Why do I need a LinkedIn application?

All third-party integration with LinkedIn occurs via a LinkedIn application (an application defined at developers.linkedin.com), and every application is owned by one and only one LinkedIn profile. You could either develop and code your own service to operate your application, or you could use an existing service to act as your agent.

The SocialOomph service is the agent that acts as the operator of your LinkedIn application.

This arrangement means you own the LinkedIn application that posts to your LinkedIn properties, and you use SocialOomph as the software engine to do that posting for you.

It holds the following benefits:

• The LinkedIn application belongs to you and only you can use it to publish posts to LinkedIn.
• If any LinkedIn application (other than your own) that also uses SocialOomph as an agent is restricted, deactivated, or deleted, your LinkedIn application and your past LinkedIn posts are not affected. In other words, you are insulated from undesireable posting behavior by other users and from erroneous account deactivations by LinkedIn.
• Your LinkedIn application's reputation (that LinkedIn uses to impose restrictions and deactivations) relies solely on your posting behavior and is not affected by any undesirable posting behavior of anyone else.
• For LinkedIn the benefit is that your LinkedIn application operates within their rules and application management environment. In other words, they can enforce their policies and rules on your application with no impediment. Undesireable posting behavior can be identified and shut down much faster because it's not cloaked by the posting behavior of thousands of other users.
• For SocialOomph the benefit is that erroneous deactivation of personal profiles, deactivation of or restrictions imposed on a LinkedIn application, and undesireable posting behavior by one user does not affect our entire user base.