Twitter Unlinks From LinkedIn

Social media addicts may be dismayed to learn today that Twitter updates will no longer automatically sync with LinkedIn accounts. In a blog post earlier today, Ryan Roslansky, Head of Content Products at LinkedIn, noted that as part of Twitter?s ?evolving platform efforts,? tweets will no longer be displayed on LinkedIn. The change ends a two-and-a-half-year partnership between the two companies and marks a larger shift by Twitter away from third party applications. Previously, users could opt to have all tweets, or just those?tagged with the hashtag #in or #li, flow directly onto their LinkedIn profile pages.

Earlier this afternoon, Michael Sippey, who runs the consumer product team at Twitter, took to Twitter?s announcements page to post a note regarding Twitter?s ongoing changes. In his post, he outlined the company?s desire to ?build engaging experiences into Twitter? and allow ?developers to be able to build applications that run within Tweets.? In other words, Twitter wants to be the story, not just the headline. LinkedIn?s Roslansky followed up with a post of his own, outlining the effect on LinkedIn.

The move seems to be Twitter?s latest effort to get users to stick around, rather than using Twitter merely as a portal to content elsewhere on the web. Originally a text-only service, Twitter has evolved to allow users to embed video and photo content from various sites around the web. Twitter?s latest implementation, called Twitter Cards, will display headlines, photos, bylines and teaser blurbs for articles and other content around the web.

Not all developers are happy, and many see this as the latest change from a company that already has a shaky history with third party applications. As one such developer, Aaron White, wrote today, ?I?m done developing for Twitter?They?ve demonstrated not once to me, but twice, that they have no desire to work with developers, but rather?antagonize?them as they see fit.?

So what?s a LinkedIn user to do? Not content to sit idly by while Twitter changes the rules of the game, Roslansky and LinkedIn suggest that users shift their order of operations. The post on LinkedIn?s blog, as well as an email blast to LinkedIn users, advocated starting conversations on LinkedIn and syndicating them to Twitter, rather than vice versa.

?Moving forward, you will still be able to share your updates with your Twitter audience by posting them on LinkedIn,? he wrote, in a deft attempt to shift the conversation.

Whether users will follow instructions remains to be seen.

A representative from LinkedIn had no comment, other than what was posted to the company?s blog. A call to Twitter was not immediately returned.

Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/chrisbarth/2012/06/29/twitter-unlinks-from-linkedin/?feed=rss_home

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