Future of LinkedSoft's Data Play
Michael Spencer
A.I. Writer, researcher and curator - full-time Newsletter publication manager.
Did you ever want to be better connected in the soft new world of the mobile and post-mobile era? With LinkedIn's announcement that's its acquisition by Microsoft has been finalized, we have a lot to talk about.
LinkedIn + Microsoft = LinkedSoft
As CEO, Jeff Weiner hints at, this is indeed a brave new world and a data play. In an age of increasingly remote work, hybrid devices, notifications on PC computers and Chrome extensions becoming more powerful than ever, we as professionals are indeed increasingly working in a vastly more connected global workforce that feels closer and more intimate somehow than ever.
According to the statement, how LinkedIn integrates with Microsoft products should be interesting, and include at least:
LinkedSoft's Future
- Authorization:LinkedIn identity and network in Microsoft Outlook and the Office suite
- Increased reach:LinkedIn notifications within the Windows action center
- Cloud Career Management:Enabling members drafting résumés in Word to update their profiles, and discover and apply to jobs on LinkedIn
- Influencer Marketing:Extending the reach of Sponsored Content across Microsoft properties
- Professional Search: Enterprise LinkedIn Lookup powered by Active Directory and Office 365
- EdTech: LinkedIn Learning available across the Office 365 and Windows ecosystem
- Industry News: Developing a business news desk across our content ecosystem and MSN.com
- Improved CRM/Lead Generation: Redefining social selling through the combination of Sales Navigator and Dynamics 365
These really are just the tip of the iceberg however, the $26 Billion investment is about scale, Bill Gates had this to say back in June about the acquisition:
“This professional feed in LinkedIn, that is how I want to learn about my career, my company, my industry, and I’m going back there. If we can make that as valuable as the Facebook feed in the social world, that’s huge value creation and that’ll happen over a period of years.”
As Facebook Workplace and Microsoft Teams, attempts to take some share away from Slack. LinkedIn has to improve its value for professionals:
- Improve the Premium value of a subscription (think here about how Amazon demonstrates and improves the value of Amazon Prime on a weekly basis!)
- Target content that's isn't just News but is long-form storytelling (Medium's strength). Silicon Valley Millennials aren't coming to read on LinkedIn, since LinkedIn's articles tend to be well under 1000 words, without much authenticity.
- Help ordinary professionals improve their personal brand, and not just monetize influencers.
- Make sure ProFinder is a success, the gig-economy is a huge trend in the future of work and business.
- Leverage not only UGC video via the "Record" app, but allow professionals to create their own educational courses that other professionals can access.
- LinkedIn must create a more substantial "subscription" model system, not just that appeals to a few business development people, but which a substantial number of professionals globally will opt-in to because it helps their future career-path.
- Via predictive analytics, recommend everything from Coursera courses, Chrome extensions, Mobile apps, to YouTube videos and even Amazon products, to travel destinations, that other similar individuals have found useful. As work culture becomes more about our life-work balance and lifestyles, LinkedIn has to make an effort to contribute value to our lives, and not just our work roles. LinkedIn needs to engage their customer experience with data, but not just on limited verticals and the traditional "strictly professional" basis.
While LinkedIn scored an impressive rating in Glassdoor's Best Places to Work 2017 list, that it has a monopoly as the dominant social network for professionals, hasn't done it any favors.
For Microsoft to leverage LinkedIn, as a truly innovative company, requires a rethink of how all that data can be used, not just as dry software integrations, but give users a reason to log-in more often to one of the best looking interfaces in social networking.
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How would you like to see LinkedIn evolve as a more engaging platform for professionals?
C-Suite Executive
8 年Great post, Michael. I think this acquisition could be as important to Microsoft as their Hotmail acquisition years ago. The reason being that LinkedIn has created a successful multi-sided network effects platform with some pretty incredible capabilities. If Microsoft can allow LinkedIn to stay fairly neutral in the market, there's a pretty compelling B2B play here for their data as well. So many cool things you can do with LinkedIn from advertising to content marketing to UGC to data services.
Digital Anthropologist | Chief Strategy Officer | I'm in WIRED, Forbes, CBC, CTV News etc.
8 年Some good ideas Michael. Not sure I'd like the depth of integration with Office365. My major frustration with LinkedIn is that it, like other platforms, is suffering from the Tragedy of the Commons and the quality of discourse has gone downhill. It may become ever less attractive to decision makers. That will be a fine balance for Microsoft to manage with LI.