Did you know you can do more for your company on LinkedIn?

Keep reading to learn more.

What’s new with LinkedIn for businesses?

Do you want to increase your opportunities to network with customers, clients, vendors, peers, potential job candidates and even your own employees? If you’re a business of any size, you need to have a well-developed “business” presence on LinkedIn.

LinkedIn recently announced an update to company pages that can help companies and small businesses to become more engaged on the network.

Up until now, your company page existed in isolation. Now businesses can update their individual company pages to enable their followers to receive updates and insights about job opportunities, company news, employee moves and more.

Are these the only kinds of updates that companies can post to their pages? Absolutely not, and I’m going to suggest that you think about this as a brand-new opportunity to showcase your thought leadership and expanding your business!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMknZutnVWE

Although it appears on the surface that the new company updates are designed to help big brands and corporations become more connected with potential candidates and employees, I believe small businesses and professional services that get creative about their company status updates and commit to being active with their company pages can also benefit from increased engagement with industry peers, prospective customers, strategic allies and potential new hires.

There are some great resources from Social Media Examiner for building a business presence on Facebook and Twitter, and both of these networks are essential for positioning your business and engaging your community. Now you can extend the reach of your business with your LinkedIn company page to grow your influence as the industry expert!

How do you take advantage of this new tool as a small business or professional services company participating on LinkedIn?

Below are 5 steps for expanding your business through LinkedIn company pages.

#1: Update/create and complete your company page

Currently there are over 2 million businesses with a LinkedIn company page, many of which are corporations looking for talent on the network.

At some point, many professionals will choose to follow numerous company pages on LinkedIn just as they do Facebook business pages, and the stream will become noisier.

Keep in mind that with these pages, LinkedIn provides you with the opportunity to integrate rich media content such as images, hyperlinked banners, links to your website and blog and videos from YouTube into your company profile. Take advantage of these benefits to make your page more attractive, engaging and interesting to your target markets!

To either create or enhance your existing LinkedIn company page, focus on the following tips: 

• Populate your company overview page using informative descriptions about whom you serve (your ideal customer) and how you serve them. Include the key specialties of your company in the designated “specialties” area and use keywords here that will resonate with your target markets. Also be sure to pull in your blog posts by inserting your blog feed URL!
• Build out your products and services pages on your profile. On these pages you can include an image, description, list of key features, landing page URL to your site, a link to a special promotion and you can even embed a YouTube video both on the products and services overview page as well as on each individual product/service page! Take advantage of the opportunity to integrate rich media. It will liven up your company page significantly.
  

  An example of a company products/services page from HubSpot.

• Once you have completed setting up your LinkedIn company page, you will want to enable the page for status updates. You must officially designate who can update the company page within your settings. Once you’ve completed this, designated people within your company will be able to post status updates to your page.
  

  Set a "designated user" for your company page.

#2: Build followers for your LinkedIn company page

Before you can really start to see any benefit from your LinkedIn company page, you’re going to have to work to get company followers just as you work to build a community of followers with your Facebook business page and Twitter profile! Otherwise, your updates won’t be visible unless someone visits your page directly and decides to share or comment on a status update.

Increasing your company followers will increase your company visibility. Your updates will be seen throughout LinkedIn and can easily be shared by your followers with their professional networks.

Building followers for your company isn’t just a one-time process. You should constantly be working to build followers for your company page on LinkedIn in order to expand your reach. It doesn’t matter if your business is big or small. Perhaps you don’t need the masses to follow your company page. You simply need to focus on gathering relevant followers as a small business or professional services company.

Below are some suggestions to quickly build your unique business community for your company page:

• Encourage existing employees to link up with your page (existing employees can help extend your company’s reach by sharing your status updates with their connections on LinkedIn).
• Follow the company pages of industry peers, vendors, current customers and prospective customers (many of them will reciprocate the action). Also consider following companies outside of your industry that are in your same geographic location!
• Send an announcement to the appropriate LinkedIn personal connections. (Best practice: Always provide 2 to 3 concrete benefits for why someone should follow your page. What will they get out of it? How can it help them to be better at what they do?)
• Consider sending that same “call to action” message to your existing database of customers and prospects, especially if many of them are on LinkedIn.
• Post a “call to action” to follow your page within relevant LinkedIn groups.

Remember, the more relevant followers you have for your LinkedIn company page, the more opportunities you have to be visible and build influence with your target markets!

#3: Provide interesting and value-added company page updates

Although LinkedIn suggests that you post status updates to your company page about jobs and breaking news, these types of posts are all about you and your company. If you want to engage followers, make it all about them and provide interesting and value-added updates that can help them to succeed in business!

This is your opportunity to establish your company as the industry expert. Also, don’t forget to include rich media such as an image in your company updates in order to make them stand out and capture attention!

A great example of this is HubSpot.  They update their company page with valuable resources and insights that can help marketers and businesses to be more successful in their online marketing efforts. Notice how they end their status update with a question. This is a great strategy to engage your company followers.

An example of how HubSpot is updating their company page with business resources and insights.

#4: Engage and network with people from companies you follow

Want to get on the radar screen of a business you’d like to work with? Watch for their company updates and engage with them! Just as you can engage with individual status updates that you see on LinkedIn, you can do the same with company page updates.

Perhaps a company that you follow is looking for a qualified candidate to fill a position. Point them to several professionals in your network who might be a good fit!

Maybe a company posts something that is helpful to you in your business. Thank them for the resource publicly and share it with your connections!

By helping the companies that you care about grow their visibility, you’ll also expand your influence with the company. It’s a very simple concept that most people don’t think about. Promote and refer the companies that are important to your business by liking, sharing and commenting on their updates. These companies may also return the favor and help to promote your business on LinkedIn as well.

In order to find the right companies to follow on LinkedIn, I would suggest utilizing LinkedIn’s advanced search features to find and follow industry partners, companies in your geographic location, companies that you currently do business with, companies that you’d like to do business with and companies within your same industry (competitors and non-competitors).

Filter searches to find relevant companies to follow!

Also, check out this article for more tips on using LinkedIn Company Search to expand your network.

Engaging and networking with relevant LinkedIn company pages will also help you develop and grow your personal LinkedIn network with other professionals who are engaging with these companies. You may discover other professionals who share the same business interests.

#5: Monitor and focus your efforts

LinkedIn does provide a nice “Analytics” feature to help you monitor and track visitors to your company page, but these metrics do not yet highlight how effectively you are engaging your target markets. However, on the main landing page for your company profile you will be able to see who has engaged with or commented on any of your company updates. Read more about the LinkedIn Company Page Analytics feature on the LinkedIn Blog.

LinkedIn Company Page Analytics feature.

Carve out time specifically for “company” networking on LinkedIn. Update your company status frequently, check for comments and engagements on those updates to determine what’s working, and continue building followers for your page through the strategies mentioned in section #2 of this article!

Also remember to keep your LinkedIn company page fresh and interesting. Add new videos or images from time to time, run special promotions, etc.

I have found that if you focus your time with your social networking efforts, you can accomplish greater success rather than just skimming the surface.

There are several places within LinkedIn to focus on company networking. On your LinkedIn home page under “Companies,” you can view the updates from the companies that you follow.

Or you can visit “LinkedIn Companies” home page (see image below) to see the same update. I find this to be a better place for focusing, as you won’t be distracted by all of the other items on your primary LinkedIn home page. Finally, you can also visit a company page directly and engage with any of the status updates right there on the page itself.

Monitoring the companies you follow on the "LinkedIn Companies" home page.

Regardless of the size of your business, it’s important to invest in your LinkedIn company presence. I believe that going forward, this will be one of the very best ways to set your company apart and provide ongoing value to your customers and prospects.

Don’t forget that your LinkedIn company page will also be indexed by search engines, which can provide another positive gateway online to your business.

What do you think? Have you thought about how you might build and engage your following on LinkedIn through a company page? Leave your questions and comments in the box below.

That’s great news for B2B marketers, because LinkedIn is much more than just a bunch of résumés.

LinkedIn advertising is a huge opportunity for lead generation for B2B companies. Business messages are well-received in LinkedIn’s professionally focused environment.

In addition, LinkedIn lets marketers target ads to users by important B2B demographics such as job title or industry or even focusing on members of particular LinkedIn groups.

This is different—and arguably better-suited for B2B—than Facebook ads, which typically target users by lifestyle interests (such as gardening, music or religion).

Marketers can create an ad on LinkedIn in just minutes with a minimum spend of $10/day. For LinkedIn ads, there are some basics of PPC advertising to keep in mind, as well as nuances of LinkedIn to leverage to ensure you’ll get the most from your campaigns.

The Basics of LinkedIn Ads

LinkedIn ads appear in two places on the site. First, your ad will appear along the sidebar with a photo and text. Depending on your ad’s performance, a text-only version will appear at the top of LinkedIn.

LinkedIn ads appear in two places: On the sidebar and as text-only versions at the top of the site.

LinkedIn ads include a photo, 25-character headline and 75-character description. You can choose to pay LinkedIn via CPC (cost per click) or CPM (cost per 1,000 impressions).

Finally, LinkedIn allows you to offer several variations of your ad so that you can test which drives the most click-throughs and leads.

5 Steps for LinkedIn Ad Success

Now that you know the basics of what LinkedIn’s advertising has to offer, here are 5 tips to keep in mind as you create your ads.

#1: Create great ads with powerful copy and relevant images

Before you fine-tune your campaigns with targeting or increase your bids, you’ve got to start with a great ad.

Write effective ad copy. LinkedIn ads are short: they’re just 75 characters for the description and 25 characters for the headline. Every character counts.

LinkedIn allows you to send people to a link on your own site or to a page on LinkedIn itself. Similar to how Facebook marketers use Sponsored Stories to promote Facebook pages, marketers can use LinkedIn ads to promote company pages or LinkedIn groups. LinkedIn recently added the ability for companies to post status updates to company pages.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMknZutnVWE

LinkedIn also recently hinted that accruing “followers” for your company page will be an increasingly important goal for marketers, and using targeted ads to attract those followers is a good strategy. Another option is to direct ad readers to a page on your site where they convert to a lead through a contact form.

No matter where your link sends ad readers, include a strong call to action. Words and phrases like “download,” “sign up” or “request a demo” are clear and direct instructions for your audience.

Include strong calls to action in your ad copy. The call to action in this ad is clear: "Get a free quote."

When writing your calls to action, remember Copyblogger’s “4 U” guide to writing:

• Be useful.
• Convey a sense of urgency.
• Show that the benefit of your offer is unique.
• Do it all in an ultra-specific way. (Your audience should know explicitly what action you want them to take based on your ad copy.)

When it comes to PPC ads, a picture could be worth a thousand clicks. Choose a picture that matches what you’re offering, and make sure it works with LinkedIn’s white background and 50x50 pixel parameters.

Another helpful tip for when you’re getting started: Don’t forget to familiarize yourself with LinkedIn’s advertising guidelines to learn more about what language, photos and promotional tactics are or aren’t approved by LinkedIn.

#2: Target your ads to a specific audience

Narrow down your audience to the most relevant prospects. A few common targeting options include industry (banking, marketing and advertising, Internet), job function (marketing, academics, engineering) and groups.

Tip: Check out LinkedIn Today to see what the top-shared news is for each industry to learn more about your audience. Understanding what news they are interested in sharing is a good indicator of what offers they may be interested in as well.

Tip: See what the top stories are in each industry on LinkedIn Today. Understanding what news your audience is interested in sharing is a good idea.

Generally, the more specific your offer and targeting are, the better your LinkedIn ads perform. Monitor your click-through rate (CTR) on LinkedIn and your visit-to-lead conversion rate by setting up goals in Google Analytics or using marketing analytics software to determine how effective your targeting is.

#3: Split-test different variations of your campaign

LinkedIn ad accounts are organized by campaigns. Each campaign has its own daily budget, targeting options and ads.

LinkedIn recommends that you create at least three ads per campaign with varying headlines, call-to-action phrases and images. You can create up to 15 different ads for each campaign.

LinkedIn displays your ads to your selected target audience. When you start getting clicks, the top ad by CTR will be shown more frequently, so it will receive even more clicks.

You can change your settings so LinkedIn shows your ads at a more even pace, with each one getting the same number of impressions. Keep track of which ads are most successful, and pause the ads that have the lowest CTR.

Test several variations of the same ad to see which one performs best.

#4: Budgets and bidding—spend your money strategically

Budgets—Your daily budget is the maximum amount that you are wiling to spend each day. LinkedIn displays ads at different rates during the day depending on when LinkedIn users are active on the website. 50% of your budget might be spent in the morning, with 25% going to the afternoon and another 25% at night. When you reach your daily budget limit, your ads stop showing for that day.

Not receiving as many impressions and clicks as you’d like? Your daily budget may be too low. Calculate the average total spend per day for the last week and compare that amount to your daily budget. If those numbers are equal or close to each other, then increasing your daily budget could help you get more impressions and clicks.

Now, businesses can post status updates on their company pages just like individuals can on LinkedIn. You can use an ad to promote your company page and generate more visibility for your brand on LinkedIn.

Bidding—Each time a prospect visits a page on LinkedIn, an “auction” happens between your ad and other advertisers. LinkedIn offers a suggested bid range, or an estimate of the current competing bids from other advertisers. The higher your bid, the more likely it is to “win the auction.” If you do not enter a bid within the suggested range, your ad will be less likely to beat other advertisers’ bids in the auction, resulting in fewer impressions or clicks.

#5: Measure the performance of your ads

Like for any marketing initiative, you want to pay attention to metrics to understand your LinkedIn ads’ effectiveness. But consider your overall marketing and business goals first when you think about what your goals are with LinkedIn ads, and measure accordingly.

Measuring CTR—Whether you’re promoting a page on LinkedIn or a page on your own website, CTR is good to track. According to LinkedIn, good ads have a CTR greater than 0.025%. Monitor the CTR frequently, and if you notice a drop, refresh the ads with new copy or images. Narrowing your target audience so your ad is more relevant (and there is less competition) could also be helpful for driving a higher CTR.

Measure leads—If you’re hoping to send ad viewers to a contact form on your site, don’t only work on the LinkedIn ad; also take your landing pages into consideration. If you have a strong CTR, but the conversion from visit-to-lead seems low, your landing page may not be as effective as it could be.

What do you think? Have you considered using LinkedIn ads for your marketing? Will you use them to promote content or to increase your company “followers”? Let us know in the comments!

But LinkedIn? The stodgier cousin of the group? Not so much.

Yet for PostcardMania, a fast-growing, Florida-based postcard marketing company, unlocking LinkedIn has been a bottom-line booster. It’s not just for job searchers anymore.

Every week, the company consistently counts at least two dozen fresh leads coming directly from LinkedIn – more than Facebook and Twitter deliver.

That’s added up to more than $72,000 in revenue just from LinkedIn.

How do they do it? Here, PostcardMania shares its formula.

Hint: It’s about attractive content offered at just the right time.

PostcardMania consistently creates high-value content – such as the CEO's blog – to drive people to its site.

A Content Marketing Pioneer

When Joy Gendusa started PostcardMania in 1998 with just a computer and phone, she combined two powerful ideas:

1. Give away free and valuable marketing advice that was typically only available from pricey ad agencies
2. Offer affordable direct-mail printing for small businesses

Since the beginning, PostcardMania has used free advice from on-staff sales and marketing consultants as a major customer acquisition strategy.

Now with 175 employees and $19 million in annual revenue, it’s a model that continues to serve the company well.

Today, Gendusa’s free-advice strategy extends beautifully into social media channels. In addition to taking its own advice – mailing 140,000 postcards every week promoting its services – the company actively participates on major social media sites.

However, the company’s success with social media was not a direct route. Early attempts with a couple of marketing agencies added fans, followers and LinkedIn connections but only brought in a lead or two every couple of months.

“My boss said, ‘I can’t afford this. I need ROI (return on investment)’,” said Ferris Stith, PR & social media manager at PostcardMania.

This past August, the company brought social media marketing in-house, putting Stith in charge. She and Gendusa realized the potential of LinkedIn to connect with their audience – small businesses like dental offices, repair service companies and insurance brokers.

LinkedIn has become a solid lead generator, topping Facebook and Twitter for the company.

By experimenting, Stith arrived at a winning process for LinkedIn that truly generates leads for this business-to-business company:

#1: Create compelling content

First, you need attractive content to move people from LinkedIn to your site. PostcardMania actively creates articles, blog posts, reports and customer case studies for the different industries it targets.

“Content makes all the difference,” Stith said. “Where I’m sending the person determines how many leads I’m going to get.”

The company packs every piece of content with valuable information. No fluff. Then, Stith finds multiple opportunities to share links back to that content.

About 80 percent of the time – usually with special reports – links go to a landing page requiring the person to fill out a form to access the content, turning that contact into an official lead.

Special reports for each industry are among the top lead generators.

#2: Establish your face and voice

Stith and Gendusa agreed that Gendusa, as CEO, would be the face of PostcardMania on LinkedIn, but Stith would post. Stith spent months learning Gendusa’s voice and absorbing her marketing knowledge in order to contribute as Gendusa would.

Stith posts and responds as Gendusa for all inquiries that are not personal messages to the CEO.

Stith posts as CEO Gendusa when answering questions.

#3: Build contacts and message them

When Gendusa receives connection requests, Stith reviews the person’s information and usually accepts the invite. After that, she connects one-on-one with the individual with a friendly message.

“I’ll say, ‘I see that you work at this company. Are you the owner? How’s business going?’” Stith said. She keeps conversations going by often ending with a question.

Stith stresses that she stays very conversational, and never salesy. She also keeps the messages about the other company and their needs, rather than talking about Gendusa or PostcardMania.

“Hard selling is not going to work,” Stith said. “I see so much of it… The post has to be super-helpful. Give real information.”

In the course of conversation, she might point a dentist to a gallery of visual examples of other postcards or to a video and/or written case study showing how another dentist brought in new business with postcard marketing.

“Case studies and sample galleries are really successful depending on the conversation,” Stith said.

PostcardMania shares links to written and video case studies in the specific industries of those they connect with on LinkedIn.

When contacts aren't sure what to put on a postcard, Stith shares links from LinkedIn back to a gallery of samples.

Or, Stith might also point the contact to a special report just for that industry, such as the “8 Ways to Build a Dental Empire” piece.

“Usually when people read that report, dentists call and usually buy pretty fast,” she said.

Special reports, tailored to industries, are particularly big traffic generators.

#4: Join groups and contribute

Next, Stith joins LinkedIn groups for the various types of small businesses the company targets, and judiciously contributes to discussions and questions about marketing.

Within groups, Stith uses the LinkedIn “Discussions” feature about once per week to share valuable content that links to PostcardMania.com. Fellow group members can comment or ask questions right on those discussions.

Just recently, the company generated the most leads yet (53) from a piece of content – with the blog post, “8 Ways to Grow Your Local Business for FREE!” Each of the eight ways was a “snippet” with links to get more information, each of which collected the person’s contact information.

Stith posted a link to "8 Ways to Grow Your Local Business for FREE!" in all the groups she's part of.

Traffic coming from LinkedIn to the blog post ended up generating 53 new leads.

If someone seems like a good prospect based on his or her profile and comments, Stith will click the “Reply Privately” link to take the conversation offline and connect with that person.

“I introduce myself in a way that’s not off-topic,” she said. “‘Joy I agree with you on ABC.’ Then I ask questions.”

Additionally, PostcardMania answers marketing questions posted on various forums.

By answering questions and including links to relevant content, PostcardMania connects with prospects in target industries.

#5: Cold-message contacts

Also part of her regular LinkedIn group activity, Stith “cold messages” contacts who might be promising prospects.

Again, given the nature of LinkedIn, she’s careful to be conversational, not promotional.

“I’ll introduce myself and say, ‘I see you’re in this industry’ and ask a question like, ‘how’s your business these days?’ It’s a very light touch introduction.”

600 Leads – Just From LinkedIn

PostcardMania meticulously tracks all leads. In roughly the past year, the company generated approximately 600 leads, which Stith said amounts to approximately $72,000 in actual business – all just from LinkedIn.

She notes that their close ratios for social media match those of traditional media activities such as postcards, indicating that social media does deliver quality leads.

However, not all social media pulls the same weight. While Stith uses Facebook and Twitter, her B2B audience responds best to LinkedIn.

“Twitter generates traffic to our site but doesn’t necessarily convert,” she said. “Facebook is the more social aspect. Conversion on them visiting isn’t nearly as high as LinkedIn.”

What do you think? Is your social media marketing generating real leads beyond just fans and followers? Leave your questions and comments in the box below.

If you already have a profile created on LinkedIn, it’s a great time to revisit and refresh your presence!

Or if you’re just wondering how to get started, these 5 simple steps will help you make the most of your time and effort!

Why LinkedIn?

LinkedIn is the largest professional social network online today, with over 100 million professional users. The average household income of LinkedIn users is over $88,000 per year, which outpaces the average income for the readership of the Wall Street Journal, Forbes and Business Week!

If you are a professional or a business owner, you can’t afford to miss out on the opportunity to build relationships with potential customers, clients, partners and peers on LinkedIn. It’s a powerful audience that you can engage, interact with and influence.

#1: Complete your LinkedIn “profile box.”

When visitors first land on your LinkedIn profile, a box displaying your profile highlights fills the screen. Given the importance of first impressions, the information in your “profile box” should be complete, current and optimized.

This is your best chance to make a good impression. In many cases, someone may read through your entire profile, but most people are going to get the information they need from your profile box.

Here are the steps to complete your LinkedIn Profile.

Upload a professional image. This is your very best opportunity to make a great first impression and is essential to attracting connections. No professional photo? No credibility.

Create a compelling headline. You only have 120 characters at the top of your profile to describe who you are, whom you serve and how you help. Use brief, descriptive, compelling keywords so the right professionals on LinkedIn can discover you. Focus on terms that your target markets are more likely to search for. What language do they use? Make your headline text compelling, but use words that resonate with your market.

List your current position and at least two past positions. If you don’t list at least two past positions, your profile won’t be considered “complete,” which can mean missed opportunities to be discovered by prospective clients and customers. Make sure to describe each of your roles in depth, and again use those keywords that will resonate with your target markets! It is also okay to list two or three positions that describe your current role, as I have done in my own profile.

Add your education information. List colleges and the high school you attended in this area. Why? One of the primary search tools within LinkedIn is the ability to locate people with whom you attended school. This is a potential connection point that can open doors for you.

Customize your “website” listings. Under the Websites section of your LinkedIn profile, you can have up to three listed. Choose the “Other” option when setting up each of these links and describe the links to your brand with relevant terms. For example, rather than using the phrase “my website,” I use “Smart Social Pro Blog.” Not only is this more descriptive, it also gives me a better opportunity to rank for those keywords in search.

Include a link to your Twitter profile. Add your Twitter handle to your LinkedIn profile. Visitors to your profile can now follow you on Twitter directly from within your profile box! LinkedIn and Twitter are tightly integrated. You can share your tweets as LinkedIn status updates (best practice: add #in to the end of specific tweets rather than choosing to send all tweets to LinkedIn), and you can share LinkedIn status updates as tweets!

Edit your “vanity” LinkedIn URL. An example is http://www.linkedin.com/in/stephaniesammons. This will enable your LinkedIn profile link to show up in search results under your name on all the major search engines! It is important to claim those results for your name as they provide a gateway into your personal brand.

Following these seven tips will ensure that you put your best foot forward with a comprehensive snapshot of who you are, what you do and where people can learn more about you. Your LinkedIn profile should serve as one of your most valuable professional digital assets.

#2: Use keywords within your profile summary section

The summary section on your LinkedIn profile is where you have the most flexibility to expand upon who you are, whom you serve and how you help your clients. Although this section is not as visible as your “profile box,” it’s still important.

Write the text in your summary section in the first person, as if you were talking directly to potential clients. Begin with “My name is…” Why? Because your name is a keyword, and this provides a simple introduction to your story. Your summary section should include keywords that describe how you help your clients in language that resonates with them! Try to stay away from industry jargon if possible. Also, don’t stuff your summary section with keywords. Simply use effective keywords and phrases where they fit.

Hint: The “specialties” section of the summary is a great place to list your areas of expertise using descriptive keywords.

#3: Leverage your existing natural network

Your existing contacts—your “natural” network—can provide a rich online networking experience and can help you quickly ramp up your visibility. This foundation network is key to creating a powerful presence on LinkedIn!

To uncover all of your connection opportunities, go to “Add Connections” in your navigation menu, which is listed under “Contacts.”

Thoroughly review LinkedIn’s connection channels.

There are four natural connection channels provided by LinkedIn. Make sure to go through all four connection channels to make sure you find all potential connections who can be a part of your network.

Regardless of how many connections you may already have on LinkedIn, it’s worth your while to go through this exercise monthly because membership growth continues to be very strong on LinkedIn!

1. Send a LinkedIn invitation to connect to existing contacts though the “Add Connections” feature.
2. Review colleagues from your current and past work experience and send invitations to connect.
3. Find classmates from high school and college to connect with.
4. Review the “People You May Know” list. This is LinkedIn’s connection suggestion engine!

#4: Focus on timely and relevant status updates

LinkedIn is a professional business network; therefore, it’s busy during business hours! You should strive to be visible and valuable during that time. Your status updates should add value to your target markets.

A best practice is to update your status two to three times daily. Also, spread out your updates rather than posting them all at once.

A fantastic tool for adding value in your industry is to take advantage of LinkedIn Today. This is LinkedIn’s top news tool available right there inside the network. You can customize your news updates by industry and easily share relevant stories with your connections. Top news is surfaced by the people, not by an editorial staff! Learn how to use LinkedIn Today to find popular content.

See articles shared by your connections, save articles and follow industries.

#5: Join and participate in groups

LinkedIn Groups recently got a major upgrade with the new LinkedIn mobile application. You can now participate in group discussions on the go. This is a great way to remain visible and valuable in your target markets.

Strive to review and participate in group discussions at least once per week. You can join up to 50 groups, but your time will be best spent focusing on three to five at most. Otherwise it will be difficult to keep up with all of the conversations.

By visiting the “Groups” tab on your LinkedIn navigation menu, you can easily find groups to join, access existing groups that you belong to, review and follow existing discussions that you are a part of, and view “groups you may like” suggestions from LinkedIn. In addition, you can use the LinkedIn search function to find groups.

Join groups that are relevant to your business and target markets. For example, if you have a local business, look for groups that are organized around where you live or work! Consider joining alumni groups, peer groups and groups that are organized around professional and personal topics that you are most interested in.

Lastly, think about groups where your target markets might be hanging out so you can find ways to be creatively visible and valuable to them with the resources and insights you share.

Share relevant, resourceful, rich content with your groups that can help other members. Ask questions and respond to comments! Learn more about effectively participating in LinkedIn Groups.

Final Thoughts

There are so many features and tools available with LinkedIn. It is essentially a networking treasure chest for any businessperson, filled with opportunities to deepen existing relationships, meet new professionals and add value to members of your target markets. To take advantage of all of these opportunities, it is important to spend time learning as much as you can.

I hope that these five steps will help you maximize value and minimize time as you ramp up your LinkedIn presence.

What do you think? Could your LinkedIn presence use an overhaul, or are you just getting started on LinkedIn? Share your thoughts in the comments box below.

It represents a powerful way to stay in touch with important people (when used properly).

Keep reading to learn how to keep in touch with prospects and customers with LinkedIn Mail.

Why Use LinkedIn Mail?

LinkedIn Mail is probably one of the most underutilized parts of the LinkedIn platform, but if used correctly, it is one that can be extremely beneficial in growing not only your business connection base, but also your business.

You may already have a great network, but how often do you really connect with those people, nurture your relationships with them or put yourself on their radar? By using LinkedIn Mail or message facilities well, you can do just that.

Here’s how.

#1: Composing your message

Let’s look at composing a message to a group of connections. LinkedIn will allow you to send a message to up to 50 connections at any one time, which I assume is a safeguard against spammers. The 50-recipient cutoff just means that you will need to send your messages in batches, which spammers generally don’t want to bother with.

To send a message to one or many, first go to your inbox and click Compose Message.

In this image you see the message box come up immediately.

The thing to remember here is to uncheck the box to ensure you don’t share your connections’ email addresses with everyone else you send the message to. It becomes a blind carbon copy very much like your regular email software.

Next you click on the blue LinkedIn icon over on the right to see all of your connections and to select to whom you would like to send your message.

From there, you then have the choice of sending a message to selected connections in a certain location or industry. This is particularly helpful if your message is really only going to be of interest to certain connections who are accountants or Internet marketers, for example.

Choose your target location and/or industry with the drop arrows.

To select the connections you want, simply tick the relevant box, which will then filter across into the box on the right. You’ll see the number of connections you can continue adding as the “50″ counts down to zero.

When your connections have been added, you’ll be directed back to the message page where you started.

#2: Message content

Your message should contain value (like all of the content you put on your website). What can you share with your connections that will be of value to them? This is where you need to put your thinking cap on and turn things around from what you may be currently sending out in your regular newsletters.

Some examples might include:

• A link to a great business book you’ve just finished reading
• An event that’s taking place that they may not have heard about, such as Guy Kawasaki presenting in town
• A link to a great website that you’ve recently discovered
• An industry article that’s relevant to them

Don't forget to address the lack of personalization.

Add value in some small way and they will love you for it. That’s what building relationships online is all about, adding value to someone’s world and being remembered for it. It’s not simply an excuse to send an email about all of the wonderful things you and your company can do for them. That is definitely not interesting or valuable.

#3: How often should you message?

There’s no right or wrong answer here, but be careful not to overdo it. I message every 3 months or so, but if I come across something extremely relevant to a connection, I will pass that on.

It also depends on your relationship with that connection, how well you know him or her, because some connections you don’t know well may find it a bit intrusive.

#4: To export or not to export?

Personally, I don’t think you should export your connections into another email program for three reasons:

1. The receiver of the email may be unfamiliar with your newsletter and indeed the content may not be relevant, and so it will be seen as spam.
2. By sending your message through the LinkedIn platform, the receiver knows where they know you from and can simply click on your name for further information about you if they want to.
3. Your connection may feel “sold out” if they see you have imported them into your email database.

If you do decide to export them, here’s how. Click on Contacts, then My Connections and look for the Export Connections link at the bottom right.

You may want to export your LinkedIn connections.

Look for the Export Connections link.

So what is sending a message to your contact base going to achieve if all you send is a quick note about a handful of things that you feel might be of interest and want to share with them?

You have put yourself back on their radar! Depending on what you have put into your email and how relevant it is to them, you will get responses back, even if it is just to say thanks. This again gives you the opportunity to build on a relationship that could be in its early stages, or build on one that you have been nurturing for a while.

Tip: Check these two articles out on more ways to expand your network with LinkedIn Company Search and how to develop meaningful LinkedIn Connections.

What techniques do you use to keep in touch with your connections? Do you have any to add? Leave your comments in the box below.

But LinkedIn Today is the new player in town for the professional community. Plus, it’s a great resource for putting your daily news in the context of your professional social network.

As LinkedIn describes it, LinkedIn Today allows you to discover what the world’s professionals are reading, sharing AND tweeting. Bottom line, it’s a professional social news source that you can utilize to grow your social influence.

The Top News From Your Industry Curated by the People

The power of LinkedIn Today is that the top articles are showcased based on how often they’ve been shared by the professionals within a variety of industries. There’s no editor. These articles are curated by LinkedIn members!

Not only will LinkedIn Today show you the top headlines that LinkedIn members are interested in by industry or news source, you can also see what some of those members have to say about the articles when they include comments. (I would highly recommend including your own comments on EVERYTHING you share.)

You can see who shared each headline.

For each headline that appears, you can see how many times the article has been shared, and you can even filter the most recent shares by company, industry or location. It’s important to note that currently LinkedIn will only show you the most recent shares and this is updated frequently.

How does LinkedIn determine which articles get visibility on LinkedIn Today?

What makes LinkedIn Today so powerful is that the news articles displayed are those that have been shared, liked or commented on the most by LinkedIn members. Articles are sorted by industry and news source, based on the industry assigned to profiles of those who have shared them.

Most importantly, LinkedIn will give a higher preference to more recent articles if they’re being shared quickly by a broad base of members. LinkedIn Today will also show you top industry articles from StumbleUpon and even articles that your direct LinkedIn connections have shared.

LinkedIn Today pulls in popular articles by industry from StumbleUpon.

LinkedIn Today shows articles shared by your connections!

3 Steps for Using LinkedIn Today to Build Influence

There are many ways to build social relationships with your LinkedIn connections. One of the best ways to grow your social influence is to consistently curate and share timely, relevant content with your connections so you stay visible and valuable.

Remember, with all of the content now available online, people are overloaded with information but they’re thirsting for knowledge. Position yourself as someone who is “in the know” within the context of your industry to become an influencer.

#1: Customize LinkedIn Today

The first action to take with LinkedIn Today is to customize and organize your news page to show you the most relevant articles based on your industry, interests and sources. LinkedIn Today allows you to follow categories of news that you and your connections care about most.

I recommend you follow your industry, related industries and any and all sources that can help you grow your reputation as an influencer. For example, my industry is financial services and this is my target market. However, the content I specialize in is marketing and social media. It makes sense for me to follow industries and sources related to both so that I can provide a blend of relevant content to my audience.

Follow relevant industries, interests and sources to see applicable articles.

Furthermore, I love a good story from NPR and I also believe that the Harvard Business Review provides some excellent leadership content, so I follow these sources as well and share appropriate content with my network. The point is to mix it up and create a blend of valuable sources that can help you stay visible and valuable in your niche markets.

#2: Scan your LinkedIn Today headlines daily

I love the fact that LinkedIn provides you with the option to receive daily email updates from LinkedIn Today. Let’s face it, with a weekly news digest you can certainly keep tabs on what’s happened in your industry, but that news will get old fast. If you want to be an influencer, you’ll need to get daily updates so you can quickly scan and identify the most interesting and relevant news and content to share with your connections in a timely fashion.

Update your email setting to receive daily email updates from LinkedIn Today. In addition, I would recommend visiting LinkedIn Today a few times daily for news and updates that you may have missed. It’s really a one-stop shop for news that matters to your professional social network!

Go to the "Settings" link under your name on your LinkedIn home page to set up email notification.

Set your email preferences to receive a daily digest email.

#3: Share relevant articles from LinkedIn Today

It’s one thing to share a link to content with your social connections, but sharing alone will not help you grow your influence. You must consistently share AND comment in order to expand your visibility and engage your connections.

For each article that appears on LinkedIn Today, you’ll see a small people icon with a number next to it (see below). This indicates how many people have shared that particular article on LinkedIn and Twitter. If you click on the icon, a window will appear showing the profile pictures of who most recently shared the article from LinkedIn or Twitter and what their comments were, if any.

This icon shows you the number of times the link has been shared on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Whether an article has been shared by many or few, if it can be valuable and relevant to your network, go ahead and share it and always remember to include your own comments. Anything that you share will show up in your social streams, and also any of the LinkedIn Groups you decide to share the article with. Sharing high-quality content and commentary with your LinkedIn Groups is a great way to start a new discussion and add value!

Share the article with your followers; filter the most recent shares.

Currently there’s no way to reply to comments or retweet links directly from the most recent shares. This would be a nice feature that could increase engagement, in particular with those people who may be in your industry but not connected to you.

If you’re connected to a member, you’ll be able to click through to his or her profile and reply or comment directly on what was shared. You can also view the profiles of people who have recently shared an article in your industry and determine if you have any common connections!

If you share AND comment on articles from LinkedIn Today with your LinkedIn connections, Groups and Twitter network, you have a tremendous opportunity to be consistently visible and valuable to your network. Yes, LinkedIn has done a lot of the heavy lifting by curating headlines for you, but you can take this to the next level by curating further for your own network! Add your layer of professionalism and insight in order to grow your social influence.

Because LinkedIn Today is updated very frequently, it’s a curation tool that also provides you with a high-quality resource to leverage for consistent visibility. If you want to stay relevant to your target markets, you must be consistently visible! If you’re frequently sharing interesting articles and news from your industry, you’ll build influence. In addition, you might also gain further exposure by showing up on the actual LinkedIn Today page!

LinkedIn Today will continue to expand as more industries are added, and as more professionals begin to utilize the site as a social news resource. This is one of the many LinkedIn tools that have been developed to help you become more connected with the other professionals in your industry and beyond.

You can use LinkedIn Today to help you grow your visibility with a conscious daily effort. To learn more about LinkedIn Today, I would recommend going through the overview provided by the LinkedIn Today team.

Personally I’ve made LinkedIn Today one of my first stops in the morning to see what news has surfaced in the industries and from the sources that I care about, and that my followers care about.

What do you think about LinkedIn Today? What tips can you share? Leave your comments in the box below.

What is LinkedIn Company Search?

According to LinkedIn, your professional network isn’t just about the people you know, it’s also about the companies in your network and how you’re connected to them. LinkedIn’s new Company Search provides an opportunity to discover connections in your network and filter them by the companies they work for.

Why is this important? Not only can you search for companies by attributes such as location, industry and size, but also by how you’re connected! Ultimately, LinkedIn Company Search can help you expand your professional network in ways that you may not have thought about.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=1j5VoN_v-Us

How Can You Utilize LinkedIn Company Search to Expand Your Professional Network?

LinkedIn Company Search results are more robust than the “People” search results for those who do not have a Premium LinkedIn account. These search results appear to be unlimited for the time being, as long as a particular company has created a company profile.

How to Expand Your Professional Network Using LinkedIn Company Search

#1: Set your Company Search parameters

Navigate to Company Search, located underneath the “Companies” tab. Next, refine your search in the left-hand column using the following parameters for the most relevant results:

• Location (focus on your city)
• Industry (target a single industry initially)
• Relationship (choose second-degree connections)

Hint: Your current number of first-degree connections will directly impact the number of second- and third-degree connections that you have. If you don’t have many first-degree connections at this point, you’ll want to focus on building meaningful connections as quickly as you can!

Filter search results for location, industry and second-degree connections.

#2: When viewing these search results, look for the number of people in your network for each company listed

Each company that shows up in your search results will showcase a link to the number of people who are in your network. These “people” will all be your second-degree connections, given that you filtered for this parameter. The search results may also show you job postings by the company if you choose to view that parameter.

Identify the number of people who are in your network for each search result.

#3: Click the link to “View all X people.”

To expand the list of second-degree connections from each company who are in your network, you’ll need to click the “View all X people” link (see image below). Once you click this link, you’ll see a list of all of your second-degree connections who are associated with this particular company, along with the number of shared connections that you have with each person.

Click to view all of the second-degree connections who are in your network from this company.

Note that when these results are shown, in order to see those individuals who work in your specific geographical area, you’ll have to reset that search parameter in the LinkedIn Company Search filter on the left-hand side of the results page. (Just as you did in step #1, refine your search results by location once again.)

Now you’ll see the list of second-degree connections who are in your network and work for this particular company, as well as the number of shared connections that exist between you and this individual. LinkedIn will also show you any groups that you have in common with this list of second-degree connections, which could open up the opportunity to make a direct connection. (LinkedIn will allow you to send invitations to connect with mutual group members.)

View the list of individuals with whom you have a shared connection.

#4: Click to view your “shared connection(s)”

The most exciting part of this search is being able to see exactly how you’re connected to this new list of people! Your shared connections in many cases will be key in providing you with an introduction to a new second-degree connection and can also share with you what they know about the person.

Make a connection and if someone else is connected to that person as well you have a shared connection!

#5: View the second-degree connection’s profile and connect!

I suggest that prior to asking for an introduction from your shared connection that you spend some time learning more about the person. For example, view the profile of the second-degree connection and look for common experiences, interests or additional places on the web where you can connect.

Does the person have a blog you can subscribe to? Do they have a Twitter account that is visible on their LinkedIn profile? Are there groups that they are a member of that would make sense for you to join as well? Do you share common personal interests or past work experiences with this individual? You might also Google the person to gather additional intelligence.

This research prior to asking for an introduction to connect or sending any type of direct invitation to connect helps you have a more meaningful dialogue once you’ve become connected on LinkedIn.

#6: Promote, refer and engage your new connections.

If you want to build influence on LinkedIn, always remember to focus on promoting, referring and engaging your connections. You can “like,” “share” or “comment” on their status updates, invite them to join interesting groups or attend local events, and suggest or refer any of your existing connections with whom they can benefit from knowing.

In addition, you should consider sending relevant news and resources to your new connections that can help or benefit them in their business and networking efforts.

Don’t forget to be consistently updating your LinkedIn status on a daily basis if possible. This will also expand your visibility and increase your opportunity to be seen as value-added to your new connections.

As you can see, leveraging LinkedIn Company Search is not only a powerful way to manually build a qualified list of prospects by location and industry, but you also have a connection pathway to meet these individuals through an introduction or by sending a direct invitation, depending on your account level. Keep in mind, however, that the best new business relationships often come by way of referral or introduction!

Spend some time doing these kinds of searches for your business. If you have a Premium LinkedIn account, you can actually create folders and save the profiles of all of your new and prospective connections.

What do you think? Have you experimented yet with LinkedIn Company Search? If not, will you utilize this strategy to find new connections and expand your influence? Leave your comments in the box below.

There are several options to choose from. Which one would be right for you?

In this article, we cover what you actually get for your money and how you might use some of the enhanced features.

Let’s take each area of the business upgrade in turn and run through it.

Here's what you get for your money, but what does it all mean and how are you going to make use of it?

#1: InMails per Month

An InMail is simply an email that can be sent to anyone on LinkedIn, whether they’re in your network or not. Before you say, “Why don’t I just call and get the person’s email address and use that for free?”, the LinkedIn InMails work much better. In fact, LinkedIn actually states that InMails are 30% more effective than using regular emails.

They’re more successful because they’re less of a cold, spammy email, the person to whom you’re sending it instantly knows that you’re part of the LinkedIn community and the receiver can also simply click on your name and check you out very quickly. If they like what they see, they may respond favorably.

The really cool thing here is if you don’t get a reply within 7 days, you get the credit back to your account where it can sit for up to 90 days. In effect, you get a refund.

I’ve used InMails very successfully and my secret to you is keep the content light and be yourself. No carefully crafted company content here. You may simply want to send a message of congratulations to a CEO who just won entrepreneur of the year, or some other little snippet that you’ve picked up in the news.

You can then put a quick one-liner at the end to say something like “Now you know I exist, if you ever need any help with (insert industry), you know where I am.” All you’re trying to do is put yourself on their radar for the future, so don’t overdo it! Remember, they can very easily just click on your profile and see what it is you do.

#2: Profile Organizer

This is a great tool if you’re doing a lot of research on LinkedIn. Ideal for recruitment, or simply prospecting, you can create folders and add profiles to them.

You don’t have to keep rerunning a search and wondering where you are with the search results, as the profile organizer also allows you to make notes and add contact details only visible to you about each profile. When you go to your profile organizer, you can see what messages you’ve sent as well as the notes and what folder they’re in.

Makes it easy to "file" people.

#3: Premium Search Filters

With the upgrade, you can find exactly who you’re looking for in half the time, view their full profile and then make contact with InMail. With the free version, your search is limited and you’re much more restricted. It can be time-consuming to check through each profile for criteria you’re looking for.

You get the extra search functions (highlighted with the gold logo).

#4: Profiles per Search

With a pro account, you’ll get up to 1000 search results. This is very handy if you use LinkedIn a lot. In the free version, you get a maximum of 100 results per search, even if there are thousands to choose from, and LinkedIn will automatically pull to the front people within your network. By network, I mean your first-, second- and third-degree connections. The search function will then look for profiles outside of your network if it needs to.

#5: Saved Search Alerts

Another labor-saver that you can set up is when someone either changes their job role or joins LinkedIn and matches the criteria you’re looking for, you get an email. Almost like a Google alert, you simply get the information in an email.

Set up an alert to make search easy.

#6: Introduction Requests

Introductions are available with the free account also, but with the upgrade, you’re allowed to have 50 outstanding at any one time.

Introductions simply allow you to send a message to someone you’re not connected to, via someone you are connected to. You can write a note for the person you’re trying to contact (person A), and write a separate note for the person you want to pass it on (person B). The beauty is that person B can see what you want her to pass on to person A, and make a decision whether she’s happy to do so. Person B then has the option to send it on or decline.

You can send an introduction to people in your second- and third-degree network. The only thing I don’t like about this is the message doesn’t appear in your regular email box (i.e., in Outlook), it only appears in your inbox in LinkedIn. So you need to visit your inbox on LinkedIn regularly.

#7: Profile Stats

Now I really like this as it gives you a good insight into how people are finding you. You can see who has viewed your profile (as long as they’ve not opted to be known as “anonymous user”), the keywords that were used to find your profile and the number of times you appeared in the search. That’s great to know so that you can tweak things on your own profile if necessary.

How often do you appear in someone's search?

#8: Expanded View

Sometimes you may do a search and the results come back with PRIVATE. This happens when the person you’re searching for is out of your network. Even with the upgraded version, you won’t get to see the expanded profiles of everyone on LinkedIn.

What you will get though is the full name of your third-degree connections; whereas the free users will only see their third-degree connection’s first name and last initial. You can’t ever see the full name of those people out of your network unless you’re searching via their name.

A workaround is to simply Google the current position information and, very often, you’ll find your answer. You can then search for the person in the usual way on LinkedIn and send an InMail.

No more secrecy.

#9: Open Link

Allow people to contact you.

Another option to consider is whether to use the Open Link icon or not. On my profile I want people to contact me. So by having this little icon present, it allows anyone on LinkedIn to get in touch with me without having to use an introduction or an InMail, so it’s free and easy to do.

#10: Sneak Peeks

When any new features are due to come out, you get a sneak peek of the upcoming features. Very cool.

The beauty of the upgraded version is that you can simply try it out to see if you like it. There’s no contract, so if you change your mind, you can revert back to the free version. Although you may wish you hadn’t. You get quite used to the extra functionality.

For more on LinkedIn, read the 26 Tips to Enhance Your Experience on LinkedIn and find out How LinkedIn Apps Can Promote Your Business.

Do you have a new or improved idea for a LinkedIn feature? Are you currently using the upgraded version? Leave your comments in the box below.

As more professional LinkedIn users create Twitter profiles, I believe this application will become more and more powerful for building influence and visibility with your network connections.

The primary benefits of the LinkedIn Tweets application are:

• Follow your LinkedIn connections on Twitter
• Post status updates simultaneously to both Twitter and LinkedIn
• Monitor and interact with your Twitter streams from within LinkedIn
• Create a LinkedIn-specific Twitter list

Before we look at some additional ways to leverage the Tweets application, make sure you’ve first added your Twitter account to your LinkedIn profile.

Add Your Twitter Account to Your LinkedIn Profile

Click “edit profile” and “add Twitter account” next to the Twitter field. This will create a link directly to your Twitter account on your LinkedIn profile for all visitors to see if you choose to display it on your profile.

To share your tweets in your LinkedIn status, I would recommend that you choose the “Share only tweets that contain #in” option rather than allowing every tweet to flood into LinkedIn as a status update. Typically, one or two daily status updates in LinkedIn will be sufficient—you don’t want to overdo it.

Share tweets that can add value to your LinkedIn connections!

Install the LinkedIn Tweets Application

Go to “Applications” in LinkedIn and search for the Tweets application to install on your profile. Once installed, you’ll be able to visit your Twitter page on LinkedIn by going to the “More” menu tab and clicking on “Tweets.”

With Tweets, you can now display your most recent tweets on your LinkedIn profile.

How to Utilize the Tweets Application to Build Social Influence

Below are three important features of the Tweets application that you can use to help you grow your Twitter connections, gain intelligence about what your LinkedIn connections are tweeting about and promote your connections through their tweets.

#1: Identify and follow all of your LinkedIn connections on Twitter within the Tweets application

Go to the “Connections” tab to see who you’re NOT following on Twitter and follow them. You may not find a substantial number of your connections on Twitter, but go ahead and follow those who are! Most likely they’re going to follow you back.

#2: Create a dynamic Twitter list of your LinkedIn connections

From within the Tweets application, LinkedIn makes it easy for you to create an official dynamic Twitter list of your LinkedIn connections. Go to the “Connections” tab and on the left-hand side you’ll see “Save as Twitter List.” It may take a few minutes for this list to populate, and by default it will be a private Twitter list. The newly created list will show up within the Tweets application where you’ll have the ability to view the stream in real time.

This is a great tool in and of itself. Rather than manually having to go through and create a Twitter list of your LinkedIn connections, it’s done in the click of a button and always up to date. I can’t think of a better way to make Twitter more relevant to your existing professional network! If I had very little time to spend on Twitter, this is where I would focus my efforts.

Consistently monitoring this unique Twitter list can give you tremendous insight into what your LinkedIn connections are thinking and spreading online. People tend to update Twitter much more often than LinkedIn.

#3: Look for engagement and promotional opportunities through LinkedIn Tweets

The Tweets application actually functions as a Twitter client. You can tweet, reply, retweet or even share posts as messages with any of your LinkedIn connections. However, the real power comes from being able to update your LinkedIn status simultaneously, along with tweeting, replying or retweeting.

Remember, promoting and connecting others is a very effective strategy to build social influence! Don’t underestimate the power of consistent status updates, and the reach that those particular updates can have. When you find a tweet in your LinkedIn Twitter stream that’s relevant, or could be interesting, entertaining or helpful to your broad LinkedIn network, this is where you’ll want to engage and promote.

Ideally, you’ll want to retweet the important post(s) from your LinkedIn connections within the Tweets application and go a step further by checking the box to share the tweet as a status update. The retweet will then show up as a status update to your entire LinkedIn network and it will hyperlink to the individual’s Tweet page within LinkedIn, giving others an opportunity to follow that person on Twitter.

Not only have you promoted the content to your LinkedIn network, but you’ve also provided your connection with extended visibility in both networks and will potentially help him or her gain some new LinkedIn connections and Twitter followers.

This is a retweet from the Tweets application that I also shared as a status update.

By clicking on @ducttape from within the status update, the link travels directly to his Twitter page in LinkedIn.

You could spend time reviewing your other Twitter lists from within the LinkedIn Tweets application and engaging with those individuals as well. If you find something relevant that your LinkedIn network connections can benefit from, again retweet it as a status update. Follow up with that individual to let him or her know that you also posted the tweet as a LinkedIn status update because you thought your network could benefit from seeing it.

Ultimately with any social network, you want to be viewed as a resource who can be relied upon to share and spread quality information. If you can marry this with promoting those professionals with whom you’re already connected on LinkedIn, you can build social influence by helping your connections increase their visibility. This is a win-win.

For additional tips on leveraging Twitter and LinkedIn together, read “How to Prospect Using the Combined Power of LinkedIn and Twitter.” Consider downloading the Free LinkedIn Guide for Professionals from HubSpot as well. This is another very helpful resource for taking advantage of all that LinkedIn has to offer for growing your professional network.

Have you incorporated the Tweets application into your profile? What are some other ways to utilize this application to build influence on both networks? Share your feedback in the comments box below.

Ahhh yes, the lovely LinkedIn.

She warms me up with friendly introductions to powerful decision makers. She brings a smile to my face from the absurd amount of targeted traffic to my websites. And she goes WAY over the top with the number of direct sales referrals she gives me.

It’s a digital romance we have, and I’ll profess my love for her ’til the end of time.

In all seriousness, I’m a big fan of LinkedIn because of the direct business I receive from it. And although I’ve written books about LinkedIn, given webinars and presentations on the topic and written articles like Top 5 Ways to Market Your Business With LinkedIn, I’ve never done a dedicated article about the advanced applications… until now.

Get More With LinkedIn Applications

In this article I want to share with you the top apps you can leverage to get more leads, traffic, product sales, brand awareness, ticket sales, investors, sponsors, consulting engagements and more.

Let’s dig into some of my favorite apps and how to get more from them.

Add Your Blog to LinkedIn

Surprisingly, I’ve seen some of the top bloggers in the world miss out on displaying this app. Failing to include this WordPress app on your profile is a huge mistake because it can help you drive more traffic and shows those who come to your profile how to learn more about your expertise.

This is a simple app that every blogger should have on his/her profile.

Autoplay a Video!

Imagine someone lands on your profile and instead of seeing the same old boring profile, they hear a voice. This voice either comes from you or a raving fan giving a testimonial. This technique is used so rarely that people can’t help but be shocked when they hear a voice and watch a video on your profile.

Adding the SlideShare.net app allows you to showcase presentations you may have, but it also allows you to add a video that autoplays when people land on your profile. Currently the video must be on YouTube for it to work, but it definitely adds a nice touch. Learn more about how to add video to your LinkedIn profile here.

Showcase Your Books or Others’ Books

Many bloggers are coming out with their own books, but are forgetting about a valuable resource to help promote and sell more of them: their LinkedIn profiles! The Reading List by Amazon is great because it helps you to stand out while adding to your credibility.

Even if you don’t have a published book on Amazon, you can still add this app and include the top books that you’re currently reading to give others a better sense about your interests and ongoing education.

This allows you to add a picture of your book on your page.

Syncing With Twitter on LinkedIn

I synced my Twitter account to LinkedIn when this app first launched. Some said they were annoyed when they saw all of the Twitter updates come to their home feed, but after about a week people got used to it.

I find that I often get as much or more interaction from my Twitter updates that sync to LinkedIn than those same updates on Twitter. Your messages don’t get lost in the feed as much on LinkedIn and there are threaded conversations similar to Facebook so you can continue the dialogue for days after.

I recommend doing this if you’re active on Twitter as you will look like you’re interacting on LinkedIn and continuing to stay on top of the minds of your LinkedIn connections even if you don’t use LinkedIn very often.

A great way to stay connected and updated.

Feature Your Events on LinkedIn

Hosting a major industry conference, regional networking event or maybe a small TweetUp and want to get more exposure and ticket sales? If so, look no further than the most powerful events promotion tool online today—LinkedIn Events app.

An example of a major professional event by Gary Vaynerchuk.

Here's an example of how powerful promoting your events on your profile can be.

You can see how many people have RSVP’d for your event, who’s interested and who’s exhibiting. You can also see a picture of those who are attending or interested, their industry, how you’re connected to them, what company they work for and more.

There are a few features I wish they would add to help event organizers promote better (like adding a messaging ability to all of those members who are interested), but other than that, I love the way you can use this app to get the word out about your events.

More Advanced LinkedIn Apps

There are a handful of other apps I haven’t mentioned that help a variety of industry professionals.

Business Apps:

There are a number of general business apps. Some of my favorites include Box.net Files, Tripit Travel, Google Presentation, Huddle Workspaces and Polls.

Legal Apps:

There are two apps specifically for lawyers. The Legal Updates app allows you to “get legal news that matters to you and your business. (Lawyers, upload your articles and other content. Be found for your expertise on LinkedIn).”

The Lawyer Rating app allows you to “showcase your Martindale-Hubbell® Peer Review Ratings™ and Client Review Ratings™ to further validate your stated credentials and help you make the right connections.”

Designer App:

The Creative Portfolio Display allows you to “showcase your creative work in your LinkedIn Profile with the Creative Portfolio Display application. Free, easy to manage, and supports unlimited multimedia content.”

There are a number of other apps that you may or may not feel are valuable to include on your LinkedIn profile, but my suggestion is to try a few out and see how you like them.

Since the release of the advanced application section on LinkedIn, they continue to release new apps every so often. Make sure to check the application section for future updates, or find out more by following the LinkedIn blog.

Have you tried using any of the advanced LinkedIn applications on your profile? If so, what is the one you like the best, and why? I’d love to read your thoughts in the comments box below.