LinkedIn Vs Facebook: Which is best for business:
At its core, LinkedIn is a professional network that was initially created as a corporate
recruitment platform. Now, it boasts many features similar to traditional social media sites,
including status updates, blogging capabilities, and private messages.
Facebook, on the other hand, was specifically designed as a place for people to share and
communicate. The "sharing" element is its most prominent selling point, but there are still plenty
of other features that allow businesses to effectively reach their audiences.
LinkedIn and Facebook both have the Groups feature that allows you to connect with other like-
minded people, and they both have powerful Ad setups.
So with pretty similar features, what are the key differences between the two?
1. Numbers-wise, Facebook wins hands down.
Facebook has an astounding 2.38 billion active users across the world, which
makes LinkedIn's user base of 630 million seem small in comparison. Plus, both audiences are
made up of a diverse array of people, but LinkedIn tends to have a more professional clientele, or
those with a deep interest in business.
Perhaps what's most fascinating, though, isn't how many users each platform has, but how much
time these users spend on each respective site.
On Facebook, people spend around 35 minutes a day scrolling through their feeds and
engaging with their friends, whereas LinkedIn users spend just 17 minutes a month using the
site.
That being said, you could argue that when people log into LinkedIn, they're actively looking to
do or find something, rather than just aimlessly scrolling. This is important if you're looking to
use these platforms for more than just sharing your latest updates.
Ultimately, both platforms are good for different things. While Facebook gives you access to ten
times more prospects and provides a great place to generate brand awareness and engagement,
LinkedIn beats Facebook when it comes to generating tangible leads.
LinkedIn Groups vs. Facebook Groups
The Groups feature on both LinkedIn and Facebook give businesses the chance to mingle and
connect with prospects and other like-minded businesses.
However, it's critical to keep in mind people's motives when they're on the different sites. When
users are engaging with others in LinkedIn Groups, there's a high chance they're in a work-
related mindset in some capacity.
In Facebook Groups, on the other hand, people are more likely to share their personal opinions
on everything -- from lifestyle and food, to politics and hobbies.
So, when determining which Groups feature is best for you, think about the audience you're
targeting.
For instance, if you're targeting general consumers with an interest in cooking because you're
selling the latest food blender, Facebook Groups is probably the way to go.
However, if you're selling a high-priced service for top-tier management personnel, LinkedIn
Groups' filled with work-minded professionals might be a better bet.
Both Facebook and LinkedIn provide a diverse range of ad types, including carousel, video, and
lead ads. Since Facebook has a larger user base, your ads are capable of reaching more people.
With Facebook you can also target based on more personalized information, like behavior or life
milestones. However, LinkedIn offers its own targeting capabilities, and is better at lead
generation for businesses.
Finally, let's touch on the Ads aspect of both platforms.
In terms of variety, both platforms have reached pretty equal footing this year.
While Facebook has boasted a diverse range of ad types for years (we're talking canvas, carousel,
video, dynamic, and lead ads just to name a few), LinkedIn has just added a swathe of different
ad types to its mix -- including video, carousel, lead ads, and Sponsored InMail content.
Targeting-wise, if you think Facebook has the capability of reaching more people, you're right.
However, this doesn't mean that LinkedIn doesn't have powerful targeting capabilities -- in fact,
it very much does.
In both Facebook and LinkedIn you can target people based on job title, household income,
company, location, and age on both platforms, but you can dig a little deeper on Facebook,
targeting users depending on their life milestones, behavior, and more personalized information.
If you're targeting other businesses, it's worth bearing in mind that the information on LinkedIn
(like job titles and employers) tends to be kept up-to-date more than the information on
Facebook, which means you might get more accurate hits if you're specifically trying to reach
people in a certain type of role or industry.
Lastly, it's important to consider cost.
Usually, you get more for your money on Facebook. This is simply because there are millions
more people on the platform who are on-site for far longer than those on LinkedIn. This means
that Facebook can afford to serve cheaper ads, because there is less chance of one user seeing the
same ad over and over again.
While LinkedIn and Facebook do share some very obvious similarities, it's clear their purpose,
and the way people use each site, is quite different.
Which one you decide to use depends entirely on what industry you're in, who you're trying to
reach, and your marketing goals?
Ultimately, it's important to note that, ideally, you'll use both channels to reach your audience
wherever they want to be met. Perhaps you use LinkedIn for a targeted lead generation
campaign, while you use Facebook to increase brand awareness and engage with your customers.
At the end of the day, both sites offer valuable opportunities to grow your company. However,
you'll hopefully use this guide to decide which site deserves more of your time and resources,
and which can give your company the highest ROI.
Context for LinkedIn Marketing:
Context, context, context
When you use LinkedIn for B2B marketing, you have the advantage of context. Unlike social
platforms like Facebook and Instagram, where a user’s primary purpose is to see cute baby
photos of your newest nephew or find out what that random classmate from high school is doing
now, users flock to LinkedIn to enrich their lives as business professionals. LinkedIn users may
be looking for a time-management solution for their company or training software for their
employees, and look – there you are.
When you advertise on LinkedIn, your ads appear in a news feed filled with industry news,
expert advice, career training, and tips, and peer insights and recommendations. Your industry
regulatory update blog boost feels right at home among discussions about how to act in the
workplace and the next big industry conference. Your ad on LinkedIn will likely be better
received than your ad on Facebook in this context.
Effectively Use Your Own Data
Do you already know who exactly you want to reach? Simply upload a list of emails, and
LinkedIn will match those emails with its user profiles. If your list successfully matches 300 or
more profiles, the end result will be a Matched Audience you can use in any campaign across
LinkedIn.
Another unique way to leverage LinkedIn’s robust targeting tools is account targeting. Especially
useful for account-based marketing, an uploaded list of company names will allow you to market
to specific companies easily. LinkedIn will find matches amongst the nearly 30 million LinkedIn
company pages. To increase your match rate, pair a homepage URL with each company name.
LinkedIn also recently introduced Lookalike Audiences. If you want to reach people similar to
existing customers, upload your customer list, and create a lookalike audience.
Pro Tip: Matched Audiences, Account Audiences, and Lookalike Audiences can all be used as
exceptions – if they meet LinkedIn’s match threshold. This is a great way to exclude competitors
or existing customers from your campaigns.
The Right Tool at the Right Time
With it getting harder and harder to reach people organically on social platforms, digital
advertising is the best way to reach a lot of prospects. LinkedIn’s ad platform provides
everything a marketer needs to make sure their ads reach the right people with an effective ad
spend.
In addition to the myriad of targeting options LinkedIn offers, multiple advertising products are
available. We’ve seen great results with all of them, except for text ads, but even text ads may be
successful in the right context.
Some advertising examples:
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/unilever_were-pioneering-the-future-of-work-activity-
6805523821861457920-P6Di?fbclid=IwAR2KrDQXqjT42Ph-
TvdH2onpq7wT8ZG0j2v8MP8KQzgfouwq5ZP4zoj--H8
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/unilever_powerofu-uniquelyunilever-activity-
6811940488141262848-BMZs?fbclid=IwAR1C8tAXyo84IH-d58xnBIcx8fa9tUc-
7IbPm8yJu3Ryg-03Rra_jPslBII
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/unilever_uniquelyunilever-futureofunilever-activity-
6810333239786504192-CVS_?
fbclid=IwAR2_RlOlTC9Ke0XOrIbhhAN6S45GdhBXHo7GrG1T80lJmvP4YkK8E-6BQhc
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.unilever.com%2Fnews%2Fnews-and-features%2FFeature-article
%2F2021%2Freuse-refill-rethink-our-progress-on-refill-and-reuse-continues.html
%3Futm_source%3DUF%26utm_medium%3DSocial%26utm_campaign%3DAlwaysOn
%26fbclid
%3DIwAR2Qp6jmIlps8Tgm6VLkLRyNaKj0jbt7YppGNV0HnjK1SV8tJ1A3ranNNko&h=AT1
ZPaqE-nqFmcP8HtvdLh8tfQFyBEIzynDOlRhrFo0bzcG2ehjCoCKDMAi1rzUIWI1AnOy8sN-
oTeYVS0evA7lrls5lCzXDTC12SsU7T5KUmP8AHaDhaDW066cHAfT_iMKl&__tn__=H-
R&c[0]=AT3EyHG6aB6kg13yDGheFrrRd8cgBEzNRwhj85KIZTXP21N6PgTwdsD9mza4cTzo
zGdDR1-
FfCSwzLQeWurDYWxa9ZSj1ePJ3PX6bRZDq7SZY4wLG045O5qxp8R8BfDkHl6wkZQUINA
-lOzo2AcZQB1owvtk9HLZv6aTZvevYYvOJqhG
https://www.facebook.com/unilever/posts/10158899642163124
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/grameenphone-ltd_gp-explorers-20-asif-zaman-srizon-activity-
6812736471359995906-MKcR?fbclid=IwAR3N-9BDdazeCSVSQPtcVCApjYL5RGOfzGof8-
L-isJcNBiJ9QgWHqwv5gk
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/grameenphone-ltd_stopcyberbullyingday-activity-
6811561578949943296-GBW4?
fbclid=IwAR2SXBlXcHd1qDONolLeVZh6eGXzwxNwlNMzgqdJH1QVBB9X_DWLZsKYkP
Q
https://www.facebook.com/Grameenphone/posts/4922981067717308
https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fmygp.li%2FMfYnk%3Ffbclid
%3DIwAR33zUtsjXRJ7aVfq-
CiXdWbPvCK657Od9aJLIoVgRpdglCqLkkJ1aWaQ18&h=AT0VQ-
tDQkoNeDVSUyDk5k3iPCkx4s1X2snFFfRNCdN0Q-xECk-h-sjVzNa2lorVJMrP5CSG4-
fErM9aSGinGMy9-mD9ul8tm9t4EphLL5Wz_9yrVEWFTsihFMZ3mA31XBxOHSz7JtPnDrg
https://www.facebook.com/Grameenphone/posts/4919822251366523
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/hsbc_within-a-generation-central-bank-digital-activity-
6811247697329225728-krJS?
fbclid=IwAR0muc5x3lpQBH6Ae0Qjr52kpEWsYBT8frOQJJpQsPCaUdKYu3HUOD_hRUM
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/hsbc_our-climate-solutions-partnership-is-helping-activity-
6803297074067623936-XfPO?fbclid=IwAR21SyUwJYj9sLAR90b2dcM8EBwXzuP-
165GBXmsW3iGDPjyV1jtb4tPCaU
https://www.facebook.com/HSBCBangladesh/photos/a.203042158285602/255581819698302/?
__cft__[0]=AZXQk8QYOGRRm5U_OQb790N3AJuOAVKrZe6AxHAOnYbPzFrmUtOwIYW
LROaOtTLKAiWLEvnq3c4ReFMWnzOX8bLHQOfxpTiNi8IP2ubXJikiSFXSWVUUN6HwKF
BGWBfOeVvmZo2SjP1RS5_UnkEqvpzB&__tn__=EH-R
https://www.facebook.com/HSBCBangladesh/photos/a.203042158285602/251393103450507/?
__cft__[0]=AZVd_OhMjFJbEckutds7f2oeHNLGGjH9TNjfPTs4urzbhzpUbuRl8e5NEE0Eh5fY
qxE3rvOxUoJ8Nw2DYYrJAekZyJN2GRLlCORp1WbbRz58B4tIimyWqUkkqhToCdcI0EFOTS
N_ugl-DQ7ROr9h_mBq&__tn__=EH-R
https://www.facebook.com/HSBCBangladesh/photos/a.203042158285602/250621213527696/?
__cft__[0]=AZVrbu7WGY8i8gCRT2BsTPd1-iKseQPyVZrj3o1BjGt6ITqaKld-
to_jwWDK9XWf0XiT_PGDZ0y3QWj6Ta7S1AcWLALkjU3y4EBoL-
dX86YCzXpIzjPc4Vk__eiiVEPoRS99vl4g95Kspn4gTYhNBFYO&__tn__=EH-R
From the advertisements those are shown above we see that, the companies follow a more
professional approach on LinkedIn. They follow their professional accomplishments, their future
goals, their targets and speeches of different professionals on LinkedIn. But on Facebook they do
a more product based marketing. They show different discounts, bonus offers and product based
marketing on Facebook. The Facebook and LinkedIn both are social medias but they are being
used differently for business and marketing purposes.
