Is Facebook the new LinkedIn?

By – Staff Writer

LinkedIn wasn’t recently labeled the Facebook for business in an effort to create a better profile pic. The powerhouse recruitment platform LinkedIn, with 467 million users worldwide faces serious competition from Workplace by Facebook. Whilst it’s European counterparts, Xing (Germany) and Viadeo (France) user bases are too small to rival, Facebook has the brand power to compete.

We went from Facebook is the new Myspace to Facebook for business, to Facebook AS the new LinkedIn.

The disruption will possibly affect team building apps. But will it affect LinkedIn’s global network? Although both firms are platform companies, on a global scale, which company has the scale of reachability? In examining top global brands, of course, Apple comes in at #1, Google and Microsoft closely follow respectively, and Amazon and Facebook are the two top growing amongst the top ten companies globally. Facebook having the largest percentage growth by +48%, and Amazon at +29% according to Interbrand’s 2017 ranking reports. A world map of social networks indicates that Facebook is leading with two billion monthly users.

The shift that’s responsible for the growth of platform companies such as these are the communities and network effects they build. LinkedIn definitely has a niche. They connect serious minded business professionals and have built their network distinctly on reaching a professional audience. Not just for job seekers, but for business owners and recruiters alike. Click here to view LinkedIn for Business. A place that originated as a social network to find jobs has evolved into an ecosystem to hire, market, sell, and learn.

LinkedIn disrupted the market for recruitment firms, advertisers, and job boards. But how is Facebook disrupting the market for LinkedIn? An area that Facebook has targeted in line with their current platform of engagement is the ability to create a job post and schedule interviews from your mobile phone. The ability to populate information from your Facebook account towards applications makes the integration very user-friendly. To further enhance this feature, the applicant is connected through Messenger directly with the company for confirmation. Targeting small business, the tools they employ are simply connecting users with an already existing behavior through data aggregation. Click here to view Workplace by Facebook.

The network effects both these companies gained were through architecture and openness. This defines the foundation of the new era of platform companies. One that does not strategize by forcing themselves onto the marketplace, but orchestrating value created by the ecosystem.