Social Media is now used by 3.196 Billion people world-wide, which equates to 42% of the world's population.

A friend of mine recently said to me "if somebody isn't on social media, what are they trying to hide?".  In the world of business, pretty much everybody, will in fact 530 Million people in the western world are on LinkedIn.  I would go so far to say, if you are not on LinkedIn do you really exist?

If as an organisation you are involved in M&A then there is a lot of information out there to review in terms of deals.  Sentiment about the company and sentiment about the individuals.

It also stands to reason that people will jump to a conclusion about a company by what the company and the individuals look like on social and what they post.  We all judge people and companies by their active and their passive behaviours on social media.

There was an event recently in London that hit the press because of the sexist attitude of the people attending.  People then "went after" attendees afterwards any people who had "pale, male and stale" LinkedIn profile was targeted.  Why?  Because the press was looking fo scapegoats.  If you had a "pale, male and stale" Linkedin profile , the press assumed if you had attended that event, you would be sexist.  You might not be, but that is the conclusion people were jumping to.

The same with M&A strategy, a companies strategy, tactics and price can be assumed from the attitude of the company and it's employees on social.

If as an organisation you want to be involved in M&A, you must be good at social.  There can be no excuses!