Tips to Increase Leads Using LinkedIn

With over 47 million unique visitors and more than 160 million registered users, LinkedIn is one of the most desired social networking and professional networking websites. Founded in 2003 by Reid Hoffman and his colleagues, LinkedIn's portfolio comprises of more than 32 products and services and an array of hiring and marketing solutions.

Headquartered in Mountain View, California, LinkedIn is a public company listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol 'LNKD'. Through the company's website, registered users can create, manage and share their professional expertise online, form & build professional networks, share knowledge & insights, and get to know about new business opportunities.

The social networking powerhouse is available in more than 18 languages such as English, French, German, Italian, Russian, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, and more. In accordance to a study conducted by ComScore, LinkedIn is ranked 31 in the list of websites that are frequently visited, and the website also received about 9 billion views during the first quarter of 2012. With such a large membership base and global reach, LinkedIn will help you to generate sales and business leads.

During times of economic crisis and financial meltdowns, it is tough to get business-to-business sales leads. LinkedIn has transformed itself into one of the most effective social networks that help businesses in prospecting exertions. Most young entrepreneurs and small business owners rely on LinkedIn to generate sales and business leads, consequently it has turned out to be a cost-effective and reliable source when compared to other social networking websites such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

Here are some tips which will help you generate leads using LinkedIn:

• Sign-up with LinkedIn and create a sociable profile. Rather than giving importance to your roles and responsibilities, focus on optimizing your profile by explaining more about your accomplishments and offerings to customers.
  
• Highlight the positive testimonials that your business has received and also ask your friends and colleagues for trusted endorsements and recommendations.
  
• Add applications to your profile that help you to distinguish your profile from the millions of similar profiles. If you are a blogger, you can add applications such as WordPress and BlogLink that automatically post your latest blogs to your profile.
  
• Enable social media options such as Twitter that allow you to follow your LinkedIn connections and also follow people who use LinkedIn on Twitter.
  
• Build and join groups that will help you expand your professional network. Overtime, this can become a valuable destination to share and exchange information. You can join groups that are related to your business and expertise. Use the advanced search option to enhance your search.
  
• Ask questions that will educate you on your expertise. Ask questions within your professional network so that you can get solutions for the different issues that clouds your business. This will also register your footprint in your network.
  
• You can initiate group discussions and also be a part of discussions initiated by other groups.
  
• Search for your competitors' businesses and get to know about all their advancements and activities. There is a new feature called Follow Company that allows you to get to know about its recent developments.

I hope these tips will greatly help you in generating leads from LinkedIn.

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