Linkedin.com is a vibrant professional social network of which you must be a part. If you’re serious about marketing your online business, one of the most respectable and useful online networking communities is Linedin.com. You’re likely familiar with Facebook pages, and profiles and Linkedin.com is sort of like this, only better. On LinkedIn.com you can create a personal profile but you can also create a company profile.

Linkedin.com is more professional in nature. You’re not going to play games on Linkedin.com, or share your child’s potty habits. No one wants to know what you had for dinner, or anything about your politics. What they care about is your business acumen. This is all business and not for personal information. Yes, you should be yourself, and how much you share directly depends on what type of business you’re in. But always keep in  mind potential employers and potential clients are here.

To make the most of your LinkedIn.com membership it’s important to ensure that you fill out your profile completely. Put a nice headshot that projects a professional image that fits in with your niche. Include as much information as possible in the profile itself. Put something in every section. Include a feed to your blog, and connect Linkedin.com to your Twitter account. This is not the time to be anonymous. Today, online business owners must be open, upfront and honest about who they are. Be yourself so that you can connect with people.

Current contacts are easily brought into your Linkedin.com system via the handy Gmail important function. It’s a great way to find people you already know so that you can connect to appropriate people. They key is connecting to people you know, have worked with, and then via them connecting to new people who might want to work with you too. You should also be helping people in your network make connections. If there are people in your address list that you’re only connected with due to very personal reasons who have no possibility of providing anything useful to your LinkedIn experience, don’t add them.

Send an invite to connect with you on LinkedIn.com to your current clients, and the subscribers who are on your email lists. Once people connect with you that you’ve done business with request a recommendation via LinkedIn’s system. Additionally, give recommendations to people with whom you’ve worked and you truly want to publically recommend them. Remember that if you recommend someone you should truly be happy with their services or products.

Join relevant groups and participate in the group. Give people advice, have intelligent business related discussions. You are promoting yourself, but not in a way that is loud and used-car salesmen like, but in a way that demonstrates your knowledge and skills to the world. Contribute in a useful way and you’ll impress people who will want to do business with you.

There are three levels of membership prices ranging from $19.95 per month up to $99.00 per month. Each membership offers a different amount of access to connections including the people you do not know, the ability to search profiles, and learn information about companies. You can pay your membership monthly or yearly. Start with the free account because it is fully functional and there is no reason to get an upgraded membership right off the bat. Instead, concentrate on building an excellent profile and building up your connections.

You may already have a LinkedIn account. Are you using it in the manner that you should be to get the maximum benefit from it? Itís important for your profile to be complete and then you must leverage the connections you have made.

If you find LinkedIn isn’t doing a whole lot for your business, you may be concentrating your efforts in the wrong place. A common mistake is to spend all your time building your online connections so that you are able to strengthen your visibility and credibility. That is important; however, that is not your toughest challenge. A much larger challenge that you face is to take the connections that you establish and deepen them so much that those people are buying what you are selling

The success of all social media relies on relationships, and LinkedIn is no different. Meaningful interactions are a must to the success of any business, whether that interaction occurs face-to-face or online.

You need to pay close attention to the connections you are making and what they are doing. You are connected to them online, so it is highly likely that they will be posting the events they plan to attend. If you see that those events are occurring in your region, you should also plant to attend them. If the events are live, you should attempt to set up an appointment where you can meet face to face. It will do wonders for the growth of your business.

Your timing is of the essence. The goal is to build deep relationships with the most important of your connections. In a perfect world, you would do this with all your connections but initially start with the connections that you feel can have the greatest value to your business.

Don’t be afraid to ask for advice on LinkedIn. There isn’t anyone who doesn’t just love to get their opinion in there. Everyone wants to feel valued and important. You will be quite surprised at the number of very good responses you receive. When you reach out you are able to communicate with one of your connections and begin to build a relationship with that person.

LinkedIn is a powerful tool for building strong business connections providing you understand how to use it properly and maximize your relationships on LinkedIn. We’ve started you down the right path. There is plenty of other helpful information available online so make use of it!

You can also find more helpful advice on the Blog or on our Facebook page.

If you have any type of professional life, which most of us do, you should have signed up at LinkedIn. You will create a profile just as you do on other social media sites. However, just setting up your profile is not enough. You need to make sure your profile is complete and working effectively so that you get the most benefit and value from it.

LinkedIn is recognized as a very effective way for professionals and businesses to build relationships that eventually will lead to business opportunities. It is also recognized as a great way to strengthen your network, maintaining it and keeping it strong, and ensuring you get the most out of your business.

To begin with, you will establish connections that will help you increase your exposure online and help you to boost your reputation. Make sure that you have filled out the business profile so that those who are surfing and visiting the site can check it out. You should include people from within your company that you work with.

Once you connect with others, you need to do more. To build a relationship you have to go deeper. If you just connect but you never interact, there will be nothing for either of you to gain from the experience. Itís critical that you interact if you want LinkedIn to be a successful component of your business.

You might be surprised to learn that it is all in the timing. As soon as you make a new connection, you respond to a question, you are introduced to a business associate, etc. you need to make the move to communicate directly with this person. There are tons of ways to bridge that gap and open up communication. You can ask a question, show interest in what they are saying, give advice, etc.

Make sure that you make the most of every event. Pay attention to events and activities that are happening in LinkedIn and that you are involved in. There are likely a number of events that you business could benefit from. Try to find live events in your area, or follow web events.

Be a resource to other LinkedIn members. If you know how to listen to other, it can be a very valuable tool. Sharing your expertise with others is an excellent way to build significant relationships within LinkedIn and these relationships are far reaching to your business and may eventually translate to revenue.

Knowing how to build meaningful relationships on LinkedIn will help you to create a viable tool that can benefit your business in many different areas.