5 Reasons Why the LinkedIn-Twitter Integration is Big News

By Neal Schaffer

Just a few days after I mentioned in my blog post on the new LinkedIn Profile Organizer that it had been a year since LinkedIn released any new significant functionality, we have been bombarded by the social media press over the last few days concerning the new LinkedIn User Interface and now the big news last night on the integration between LinkedIn and Twitter.  And this news has sparked reaction ranging from ReadWriteWeb’s analysis that the potential of opening up all of the cross-platform data between LinkedIn and Twitter has not fully begun to be realized, Mashable’s read on the the “potential for lucrative business intelligence and data exchange”, to CIO.com’s call for the proper etiquette with their “Do’s and Don’ts for Users.” What does this all mean and why is the LinkedIn-Twitter integration big news?

Let’s first of all put this into perspective: There has always been integration options between Facebook and Twitter.  And, with the popularity of Ping.fm, anyone who wanted to simultaneously update their LinkedIn and Twitter statuses is already doing it.  So this is not real news.  Yes, it will make it easier for people to integrate their tweets with their LinkedIn Status Updates, so without the proper etiquette, we could see a lot more irrelevant LinkedIn Status Updates.  But, like I said earlier, I believe these will be the same people that we are already ignoring the Status Updates of in the first place. (Note: The potential, however, for Twitter spammers to create fake “LION” profiles, amass connections, and  flood the Status Updates with their spam does exist.  It should also make it easier for LinkedIn to find them and root them out of the system, should LinkedIn get more serious about deleting out fake profiles.)

On the other hand, for the people that are sharing information on Twitter, there will probably be more of a tendency to share more selective tweets in their LinkedIn Status Update.  And with this, the LinkedIn Platform should receive more valuable status updates that are sharing information from users with various subject matter expertise.

For LinkedIn users who are used to updating their Status Update with a nod to their personal branding, it will make them easier to simply tweet these same messages, and in doing so, meet new people that may respond to them through the @Reply functionality of Twitter.  For those LinkedIn users that aren’t heavy on Twitter yet, this integration could be their bridge to begin truly Windmill Networking on Twitter.

If you are interested in how LinkedIn and Twitter view the integration, here is the official video:

Looking beyond the short-term flood of tweets into LinkedIn, the big news out of this is:

• A New Generation of Twitter Users Will Come from LinkedIn

Many of the professionals that are active on LinkedIn are not so big on Twitter.  They just don’t see the value in Twitter and are still stuck in the “Twitter is all about people writing what they ate for breakfast” mode.  Ideally, with savvy tweeters sharing relevant information in the LinkedIn Status Update, this will be a new way for professionals to realize the treasure trove of information that they can find from Twitter, and in turn foster a new generation of Twitter users.    (Note: There are also a lot of people on Twitter that are not so active on LinkedIn so the reverse effect may also apply here, but I estimate to a lesser degree.)

• LinkedIn Status Update Grows Up

Up until now LinkedIn users had to go to the News sections of each LinkedIn Group to find relevant information concerning their industry or profession.  Now, LinkedIn users can hopefully find more of this information by looking at the Status Updates of people’s profiles with subject matter expertise that we are looking for.  And as this happens, we will no longer need to ask each other “What do you use your LinkedIn Status Update for?” and start sharing more pertinent information with our networks as we are used to doing on Twitter.  It will now be important for LinkedIn to allow us to filter our Status Updates, just like we can with Twitter Lists, so that we can pick and choose who’s Status Updates we want to see.

• Allow for Selective Filtering of Tweets Posted to LinkedIn Status Update

Up until now it was difficult to filter out tweets that you wanted to send to Twitter but not LinkedIn if you were using Ping.fm.  With the new functionality of filtering tweets through the #in or #li hashtags, the ability to send only pertinent tweets to LinkedIn is now available.  Hopefully this will allow for higher quality and more relevant tweets sent to LinkedIn.

• Introduction of More Dynamic Content into the Static LinkedIn Platform

Let’s face it: LinkedIn is a static platform that is almost boring in comparison to Twitter or even Facebook.  LinkedIn will never become a Facebook, but with the Twitter integration, LinkedIn will become a more dynamic platform where users may be checking on their Home Page Status Updates a little more often to see what their LinkedIn connections are tweeting.  It’s easier to do this on LinkedIn than to have to create a Twitter List of all of your LinkedIn connections.  Plus, the Status Update will only show the most recent entry, so it helps filter out some of the “noise” that some professionals associate with Twitter.

• Hashtag to Application Potential is Enormous

The most significant feature by far is the ability to filter a hashtag into a 3rd party application.  This has significant implications for how companies can use Twitter in the future (for instance integrating all tweets from employees using the same hashtag into some enterprise application) or how Twitter can potentially charge money for individuals or businesses to “own” a hashtag that can now be filtered into an API to allow for more specialized monitoring or broadcasting.  Getting back to the Mashable article that I referred to earlier, the ability to harness the business intelligence and data exchange combined with the database that LinkedIn has some significant implications of what lies ahead.  And, agreeing with ReadWriteWeb, I also believe that this is just the beginning and am waiting for what is in store in the future!

If nothing else, this integration proves that 1) Twitter is here to stay, 2) Twitter is positioning themselves as a platform for professionals by aligning themselves with LinkedIn, and 3) the LinkedIn-Twitter integration could further isolate Facebook as the social networking platform where people go to play and not work.  This integration will undoubtedly result in more LinkedIn users trying out Twitter and more Tweeple sharing information on LinkedIn.  Maybe I am too optimistic, but I only see the potential for good coming out of this relationship.

Do you think the LinkedIn-Twitter integration is a good or a bad thing?  Indifferent?  Share your comments with us!

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