Still looking for ways to utilize LinkedIn for business?

Research your prospects

You can learn a great deal about a person on LinkedIn. For example, wouldn’t it be great if you had a meeting with someone and found out that she graduated from the same university as you two years prior? Instant bonding and rapport, right?

You can ask questions to get a feel for what prospective clients want, need or think about a product or service.

Of course this is no replacement for traditional quantitative research, but you can certainly garner a general “feel” for the receptivity of your offerings and ideas from among those in your network.

Research your competition

Suppose you are competing for a big project and you get wind of the names of your competitors. Use LinkedIn to research them and their potential weaknesses.

Make offers

Our final tip on using LinkedIn is to post messages about your sales, special offers, packages, deals, seminars, webinars, free reports, white papers and more.