MARKETING ACTUARY: HOW THE TWITTER/LINKEDIN SPLIT HELPS YOU

July 3, 2012

HOW THE TWITTER/LINKEDIN SPLIT HELPS YOU

The biggest annoyance with LinkedIn is gone: Tweets will no longer show up as updates.

There have been similar splits as collaborators become competitors

Drifting Apart

LinkedIn and Twitter have been moving apart. On Jan 31, 2012, LinkedIn removed the Tweets widget (TechCrunch) which showed tweets in a sidebar. That feature was a tad redundant since the tweets already showed up as updates.

LinkedIn later removed the option to Comment on tweets and share them within LinkedIn. These changes made tweets foreign. You couldn't do much with them. If a connection shared your tweet within LinkedIn, you would not get credited --- another disincentive.

Now tweets don't show up on LinkedIn at all.

Old Way

In the "old" days, your tweets could show up as part of your LinkedIn updates when both were linked. This facility got misused.

Twitter tends to have more activity. Those updates may not be relevant to business connections on LinkedIn. You could decide each time if updates were also posted on LinkedIn by adding the hashtag #in or #li. It was easier to to have every tweet show up on LinkedIn.

That's too much noise.

New Way

If you use Twitter selectively, you can create the update in LinkedIn and have it sent out on Twitter too. You decide at the time.

You'll have difficulty telling if your update will fit within the 140 characters that Twitter allows. However, your update will look nice on LinkedIn.

If you use Twitter actively, you’ll need to change your approach.

Revised Strategy

You can now have different strategies for different social networks. For example:

LinkedIn for professional networking and well-considered updates
Twitter for constant updates
Facebook for friends

You then give people reasons to connect with you more than once or to select the form of connection they prefer.

Centralized Posting

Why don't you centralize the process of posting updates? I've been doing that for months. You can use a browser-based app like Buffer App or GrabInbox.

Buffer App keeps changing their plans which cost as much as $30/month. They finally have a more reasonable offering: the Awesome Plan for $10/month.

In contrast, GrabInbox is more flexible and (currently) free. This is what I’ve been using. I’m satisfied with the experience. A new version is weeks away.

How

When you're surfing and come across something you'd like to share, you click on an icon in your web browser. You select where the update goes (e.g., Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook or a combination). You decide whether the update goes live instantly or gets queued for later distribution.

You decide which time of day you want updates posted and how many are allowed. The apps take care of the rest. For example, you might want business updates to only go out on weekdays before 9 AM, at lunchtime and after 4 PM. Or you may decide the updates only go out from 9 AM to noon and 1 PM to 5 PM.

Insurance

Relying on one network makes you vulnerable. What once worked may get shutdown. Anticipating change is much better than reacting (or wondering how to react).

You can't tell when changes will occur but you can immunize yourself. Perhaps we'll reach a point where we can't post to multiple networks at once. That's a reason to build audiences on each network.

MARKETING ACTUARY