LinkedIn's Senior Director of Product came to speak at MIT Sloan late last week and had some interesting things to say about the differences between what LinkedIn is trying to accomplish and Facebook is trying to do.

A couple of the key differences in their approach that I found most interesting were:

1) The idea that your LinkedIn profile is your public you, while your Facebook profile is your personal you.  This idea isn't all that new but to put it into context, if I'm meeting someone for the first time and they know the informaton on my LinkedIn profile (that I went to Amherst College, worked in consulting for a few years) then I just think they've done their homework. If they know the information on my Facebook profile (that I just got back from a soccer tournament in Austin Texas) then thats just creepy.  This means that your LinkedIn profile is what you want the world to see, and your Facebook profile is what your want your friends to see - two very different markets.

2) LinkedIn is focusing on utility, while Facebook is focusing on fun.  Adam talked extensively about how they are taking a conservative approach to opening up API's and allowing 3rd party developers onto the site because they want to position the site as a tool to use in business, not a medium used for entertainment.  For this reason LinkedIn is very focused on its demographics, which based on the numbers Adam presented are on par with that of the wall street journal.

3) LinkedIn mobile.  Adam touched briefly on the LinkedIn mobile application that was officially released on Monday. I actually really like the direction they are going with the iPhone version of the application - making it almost like a digital business card.  If just a few click strokes I can look someone up, add them to my network, or get the background of someone I'm about to meet with.  It worked very well in my limited testing last night.

As LinkedIn begins to open its API's to more developers it will be very interesting to see how the information is used and the steps LinkedIn takes to ensure everyone's privacy.  For instance I talked with Adam after his talk about the idea of including LinkedIn profile information with Salesforce.com.  When a telemarketer calls you out of the blue would you want them knowing your full profile information?  Would you want a sales team to route your lead to a salesman who went to the same undergrad institute and therefore could potentially connect with you better?  How about at a CSR at a call center?