We Are Social’s Tuesday Tuneup #229

Tuneup
melissa.law
Microsoft to acquire LinkedIn for US$26.2 billion
Imagine combining Microsoft Office’s productivity with LinkedIn’s professional networking — that’s what Microsoft is looking to bring to life through its acquisition of LinkedIn. In what is said to be the biggest acquisition in Microsoft’s history, the tech company’s CEO Satya Nadella said the buy would enable features like a LinkedIn feed that “serves up articles based on the project you are working on and Office suggesting an expert to connect with via LinkedIn to help with a task you’re trying to complete.” The deal is expected to go through by the end of this year.



Facebook tests social commerce payments
Facebook is running a trial in Southeast Asia which allows users to buy products listed on Facebook pages, without leaving the social network. This seems like a natural direction for Facebook in the region, since even small businesses use the social network to engage with their customers and sell their products. It will be interesting to see how Facebook will combine social commerce payments with their recently announced Messenger chat bots.



Facebook turns panoramas into 3D tiltable images
360 photos has been teased by Facebook a while back and right now, it’s live from this week on! Mark Zuck himself shared the news by uploading his own 360 photo to the social network:


If you want in on this action, just upload your panorama photos to Facebook and it will convert them into 3D tiltable images.


If you have a fancy Samsung Gear VR headset, you can view it in full VR splendour.



Twitter launches crew of ‘insiders’
Twitter has recruited 12,000  ‘insiders’ to allow brands to stress-test campaigns before they launch. Think of them as a focus group for Twitter ad campaigns if you will.


While Twitter will not be paying these insiders, they will instead receive rewards in the form of gift cards and electronics such as iPads and smartphones. Sweet!