Are you banning a potential business tool - Facebook versus LinkedIn

There’s a lot happening in virtual networking space. First, there is huge potential for employers to use social networks as a business tool to engage with a large audience and market their products and services to potential customers and employees.

I my opinion social networks are a large potential for recruitment, marketing and sales opportunity for organisations. They are where people are hanging out in ever-increasing numbers. You target a large audience of people from many different backgrounds, locations, with different religions, interests. You visit your target markets, determine what motivates them, find out how they communicate with others and how they expect you to effectively target and build relationships with them.

Quite a few organisations block access to social networking sites like Facebook. Yes, some employers have experienced hassles from a small number of employees spending too much time “social networking” with friends during work time, reducing productivity.

It’s perfectly fair for an employer to investigate whether productivity has slipped due to time spent on social networking sites, but is it fair to block all employees just because one or two have a problem? I believe that Facebook might be a solid source of potential candidates. The site is rather strong in the U.S. and rapidly growing in the UK. Facebook works well for graduate recruitment and junior roles because your target audience tends to share their ideas, thoughts, experience with other users. They aim to build a huge network of people based all around the world and share virtual experiences. Absolute must for young professionals! I am a bit skeptical about using Facebook for senior recruitment though. Why? I am still not convinced that those people has discovered the benefits and beauty of virtual networking space yet.

LinkedIn is an interesting global business tool. It’s a pure business networking platform where users show their professional faces, grow their networks, post jobs, and ask business-related questions. Sometimes, it feels a bit like putting your CV online. Recruiters use LinkedIn like "online CV database". LinkedIn is not blocked by the organisations; they support it and encourage their employees to use it effectively. I have noticed that LinkedIn is also developing and changing its image. You can download phone and personalized your profile. I am sure LinkedIn will soon be launching a lot of new features and tools similar to those Facebook released mid-year. I believe these developments will make LinkedIn more interesting in a business application sense, and you may be missing out if your candidate or business partner is on there but you’re not!