There’s something I’ve been saying to my audiences about e-mail for a long time, and it’s that e-mail is whatever we want it to be, whether we use it for business letters or a form of instant messaging. You can use it for both, but confusing the two can lead to disaster. The same holds true for Facebook and LinkedIn, except for the disaster part.
LinkedIn started as the stodgy business site where you’d find such announcements as “This month, I’ll be in Fargo, ND, speaking to the annual convention of the National Society of Flange Adjusters” and “Read my latest article in the March issue of the Wall Street Pennysaver.”
And on Facebook, you could find such riveting status updates as ”dude hear are pics of me geting waisted on spring break sorry their out of focus” and “I’m eating cheese now.”
A few changes have happened in the way some of us are using these social networking sites. Or maybe it’s a change in attitude toward them. (I’m talking about these two entities because I use them. I’m on Plaxo Pulse, but I really don’t pay much attention to it. And whatever happened to MySpace?)
Have you noticed a change in the respective tones of Facebook and LinkedIn? I’m seeing hints that many of us are using them interchangeably. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing; I’m just throwing it out there.
Lately LinkedIn is lightening up and Facebook is forming part of our marketing strategy. I have many friends and contacts in both networks, and 99% of them are balanced in their use of both sites. But I’ve seen a few of them instigate the creeping casualness on LinkedIn and strafe us with business blasts on Facebook.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t believe the two networks are in imminent danger of becoming each other. But I do notice a centering trend. Do you?
More to come on this topic in the next newsletter. (Subscribe to the Legacy Road Comminique here) Weigh in with your own observations and I’ll try to include them in the article.
