Facebook is the top dog in the social networking community. A whole lot of people log on to FaceBook everyday to catch up with their friends, the latest applications, and even their favorite blogs. While Facebook dominates the social media market, LinkedIn seems to be a more viable social network for the future. The FaceBook generation are much younger than the average overall LinkedIn users. In essence, at some point, FaceBook users graduate to LinkedIn, and while they continue to use FaceBook, they will use LinkedIn and similar sites to advance their networks and business relationships (see diagram below):

There is no question that FaceBook has all the tools to retain the majority of its users, but LinkedIn is a more niche social network that continues to grow faster than LinkedIn in the foreseeable future. One thing that gives me the impression about LinkedIn’s bright future is the fact that you need to network to be successful in your career and while networking on Facebook could work out well for you, LinkedIn is a more professional way of networking, which goes beyond people’s hobbies and personal stories. Can LinkedIn catch FaceBook eventually? That’s hard to tell, but with the current 10% monthly growth rate, I wouldn’t be surprised.