Editors Note: This is another post in my series of cheat sheets. These were initially created to aid a client but I thought they would be useful for others and decided to share them here.

Would you believe Linkedin is one of the top traffic generators for our agency blog and our corporate site? Why? Because we’re a business services company that creates, among other things, business to business marketing. Linkedin is where our customers are so we actively target the site. Many people view Linkedin as a job networking site but with the addition of groups and upgrades over the past several years, its influence has risen significantly. Especially in the B2B relm where there are not always a lot of other opportunities to network.

1. Create a custom url and use it in your email signature. You can do this in “edit profile.”
2. Have all your employees create URLs too and add them to site bios and their outbound email.
3. Consistently update your profile and let colleagues know they are expected to do so too.
4. Status updates. Do them weekly. This will ensure your status shows up in Linkedin’s weekly email.
5. Consider linking your company’s or your personal Twitter account account to your profile. This can show up as your status update.
6. Update your company page on Linkedin. Do it every month or so. This way, you’ll be sure not to miss any additions or edits by someone else.
7. Some Twitter apps allow you to update your status and read those of connections. This makes it easy to update frequently and keep tabs on your network.
8. Add your company blog or your own blog to your profile.
9. Join lots of groups.
10. Participate by commenting on posted news items and participating in group discussions.
11. Start a group discussion and reply back when someone comments.
12. Add news articles in groups and offer insight in your link description.
13. Use applications to raise your profile.
14. Use in-messages to contact prospects you feel strongly you can help.
15. Answer questions in your area of expertise to demonstrate thought leadership.
16. Ask a question to learn about your prospects and maybe even draw one out.
17. Post your blog articles in groups and ask a question to encourage commentary.
18. If your product’s user base is large, consider creating a group for it. For example a search for Java yields 1,000 groups.
19. Multiply your efforts by having key team members participate as well. Why have one person working all day at something when 10 people working ten minutes a day will reach far more people. This is the essence of social networking.
20. Use searches to learn more about your market. Wonder how many engineers working in a particular field there are on Linkedin? Type it in the search box.
21. If you’re in sales, consider upgrading your account and to actively target individuals. It’s a valid compliment to information services like Hoovers.
22. Consider banner advertising on Linkedin if you favor a more passive approach.
23. Use “Events” feature to promote your company’s events. This is more social than than using something like Evite where only other invitees will learn about the event.

Note: Government workers, teachers, academics and some other fields that are not heavy users of Linkedin.

While working on this post Marketing Profs published this great article on Linkedin case studies. Well worth a read.

Posted on: March 9, 2010, by : Jimmy Gilmore