10 tips for using LinkedIn to promote your business

LinkedIn is widely considered the most 'professional' online social network, but many entrepreneurs have yet to exploit its full potential. Here are 10 ways to maximise your presence on the platform.

Many experts argue that LinkedIn is the most professional of the internet's social networks with research showing that its members have more brand loyalty than any other platform, including Facebook. Despite this, most brands have not yet found a way to exploit its popularity.

Over recent months, LinkedIn, like Facebook, has taken steps to increase the number of companies getting involved by rolling out fuller business profile pages, for example. But the more social aspects of the network, such as groups or LinkedIn Answers still require a more individual approach.

Here are 10 ways to use LinkedIn to boost your business.

1. Fill out your company profile
   Your LinkedIn company (and personal) profile is likely to rank quite high in web searches, so make sure it is as up to date as your website.
    
2. Use widgets to integrate other tools
   LinkedIn makes it easy to feed in information to your personal profile, like your latest blog posts or Slideshare presentation for example, using widgets.
    
3. Monitor and answer questions in LinkedIn Answers
   Keep an eye on relevant questions and submit answers to demonstrate your expertise. Give one person in your company responsibility for checking these on a regular basis.
    
4. Update your status regularly
   Many people ignore the status update potential on their LinkedIn personal account. You can even link your status updates with other social networking accounts to make it easier to manage all your social networks at the same time.
    
5. Start or help manage a group for your product, brand or industry
   If there is already a popular group relating to your industry, then get involved and reply to questions and posts. If there isn't one, consider starting one.
    
6. Share useful articles or resources
   Give your connections a reason to keep listening. Share useful information and they'll come back for more.
    
7. Request recommendations from happy customers or clients
   Peer recommendation is proven to be much more effective than advertising or direct mail. If you have happy clients, make sure they write about their positive experience on your personal profile.
    
8. Post job listings and tap into the wisdom of your community
   Once your community is a decent size, you can tap into this knowledge to find the perfect recruit.
    
9. Include your LinkedIn URL on your signature and business card
   Make it easy for prospects, customers and acquaintances to add you on LinkedIn. Get a vanity URL – e.g. Facebook.com/wildfirepr - and add it to your email signature and business card.
    
10. Visit LinkedIn on a regular basis or integrate it into a third party app
    You might not need to visit LinkedIn as often as other social networks, but by adding your LinkedIn account to a third party application like TweetDeck or HootSuite, you can constantly stay on top of what's going on.

This article is an extract from 'Putting the 'social' into social media', a guide to how companies can use social media marketing, compiled by Wildfire PR.

Have you used LinkedIn to benefit your business? Share your tips below.