This is the second part of an article published on how to build your LinkedIn profile to help you build your business. If you followed the nine steps outlined in the first article, it means that you’re now ready to promote your business on LinkedIn.

Having a solid personal profile, although very important, is only the beginning. LinkedIn provides you with a lot of tools which can help drive potential clients to your business. It’s just a matter of knowing what those tools are and how to use them.

6 Ways to Use LinkedIn to Promote your Business

1. Advertise your Profile on your Email Signature

Advertise your personal profile through your email signature. Email is the main method of communication for many professionals, therefore including a link in your signature is a good way to raise awareness of your profile. Everyone is curious so even if they know you they will click on the link to find out more about you and your background. It can also help if your email is forwarded to a third party who might be interested in working with you, as it provides that person to instantly know who you and what you do.

An easy way to include a link to your profile is to use the Email Signature tool on LinkedIn. This tool provides a series of formats and styles for you to tailor your signature. You can also add a link to ‘See who we know in common’ for the recipient to use if they want to understand how you’re connected.

2. Use LinkedIn Plug-ins to Promote your Website

There are a number of ways you can link your company website and LinkedIn profile together including:

• Member Profile plug-in: Add the profile plug-in to your “about” page on your website to encourage people to connect with you and read more about your experience.
• Share on LinkedIn plug-in: This plug-in simply allows users to share content from your website with their LinkedIn contacts, complementing your Twitter and Facebook share options.
• Recommend on LinkedIn plug-in: Similar to the ‘Share on’ plug-in, the ‘Recommend on’ plug-in this feature allows users to share the content on your website with their contacts. How it is targeted at the products and services on your website, not your blog or articles.

3. Utilise Network Updates

Every user who logs on to LinkedIn is presented with a list of ‘Network Updates’, listing information of what their contacts have been doing and who they have been connecting with. Utilise this area to start building awareness of both your business and your authority in your business industry or segment. Share articles and useful content you have read, blogs you have written and updates on who you have been meeting or what you have been doing. Be careful not to over share though. People may get annoyed with seeing your updates again and again.

4. Share your Twitter Feed

Add your Twitter account to your LinkedIn profile. This will allow your twitter feed to be distributed to your network through the Network Updates section on the homepage. This will not only raise awareness of your Twitter account but will enable you to share interesting articles you have found with your peers, helping to establish your credibility.

5. Create or Join a LinkedIn Group

Joining and participating in LinkedIn groups is an easy way to connect with people and build authority in your field of expertise through comments and discussions.

But if that’s not enough for you, why not create your own LinkedIn group? If you have the time to commit to creating and nurturing your own group it can pay huge dividends. By creating your own group you can lead discussions to highlight your own expertise and company experience. You’ll also be able to use the ‘Send an Announcement’ tool which allows you to email your group members with updates. Be careful not to spam people though.

6. Work your Company Page

Create a Company Page to provide additional details about your business. On top of the usual details such as website, social media links, company description and locations, you can add a tab for Products & Services, highlighting any special offers. And of course you can get clients to ‘Recommend’ the services that you list under this tab. You can then share these special offers through your network updates.

So Many Tools, so Little Time

There is no doubt that LinkedIn can be a powerful tool, as long as you know its full potential and use it in a sustainable way. The key to successful social media marketing is consistency. Making sure you’re actively building a community. If this means that you start off slowly and wait until you have more time, then create a strategy around that.