Let's get one thing out of the way first.
WhirLocal isn't trying to compete with LinkedIn.
LinkedIn is the world's largest professional network, with more than 1.3 billion members around the world. It has massive brand recognition, enormous reach, and more than two decades of history connecting professionals.
We have tremendous respect for what LinkedIn has built.
WhirLocal is building something different.
The simplest way we can explain it is this:
LinkedIn helps you build your professional network.
WhirLocal helps you make the relationships and trust that you've spent years building more visible online.
Those networks can complement each other, but they serve very different purposes.
What LinkedIn Does Extremely Well
LinkedIn is built around professional identity and professional relationships.
People connect with colleagues, clients, vendors, employers, industry peers and other professionals. They can follow companies, publish content, participate in conversations, search for people, recruit employees and discover opportunities.
LinkedIn also offers several important trust signals.
Members can endorse skills, write recommendations for people they've worked with and increasingly verify aspects of their professional identities.
If you're trying to establish your professional presence or grow your professional network, LinkedIn can be incredibly valuable.
WhirLocal Starts With a Different Question
WhirLocal isn't primarily asking:
Who are you professionally connected to?
We're asking:
Who do you trust?
That's a different relationship.
Imagine you're a local contractor.
Who is the electrician you trust?
Who would you recommend for plumbing?
What realtor would you send someone to?
Who's your insurance agent?
Where do you take your vehicle?
What's a local nonprofit you believe in?
Where's your favorite locally owned restaurant?
Those relationships probably already exist.
WhirLocal gives you a place to make them visible.
Your Trust Network Doesn't Depend on Everyone Already Being on WhirLocal
This is one of the biggest differences in how we're building WhirLocal.
You don't have to wait for everyone you trust to join WhirLocal before you can build your WhirLocal Trust Network™.
If a business or organization you trust is already on WhirLocal, you can simply add them.
If they're not, you can nominate them.
Our team reviews the submission and can add that place to WhirLocal so it can become part of your Trust Network.
Neighbors can do the same thing when building their personal Trust Lists.
That means the starting point isn't:
"Who do I know that's already on WhirLocal?"
It's:
"Who do I already know and trust?"
That's a very important distinction.
WhirLocal will become more useful as the overall network grows, but you don't need to wait for WhirLocal to become a household name before your own WhirLocal Trust Network™ or Trust List can have value.
You can start with the trust relationships you already have.
Connections and Trust Relationships Aren't Quite the Same Thing
LinkedIn connections serve an important purpose.
LinkedIn describes connections as people you know and trust professionally. Once two people connect, they become first-degree connections and gain additional ways to communicate and interact on LinkedIn.
But a connection isn't necessarily a public recommendation.
Most of us probably have LinkedIn connections we know professionally but wouldn't automatically recommend to a friend looking to hire someone.
WhirLocal makes that distinction much more explicit.
Adding a place to your WhirLocal Trust Network™ or Trust List means something.
You're saying:
"This is a place I know, like, and trust enough to recommend."
That's why we call them trust relationships rather than connections.
LinkedIn Has Recommendations Too
This is an area where the two platforms have some overlap.
LinkedIn allows members to write recommendations recognizing the work of their first-degree connections.
Those written recommendations can be meaningful social proof.
There is an important difference in how that trust is displayed, however.
LinkedIn states that recommendations are fully visible to signed-in first-, second- and third-degree connections. On a public LinkedIn profile, visitors can see the number of recommendations someone has received and up to two of the actual recommendations.
Recommendations you've given to other people aren't displayed on your public profile.
WhirLocal takes a different approach.
The trust relationships themselves are meant to be visible.
Who We Trust and Who Trusts Us
A WhirLocal business Trust Network has two sides.
Who We Trust shows the businesses and organizations that business recommends.
Who Trusts Us shows the businesses, organizations and neighbors who have added that business to their own Trust Networks or Trust Lists.
Together, they begin to create something bigger than a list of connections.
They create a visible picture of local trust.
Public Without Requiring a Login
We think trust is more useful when people can actually see it.
Public WhirLocal Trust Networks™ and Neighbor Trust Lists can be viewed without requiring someone to create a WhirLocal account or sign in first.
That matters when you're sharing a recommendation with a customer, friend, neighbor or client.
Instead of saying:
"Go join this platform and then look me up..."
you can simply send them the link.
They can see the places you trust.
Trust You Can Take With You
We've also built WhirLocal so that your trust doesn't have to stay inside WhirLocal.
Businesses can display a WhirLocal Trust Card on their own website showing trust signals such as how many places and neighbors trust them, with a link to explore their Trust Network.
Businesses on our Trust Accelerator plan can go further and embed their Trust Network directly on their own website.
That means someone could discover the businesses you trust without knowing anything about WhirLocal or ever starting their journey on WhirLocal.
The network becomes an asset the business can use.
LinkedIn's Scale Is a Strength. WhirLocal's Local Focus Is the Point.
There is no comparison between the size of LinkedIn and WhirLocal.
LinkedIn has more than 1.3 billion members.
WhirLocal is an emerging network we're building community by community.
But we're not trying to recreate LinkedIn on a smaller scale.
We're building something different.
LinkedIn's enormous network helps professionals find people, opportunities, information and relationships around the world.
WhirLocal is designed to help businesses and neighbors answer a much more local question:
"Who do you trust around here?"
And then make those answers useful to other people.
You Don't Have to Choose
This isn't an either/or decision.
If LinkedIn helps you build professional relationships, use LinkedIn.
We do.
WhirLocal can serve a different purpose alongside it.
Build your professional network on LinkedIn.
Build your local Trust Network on WhirLocal.
Because when someone asks:
"Who do you know who does ____________?"
your answer shouldn't have to live in your memory, your phone contacts or somewhere inside a private network.
It can become part of a public, shareable and growing network of local trust.
About this comparison: This article is intended to help readers understand the differences between WhirLocal and other platforms. Information about third-party products and features is based on publicly available information at the time of publication and may change. All trademarks and brand names belong to their respective owners. WhirLocal is not affiliated with or endorsed by the companies mentioned unless otherwise stated.