by, Lesa Seibert, President, Xstreme Media

As we said last week, LinkedIn is not talked about as much when it comes to Internet Marketing, but it is a powerful tool you should not over look.  This week we will look at how to engage with others on LinkedIn.

So you want a prospect to do business with you.  What do you do?  Well, you need to prove that you are worthy.  The best way to do this is to get prospects engaged and show them that you are a leader in your industry.  So how do you engage with them?
  1. Update your status daily, but not that you are eating tacos or going to play golf.  Put informative content that can help your prospects.  Show them solutions for their problems.
  2. Regularly provide tips, tools, resources, video and articles and distribute them through your LinkedIn network, including the groups you belong to.
  3. Start debates within LinkedIn groups.  For example, a client posted "Is Article Marketing just an SEO link-building tool?"  By starting discussions like this, he has gained proof form those who support his ideas.  For those who do not, it has provided a great discussion panel where he can show off his expertise and even display case studies.
  4. Answer questions on the Q&A board and within different groups.  This will demonstrate your experience and help you become an established expert.
  5. If you do seminars, webinars, teleseminars in your industry, make sure to add them to LinkedIn events, if they are open to the public.  This will again establish you as an expert in your field.  You can also post sneak preview articles of what you will be speaking on, encouraging people that want the "rest of the story", to register for the event.
  6. Make sure your profile is complete.  Do polls, insert your blog feed, post presentations, etc.  Using the new publications application you can post e-books, articles and other publications.
Next week we will look at LinkedIn Groups.