Twitter and LinkedIn have had a very public lovers' quarrel, as Twitter posted on Friday, June 29, its plans of "delivering a consistent Twitter experience." It may not sound like much, but that actually meant that tweets will no longer be displayed within LinkedIn accounts. Basically, Twitter took its toys and went home.
LinkedIn Corp., the parent of the world's biggest social-networking site for professionals, contended that posts from Twitter will no longer be displayed on its Web site, as the micro-blogging company aims to encourage users to visit its own services. Up until now, users had been able to show their Twitter posts on their LinkedIn accounts since 2009, the Mountain View, California-based company noted on its blog. LinkedIn added that users can still send updates to Twitter from their LinkedIn accounts by checking the tweets box when they post updates.
Twitter has been stepping up its effort to boost its advertising revenue by getting more users to look at tweets though its own Web site and on mobile applications. The micro-blogging company reportedly expects to see at least $1 billion in advertising revenue in 2014. "They don't want people to consume and interact with Twitter in places where they probably have no ability to put ads," contended Opus Research analyst Greg Sterling, as cited by Bloomberg.
In the blog post on Friday, Twitter said it is focusing its efforts on helping users. "We're building tools for publishers and investing more in our own apps to ensure that you have a great experience everywhere you experience Twitter, no matter what device you're using," wrote the company.
The rift with LinkedIn comes as the San Francisco-based micro-blogging company is expanding the content users are allowed to post on its service, renowned for its 140-character limit for tweets.
In response to Twitter's blog post, LinkedIn said the change is part of Twitter's efforts to create and provide a "consistent set of products and tools" for its micro-blogging service. "We know many of you value Twitter as an additional way to broadcast professional content beyond your LinkedIn connections," said the company. "Moving forward, you will still be able to share your updates with your Twitter audience by posting them on LinkedIn." Just not the other way around, as Twitter won't share its tweets anymore. "Simply start your conversation on LinkedIn," the professional-networking company explained. "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 before."
