If you had $26.2 billion lying around this weekend, you could’ve purchased LinkedIn. Too late. The deal is done and Microsoft made its largest acquisition in company history.
In a memo to Microsoft employees, CEO Satya Nadella said, “The deal brings together the world’s leading professional cloud with the world’s leading professional network. It’s clear to me that the LinkedIn team has grown a fantastic business and an impressive network of more than 433 million professionals.”
And while Nadella hasn’t reached out to us personally, we’ve got a few ideas for how LinkedIn can take the next steps toward the Iron Throne. Sure, that reference was a bit dramatic, but the ideas below are all pragmatic.
“Filtered updates. Instead of one general feed with job postings, industry news, blog posts, promotions/job updates, miscellaneous non-professional updates, etc., make it more user-friendly and give an option at the top of the feed to filter by either all content or different types of posts. That way, people can easily find what they are looking for instead sorting through a jumbled mess of content. Plus, this would rid the platform of memes and inspirational quotes that too often clutter the feed.”
—Jess DiLuglio, social and digital account executive
“I’d redesign it entirely. When I’m on LinkedIn, it feels clunky, out of date and not user-friendly. I think Microsoft needs to redesign LinkedIn, reinventing the entire user experience. The newsfeed appears to be old technology. Videos can’t autoplay, links appear in an odd format and overall, it doesn’t look very attractive. LinkedIn is behind the times and could use a new, creative touch. There’s a lot of opportunity for improvement.”
—Jake Ziegler, social and digital media manager
“Building on ‘sister’ apps might be a logical next step. We’ve seen Instagram create sister apps in Boomerang, Hyperlapse and Layout—all ways to take your Instagram presence to another level. For LinkedIn, they have a job-search sister app already, but it could be an area to expand for publishing, groups and more.”
—Alex Camp, social media intern
“A library to house all of these articles would be a great addition to turn LinkedIn into a hub for educational content. Being a platform for professionals, LinkedIn has thought leadership content published by industry experts every day. Each article could then be categorized by industry, title or skill, allowing you to find the information you need for the job you have or the one you’re looking for.”
—Adam Sisson, social and digital media account executive
“A better mobile experience. While announcing 2015 Q1 results, LinkedIn touted to investors that it achieved its ’mobile moment’ when 50% of unique members accessed the site on a mobile device. A year has gone by and that number will have increased by now—but LinkedIn hasn’t changed its mobile experience for a while. If LinkedIn wants to compete for professionals, especially younger ones, to grow the base of its network, it needs to make mobile a priority.”
—Andrew Knoblauch, social and digital media supervisor
“For me, it’s not so much the platform but the way people act on the platform. That’s right, ‘Chris,’ you didn’t hear back from me about scheduling a briefing to discuss current trends in digital media because I have no idea who you are. I’m sure you do have ‘some fresh ideas and insights,’ but I’ll pass on booking a time with you to ‘discuss’ those ideas so you can really just sell to me when I have no idea who you are. LinkedIn has many strengths—my favorite is it’s now our online resume. However, my least favorite part is people seem to forget you need to build a relationship with someone in a more traditional way before you jump to a hard sell on LinkedIn.” —Jon Alhart, vice president of social and digital
Read more about the entire Nadella memo here—and for even more Dixon Schwabl jargon, return to Incite here.