Here we go once again, LinkedIn is further opening up their network to their pals at Twitter. Last week LinkedIn launched more features to their Tweets application, now allowing you to find and track your LinkedIn connections’ Twitter accounts and vice versa. This can be very useful for anyone struggling to connect with relevant people on Twitter, or not finding random enough people on LinkedIn. Let’s look at what the applicatoin is all about, why you should get it and how it’s done.
LinkedIn + Twitter = True?
It seems LinkedIn and Twitter are doing everything they can to ward off the behemoth that is Facebook. LinkedIn are not growing as quickly as they would like, Twitter is growing exponentially but can’t really seem to turn new users into revenue. Joining forces at some level or at least integrating services seems like a viable option. From where I’m standing it actually looks like a very good fit – surely they don’t exactly cater for the same audiences.
LinkedIn is the professional network for careers and business, everything is meticulous and setting up a proper profile takes a good few hours. Adding new connections is a laborious process and invites should be made personal and based on adding value.
Twitter is the quite the opposite, setting up your profile takes about two minutes and you hit the ground running. You can follow just about anyone on Twitter in a mouse click and you don’t even have to know how they are. On LinkedIn you take your time to answer questions in groups and discussions, on Twitter you just tweet whatever comes to mind.
So how do you speed things up for good ol’ LinkedIn and how do you smarten up fast’n’furious Twitter? Just integrate the two.
The LinkedIn Tweets application
The actual application is very simple to set up, you click on the application page and enable it for your profile. It will then scour the Twitter account you have twinned with your LinkedIn profile for any matching connections. The results come up and you can see which LinkedIn connections you are following on Twitter and crucially, which ones you aren’t.
Why should you install it?
The most obvious use that I can think is that you can finally follow relevant people on Twitter. Instead of tailing Stephen Fry and Bill Gates, who will never acknowledge you in the Twittersphere, you can now easily find and follow people that matter in your daily life.
Follow your customers to see what they could be in need of next, your peers to see what is really happening in the office politics, your boss to see how that annual bonus should be looking. And remember that Twitter, just like LinkedIn, is a great tool for seeing what the competition is up to as well – make sure to keep your friends close but your enemies closer as they say.
There is even a list function on Twitter for your LinkedIn connections. You can set up a dynamic list that corresponds to your LinkedIn connections and it will update itself as you add new connections.
How is it done?
Start with signing in to your LinkedIn account, then click on the Tweets application. Choose whether you want others to see that you have the application installed (why not?) and hit ‘Update’. You have now successfully installed Tweets to your LinkedIn account. The next screen shows your LinkedIn/Twitter stats and matches. You can click on either category and choose to follow/unfollow any of your LinkedIn connections on on Twitter.
The categories will display the name, photo and title of your connections in case you have forgotten exactly what they do. Simply click "add" to any connetion and you will now be following them on Twitter. In case you have had enough noise from someone on LinkedIn, just go ahead and unfollow them on Twitter.
Bottom line
The Tweets application is really very simple once you have it installed and you are now on your way to achieving some sort of consistency as to the people you follow across LinkedIn and Twitter. The implications of the integration are far greater however, it either a step in the direction of one Open Network or clusters of social media platforms teaming up. Dare I suggest that Facebook follows suit and offer a similar application to their users?