LinkedIn has always been one of my favourite social media platforms because of it’s professional nature.  Because profiles are very CV or resume-like, it has made spam very non-existent here – a refreshing change from other platforms we know.

The site has made a few changes recently that are pretty important, or at least noteworthy of discussion.  Let’s take a closer look.

LinkedIn + Twitter = ?

It seems that everybody wants your Twitter updates.  First it was Facebook, and now you can add in your Twitter username to your Linkedin profile:

You can see my Twitter name now there just at the bottom.

You can also choose to have Twitter updates automatically published to your Linkedin Status updates:

I have mixed feelings about this piece of integration.  For me, I used to have strategically-chosen updates that I put on my LinkedIn status, always related to B2B opportunities that my connections might want to know about.  And because not that many people use the status update, I found great results in doing so.

I suspect (and have witnessed, in my own Linked status update page) that most people will share all their Tweets, whether they’re relevant to LinkedIn connections are not.  If you’re not a heavy Twitter user, no problem, but if you’re putting out a lot of content, it is easy to skip over this #in hash tag and overload your business connections!  Make sure any status updates you send to LinkedIn from Twitter are relevant to your connections.

We’ll see what happens, but it is no surprise that Facebook limited entries on the user newsfeed after Twitter integration was introduced.

Follow Out-of-Network LinkedIn Contacts

In a move to become even more Twitter-like, LinkedIn now allows you to ‘follow’ (terminology intentional?) people who aren’t connections but whom you may know from Groups or Questions/Answers discussions.   Here’s someone I know in a group but is not a contact:

If I click Follow Andrea then I can see Andrea’s status updates in my main timeline.  Seems like a great tool if you’re wanting to keep tabs on someone outside your network – although the ‘noise’ from all the Twitter stuff as previously mentioned might become a problem.

This is very similar to how you have always been able to Follow discussions (and if you want to turn it off, just go back to the person and ‘Unfollow’ them just like you can unfollow a discussion):

To Learn More…

While these changes are quite interesting, the basics have not changed.  For help figuring out whether LinkedIn or other social networks are the best place for you, our How to Nail Travel Marketing in Unfamiliar Territory is your best bet.  The highlight is our DIY Online Marketing Worksheet, which helps you translate the guide content into an easy-to-action online marketing plan. No fluff and no stress – check it out today!