Twitter and LinkedIn sign deal to sync status updates

LinkedIn and Twitter are rolling out an update that lets users post status messages across both social networking platforms. The move follows two recent partnership deals from Twitter, signed with Google and Microsoft’s Bing, and promises to give LinkedIn's business-focused social network a substantial boost in traffic.

From this week, Twitter users can change their Twitter settings so their tweets automatically sync with their LinkedIn account. Users can choose to have all tweets sync with LinkedIn, or only those marked with the hashtag #in. These messages will appear on LinkedIn as a status update. In turn, LinkedIn users can sync their site status updates, which are also limited to 140 characters, to a selected Twitter account, allowing messages to also appear as tweets.

"The business use case of Twitter is turning out to be very important and more and more people are finding the persona they create for themselves on the web is part of their resume," says Twitter co-founder Biz Stone. LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman adds that the integration is a good fit as it takes the "business side of Twitter" and adds it to LinkedIn's business ecosystem.

The deal comes three months after Twitter said it would begin rolling out commercial accounts on the site, in a bid to find a revenue stream for the growing microblogging platform. Commentators are already speculating that the LinkedIn deal could signal a wider push by Twitter into the business intelligence market.

As well as the search deals with Google and Microsoft, Twitter recently signed an agreement to let Facebook users sync status messages and Twitter feeds using a Twitter app. The new LinkedIn deal seems to mark an even wider extension of Twitter's ever-growing reach.

The deal follows a number of updates and roll-outs by LinkedIn. The site, which reached 50m users last month, recently began testing a new streamlined design, and last month launched a new organiser tool, designed to make it easier for users to save profiles and organise contacts.

"LinkedIn has always been about helping you to build your professional identity on the web," says LinkedIn's VP of product strategy, Allen Blue. "Status has proved valuable to our users, from finding new assignments and jobs to kick-starting a global business enterprise. Now you can amplify those messages by broadcasting them to your audience on Twitter."