With the emergence of TikTok, it’s beginning to feel as if we have another new social media platform every couple of years. Twenty years ago, we didn’t even have MySpace yet, and look at us now! Yes, there are many different options available, all with unique pros and cons for marketers, but today we will be focusing on the comparison of Facebook and LinkedIn. What are the benefits of each and which should you focus your marketing efforts on? You’ve got questions and you’re darn right if you think we’ve got the answers. Ding ding ding! Let the battle begin. Okay, maybe we got carried away. Anyways, here we go:

An Overview

You are probably at least a little bit familiar with both platforms so we won’t bore you with the details but let’s summarize each one. Facebook is a place for people to share and communicate. It’s less about networking and more about friendships. It’s not just about the social lives of its users though. A survey conducted by Facebook showed that 74% of American consumers use Facebook to discover new brands. That’s a high number that you should be taking advantage of.

LinkedIn on the other hand was originally developed as a corporate recruitment platform. It now includes many of the typical features we see on other social media platforms including sharing, liking, etc. It’s a great place to connect with people in your industry and potential partners or sponsors. LinkedIn is a more professional setting than Facebook, but it also shows great potential for marketing results, particularly with videos. Facebook is like a good polo shirt, you can wear it out on the golf course or in a relatively professional setting. LinkedIn is more like that fitted collared shirt that matches the tie. You see, this is why we do marketing and not fashion.

By The Numbers

Facebook wins by a large margin when it comes to the sheer number of users. They have over 2.5 billion monthly active users, making LinkedIn’s 64 million active users seem pretty small. The majority of both platforms’ audiences are in the 25-34-year-old range, but Facebook has a larger percentage of users who fall below 18 years old and above 64 years old. This is because LinkedIn mostly serves professionals looking to network and Facebook is used by the everyday consumer.

A 2020 Marketing Report showed that Facebook had the highest ROI of any social media platform, while LinkedIn placed 4th on the list. Don’t be blinded by the numbers though! LinkedIn is the number one social media platform for certain businesses in certain industries. That’s because – drum roll, please…

LinkedIn Is Ideal For B2B Marketing

What LinkedIn lacks in “social” aspects it more than makes up for in networking and partnership generation. This makes it the perfect place for business-to-business companies. Seems pretty obvious, right? Well, just in case, here’s why: You can easily identify the positions of people within a company, so you can target the decision-makers. Plus, social selling is embedded into the platform. LinkedIn occupies the largest share of B2B display ads at 32%. If you’re in the B2B space, you should definitely be using LinkedIn.

Recap

Now that we’ve discussed the differences between the two, let’s summarize our findings.

Facebook Pros

  • More users
  • Better ROI

Facebook Cons

  • Not ideal for B2B marketing

LinkedIn Pros

  • Best B2B platform
  • Social selling and networking tools

LinkedIn Cons

  • Fewer users
  • Worse ROI

So… Who Wins?

And the winner is… well, it depends who you ask. Joe from Corporate Network Security Solutions would say LinkedIn. Hannah from HomeSpa Care Products would say Facebook. The gist of it is that it depends on your business and your marketing strategy. We know, it’s much more fun to simply say that one is better than the other, but in truth, we use both for different clients in different industries all the time.

Need some help with your social media strategy? Not to toot our own horn, but ???? ! We provide social media strategy and management services for any company in any industry. Let’s chat about how we can help you today!