Earlier today I read a great post by @TomMartin on Facebook taking on Twitter when the real battle should be with LinkedIn. Ever since I’ve been focused on what it would take to make me leave LinkedIn and focus all attention on Facebook – here’s what Facebook will need to do:
- Enhanced privacy controls – Facebook already allows groups and privacy controls by group but right now the status update can’t be protected. I use Facebook only for personal friends and wouldn’t want work or professional contacts to see those updates. Hell, several of my friends don’t want those updates! I use Twitter for my professional networking and most of my friends don’t care about the latest marketing link or new fad site. I need the ability to send status updates to one group and not another.
- Answers – The answers feature on LinkedIn is powerful and a great way to leverage your network. I think it leverages their FOAF feature. I don’t know of any similar Facebook feature?
- Groups – I am a member of several groups on Facebook but none have the richness I find from LinkedIn’s groups. I’m not sure if this is really a feature change or if it’s just about usage?
- Googlejuice – My public profile on LinkedIn gets a first page placement on Google’s homepage. Facebook is also on the first page but I don’t have the same modular control of what information I put into Google. I want that control – let me decide what part of my Facebook profile shows up in Google search results
Will these changes make me switch? Maybe not but I would consider it.