LinkedIn CEO On Why We Need More Than Facebook | Hacker News Reader

LinkedIn CEO On Why We Need More Than Facebook

techcrunch.com

30 pointskingsidharth12 comments

Has anyone out there found an actual use case for LinkedIn yet? I joined a year ago and have yet to use it for anything other than accumulating more and more professional connections. It's a well designed site, lots of connections to be made, but I can't find myself doing much else with it. I'd love to hear from somebody who thinks I'm missing an opportunity, but I don't find myself ever logging into the site unless I receive an email asking to confirm a connection request, is anybody else in the same boat?

It's not like Facebook where there is fresh content everyday (wall posts, comments, etc.) and new things to see. They are albeit superficial, but at least there's something drawing me back to the site everyday. I seem to get none of that from LinkedIn.

Several friends got job interviews (and eventual offers) through it. Some facebook-less users connected with former colleagues and old friends.

I actually got a lot of leads from my last job search through LinkedIn. Not only did I message connections who were with companies I was interested in, but I found a lot of relevant listings in the job posting section (and actually heard back from recruiters). I'm guessing part of my success was due to the fact that the job postings section of the site hasn't reached critical mass like some of the larger job search sites (e.g. Monster).

If you find out the name of someone who will be interviewing you, and they have a LinkedIn profile, you'll find out their job title, and possibly their whole resume. That should help you prepare for the interview.

Unless you're actively looking for a job (or are trying to hire someone) it's probably not a site you go to every day.

We sell enterprise software - LinkedIn is a great resource to 1) look for the right people in larger companies we want to sell to and contact them, and 2) join interest groups that are related to our software product to query people in those groups about stuff we're working on and hear about the kinds of problems they're having or what the issues du jour are. It's also a great resource when you're about to talk to a potential client to see what they're currently doing, where they've been, etc.

LinkedIn has done a good job of creating a social network for the professional aspect of your life. You can have co-workers who you enjoy working with, respect, like, but they still might not really be your friends.

But I think LinkedIn's success is partly because Facebook hasn't solved the social context issue. Work vs. friends is very important, but there are also differences in how we act with close friends vs acquaintances, friends vs. family, or even close friends that we met at different points in our lives. That would be a very difficult problem to solve cleanly, are there any social networks that are trying?

We don't need one network to rule them all. Similarly, we have different applications for document preparation, code manipulation and presentation creation though they are arguably text editors.

I think this is a problem that will be solved by the users and not the technology. User's will adapt to curbing what they put out there (especially with everything being sold) and on the other side our opinions on what's unprofessional etc. will relax.

There's way fewer companies that would consider a keg stand as a sign of unemployability than there were 20 years ago. In fact it would probably be seen as social proof by many managers and someone they'd enjoy having around.

It'll sort itself out on the user side. Super complicated tools to manage your profile information will never reach mass adoption.

"Because I don't get a cut of Facebook's income."

Yeah, this reads to me like "Pepsi CEO on why we need more than Coke".

We need some way that social media can move beyond walled gardens.

Yes, we do.

http://opensource.appleseedproject.org

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