This week, software gods Microsoft acquired the professional social network LinkedIn for a huge sum of over £18bn, the third-largest acquisition in the history of the tech sector.
LinkedIn stands at a user count of around 430 million and 100 million visitors to the site each month, making it the largest professional social network. But what will this mean for marketing?
“Together we can accelerate the growth of LinkedIn, as well as Microsoft Office 365 and Dynamics as we seek to empower every person and organization on the planet,” says Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella in a press release.
The integration of the platform’s 433 million users and the business services provided by Microsoft can only allude to the outcome of encouraging sales into Microsoft software and services. After a turbulent beginning to the year for LinkedIn, it is optimistic to think this acquisition will increase the number of users for the platform.
The future for Microsoft is said to be directing toward a cloud computing business, providing all sorts of professional services to clients- including a social network to connect them to each other. This repositioning will move away from the emphasis of Windows and putting their efforts and advances in machine learning and AI.
The combination of a tech giant and a widely adopted business social networking tool presents an interesting opportunity to influence an audience that has formerly been difficult reach effectively. LinkedIn ads could be seen expanding onto Office 365, Skype and MSN, providing experiences, which are more intelligently constructed and in turn, create more ad revenue.
Nadella went on to explain ‘new opportunities will be created for monetization through individual and organization subscriptions and targeted advertising.’
Up to now, LinkedIn has provided a service which has had some difficulties with its own user experience and positioning as a business tool, so with the imminent technology integration and expanded support, Nadella claims it will ‘make it possible for new experiences such as a LinkedIn newsfeed that serves up articles based on the project you are working on and Office suggesting an expert to connect with via LinkedIn to help with a task you’re trying to complete.’
This redefined social selling will catapult the combined company into the forefront of immersive online experiences, learning the user’s wants and needs and presenting the solutions natively and in a technologically advanced manner.
One of the opportunities created by the acquisition includes, ‘Giving Sponsored Content customers the ability to reach Microsoft users anywhere across the Microsoft ecosystem, unlocking significant untapped inventory,’ says the Jeff Weiner, CEO of LinkedIn.
The information available from this huge customer base also allows for lookalike audiences to gain actual social graphic and firmographic information, leading to an opportunity for quality and relevant targeted advertisements.
The deal signifies a leap in tech buying, and following the Microsoft deal, investors have become speculative in the future of acquisitions where the big leaders will have their eyes on next, and once the leaders have aligned their acquisitions, users will need minimal effort to sign-in and personalised experiences will be forefront.
Here at Clock we’re really excited to see how the new and improved LinkedIn experience will help our clients reach their business goals. We have experienced tangible results when working with the existing platform so we’ll continue to follow the developments to identify opportunities available to our existing and future clients.
If you would like to discuss how LinkedIn could benefit your business goals get in touch for an informal chat…
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