Why Entrepreneurs and Freelancers Need BOTH Facebook and LinkedIn

Freelancers, small-business owners and other entrepreneurs understand the importance of social networking, in addition to in-person business networking. Building a solid network around your business, services, skills and self are critical for not only self promotion but also for gaining valuable insight into your industry. Solid social and business networks give you market research tools, connect you with like-minded individuals and connect you to the general public.

In order to integrate your social network with your business network you should be using BOTH Facebook (generally used for social networking) and LinkedIn (generally used for business networking), to create a mega-network. Each network provides valuable tools for blossoming entrepreneurs.

Entrepreneurial value from LinkedIn includes:

• CV: LinkedIn is a great virtual place to house your CV, for all the world to see. It not only provides you with an online link to your resume, but does so in a format that most people are familiar with. It also allows for personal recommendations from past employers, colleagues, mentors and customers. You should look for at least three LinkedIn endorsements. LinkedIn not only provides you with an online resume platform but it is also searchable, so if someone is looking for your/your company’s skillset, they can easily find you. On the flipside, when the time comes you can find valuable employees based on online CV searches, recommendations and other LinkedIn recruitment tools.
• Market Research: Through LinkedIn Answers you can easily get a snapshot of your market—and a free one at that.
• Network of Colleagues: If you are planning to align your business concept with other like-minded small businesses in the industry you can use LinkedIn to network with other entrepreneurs in your vertical to offer services in parallel with yours. For example if you are starting a real estate home-inspection business based on your decades of experience in the industry you can use LinkedIn to find furnace repairmen, real estate lawyers, and other vertical specific trades in your local area. And by looking at their LinkedIn CVs you can select someone with the appropriate experience level.
• Contact Maintenance: Despite our best intentions very few of us regularly update our Outlook contacts. LinkedIn does this automatically for us so we don’t lose touch with any important people in our networks. It also makes it easy to keep in touch with these people so that you don’t lose out on valuable up-coming opportunities. If anyone switches roles you can be notified and send a congratulations their way.
• Show your Expert Status: Via LinkedIn Answers you can participate in Q&As that show your knowledge in your area. This can help build your business network, by showing that you take initiative and are extremely knowledgable in your field.

Entrepreneurial value from Facebook includes:

• Entrepreneurial Personalization:Facebook is a social platform that allows you to showcase yourself as a person, instead of strictly as a business entity or entrepreneur. By having your network connect with you on Facebook and LinkedIn you can showcase your personality in addition to your business acumen.
• Interaction: We love LinkedIn but it isn’t great for facilitating interaction amongst networkees. Facebook does. Facebook better allows you to keep in touch with both business and personal contacts, thereby fostering relationships. After all, nobody is going to throw opportunities your way if they are thinking “what’s the name of that home inspection guy again?”.
• Rich Media: We all like pretty pictures, video and graphics. Facebook does media in a way LinkedIn likely never will. If you plan on sharing visual content like graphics, cartoons, pictures, visual jokes, etc, then you need Facebook. Click here for tips on what types of images and media to use on Facebook.
• Network Growth Potential: While LinkedIn offers you 2nd and 3rd connections that offer you a great way to make third-party introductions, Facebook opens you up to a whole new crowd—simultaneously using your friends, family and acquaintances to introduce you to the world.

Both Facebook and LinkedIn offer amazing opportunities, to create, grow and nourish valuable business and social contacts, but each have a different role in the process. LinkedIn is far more business-oriented with networking opportunities, 2nd and 3rd connections, CVs, people/vertical/industry/company search and other business tools. Facebook on the other hand can open your entrepreneurial side up to countless socially-sourced opportunities, puts a face (and sense of humor) to your business, and allows for rich media and social sharing.

Unfortunately there isn’t a platform to integrate the two, yet, so for now build your presence on each network separately. If your debating between which one to use for business was mainly from a time-savings perspective then consider using a social dashboard tool that allows you to update both networks simultaneously—if that sounds like you then read my article on social automation tools.

For info on social plugins, tools, and dashboards click here.

Robin Wilding  (85 Posts)

Robin Wilding is a professionally trained Canadian journalist striving to bring journalistic-era intergity to online media. She has a second degree in Political Science--with a focus on International Relations and the developing world. Currently Robin is a contributor to several technology publications, including Brajeshwar.com, SocialTechnologyReview.com, HostingIndustryWatch.com, AnimationCareerReview.com and CompareBusinessProducts.com. She also works for several web developers; and does ghost writing for several high level executives within the technology sector. Robin's work is showcased in her portfolio: http://shownd.com/robinwilding