Why You Should Be Updating Your LinkedIn Profile Today

LinkedIn gets a bad rap sometimes. It gets spammy, the home feed content is becoming gimmicky (I've become liberal in my use of the hide/unfollow button) and I've complained about their ad products in the past. 

However, it's still a valuable tool. So valuable that Microsoft paid billions for it a while back. There's a lot of speculation, reasoning and integrations that could come around long term from this new partnership. I'm not going to speculate on any of that. At least not right now. 

The one main impact? We should all probably be updating our LinkedIn profiles. 

Why?

Let's be frank - the one reason a lot of people update their profiles is because they're in between jobs or looking to make a transition sooner rather than later. That's why LinkedIn built the "hide updates" button on the right panel of your profile. 

There's a better reason, one that affects you even more if you plan on staying at your job for a while. Microsoft mentioned not taking over LinkedIn and allowing them to run independently. For the near future, I wouldn't expect to see Microsoft's fingerprints on anything for a bit. Down the road, don't be surprised to see LinkedIn data starting to auto-populate your Microsoft accounts. 

Think about it: a LOT of businesses use Outlook for mail. Someone - a prospect, client, lead or vendor - could receive an email from you and click on your name. By doing that, they would be able to see your entire work history, skill sets, endorsements and projects worked on. Essentially, identifying someones business credibility could become way easier. 

I would be shocked if an integration like that came into play. That click into your profile could be the first (or at least a strong second) impression someone has of you. There may come a time where you don't even want to send an email without making sure your profile is buttoned up. 

What do you think? What other integrations do you see coming?