LinkedIn Acquires Newsle: How This Merger Will Up Your Sales Game

Posted by Ben Kniffen in Uncategorized

Back in July LinkedIn acquired the machine-learning startup, Newsle, and all of their employees.

You might be asking yourself, why is this news? Tech companies seem to be acquiring new startups every single day. Why is this one different? And what does it mean to me and my business?

Well, the reason you should keep your eye on this development is because of the way the Newsle technology can help you stem the tide of the overflowing feeds of posts, blogs, vlogs, and hashtags within your social networks.

The technology involved lets you focus on the information that directly relates to your ideal prospects.

With this addition it is conceivable that LinkedIn will let you filter out a large amount of the noise that crowds your newsfeed and get the information that is truly applicable to your interests.

Newsle scours the web to find mentions of specific contacts and connections and returns the significant blog posts, articles, and all other content related to your contacts right to your inbox. You can read more about LinkedIn’s thoughts on the acquisition here.

By getting updates in near real-time on your prospect’s web presence, you will be able to congratulate or reach out to them before they are even able to post the links to their own network. With the pertinent information being sent directly to your inbox, you have the opportunity to keep tabs on the things that your prospects will be personally invested in.

 OK, but how does this help my sales?

While LinkedIn has yet to unveil how Newsle will be utilized in their platform, chances are it will be a tool to trim the fat out of your news feed. Without any specific plan laid out to the public, it appears to be a step towards letting you organize your feed to more prominently display the information you need about specific prospects.

Getting instant and automated access to the thoughts and musings of your prospects will give you an insight into the pain points they are currently facing…which you can use in your future discussions.

As long as you are paying attention to these updates, you will have a leg up on your competitors by having done a lot of the heavy-lifting & research on the prospect before you approach them with your service offering.

The main takeaway from this acquisition is the potential capabilities for your research and networking efforts. As mentioned above, your researching tasks will be condensed and automated which will let you get the information you need quicker and easier.

The Newsle addition will keep you on top of everything that is going on with your prospects. Whether it is their recent interview with a technology publication or their new blog post about the 4 simple steps to turning your bicycle into a NASA-approved spaceship, you will be the first one on the scene to offer your congratulations or any comments on the piece.

By sending a quick note to your prospect about their project, you will demonstrate your interest and cement yourself as one of the ‘good guys’ in their mind. It will let them know:

A) That you are interested in the same publications or websites as them (proving your knowledge of the field they are in).

B) That you are generally interested in their work and what they have to say.

People like knowing that their content is being read. And that includes your prospects. Don’t let the fear that you will appear creepy or stalker-like keep you from leaving a positive comment on the posts of your prospects – take a couple seconds out of your day and show them that you are paying attention.

When congratulating their work, you are far more likely to get a smile (and possible future opportunity), than a restraining order.

Keep an eye out and check back in on this blog for any updates to the way LinkedIn is optimizing their platform via Newsle, and how you can use it to your selling advantage.