If you are not using LinkedIn right now to help drive traffic and sales to your website, then you are missing out on a chance to really explode your business. Sure, there are other social networking websites out there but few of them seem to have the concentration of professionals in a given industry as LinkedIn does.

You might think it is tough to make use of this website to drive traffic, but it does not have to be. All you need to understand are what people are doing right now in order to make the best use of the website. Here are some ways it is being done.

Method One

People are creating profiles that look very professional and send a strong message of credibility.

When people visit LinkedIn they are going to be searching for professionals in their industry or other people who they feel can be of value to them. This means they are going to want to see a profile page that looks professional. If you have a profile page that is complete and looks like you took some time to put it together, then people are going to get the impression that you are credible. This will lead to them wanting to visit your website to find out more about you.

Method Two

LinkedIn is sending traffic by means of the posting activity people leave.

LinkedIn has a lot of traffic, but it is not just going to come to your website. The people who are getting the most traffic are getting it because they take part in the website. This means having to make posts that contribute something of value to readers. When this is done right you can actually end up seeing more traffic from LinkedIn then you might Twitter or Facebook. The goal has to be sharing as much content as you can, but only if it is good content. The more content you share the more people will have a chance to see it.

There are other ways that frequent posting activity helps to drive traffic and sales. Here are a few of them:

• People will see posts they like and they will decide to share some of them with people they know. The more posts you share the more opportunity you have to get your message spread around by means of other people.

• The more posts you write the more it is going to appear you are truly serious about being seen as credible in your business. What you have to focus on is creating posts that are good though.

• Frequent activity gives you multiple opportunities to get people back to your website. Maybe on other posts people will not head over, but on other posts they might be won over.

Method Three

LinkedIn has targeted groups that users can join in order share the content they create or other links.

Getting content spread to those in your niche is not going to be easy if you are relying on search engine traffic only. If you use LinkedIn you have the opportunity to join lots of targeted groups that are going to be able to help you drive traffic to your website and ultimately sales. When you join targeted groups you have the chance to share articles you might have written or others have written. In order for you to be successful with this approach you have to remember a few things though.

• You have to focus only on those groups that are related to your business or brand. These are going to be the groups that have lots of experts/professionals within your nice who can be really valuable to you down the line.

• You have to share content on other website besides your own. This is important, because you do not want to over promote yourself. Sharing articles from other sources makes it appear like you actually keep up on the happenings in your industry.

• You need to make sure you respond to other people queries or participate in discussions. Here you will get the chance to make some pretty good connections and if you do it right you can really build a solid following.

Understand that there are lots of targeted groups within LinkedIn. You will have the option of joining some groups that are quite small, but you will also have the chance to join some groups that have as many as a few hundred thousand members. This is quite a large audience you can have engaging with you and coming back to your website. You just have to make sure you are careful so you do not hurt your own credibility. You want to cultivate this resource.

Method Four

LinkedIn allows people to create their own groups so people can drive traffic back to their websites.

Maybe you are in a niche or profession where there is not many people. Well you can use LinkedIn to start up your own industry group. This is one of the best ways to get traffic back to your website and ultimately sales. In fact if you are really serious about your business then creating your own group is something you will certainly want to do. With your own group you will be able to send messages to them on a consistent basis. You can send messages to them of the following variety:

• Messages that lead to helpful resources people might not have known about but you researched and are now sharing.
• Messages that lead back to articles on your website people might be interested to read.
• Messages that let people know you have upcoming content they need to look out for.

The reason why creating your own group within LinkedIn is so important is because it gives you a chance to become a go to resource for the people within your group. When this happens it leads to people coming to your website. Sales are generated when people feel like the products or services you offer will provide way more value then the free content you might be giving them access to. All of this has to be earned though and it usually is not done overnight.

As you can see, LinkedIn is an asset to be used carefully. If you are not currently making use of it then get started now and watch how the traffic to your website along with sales will grow.

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Brock Hamilton is an author and owner of the Simple Website Tutorials website which is dedicated to teaching people how to make a website through free online tutorials and training. Follow him on Google+, Facebook and YouTube.