I don’t typically write about industry related news, although I have a couple in my Trello that are waiting to be written so there could be a few coming.

However, yesterday’s announcement of Microsoft buying LinkedIn was something that I had to drop a line on as I heavily use LinkedIn on a daily basis and I practically live on Microsoft software.

LinkedIn was the first social media network I ever joined and have never looked back at the usefulness that it provides.  Money aside, there is an incredible amount of reach and power between both companies where they can now leverage the +/- of each other.

  • Contextual Office365 contacts linked to LinkedIn?
  • Document Collaboration from Office documents to LinkedIn
  • Call Notifications that display the user’s LinkedIn Profile along with their contact history in a popup toast.
  • Direct Dynamics CRM integration to LinkedIn users and customers – the possibilities are wide here.
  • Office365 Graph – I don’t even need to deep dive on that one.

But the Dark Knight in all this that I see would also have to be LinkedIn’s previous acquisition of SlideShare which is one of those incredible platforms built around the communication ideas and information in a more structured manner that cannot be delivered in quick soundbites.  Direct publishing to SlideShare from Powerpoint anyone?  Accessing slideshare content direct from Powerpoint instead of having to go to the site?  Analytics combined across all mediums?

It’s hard to say it’s a match made in heaven – not really sure what it looks like – quite a surprise though and it’ll be interesting to see what integration touchpoints come out of this between the Microsoft Cloud Stack and LinkedIn and it’s affiliates.

Want more? Check out my book Code Your Way Up – available as an eBook or Paperback on Amazon (CAN and US).  I’m also the co-host of the Remotely Prepared podcast.

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