Is LinkedIn more inhibited than Facebook?

I have only recently become active on LinkedIn but I do find a difference between Facebook and LinkedIn.

When I do a post on Linkedin, the response seems more measured. People are more careful about what they say. They are guarded about clicking a ‘like’. And of course very few care to comment.   And I am not talking about myself.

Take a key LinkedIn inFluencer like Richard Branson whom I follow as well, who has over 8 million followers. His recent post ‘ You can't fake Personality, Passion or Purpose’ got him 69,828 views but only 5712 Likes and 500 comments as I write this blog. That means that a litte under 10% of the people who read your post are willing to like it.  Worse stillI less than 1% will comment. And this seems like a proven formula for LinkedIn. Look at the statistics of this post you are reading.  You will find that less than 10% of the views constitute likes + comments. I can understand you not commenting on my post. But why can't you tell Richard Branson his post was inspiring. I think he is inspiring. And I would never fail to tell him that. That is why I am following him in the first place.

An average post on FB on the other hand has everybody prancing around, liking and commenting. Conversations flow. People have fun. People are interacting with each other like they do in real life.

So what’s the difference?

LinkedIn

I find that people on LinkedIn behave very much like they do in their 9-5 office jobs. They are guarded. I feel as if everyone is very formal and dressed in a suit. They don’t want to be caught saying the wrong thing. They are worried about smiling for fear of being perceived as too flippant. They are worried about what their seniors might think of them or how their colleagues and mentors are judging them in a professional context. They are busy projecting their ideal office personality.  They prefer to be non-committal, especially if your post is on a tricky or controversial subject.  After all many of them are looking for their next break ( or so the articles I have read say ) and they don’t want to spoil their chances.

Facebook

On the other hand Facebook is like having a party at home. People loosen up on Facebook. They take their ties off if they were wearing one. Otherwise they are wearing jeans and tees. Everyone’s had a few drinks. Everyone is chilled out. Conversations flow easily. You don’t care about what people think. You are going to say what you want to say. There is bonhomie. There is laughter. There is repartee. ( have you noticed very few people on LinkedIn actually use the smiley to communicate? I guess they think it is too informal to smile on LinkedIn ). 

Of course different kinds of content flow on these two media.  I find that a cute picture of me and  my dog will get a few 100 likes on Facebook but a link to my learned blog on LinkedIn will get none.  Because I think people on Facebook are not interested in reading serious professional stuff.  Its just not the time and place.

But then both these mediums I guess serve a purpose. From all the articles I have read, people are on LinkedIn with a fairly serious professional purpose. So do they really have to be so stiff? I am not so sure. Is Apple stiff? Are the average start-ups in Silicon Valley or elsewhere in the world stiff?

I personally think people need to loosen up a bit on LinkedIn. Let their guard down. Pull their professional masks off at least once in while.  It would be so much more fun. And to make the point strongly I am ending this post with a :-) because the LinkedIn publishing software doesn't accept the standard emoji emoticon! I tried and it appears as two question marks like this ?? Which means LinkedIn doesn't really want to encourage any humour  on their platform. So I might as well then end this with a frown :(