Microsoft is Buying LinkedIn – What Does it Mean for You?

$26.2 billion is not small sum of money – especially for a company that was valued by the market at $16.8 billion. It’s a big bet for Microsoft, but at that premium, do they see something that perhaps the market didn’t. What does it all mean for you?

It’s likely that, in the near term, little will change with regard to the user experience. What’s more important to you is the fact that this deal is going down in the first place. Why is LinkedIn worth so much? If you look at it from pure user growth, LinkedIn is continuing a steady growth rate. See the chart here. Compared to Twitter, a platform whose user growth is starting to level off, there’s a lot to value.

So why does that matter to you? With more and more professionals looking to LinkedIn to be a trusted social network to connect with other business professionals, find jobs, find employees and advertise their products and services, it’s an indicator that you too should be spending time there. LinkedIn has so many features designed to help professionals with any of these above goals and it’s only getting better.

Considering that actual deals are being done as a result of LinkedIn connections, if you haven’t made it a priority to spend some time there, you should. I wrote a post back in November of 2014 about a $14,000 deal that I did as a result of one connection on LinkedIn. Since that time, I’ve personally used LinkedIn more to message users, get information, achieve top-of-mind awareness and continue to grow. I’ve even moved to a new city and started a new company and LinkedIn has been continued to be a catalyst for my growth.

Do I use LinkedIn as much as I should? Perhaps not, but I can think of 26 billion reasons to use it more. How do you use LinkedIn? Do you think you invest enough time to make it work for your business? Do you think LinkedIn is really worth $26 billion? Comment below with your thoughts.

Will Melton is the President of Xponent21, a marketing strategy firm that he founded in 2015. Headquartered in the Greater New York City Area, Xponent21 delivers xponential growth through 21st Century marketing solutions. This post was originally published at xponent21.com.