I predict that social media tools will drive as big a communications revolution in our businesses as e-mail did some 20 years ago. But as you develop your firm’s social media strategy, you may still wonder about the differences between the various social media, who uses them and how. This article will compare and contrast “the Big Four” - LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Blogs – and spell out their uses briefly.

LinkedIn (www.LinkedIn.com) is a social networking tool designed to help you make connections with other business professionals with the intention to develop your personal and firm brand, generate new business opportunities, exchange information with peers and recruit experienced professionals. With over 55 million users, LinkedIn is often considered the most business-oriented of the social media tools and has a myriad of features available for free. LinkedIn is particularly good for building your sphere of influence, where your connections and their connections can generate business or new employees for your firm.

LinkedIn can serve as a market research platform and it also serves as a database that enables users to identify and recruit people with specific job experience and qualifications. The platform can be deployed an advertising vehicle, although advertising and advanced business development features do require that you pay a fee. Users can also join and create groups that enable them to build community with others in their field or specialty or host private groups of internal or external stakeholders who can use the platform to exchange ideas and information.

For a better understanding of this platform, visit http://tinyurl.com/2fbver to read a blog post about the top ten uses of LinkedIn written by technology enthusiast Guy Kawasaki.

Facebook

An online networking tool, Facebook (www.Facebook.com) lets its members connect with others both professionally and personally and is also quickly becoming a site used for those interested in multi-player games. Facebook differs from LinkedIn it that it provides the ability to post photographs, video and other personal information that give the platform’s pages a more personal, warmer, community feel. Facebook, which is also free of charge for most uses, works like LinkedIn, where you build a profile and then send invitations to connect to others.  These invitations need to be accepted in order for the recipient to become part of a particular user’s network.  Both also have messaging that can be used to contact other members, even if they are not direct connections (LinkedIn terminology) or friends (Facebook vernacular).

Facebook indicates that it has more than 350 million users with more than 50 percent of these logging in daily.  Research shows that 36.3 percent of these are more than 35 years old and this “older” demographic is among the fastest growing groups on the platform.

Facebook is similar to LinkedIn, offering the ability to create groups that revolve around a common interest or a specific conference. Those invited to join these pages or groups are called fans, not friends. These pages are available for free with advertising opportunities available for a fee.

And besides making connections with friends and being able to see who their friends are, a company can establish pages (free of charge) and invite those are interested to become fans of their firm. This is particularly helpful for firms who want to create a local community presence. They do so by inviting clients, prospects and influencers to join their corporate pages as fans and posting pictures of firm events and community activities, sharing upcoming event invitations and more.  Others use Facebook corporate pages to manage firm recruiting efforts, building community around on-campus activities and employee events.

For a better understanding of Facebook’s many uses, see the Blue Traffic article at http://tinyurl.com/ydj8rb3.

Twitter
Twitter differs significantly from Facebook and LinkedIn in that its primary purpose is to offer “news” (loosely defined) in messages of no more than 140 characters (called microblogs).  Located at www.Twitter.com,  this platform helps develop conversations with others and can provide information on news and services, as well as on the activities of those posting messages.  As of the end of 2009, there are about 18 million users who send messages via Twitter, called Tweets, at least monthly.

On Twitter, individuals communicate where they are, what they have done or are planning to do. It’s also emerging as a place for companies to post job openings and develop groups, called lists, of people from a particular segment or shared interest. On Twitter, you establish your profile and then begin finding those of interest to “follow” and you can invite others to follow you, too.  When a Tweeter chooses to follow someone, the other person’s messages appear on the Tweeter’s home page. Tweets that are deemed of value to your constituencies can also be passed along to your followers as Retweets.

Additional information about Twitter can be found on the following sites: CPA Trendlines http://cpatrendlines.com/2009/02/17/why-cpas-twitter/and Social Media Explorer http://tinyurl.com/ycswm69.

Blogs
Blogs differ significantly from the other three social media tools as they are online tools used for delivering news and information, and generally allow for longer articles or messages to  be placed online. Blogs deliver information to readers, enabling the blog writer, or blogger, to position themselves and their firm as expert in a particular subject area.  Blogs also encourage two-way communication, via blog replies and posts that enable bloggers to establish an ongoing dialogue with readers.

And while the prior three platforms are offered by individual companies, blogs are available from a variety of sources, including www.blogger.com,  www.wordpress.com or www.typepad.com. There are no character limits for posts and users can incorporate videos, pictures and links within their articles.  Users can set up and manage blogs using tools for designing their pages.  These tools offer the ability to choose different looks and color schemes.

There are estimated to be about 20 million bloggers with about 1.7 million of them getting paid to blog.  In fact, many operate businesses via their blogs and some fall into a category Intuit has termed “Hobbypreneur” in which hobbyists operate for profit.

Blogs are very popular sources of information.  About 51 percent of Internet users read blogs daily and in this business, there are over 130 known accounting firm blogs.  Instead of having friends, fans or followers, blogs have readers or subscribers.

The Journal of Accountancy offers more information on blogs at http://www.journalofaccountancy.com/Issues/2009/Aug/20091718.htm. 
As a student and teacher of social media, I’m interested in your success story with any or all of these four platforms.  If you have a story to tell, email me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .