The background behind this blog post is that I sparked a fairly interesting debate on TechCrunch.
Michael Arrington of TechCrunch linked to a story on MarketWatch which contained a quote by Keith Rabois, LinkedIn’s VP of business development.
“Rabois isn’t afraid of Facebook, however. He thinks Facebook users will graduate to Linkedin because they’ll want a ‘professional’ identity and not one that’s affiliated with a school,” wrote Bambi Francisco of MarketWatch.
Are Facebook users graduating into LinkedIn? Immediately I thought, does Rabois not know that Facebook contains thousands of networks to companies and corporations on top of their schools? I have so many friends that were associated with universities before that just simply switched to a corporation on Facebook.
After doing a little bit more thinking, I began to realize that LinkedIn is a good way to stay in contact with professionals that you may simply communicate with through various blogs or different social events. Facebook is tailored more towards a younger crowd.
I have pictures on Facebook where I am standing around a keg at a party and obviously, I don’t want professionals to see the lifestyle that I have on Facebook, but I would like them to possibly see my LinkedIn profile. Nothing wrong with a friendly debate though.
Kudos, TechCrunch readers & MarketWatch. Oh and FYI, LinkedIn is raising another $13 million in funding this week.
