If you hang out on LinkedIn, you may have noticed the dusty status box on your profile page. If you hang out on-line, you know what a status box is for. My sense of the LinkedIn status box is that it has been a cute little novelty on the site: some take advantage of it from time to time but most seem to ignore its existence. Sort of like ignoring the unpacked boxes from your move two years ago.
That may all change overnight. LinkedIn has announced integration of its cute little status boxes with Twitter’s power status updating service. Over the next 24 hours, LinkedIn will roll out to users the ability to automatically update Twitter with LinkedIn status updates and vice versa, with the use of a hashtag, much like the #fb tag. The LinkedIn tag is #in or li.
A nice feature is that you will be able to set up the cross-posting to send all or selected tweets. Not sure my business contacts want to hear what I had for breakfast yesterday. LinkedIn is also permitting users to show their tweet stream on their LinkedIn profile as well.
Facebook integration also may be in LinkedIn’s future, as well as URL shortening of LinkedIn updates to fit within the infamous 140 character Twitter limit (that makes sense).
I think this is the right move for LinkedIn. My historical complaint regarding the site is that it is, well, boring. There is plenty of business in the questions and group commentary, but the flow in those areas is slow, too slow for today’s real time world. Furthermore, there is little opportunity on LinkedIn to develop your “personality”. The modern Web in general and social networking in particular demand that the experience be fun, ever-changing and informative. Twitter integration goes far towards improving LinkedIn’s deficiencies in this regard.
Will you integrate your Twitter stream with your LinkedIn updates? Enquiring minds want to know!
Advocate's Studio 
I agree and think this is a great idea. I frequently will cut and paste my status updates from LinkedIn to Twitter as I want both groups to see it. However, I won’t probably show everything from Twitter on LinkedIn as I am much less discerning on Twitter.
I think that this is a great move by LinkedIn. However, the idea of LinkedIn is a professional one, so I’ll only be updating with selected “tweets” just as I do with my facebook account.
I agree, Terence and Chris. I think one has to keep in mind the differences between the fora. Even if you have populated your twitter follows with other like-minded professionals, there is certainly a different expectation regarding content on the two sites, at least for the time being. I think it pays to model your content with your audience in mind.
Cheers,
Martha
I have no problem tweeting or leaving Facebook status updates, but when I get to LinkedIn, I’m at a loss for words, precisely because the site is professional and I figure no one wants to hear my casual comments.
This morning on Minnesota Public Radio there was a discussion about job hunting, including the use of social media for this task. One thing I’m getting tired of hearing is that we’re all supposed to watch ourselves online because what we say might not look good in the professional world. While I can understand this to a point, one of the charms of social media is its sense of fun and casualness. When will we reach a point where displaying a quirky personality is seen as an asset to the professional world?
This is a long way of saying that LinkedIn needs to become more fun.
I think this move by LinkedIn is showing they, as a community, are getting hip to melding personality with professionalism. They can see how Twitter use is exploding and are hopping right on that bandwagon.
Cheers,
Martha