Microsoft owns LinkedIn … what does this mean?

Maybe it’s time to clean up your act!
As you may already know, Microsoft has recently bought out LinkedIn for a pretty penny … $26 billion to be exact!

So what can we expect now that Microsoft has purchased LinkedIn and what changes will account holders and users of linked in expect?
It’s very early days however some people have asked us for our opinions so we thought we should share with you our Top 5 LinkedIn Tips.

Time to top up and clean up your LinkedIn profile.

You already know that it is very important to have a strong personal profile (in fact LinkedIn scores you on this, so make sure that you are on top of your game.
However, when Microsoft introduces integration with Outlook and other Office products it may become more important.
It may be that your name, photo, and the first few lines of your profile appear in a sidebar every time someone emails you or receives an email from you … The integration could be powerful. You know the saying … “You don’t get a second chance at a first impression” so do all you can to update an excellent profile.

Ensure your LinkedIn Contacts are up to date

Not sure if you know but Sales Force lost out to Microsoft on the bidding to buy LinkedIn. Microsoft has its own CRM called Dynamics that could really make an impact in the market if they integrate it with the social aspects of LinkedIn. Not a bad way to get the marketing of ‘Dynamics’ off the ground and fast tracked ay?

Update your status regularly

As with all social media channels, content and consistency is key. LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter all show your contacts’ latest status updates, and Microsoft plans to integrate this into the Office 365 user dashboard.
This will means that anyone who has you as a contact will be able to keep track of your status and your updates across their entire professional network. This could mean that integration could notify users when a spreadsheet is edited or when a presentation is being set up.

Keep your contact information current

Microsoft plans to integrate its voice-activated assistant Cortana into the mix.
A future version of Cortana may have the facility and know how to be able to look up a phone number, address, or email via voice command.

Decide if you’re willing to throw some investment at this

Approximately only 1.5% of LinkedIn users pay for the “pro” version of the service, but this could change (we are not sure if this is due to the fact that it can be quite costly).
Microsoft’s recent business strategy has been very much focused on selling business technology and if you own a business, you may find their future integrations and offerings very appealing.
Microsoft now has the perfect opportunity through the LinkedIn Social Media platform to reach more businesses, and serve the businesses they already reach better.
We think it’s a very strategic move that Microsoft and LinkedIn become a good fit as there are common overlaps in both their user base and their business models.
Time will tell if Microsoft take full advantage of this however they must be pretty serious if they have invested $26 billion into the robust platform that has been going since its launch on May 5th 2003.

Read More: Top 10 social media marketing mistakes & tips

We look forward to seeing the changes that Microsoft will make to LinkedIn and only hope that we can all take advantage of them to grow our businesses.
If you would like to know more information regarding this article or require further resources to grow your knowledge of social media for business then we would love to hear from you.

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