Microsoft has finally become a player in the social media arena: It has entered into an agreement to acquire LinkedIn for $26.2 billion, the software giant announced on June 13. LinkedIn is to keep its branding, and its CEO, Jeff Weiner. Aside from intra-organization network Yammer (acquired in 2012), this will be Microsoft's first widely used social media platform.
LinkedIn shares jumped 48% after the news broke, CNBC reported. It had already been doing well before the acquisition deal: Its Q1 2016 earnings report revealed a total revenue increase of 35% year over year, beating Wall Street expectations (its earnings come mostly from recruitment ads and premium subscriptions).
Of note: It was reported last year that Microsoft tried and failed to reach an acquisition deal with Salesforce. LinkedIn may be a key way for it to compete with the brand they could not own.
Brand communicators attempting to anticipate changes to the platform might gain some insight from Weiner's letter to employees: He envisions widespread LinkedIn integration with Microsoft's Outlook, Calendar, Skype, Bing and more, reaching a customer base of over 1 billion, for starters. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said that he seeks to "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."
This may also come as a wake-up call for your brand to develop a robust LinkedIn presence; it's already a highly visible network, with 45 billion quarterly page views, according to TechCrunch, and only stands to gain prominence with this deal.
Part and parcel of developing that presence is having platform guidelines for employees, Liz Guthridge, managing director at Connect Consulting Group, pointed out to PR News readers. "Hundreds or even thousands of your employees can serve as ambassadors for your company brand on the world’s largest professional network─if they get the guidance they need to represent the brand the right way," she said. Consider developing guidelines of your own as all of our online professional profiles stand on the cusp of a big amplification boost.
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