Welcome to the AngelsMedia ‘Advanced LinkedIn Guide for Small Businesses’. If you have not yet read our starter guide, Optimising LinkedIn for Small Businesses, please do so before advancing further!

LinkedIn’s co-founder, Reid Hoffmn, recently commented on how few people really use LinkedIn to its full potential:

 "They think it’s a place they keep their CV online and maybe have some connections with people they know professionally. They don’t think of it as a place to get business intelligence, to research problems, to establish an online presence where other people in the network can find them. It’s as if we’re a screwdriver in a world where people don’t quite understand screws."

In response to this, AngelsMedia have developed the following guide to help you get the most out of LinkedIn. Below are some of the most under-used tricks and tips we’ve come across.

SEO: Google, and other search engines, index content from LinkedIn.  This means that you can optimise your LinkedIn profile and page with relevant keywords that will allow you to rank highly in Google when potential customers use search words related to your industry. This gives you another way to "own" your businesses’ online reputation. The more results on Google that you control, the easier it is to control the message that you want to reach your customers.

Recommendations: Both you and your business appear more reliable when you have “recommendations” on your profile. For example, if you are a car mechanic, you can ask customers to “recommend” you after a job. One way to gain recommendations is to recommend another user first, and then ask them to return the favour.

Be an Expert: We mentioned in our starter guide, Optimising LinkedIn for Small Businesses [hyperlink], that it is important to join groups on LinkedIn. One way to benefit from groups is by helpfully contributing with your knowledge. By becoming involved in conversations, answering questions and suggesting solutions to potential customers’ problems you appear knowledgeable in your industry, as well as generally helpful. This can lead to more customers and a fantastic online reputation within your community.

Link with Twitter: Many businesses connect their Twitter with their LinkedIn accounts. See here [Hyperlink http://blog.linkedin.com/2009/11/09/allen-blue-twitter-and-linkedin-go-together-like-peanut-butter-and-chocolate/]. This will mean that your LinkedIn account is automatically updated with your Twitter Status updates, and vice versa. You can also choose to only send tweets to LinkedIn if they have the hashtag #li or #in – recommended for those whose Tweets are sometimes more personal. For other alternatives to increase your social media efficiency please see our article: Social Media, Spend Less Time and Get Better Results [hyperlink].

Applications: Making your profile look more interesting is easy with applications. More importantly, applications can make your profile more functional by allowing you to do things such as showing off your latest work. Look-out for our article on the best LinkedIn applications – coming soon!

Events: This is a valuable tool for those who organise seminars and workshops. The Events application allows you to market up-coming events, as well as keeping your audience updated with any changes to the arrangements.

Did you like this guide? See Advanced LinkedIn Guide for Small Businesses (Part 2) for even more tips and strategy for using LinkedIn as a small business.