With more than 85 million users and a new member every second, LinkedIn claims to be the number one social networking destination for business professionals.

To maximize your social influence on LinkedIn, let’s discuss 7 proven ways to help you.

1. Share your blog content on LinkedIn

WordPress LinkedIn, Blog Link, along with other apps, allow you to share your blog content with your LinkedIn network. More and more social sharing tools are being created every day to make viral content marketing a breeze and LinkedIn is certainly no exception.

2. Take advantage of direct ad campaigns

LinkedIn simplifies targeted advertising by allowing you to reach networks based on location, industry, gender, age, you name it! LinkedIn ads are similar to Google AdSense in that they are PPC (Pay Per Click) type and you can stop them anytime you want. You can choose between banner, text hyperlink or media box ads. (LinkedIn also supports CPI, cost per impression. Ads.)

3. Promote your business events

Thanks to the LinkedIn Events app, you can promote your business events and browse the events of others. LinkedIn allows you to share your events with your network. You can still share them with external LinkedIn users through paid advertising. (You can follow “LinkedInEvents” on Twitter to keep up with the latest events)

4. Follow your competition

LinkedIn’s Company Tracking feature allows you to stay on top of events taking place in any business of interest, including your key competition.

5. Go to third-party LinkedIn apps

Based on my most recent reading, you have 19 LinkedIn apps to choose from to enrich your profile. For example, Amazon offers a reading list app (the blog link app discussed in #1 is another example). My personal prediction is that many more apps will be developed in the near future! Why not? LinkedIn is in fashion!

6. Showcase your products on company pages

“Company Pages” is an enhancement to LinkedIn Company Profiles. Thanks to this valuable feature, you can now display more information about your business, including products and services. You can also embed a YouTube video for each product/service. Currently, almost 20,000 companies use Company Pages. Once a LinkedIn user recommends your product, their recommendation can be shared with your entire network. That’s viral marketing in action!

7. Check your network statistics

LinkedIn’s network statistics feature allows you to track the number of new users you can reach through your existing connections. With each new connection you make, your reach of potential users will grow according to the size of the new user’s network.

As you can see, LinkedIn still maintains its reputation as the number one place for business professionals and is constantly evolving to help you maximize your visibility and social influence. Well done LinkedIn!