LinkedIn vs Facebook – which is best for pet professionals?
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LinkedIn vs Facebook – which is best for pet professionals?

By November 7, 2023 No Comments

As a pet professional, it can be hard to know where the best place to showcase your business is. We know that social media is a great way of reaching a large number of people instantly. It allows you to not only communicate with your existing clients but with hundreds of potential ones too. But when you’re busy and time-poor it can be hard to decide which social media platform to really put your efforts into. Well, in this series, we are going to compare some of the leading sites out there so that you are armed with all the information you need to. Whether you’re a pet sitter or own a pet shop, we’ll determine the best social media platform for pet professionals.

This time we look at LinkedIn vs Facebook, to see which one might best suit you!

 

What is LinkedIn?

LinkedIn is marketed as a networking site for professionals. It was launched in 2002 and is primarily used by job seekers, employers, and recruitment agencies. Users set up a profile page featuring their employment history and skill sets and use it to ‘link’ with colleagues, other like-minded professionals, and organisations/businesses of interest. LinkedIn has 930 million members, however, we don’t know how many of these are active on a daily or monthly basis. Only 3% of members post more than once a week, but 40 million apply for jobs every week via this platform.

LinkedIn is the most popular social media site used by prospective employers when researching companies, as of March 2022. 

Pros of Linkedin for Pet Professionals

  • LinkedIn is a professional networking site that allows you to connect with other businesses and peers within your field.
  • Having a LinkedIn profile gives you some credibility as a pet professional which potential customers and prospective employees may look for when they are researching your business.
  • It’s a good website to use for recruitment drives because many people use LinkedIn to apply for jobs, so advertising here is a good idea.
  • LinkedIn has features such as live streams and allows photos, text and videos to be posted.

Cons of LinkedIn for Pet Professionals

  • LinkedIn is not your typical social media site, so it is not quite as focused on clicks and likes. It can be harder to raise awareness of your business to new customers with this platform.
  • While it has millions of members, it is tricky to gauge how active these are. Some people only use the site when doing something career-related rather than daily scrolling as they would do on other platforms.
  • It can be harder to showcase your personality on LinkedIn. Most people remain ‘professional’ and save their relaxed or funny posts elsewhere.
  • The people using LinkedIn do so primarily to advance their careers or make themselves more visible to others in their field, which may mean they are less likely to engage with brands or posts outside of this.

What is Facebook?

Facebook is a social media and social networking site, that originally began in 2004 for school and university students. This opened up a couple of years later to anyone over the age of 13 years, allowing it to quickly overtake MySpace to become the most popular social network in the world.

It currently has over three billion monthly active users, and while a whole array of other social media platforms now exist, Facebook still retains its strong appeal. 

Facebook allows users to set up a profile and send ‘friend requests’ to others. They can use their profile to display information about themselves and make posts on their timelines, sharing a variety of media such as photos, videos, and articles. Their friends can see this information and interact with it, commenting or ‘liking’ it. 

Similarly, users can ‘like’ pages of interest to them and start following, which is where businesses come in. When users like the page of a business they automatically become exposed to the information that the company shares, with their posts regularly appearing in their newsfeed. These can be liked, shared and tagged with wider audiences.

Its user-friendly nature is one of the reasons that it is so popular and is accessible to all age groups and other demographics.

Pros of Facebook for Pet Professionals

  • Facebook is still the most popular social media site with billions of active users
  • It is a user-friendly platform and appeals to a wide range of ages and demographics, so could put your business in front of a variety of potential customers
  • Facebook is versatile – it allows people to share and post all sorts of different things, including videos, photos, music and written information.
  • It is free to set up a Facebook business page, with many tools specifically designed to help you manage it successfully. This includes features such as interactive chat (so clients can message you directly), the option to pay for boosted advertisements, and analytics to see how well your page is performing.

Cons of Facebook for Pet Professionals

  • Older users – Younger social media users may be straying into newer platforms.
  • So strong is Facebook’s appeal, that many people are now shying away from it. They are either uninstalling the app or deleting their profile, to reduce the amount of time they spend ‘scrolling’.
  • The ‘unsubscribe’ option can lead to false results. Facebook allows users to follow a page but unsubscribe from having posts appear on their timeline, meaning that your audience of 1000 followers may not actually be engaging with your content…
  • Negative reviews are possible. With customers being able to interact with your business page, this can sometimes backfire if someone has an axe to grind. You can switch off reviews altogether but this means losing your positive ones too.

So, which is best for pet professionals, LinkedIn or Facebook?

The answer to this question depends on what you need from your social media platform. If you want to communicate with new and potential customers, make posts for likes and shares, and tap into some of the 3 billion active monthly users, then Facebook is best for you. However, if you are looking to network with others, recruit new employees and present your business in a professional-looking manner, then LinkedIn is the site for you. However, as these pages both have something different to offer many pet professionals would consider setting up on both!

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Joanna Woodnutt

Joanna Woodnutt

Dr Joanna Woodnutt MRCVS is a qualified vet, freelance writer, and editor at The Veterinary Content Company. She lives in the Channel Islands with her husband and daughter, as well as their naughty but loveable terrier, Pixie.