Facebook launches new profiles: Possible threat to LinkedIn?
Facebook on Sunday announced a new profile page that allows you to highlight friends, show off photos better and list more details about yourself, including work projects.
Whenever Facebook tweaks a profile page, there's a fair bit of hubbub. In fact, every little pixel on the page gets analyzed (and overanalyzed). This time, Facebook appears to be going for the limelight with a Mark Zuckerberg appearance on 60 Minutes.
In a blog post, Facebook outlined the changes. In a nutshell, the new profile page does the following:
- Emphasizes pictures with a row of tagged pictures.
- Allows you to highlight friends important to you and feature lists of pals.
- Highlight more detailed information about yourself in a profile.
That latter point is most notable---at least from a business perspective. Check out what Facebook decided to highlight:
The profile also gives you new ways to share your interests and activities. You can list the projects you worked on at your job, classes you took in school, your favorite musicians and sports teams, and more...
In other words, Facebook will at least allow you the option to use it more as an online resume. Funny that's exactly how LinkedIn is used. If you can list your jobs, key projects and work connections on Facebook does that minimize the importance of LinkedIn? There's no ready answer to that query, but you have to wonder.
What your Facebook resume may look like:
And the LinkedIn version:
All the parts are there for Facebook to take on LinkedIn. Some folks will choose to highlight their dogs, passions etc. But a big enough chunk of Facebook's 500 million users will use the social site as a work and recruiting tool. Facebook plans to roll the new profile pages out gradually and everyone should have it by early 2011. You can upgrade by going to www.facebook.com/about/profile