LinkedIn has acquired Rapportive–a transaction that promises to further the integration between email and social sharing. The Rapportive plug-in takes information about contacts from social networking sites and displays it on a sidebar next to the e-mail inbox.

Still Live

The acquisition has been rumored for a while, worrying Rapportive's users, who feared the application might be shut down if it were acquired. However, the company’s blog post announcing the deal suggests it will stay live.

"At LinkedIn, we will support Rapportive, and we will continue to build beautiful products that make you brilliant with people,” said Rahul Vohra, CEO of Rapportive. Its users will now be covered by LinkedIn’s terms of service and privacy policy, he also said.

Rapportive was a sought-after application by social media providers, including Twitter, All Things D reports.

Still a Sticking Point

Little wonder as marketers remain eager for solutions that will help them better integrate social data and email—a process that still remains hit or miss for many companies. 75% of US organizations say that competition with social media for recipients’ time and attention is either "very challenging" or "somewhat challenging" to their future success in email, according to a report released in February 2012 by Econsultancy in partnership with the Email Experience Council of the Direct Marketing Association.

Data from the report indicates that 69% of marketers are including social sharing icons in emails, while a further 13% have a plan in place to do so.