Connecting your LinkedIn and Facebook accounts allows you to expand your professional network while still engaging with friends and family. There are a few different ways to connect the two platforms, depending on your specific needs and preferences.
Importing Contacts
One of the easiest ways to connect LinkedIn and Facebook is by importing your Facebook contacts into LinkedIn. Here’s how it works:
- Go to your LinkedIn profile and click “My Network” at the top of your homepage.
- Select “Import Connections” from the dropdown menu.
- Choose “Facebook” as the external network you want to import from.
- Enter your Facebook login credentials when prompted.
- Select which Facebook friends you want to import to LinkedIn.
- LinkedIn will send connection requests to the selected Facebook friends.
Importing Facebook contacts is a quick way to expand your LinkedIn network. However, connections made this way tend to be less active and engaged unless you proactively reach out and interact with them.
Linking Accounts
You can also directly link your Facebook and LinkedIn accounts. Here’s how:
- Go to your LinkedIn account settings.
- Select “Partner Integrations” from the menu.
- Choose Facebook and click “Link Account.”
- Log into Facebook to authorize linking the accounts.
Linking your accounts makes it easy to share content back and forth between the two platforms. You can publish LinkedIn posts to Facebook and Facebook posts to LinkedIn with just a few clicks.
Showcasing Your Facebook Page
If you have a Facebook Page for your business or brand, you can showcase it on your LinkedIn profile too. Simply add the Facebook Page URL in the contact info section of your LinkedIn profile. This gives your connections a direct link to your Facebook presence right from your LinkedIn profile.
Cross-Posting
Many social media management tools like Hootsuite and Social Bee allow you to connect multiple social networks and cross-post content between them. So you can write a post once and then share it automatically on both LinkedIn and Facebook.
Cross-posting takes a bit more setup but saves time in the long run. Just be sure your posts are tailored appropriately for each audience.
Share LinkedIn Posts on Facebook
You can manually share specific LinkedIn posts with your Facebook friends and followers. When sharing a LinkedIn post on Facebook:
- Click the share icon on the LinkedIn post.
- Choose Facebook from the sharing options.
- Add any comments you want to include then post it.
Sharing timely and relevant LinkedIn content to Facebook helps drive traffic between the platforms. Make sure to only share posts that would genuinely interest your Facebook connections.
Share Facebook Posts on LinkedIn
Similarly, you can share Facebook posts with your LinkedIn network:
- Copy the URL of the Facebook post you want to share.
- Go to LinkedIn and create a new post.
- Paste the Facebook post URL into your LinkedIn post.
- Add any commentary then share the post.
This allows you to leverage the content you’re already creating for Facebook to grow your LinkedIn presence too.
Use Facebook Lead Ads
Facebook Lead Ads allow you to collect leads directly from Facebook to LinkedIn. With Facebook Lead Ads:
- Design an ad that promotes a free offer, content download, or other lead magnet.
- When people click the ad, they fill out a lead form to access the offer.
- The lead form can include requesting access to the person’s LinkedIn profile.
- You can then export the leads into LinkedIn as contacts.
This can be an excellent way to drive relevant, high-quality leads into LinkedIn from Facebook’s massive audience.
Engage Facebook Groups
Actively participating in relevant Facebook Groups can lead to LinkedIn connections in a few ways:
- Groups allow you to demonstrate expertise which builds credibility.
- You can include a link to your LinkedIn profile in your Facebook bio.
- When interacting in Groups, invite people to connect on LinkedIn.
- Watch for Group members posting about career updates and invite them to connect on LinkedIn.
Facebook Groups let you connect personally with an engaged audience and build relationships that can carry over to LinkedIn.
Retarget Website Visitors
Many marketing tools like AdRoll allow you to create cross-network retargeting campaigns. For example:
- Someone visits your website after clicking from LinkedIn.
- A tracking pixel installed on your site captures that visitor’s cookie.
- You create a Facebook ad campaign targeting that cookie data.
- That visitor then starts seeing your Facebook ads prompting them to connect on LinkedIn.
Retargeting leverages your website traffic to connect with visitors again on Facebook and get them to join your LinkedIn network.
Use a LinkedIn & Facebook Combined Targeting Strategy
You can combine targeting capabilities across LinkedIn and Facebook for powerful results. For example:
- Create a LinkedIn ad targeted to specific job titles and industries.
- Run a Facebook ad targeted to the same demographic and location.
- Someone in the audience sees both ads and is more likely to convert.
- You collect their contact as a lead on Facebook.
- Export that lead to LinkedIn for ongoing networking.
Coordinated campaigns across LinkedIn and Facebook allow you to precision target your ideal customer from multiple angles.
Benefits of Connecting LinkedIn and Facebook
Connecting your LinkedIn and Facebook presence offers many advantages, including:
- Increased exposure and reach by expanding your networks on both platforms.
- Cross-promotion of your content, pages, and profile between audiences.
- Added convenience through linked accounts and simplified cross-posting.
- Richer insights into your followers and their preferences across multiple channels.
- More touchpoints with audiences to build familiarity and trust.
Used strategically, integrating your LinkedIn and Facebook presence can accelerate your networking and business goals.
Risks of Connecting LinkedIn and Facebook
However, there are some potential downsides to consider as well:
- Audiences have different expectations on each platform – professional vs. personal sharing.
- Oversharing irrelevant content can damage your brand and credibility.
- Scattered efforts diffuse your focus rather than consolidating activities.
- It can be time consuming to actively manage content and networking on both platforms.
- You may unintentionally send social signals that open up privacy concerns.
Make sure to carefully consider your strategy, content, and privacy settings when connecting LinkedIn and Facebook.
Tips for Linking Profiles
Here are some top tips to integrate LinkedIn and Facebook effectively:
- Customize tone for each audience – professional on LinkedIn vs. personal on Facebook.
- Only cross-post relevant updates appropriate for each network.
- Use LinkedIn for industry-specific content and Facebook for lifestyle interests.
- Segment your connections into lists for targeted sharing.
- Evaluate analytics to optimize your efforts on each platform.
- Be very selective in what information you share cross-platform.
- Use images, video, and multimedia content to engage audiences.
- Automate post scheduling and cross-posting where possible.
With the right strategy tailored to each platform, you can unlock the combined potential of LinkedIn and Facebook.
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are answers to some commonly asked questions about connecting LinkedIn and Facebook:
Can I merge my LinkedIn and Facebook accounts into one login?
No, LinkedIn and Facebook are completely separate platforms and you need separate logins for each. There is no ability to merge accounts into a single sign-on. The best option is to link accounts which allows some cross-posting abilities.
Is it wise to connect with Facebook friends and family on LinkedIn?
It depends. If you want to keep strict separation between professional and personal connections, you may not want to connect. But in some cases, connecting across platforms makes sense – just be very selective and intentional about who you connect with.
Can I automatically share everything between LinkedIn and Facebook?
Yes, it is possible to automatically share all posts between the platforms using third-party tools. But this is not recommended as most content is tailored specifically for one audience or the other. It’s better to manually select relevant posts for cross-sharing.
Which types of content work best when cross-posting between the platforms?
Industry news and trends, conference highlights, leadership advice, and career tips tend to work well for both audiences. Avoid oversharing personal content like family photos or political commentary when cross-posting.
Is it possible to target ads to the same people on both LinkedIn and Facebook?
Yes, you can coordinate your ad targeting across the platforms to reach the same type of audience for maximum impact. This involves aligning demographic, interest, and behavior-based parameters across the campaigns.
How much time per week should I spend managing both a LinkedIn and Facebook presence?
It depends on your goals, but expect to spend at least 1-2 hours per week creating content plus another 1-2 hours on engagement and networking on each platform. Automation tools can help reduce the workload. Most social media managers allocate 5-10 hours per week to manage both networks.
Conclusion
Integrating your LinkedIn and Facebook presence takes coordination but can yield great benefits. Focus on sharing high-quality content each audience finds valuable. Avoid oversharing irrelevant updates or pointing people to the wrong platform. Pay close attention to tone, privacy and your goals on each network. With a strategic approach, you can unlock the combined power of LinkedIn and Facebook to accelerate your networking and business success.
