Facebook vs. LinkedIn vs. MySpace vs. Twitter

How would you rank the social networks above for business?

Well, it does depend on your target market, who your customers are, who your friends are, etc.

Shama Hyder has an interesting social network ranking here:
She rates them as follows:
Facebook: 4 Stars
LinkedIn:  3 Stars
MySpace:  2 Stars
Twitter:    2 Stars

Here's my take.

Facebook:
I'm not sure if I like Facebook or not!

It's got great features and functionality though, although I wish it were more business like, for example had profiles like LinkedIn.

But almost everyone is there, except perhaps, ahem, most executive buyers, the kind that hire me.

LinkedIn:
I love LinkedIn. The interface is a bit confusing for sure, but it's professional all the way.

Wish it had more social features than primarily connecting, and hanging out in LinkedIn Questions.

MySpace:
MySpace annoys me.

Too many blinking lights and autostarting music and  . . .
Reminds me of a casino without alcohol and gambling.

Still, if my target market was there . . .

Twitter:
I'm up in the air on this one.

I like Twitter and use Twitter off and on, but there is a high signal to noise ratio.

I occasionally find useful business things (i.e. cool stuff) via Twitter, but what a way to waste a lot of time!

Comments

[Andy Piper]

OK some quick (and not so quick) thoughts.

Facebook - it will be interesting to see how the new design works out. It seems as though they are moving a lot of the information around so profiles won't be so quick to scan / access without additional clicks.

MySpace - agreed, it's like a website equivalent of the infamous BLINK tag in HTML. Distracting and it feels "teen" but it's a handy music network.

LinkedIn - useful for business profiles / resumes etc but doesn't have any sense of community or real network.

Twitter - you're missing out. Lots and lots of business is going on there now. Twitter is the way to build "stronger, loose connections" par excellence.... yes the signal to noise ratio can be high but broadly speaking once you have a close circle of contacts (or even a couple of hundred) who you know will be posting quality stuff as well as some of the noise (and heck, that's just a way to get to know them better) then it's far better than trying to drink from the firehose of the public timeline. Plus, I like to remind myself that Twitter is something to dip in and out of... don't try to follow everything or you just won't cope.

[Ted Demopoulos, Blogging for Business]

Andy,

I wish LinkedIn did have more features to build a sense of community, just as you say.

Now with Twitter you don't have to waste time, but certainly many people do! I'm dipping in and out of twitter myself.