What would you get if two of the major players  in business communication – one a desktop email tool and the other the most popular business social networking site join forces?  The possibility could be endless and most definitely fruitful for both parties. That’s what was just announced by LinkedIn as they’ve partner up with Microsoft Outlook.

The result of the deal could be more productive whether you are a LinkedIn or Microsoft Outlook user. Better if you use both since with LinkedIn connected to your Microsoft Outlook, you’d be able to do the following:

Keep track of what your LinkedIn connections are working on and thinking about – this include information on who they are connecting with, articles they are reading and sharing, questions they are asking and answering.

Get the latest contact information for your professional connections – this include email addresses, profile details and photos appearing in an Outlook Contacts folder. It will also allow you to email your LinkedIn connections just by typing their name into your Outlook “To:” box as you let LinkedIn auto-fill it up for you.

Grow your LinkedIn network easily – this is my favorite feature brought about by the partnership. You can now easily add an email sender who is not yet on your LinkedIn network just by simply clicking on the green “Add” icon next to their name. Easy way to build your LinkedIn contacts.

To use this new feature, you need to follow these simple steps – download Outlook Social Connector from Microsoft, download the LinkedIn Outlook Connector, restart your Outlook and follow the instructions for connecting your two accounts.

Once connected, Outlook will start pushing your LinkedIn network information into Outlook.

Originally posted on February 17, 2010 @ 8:28 am