***5 Ways to Network and Market Your Business Using LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a great tool for social media networking your personal business, and a great tool to use and incorporate into your marketing strategy, thus creating another fantastic free outlet to expand your business.

Here are 5 ways to do so:

1. Utilize LinkedIn's Q&A Function.
Upon creating a LinkedIn account, you will also be able to access the Q&A function. This function can be a generous source for generating revenue. When accessing the page, try out the advanced search, using questions verses answers, in that you may be able to find questions being asked pertaining to your company or specific products. You don't necessarily want to bombard them with a sales pitch type answer, rather just give an informative reply by stating that your company or products are available if they happen to need them. This function is a give and receive process. If you supply, people will give back, it's that simple.

2. Answer Questions, Become an Expert.
Questions posted on LinkedIn stay active for 7 days. Once it's reached the 7-day capacity, those who answered will be rated by the person who asked the question, thus whoever answered the best will receive a high rating. Whoever receives the best rating will be awarded the status of "expert" via LinkedIn. From there on out, when an expert answers a question, he or she will receive expert badges, so whenever he or she answers another question, or remains active on LinkedIn, your badge will follow you. This creates a sense of expertise to the people who are interested or who follow your business. As you are representing your business, your business will now become known as an expertise business or acquiring the reputation of being "linked in", (ha-ha, no pun intended,) as a knowledgeable business.

3. Join the Groups.
Just like the Q&A function, joining groups is also a give and receive process. The more you share, the more you'll get back. LinkedIn allows you to join up to 50 groups. That's a lot to consider, as you will be able to connect with many different individuals by joining. Once you start joining a few groups, be sure to share who you are, what you're doing and just be open! You'll see how people will want to engage with you, as that is one reason for joining groups.

4. Create your own Groups.
Creating a group is very easy, and can be done in a matter of minutes with a few clicks. You would want to focus on starting a group that is relative to your company and/or your products and services. If you have a social media virtual assistance company, start a group that allows for questions to be answered about what social media virtual assistants do. It's really easy and a really great way to do some promotion for your business.

5. Promote your blog and website.
Within the groups that you decide to follow, there is a news section. In that news section, there is a great place to add your blog information or website information. There is also a discussion function which is also a great place to promote your blog and other information pertaining to your business. This can add value to your business as well as enhancing your businesses image.

These are just a few ways that LinkedIn can help you be more successful with your business venture and social media. There are several other features on LinkedIn that can also help, but just by having an account that you keep updated, is a great starter.