Did Twitter Just Fatally Wound LinkedIn?

It has been a week for high profile separations. Katie Holmes filed for divorce just a few days before Tom Cruise's birthday. LinkedIn and Twitter have split up. In both cases, one partner has been seemingly caught off guard with the news. 


Celebrity break ups happen pretty much every day and, with the exception of the parties involved, rarely affect our every day lives. But when two of the world's biggest social networks are citing irreconcilable differences, then there are implications for millions of people around the globe. 


So what does this split mean for LinkedIn and Twitter users? 


Well, for me (and this is only my opinion, so don't shout at me) I think this move will firmly sound the death knell for LinkedIn. 


LinkedIn has been bumbling around in the dark for years, growling slowly, making few (much needed) infrastructure changes and really not developing its service beyond a glorified CV storage facility. Twitter's integration added a bit of life into the LinkedIn user interface and, what's more, generated interaction. A key component in a social network. 


Now that's gone, LinkedIn users are being forced to actually log in and use the platform if they want to update their network. And with user stats where the vast majority of users spend the least amount of time on the site, that's probably going to happen around once a week. If they are lucky. How long before we only log in to LinkedIn once a year? And then never?


I admit, I've been on LinkedIn for years. In fact four years ago I'd all but given up on LinkedIn. I rarely went onto the platform, more "maintained a presence" on it and I suspect I am not alone. 


Then along came Twitter and Facebook, social networking became an international buzzword and suddenly LinkedIn was alive again. People started to connect with me (connect, by the way, not actually interact. There's very little of that happening on LinkedIn) and my connections swelled. But mainly this allowed more and more people to direct message me in the vain hope of selling me something. Quite frankly, a bit of a turn off. 


Now I know that for some professions LinkedIn is a super charged networking tool. Lawyers, accountants and other professional services can find it an invaluable networking platform. Certain groups are extremely effective for building reputation and developing meaningful commercial relationships. But this just puts LinkedIn firmly into the niche category of social networks in my book. And now even more so.


Ultimately only time will tell what impact Twitter's move will have on LinkedIn. Maybe this is just the push that LinkedIn needs to redevelop a platform which is years old and in desperate need of a facelift. 


However for now, my status updates once again fall silent and may stay that way for some considerable time.