War of the Roses
So it’s official – LinkedIn and Twitter have gone their separate ways, ending their three-year relationship in which began in 2009.
Whilst we may speculate on the real reason for the breakup: Theories range from Twitter wanting to maintain its users on its site through its use of the new extended tweet feature (this allows users to expand tweets containing links to partner websites and see content previews, play videos etc. without leaving Twitter) thus greatly increasing the value of promoted Tweets that highlight its partners content; to Twitter not being able to agree the revenue split with LinkedIn for Twitter generated advertising. Some are even whispering that perhaps the reason is that Twitter got the jitters following the recent security breach which resulted in the 6 million LinkedIn users’ passwords being stolen. Maybe Twitter saw more trouble on the horizon as Linkedin were served with a $5 million lawsuit by a user who claimed Linkedin’s security policy is “in clear contradiction of accepted industry standards for data based security.”
Like all high profile unions, publicised behind the split is amicable. On Friday, 29 June twitter posted that its Twitter users will no longer be able to automatically update their LinkedIn profiles from the Twitter platform. Michael Sippey, Twitter’s official spokesperson stated:
“We’re building tools for publishers and investing more and more in our own apps to ensure that you have a great experience everywhere you experience Twitter, no matter what device you’re using. You need to be able to see expanded Tweets and other features that make Twitter more engaging and easier to use. These are the features that bring people closer to the things they care about. These are the features that make Twitter, Twitter. We’re looking forward to working with you to make Twitter even better.”
A stance that gives credence to those who believe Twitter is going down the Facebook road of keeping everything within its own ecosystem.
Linkedin, who looked and acted like the “dumped party” in the relationship, tried to reassure its members who want to continue to update both platforms with the same information that “tweets” are okay on LinkedIn.
Ryan Roslansky, Director of Product Management at LinkedIn with a focus on monetization; responded to the Twitter announcement by explaining how Linkedin users can still share across both platforms
“Initiate the conversation on LinkedIn. Simply compose your update, check the box with the Twitter icon, and click “Share.” This will automatically push your update to both your LinkedIn connections and your Twitter followers just as you’ve been able to do previously.
If you had previously synced your LinkedIn and Twitter accounts, and selected the option to share Tweets on LinkedIn, those Tweets generated from Twitter will no longer appear on LinkedIn. There will be no other changes to your LinkedIn experience.”
So good or bad what do you think? Of the 76 people leaving comments on Mashable in relation to this story, the split seem to be 70/30 in favour of removing the automatic update arrangement. Many Linkedin users actually find the constant stream of trivial social updates, on what is a business platform, unprofessional.
It will be interesting to see who turns out to be the real winner in this. Normally broken relationships tend to leave walking wounded (and even sometimes fatalities) on both sides. I suspect we will just have to wait and see.
Lilach
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34 Responses to Social Media’s very own “War of the Roses”
Hi Lilach,
Well, thank you so much for that update which typical me a had not been updated with, yet.
I’m glad I saw you on that facebook group which reminded me that I have downloaded you free ebook a while back but haven’t read it yet
I have a tendency to like facebook better than twitter, but I know that I have to spend some time to learn more about it. You book should be a start.
Thanks for this, Lilach!
Sylviane Nuccio recently posted..Five Blogging Lessons I Learned From A Mother Bird
Twitter: SylvianeNuccio
Thanks Sylviane:) Nice to see you here too and I hope you find my ebook useful and have started reading it:)
I think it’s quite common for people to spend more time on one social network than another, I tend to focus a lot more of my time on Twitter and Facebook than LinkedIn/Google +
Lilach recently posted..Social Medias very own “War of the Roses”
Twitter: lilachbullock
Twitter and Facebook just seem so much easier to use, as well as more effective.
Twitter: bkdudley
Hey Lilach,
Didn’t even know those two have split! Like you I’ll be interesting to see who turns out to be the real winner in this.
Thanks for sharing this with us Lilach
Easther recently posted..Creating a New Facebook Fan Page from Scratch
Twitter: easthersudharta
Thanks Easther. Yes it only happened the last few days.
I’m interested to see how things progress. Will they get back together?
Lilach recently posted..Social Medias very own “War of the Roses”
Twitter: lilachbullock
Thanks Lilach for sharing this information. I was reading about this on Friday and found it to actually make sense. I will have to agree with those commenting on a Twitter social stream being on the LinkedIn platform. I never really understood why the stream had any value for a business platform like LinkedIn.
Plus, I always had shared my content, information, etc. using the share feature of LinkedIn that I think is one of the best features of LinkedIn. That is because when you share content, blog post, article or video it will update your LinkedIn status, share to Twitter, share to your groups and share to specific individuals. So it really isn’t going to affect me and my business at all.
Lynn Brown recently posted..LinkedIn Connects Business People For Success
Twitter: learnit2earnit
Thanks Lynn:)
Interestingly LinkedIn have changed their sharing buttons. You used to be able to share your blog post to your updates/Twitter AND groups, they’ve now removed the group sharing so if you want to share it among your groups you have to do it manually in each one… I can see why they’ve done this to prevent people spamming/abusing but I must admit it’s another time consuming task to add to my list now!
Lilach recently posted..Social Medias very own “War of the Roses”
Twitter: lilachbullock
Hi Lilach,
I got my notice and checked it out. I was wondering if the recent password fiasco had anything to do with that but not knowing the agreement between the two, it could have been something totally different.
It doesn’t really bother me one way or the other. I’m sure a lot of people on LinkedIn didn’t like seeing everyone’s tweets all the time so maybe this is a good move for their site.
I guess only time will tell right but thanks for this post and giving us some more scoop on the situation.
Have a great week Lilach.
~Adrienne
Adrienne recently posted..Are You Making This Same Mistake
Twitter: adriennesmith40
Thanks Adrienne:) Yes I wouldn’t be surprised if the password fiasco played a part in their decision.
It will be interesting to see how it effects businesses, I’ve already noticed a dip in my traffic from Linkedin but it could be circumstantial, I will be closely monitoring it though.
Lilach recently posted..Social Medias very own “War of the Roses”
Twitter: lilachbullock
Hi Lilach,
Love this post title! I’m with the majority on this one – I think sharing on LinkedIn is best done with the share feature as well.
I do tend to spend more of my time on Twitter anyway, but I like the professional focus of LinkedIn and sharing what we want.
Thanks for sharing!
~Christine
Christine Brady recently posted..5 Ideas for Killer Newsletter Content
Twitter: christinejbrady
Thanks Christine pleased you love the title – it’s certainly attracted a lot of retweets on Twitter:)
I too spend the majority of my time on Twitter and liked the fact that I could share my blog posts to my groups via my blog – which you now can’t do. LinkedIn still has a lot of value though and ironically I think it will be LinkedIn that wins this round, I now have to spend more time on LinkedIn to manually share whereas before I could integrate it via Twitter and my blog.
Appreciate your comment and stopping by:)
Lilach recently posted..Social Medias very own “War of the Roses”
Twitter: lilachbullock
Hi Lilach, been a while since I was last on your site.
I have to admit, I am not a huge user of either site, but have to agree with the sentiment that LinkedIn is a business site and as such, why on earth would you want useless social chatter? I don’t see it affecting too much in the way of business anyway. And seeing as though you can still push your updates to your Twitter stream, what is the problem.
LinkedIn is a business platform after all, I certainly use it as such when I do use it. So, no great trouble to me, but then again, I am not everybody!
Alan
Alan Turner recently posted..Numis Network, Why Should You Join?
Twitter: Alan_Turner
Thanks Alan, nice to see you here again:)
I do use Twitter and LinkedIn and to be honest pretty much 99% of my tweets are business based so for me the sharing integration worked well, however I do understand why they have done it.
Only time will tell how this affects businesses in the long term – the biggest concern I have is how it will affect other sites if Twitter decides to shut down their API’s…
Lilach recently posted..Social Medias very own “War of the Roses”
Twitter: lilachbullock
Hi Lilach, I didn’t even realize that Twitter and Linkedin had split. I typically don’t share tweets on my Linkedin updates so this change doesn’t effect me but it will be interesting to see how people who have integrated the two feel about the changes. Thanks for the updates!
Shelley Alexander recently posted..Wild Salmon Vegetable Salad with Lemon Miso Dressing
Twitter: aharmonyhealing
Thanks Shelley:) Well I guess it’s good the changes don’t affect you.
As someone who did use the sharing only time will tell to see if it affects my business…
Lilach recently posted..Social Medias very own “War of the Roses”
Twitter: lilachbullock
Whatever the reasons are, I guess they have parted ways for their own good. I think they have their own issues to solve themselves
Herbert recently posted..Advantage of Using Hashtags on your Tweets
Twitter: bxunet
Thanks Herbert, appreciate you stopping by and commenting:)
Lilach recently posted..Social Medias very own “War of the Roses”
Twitter: lilachbullock
CLEANER LINKEDIN NEWSFEED
As a LinkedIn user I am quite happy with this development. My LinkedIn newsfeed is already cleaner without the Twitter feeds a good deal of which were personal. The personal chatter muddled the LinkedIn conversations as it was not relevant and of little value in the professional space. I look forward to higher quality of communication on LinkedIn
PREVIOUS CHALLENGE
One of the challenges that existed from LinkedIn updates posted via Twitter was that you could not comment or like them unless you were also logged into Twitter at the time of commenting. Basically only people logged into Twitter could take part in the conversation. Now the conversation has to be initiated on LinkedIn and naturally everyone else on LinkedIn can take part.
IMPLICATIONS FOR LINKEDIN
I think this move by Twitter will actually force LinkedIn users to engage more on the site as opposed to doing all their updates via Twitter. This could actually turn out to be a positive thing for LinkedIn. I know quite a few people who would post several updates on LinkedIn without actually visiting the site.
TWITTER IN THE LONG TERM
However, I do worry about Twitter in the long term. This move by Twitter regarding usage of their API seems to be making a number of developers very nervous who feel that Twitter is breaking their promise about always being open. Some of them argue that this move to restrict usage of their API runs counter to the notion of always being open. Twitter could the risk of alienating developers in the long term. A number of services that make use use of Twitter API in one way or another such as Hootsuite maybe be affected by Twitter’s move to streamline their API use.
MORE DEVELOPMENTS
We could see more developments around usage of Twitter API as Twitter seeks to enforce their standards across the net. In the end they could either end up big winners but they could also be big losers. Time will tell.
Twitter: BruceMubayiwa
Thanks so much for your comment Bruce.
I’m completely with you on the implications for Linkedin – ironically the steps Twitter has taken I genuinely see LinkedIn as the winner.
I’m also concerned with how Twitter will be with developers, I think they’re making a mistake if they restrict their usage of API’s but only time will tell if they do this again…
Lilach recently posted..Social Medias very own “War of the Roses”
Twitter: lilachbullock
What a shame but I can see why Twitter want to remove all ties!
Twitter: gandfscott
Thanks Greg, yes for me the biggest shame is the sharing to groups functionality which has now been removed by LinkedIn…
Lilach recently posted..Social Medias very own “War of the Roses”
Twitter: lilachbullock
A really interesting read, thanks for keeping us updated
About time I hooked up with linkedin too!
Girlnapurpledress recently posted..Pissaladiere – A Nutritious Crunch?
Twitter: Girlnpurpledres
Thanks for your comment. Yes LinkedIn is a great tool although I must admit I spend a lot more time on Twitter:)
Lilach recently posted..Social Medias very own “War of the Roses”
Twitter: lilachbullock
Hi Lilach,
I got a mail form Linked in few days ago advising these 2 platforms are separate now and I was wondering why.
The use of tools like marketmesuite that allows us to post everywhere at the day and hours we want
makes things easy for us plus we are not involved with the big platforms ” politics”.
I am starting using twitter now as LI has been my favorite tool, time being an issue I guess we all need to find what suits each for each specific market.
Have a great day,
ps: I just saw you come from Israel , I have Israeli roots too!
Twitter: patriciagozlan
Hi Lilach,
Thank goodness you kept me up on this. I do use Google Alerts to keep me up to date, but with this holiday week, everything is going off course. There has been parties, visitors, etc. So I’ve not been on line as much as I usually am.
I always called LinkedIn my “secret weapon” I don’t think that the change will effect me personally, because I use groups to make relationships: Ergo Relationship Marketing.
I’m not a chatty one on LinkedIn, but am there for business purposes ONLY. My groups have been great so far. Like anything else on the Social Platforms, there is always going to be changes. But, for me there are many ways to skin a cat, as they say!
It gets down to target marketing and personal engagements no matter what the rules or changes are. So I’ll go with the flow.
Thanks for keeping me posted.
Donna
Donna Merrill recently posted..The 80/20 Rule
Twitter: donnamerrilltribe
Hi Lilach,
I have to admit that I am not a big user of Linkedin. I did not know that there was a relationship betweein Linkedin and Twitter, and now it’s over! I’ve always thought of Linkedin as a business platform, so I would think tweets would have been a distraction. Time will tell if this split was good or bad for each side.
Jamella Biegel recently posted..No Spam Comments Allowed!
Twitter: mel8730
Great article Lilach…I am happy to not have the updates within LinkedIn and it will be interesting to see if both fall with the chandelier.
Amy recently posted..Sneak Peek: Making of Cars Land, Buena Vista Street and Carthay Circle Theatre, and the Grand Reopening of Disney California Adventure Park
Twitter: MommyMentor
I have never used Twitter and Linked in together anyway so no big loss to me.
Have to say, I have impressed with this post. It is my first time to this site and within the first two paragraphs you gave me more information than a lot of other sites put together. Thank you
Mac – iMoney Buzz recently posted..Is This The Best Free Long Tail Keyword Research Tool?
I received 3 emails from linkedin about changing my password but never did. I seem to get a lot of spam comments from linkedin about changing my password and clicking certain links in order to update the platform. I am starting to really dislike all the junk they or spammer send me about them.
~Adam
Adam Snyder recently posted..4 Ways To Earn Cash Online as a Freelance Writer
Twitter: dormroomcash
I must be honest, I used the connection between the two. However I think it is actually a good thing, now I have to chose what to place on my LinkedIn account, I’m actually getting a much better click throughs for my updates since the twitter stopped, I think this is because I’m only posting things I think would be of value of my business to business connections, but only time will tell in the long run.
Thanks for giving information about the rumoured whys and providing an insightful look at them.
Nathan Dippie recently posted..Robert Dickenson – Should we diversify in business?
Twitter: businessplanhub
Thanks for sharing the news. Although this have some ramification on the way people can market online, I personally do not like to form opinions or engage on why this, why that and better this!
My focus is on building my business so I tend to focus on things that I can control right now.
John Moussan recently posted..Numis Network Australia
Twitter: johnmoussan
This has really got to be better for LinkedIn in the long term I think. As for Twitter well it’s a strange beast, I have a few thousand followers and tweet a lot of content as well as re-tweet stuff. But, I can’t remember the last time I actually visited Twitter, says something doesn’t it!
Dave
David Sharp recently posted..Jane Still Active and Stronger Than Ever.
Twitter: davidgsharp
Lilach,
Although my first reaction to the ‘break up’ of Twitter and LinkedIn caused doubts in me as to the benefits of its users, I now see the possibilities this may have for both parties. I look forward to the improvements Twitter will implement, and since LinkedIn, to me, was always supposed to be for more business-minded people, I think I may spend more time on that site. Good things all around, in my opinion.
Juli
Juli Becker recently posted..Top 21 Reasons Why You Should Blog
Twitter: Juli_Becker_
I agree with source in your article who says
LinkedIn is not up to industry standard(sic)
in privacy. It’s as bad or worse than Facebook
in not letting you control your own information.
It lets you to a degree but some things on it
like job positions, you cannot erase. Yikes!
Glad they’re splitting. Great article.