all its manifestations) is based on the interactions between human beings in a customer/company environment, Facebook's opportunity is, well, now that it is an official word, ginormous. A few more applications to encourage business and this social networking platform could just explode.

Watch out, LinkedIn. Better become the platform you announced that you are going to become very, very soon.

Hey, man by the way, I left you a message (on Facebook).....

    Technorati : CRM 2.0, Facebook, LinkedIn

Comments

[Marshall Lager]

Sorry for the late comment, but I wanted to mention that I lifted some of this blogpost for a recent news article. I remember discussing the topic with you, but the blog was more timely (and much easier to copy-and-paste).
http://www.destinationcrm.com/articles/default.asp?ArticleID=7112

[J Perez]

I found this great Entrepreneur Social Networking Site. Check it out

www.biztoo.com