LinkedIn Recommendations

A LinkedIn member's profile page, which emphasizes employment history and education, has professional network news feeds and a limited number of customizable modules.

Basic membership for LinkedIn is free. Network members are called "connections." Unlike other free social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter, LinkedIn requires connections to have a pre-existing relationship.

LinkedIn is a social networking site designed specifically for the business community. The goal of the site is to allow registered members to establish and document networks of people they know and trust professionally.

Yes. The impressions of a post that is shared by a person counted in the company page analytic's.

Select "Groups" from the top-page menu and click on "Groups Directory." Search for groups most relevant to your business, and request to join those groups. Once in a group, start and join conversations with others in the group, who may be current or future clients with questions. Or, create your own group and invite current and prospective clients to join. Use this group as a platform for answering client questions.

The answers you provide become part of your profile and demonstrate your expertise to your current and potential clients. Click on "More" from the menu at the top of your LinkedIn page and select "Answers." Answer relevant questions from those within your network.

Sponsored updates work on a bidding model, similar to other LinkedIn ads and typical PPC campaigns. You can bid on a cost-per-click (CPC) or cost-per-thousand impressions (CPM). You will set the maximum bid you're willing to pay for a click or impression, and your sponsored update will only show when the cost of a click is below your max.

For the most part, people will be interacting with your company through the updates they see in their newsfeed, so having optimized images in your posts is far more important than in your cover photo. That being said, make sure your cover photo is high quality and relates to your business. We update our company page cover photo whenever a new campaign is going on, or when we launch a new product. current cover photo has been up for over a month.

InMail is LinkedIn's in-house email network, which is the fastest and most direct way to send and receive messages among LinkedIn members. Estimate how often you will answer client questions on LinkedIn. Then, if you still have a basic account, click on "Upgrade Your Account" at the bottom right of the page. Choose from among the subscription plans, for which you must pay. Each plan allows you a different number of InMail messages.

LinkedIn was co-founded by Reid Hoffman, a former Executive Vice President in charge of business and corporate development for PayPal. The site, which was launched in May 2003, currently has over 300 million members from 200 countries, representing 170 industries. According to Reid Hoffman, 27 percent of LinkedIn subscribers are recruiters.

Build and a maintain a current, thorough profile. LinkedIn administrators recommend the following as essentials for your profile: adding a professional photo of yourself; summarizing your professional persona and skill set; listing your educational background and three recent job positions; and featuring three recommendations from your LinkedIn connections. Doing this will answer many of your client's initial questions about who you are and what you do.

With basic membership, a member can only establish connections with someone he has worked with, knows professionally (online or offline) or has gone to school with. Connections up to three degrees away (see six degrees of separation) are seen as part of the member's network, but the member is not allowed to contact them through LinkedIn without an introduction. Premium subscriptions can be purchased to provide members with better access to contacts in the LinkedIn database.

No, you can only post to a group as an individual.

Yes. Posting from a company page that you are an administrator of will come up as if it comes from your company, but posting a status update from your personal profile will look as if it is coming from you personally.

Put LinkedIn follow buttons on your website pages to help drive relevant traffic to your company page, link to your company page in blog posts and in emails you send, and include social share buttons on all pieces of content you create. You can also link to your company page on other social media networks.

Each company page post gives you metrics to help you determine which post does best. "Clicks" refer to the number of people who click on your post, either to view the content or to come to your company page. "Impressions" refer to the number of eyeballs on your company page post, either in their news-feed or on your company page. One person can account for more than one impression. "Engagement" is the collective number of likes, comments, shares, and clicks, divided by impressions -- it's given to you as an engagement rate. This shows you if you post was engaging to your followers.

our connections are personal connections associated with your personal LinkedIn profile. Followers of a company page are not the same. Followers must click the "Follow" button at the top right of your company page. Followers also do not need confirmation like connections do.

Sponsored updates, you can target based on demographics, skills, group involvement, job title, location, and company. Because of these robust targeting options, you can get your sponsored update in front of the exact audience you're looking for.

Not necessarily. Your post will show up in your followers' news feed, but not indefinitely.

Stories make your recommendation memorable - much more so than a laundry list declaration like "ABC is an honest, dedicated team player." Anyone can give a list of positive qualities, but only you can tell that story. Make sure it reflects the person's work-related qualities, not your personal relationship.