LinkedIn is one of the most familiar, and most highly visible networking sites on the Internet today, so it’s not surprising that it is now the third largest social networking site. The platform is mainly used as a networking area for those looking for work, marketers looking to extend their business reach and established companies that are looking to recruit highly skilled individuals. But how many of you have truly understood its potential when it comes to marketing your business? Let’s take a brief look through how you can utilize LinkedIn to your advantage and use it to take your marketing strategy to a new level:

1. Interact with well respected, well established LinkedIn groups: LinkedIn plays host to tens of thousands of groups in every niche imaginable: marketing; mentoring; idea sharing; you name it and you will without doubt find a related group. by taking advantage of these established groups you can find a whole new audience to advertise and market to. If you are planning an event or product launch, don’t be afraid to let these groups know; if just one group member takes notice, then it’s been a worthwhile exercise. not only will your message be seen by that group, but to their extended connections. The more people view your profile on LinkedIn, the more your online visibility will start to soar.

2. Use LinkedIn for research purposes: perhaps you have a product or service that you are looking to improve or upgrade, or a new product that has yet to be launched? This is where LinkedIn comes into it’s own. by using the questions and answers section on LinkedIn, you can easily ascertain what it is your customer wants. LinkedIn users are a very interactive bunch, and you will find that the professionals here will be more than happy to showcase their skills by helping to answer your questions and providing you with invaluable feedback on your ideas.

3. Status updates and Tweeting to promote your company: Don’t underestimate the extremely useful status updates and tweets apps. Send out regular yet focused messages. Don’t waste time with too much irrelevant information. Keep your messages short and sweet. let people know of any changes you are making. But remember also to give helpful and timely advice as well.

You could give advice to people seeking work or for those working in similar niche markets as yourself. Wouldn’t you like to read something useful about a topic you are interested in? LinkedIn users are the same; they are always on the lookout for something helpful that they can use to endorse themselves or add to their knowledge base. LinkedIn is all about putting yourself out there in the marketplace, increasing your visibility and promoting your professionalism.

4. Direct advertising: Take full advantage of the recent advertising services LinkedIn have incorporated into the site and use them to promote your service or product. a LinkedIn advertising campaign can help you to effortlessly reach a worldwide audience. Having read over the LinkedIn Ts and Cs they appear to be offering reasonably affordable and flexible terms. definitely worth a small investment for a month or two and take it from there then.

5. Looking for investment? your ideal investor could be using LinkedIn: If you are in a situation where your business, idea, product development or service needs investment then you couldn’t have come to a better place. by using LinkedIn as a marketing tool, you are ensuring that your company is commanding great visibility in all the search engines.

Use your profile to it’s fullest by explaining your venture in detail and encouraging potential investors to get in contact. everything of note can be detailed on you profile: portfolio; video; product documents; achievements; education and much, much more.

As you can see LinkedIn is not just a great place to meet new people, but is a proven way to promote your business and brand. Once you start taking full advantage of LinkedIn I can assure you that you won’t be disappointed by the results.

Scott is a prolific networker – online and offline!  He is a director of an SEO Agency and also writes travel blogs for one of his clients – no.1 Traveller, operators of airport lounges across London airports.