LinkedIn Tips - Five Ways You Could Be Using LinkedIn

If you are in business, you have been hearing about LinkedIn more often lately. Here are five LinkedIn Tips to help you evaluate how well you're doing with this strategic and powerful business platform.

Tip #1. Company Page Updates – Use your company page to broadcast updates to your followers. Don’t have a company page? Your company page isn’t customized or current? Visit LinkedIn’s help center to discover how to make the most of your company presence on LinkedIn. Don’t have followers? Get your key staff to promote your page via their LinkedIn profiles and consider some paid promotion.

Tip #2. Learn and share from PULSE – LinkedIn acquired Pulse this past year and offers it free to LinkedIn users. It aggregates news and industry hot topics and delivers the information directly to your LinkedIn Profile. When you visit the LinkedIn Pulse Center, you’ll be guided through the option to customize your topics and interests. You’ll also find it easy to share to your LinkedIn profile or groups.

Tip #3. Engage others strategically in groups – Are you a member of any LinkedIn groups? If not, do some searching and joining. Pick 3 or 4 strategically chosen groups (groups where your target market are likely to gather) and visit and comment on discussions regularly. Take time to read and discern what behavior is appropriate for each particular group. Read the group guidelines and respect the rules. Sharing support and knowledge in these free forums will help position you and your business in the market space as industry experts.

Tip #4. Research companies – The Company search feature is built into your LinkedIn account. (Look under Interests in your home navigation.) When you are seeking to learn about a prospect, client, or competitor, consider searching them on LinkedIn. These searches will not only connect you to the company but to key employees as well. LinkedIn company search is great for finding people who can get you an introduction or other “in” to companies on your sales target list.

Tip #5. Create A Private Group for Collaboration – Do you have a company project that needs some interdepartmental discussion? Are the people you need to get together scattered across the country/world or separated by time availability? Do you have a place for your clients to engage and brag on you? Would you benefit from listening in on feedback from clients or prospects? These and a variety of other needs can be met by creating a closed (private) LinkedIn group. Visit LinkedIn’s Help Center app and search "Group information" and learn the ins and outs of using groups.

Those are my 5 LinkedIn Tips. Do you have others? What are you doing with LinkedIn that is helping you?