The most effective ways to use LinkedIn

LinkedIn has developed into one of the essential tools that anyone in the world of business can use to help promote their company. Even so, if you don’t understand how to use it effectively, then even the power of more than 200 million members won’t help you to grow your business and make it succeed and thrive.

LinkedIn, just like any other successful venue, isn’t a stagnant tool. It is ever changing and producing more ways to help business professionals and their companies promote themselves, find out what’s new in their field and help others in their business industry as well.

Here are a few tips on the most effective ways to use LinkedIn to help promote your business:

Don’t Forget to Cross Promote Things on Your LinkedIn Pages

Millions of people post things on their LinkedIn pages all the time, but they may not think to also link it to their other social networking sites, their websites or their blogs. If you have accounts with not only LinkedIn, but with Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest, for example, you can get more out of your posts by cross linking them to each other. This means that many more people will potentially see your posts and your business will get more exposure, which equals more brand advertising and more credibility for your company.

Be Sure to Use the LinkedIn Mobile Apps

Just about everyone seems to have a smart phone these days and if you don’t take advantage of that by using LinkedIn Mobile, then you are missing out on the potential of hundreds or more prospective leads and customers. Mobile sites are big nowadays because regular websites don’t usually load onto cell phones. So, if you aren’t using LinkedIn mobile along with your LinkedIn account, you won’t be able to reach them.

Post Relevant and Useful Data Regularly

Another effective way to get the most out of your LinkedIn account is to keep posting relevant and useful data at least three times weekly. One of the worst things you can do is build your LinkedIn account and then forget about it. But if you go out of your way to find something new about your industry and post that to your LinkedIn pages or help one of your contacts with a problem they posted or start a group discussion that helps build your brand credibility, and then you are using LinkedIn properly. If not, no one will know who you are or what your business can do for them and that doesn’t promote your brand or get you potential leads and customers.

Contents you put on your posts can be seen by everyone in your groups and all of your contacts, so be sure what you put online is correct and current. Posting on a regular basis will help your company earn the trust of other LinkedIn members and could help you to find potential leads or customers.

Make Sure Your Profile is Complete

Another thing to keep current and complete is your LinkedIn profile. This is the first thing someone sees when they find you on LinkedIn, so you want it to be complete with all of the current data on your company and you. Be sure to put in there what the company can do for your customers and not just make it all about you. People who read your profile could be anything from potential customers to potential employees or just other like-minded business people who want to connect with you and join your network.

Your profile needs to be written in a professional manner and include a current photo of you in business attire. This will help people to put a face to the name and make it easier to see your business as being human and not just some big business in the sky that doesn’t care about anything but its bottom line.

Join Groups

Be sure to take advantage of LinkedIn Groups. These are groups of people who come together to discuss a topic that they all believe in or a business niche that they all belong to. If you join groups in your industry you will learn more about what is going on in your field and can help grow your brand by participating in group discussions. You can also create your own group and invite other professionals to join it. Then you can be the one who leads the discussion and if you provide good content, this can also help your business become the “go to” expert in your business niche.

Using the above tools along with your LinkedIn account can help you to use it in the most effective way possible that can help to make your company well-known and more profitable.