LinkedIn brands itself and is widely recognised as the professional social network and, therefore, the one that is most influential for your career. However, Twitter is hot on LinkedIn’s heels in chasing the professional market and is quickly earning the respectability that it previously lacked as a valuable career site.
What Twitter has to offer
Twitter serves a lot of varied purposes for millions of people (302 million active users to be exact). While it is not solely a career-orientated site, many people now have professional Twitter profiles that they regularly use for business networking. Here’s where Twitter trumps LinkedIn:
Twitter has a massive number of active users in comparison to LinkedIn where 60% of users log in less than once a day. This means that with Twitter you have a much larger potential audience that you are able to reach.
Tweeting is a more frequent occurrence than LinkedIn updates which means that you can tweet more often without being annoying!
Twitter allows you to show some personality through your tweets and this will be apparent to your followers and any recruiters or employers that may be taking a look at your profile. Your LinkedIn updates, on the other hand, are not available to view on your profile which only shows what you can do as opposed to who you are.
It is really easy to follow people of interest to you on Twitter. Random follows are something that comes with the territory and users do not think much of it. On LinkedIn however, a connection request carries a bit more expectation, especially if you have not met that person. The recipient is likely to wonder what you want from them.
What LinkedIn has to offer
LinkedIn is a completely business-orientated social network with more than 175 million users across 200+ countries worldwide. Here’s where LinkedIn trumps Twitter:
While a lot of recruiters and hiring managers are on Twitter, their key feeding ground for sourcing great and experienced candidates is still LinkedIn. Therefore, if you are looking for a new opportunity LinkedIn is a good place to be active.
Anyone who’s anyone in the business world should definitely be on LinkedIn by now. This makes it fairly straightforward to connect with new business contacts and maintain a long-lasting working relationship with them.
LinkedIn suggests career opportunities that you may be interested in on a weekly basis. While you may not be looking for a new role, you never know when an opportunity that you may be interested in will pop up.
LinkedIn has groups for all industries that you can join and get involved in. This enables you to continue to develop industry expertise while also getting to see what others have to say and what innovations are making an impact.
The good news is that you do not actually have to choose between these 2 social media giants when considering where is best to be professionally. Both have a lot of benefits that will allow you to further your career and accelerate your professional development if used correctly.
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Bridgewater Resources build real, lasting relationships with our clients in order to help shape their businesses and we get to know our candidates’ personalities, skills and ambitions so we can find them a role that changes their lives for the better.
