Year after year we are faced with new challenges, and keeping up with the latest Social Media trends is more important than ever. Whether you’re looking to network with old co-workers, create a new business opportunity or find a new job, LinkedIn is the professional network for every company and individual.

LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network and for B2B businesses a great place to establish your company as a thought leader and build credibility.

If you’re looking to generate B2B leads, LinkedIn should be your first stop. It’s also an ideal network to build credibility as an industry leader, and has nearly 3X the conversion rate of Facebook.

LinkedIn By The Numbers:

• Every second two new members are added to LinkedIn.
• Over 238 Million active users on LinkedIn
• 50+ Million endorsements every week
• 78 Million monthly unique visits
• 33% of unique visits come from mobile apps.
• Over 3 Million companies have LinkedIn Company pages

Statistics courtesy of Moz, Quantcast, and LinkedIn.

So how can you improve your LinkedIn strategy? Here we provide 4 LinkedIn tips that you can start today.

Best Practices for LinkedIn in 2016

Don’t Hide Behind The Connect Button

Be genuine with every LinkedIn interaction. Networking is a part of everyday life and business, when connecting with someone avoid sending the default “I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn.”

This will likely not get you the connection you’re looking for, but you may even get marked as spam, which could hinder your ability to send future connections. You don’t stand on top of the office building and throw business cards onto the street, right? No, you make a personal connection with someone to show you’re interested, do the same when sending connection requests.

Publish Content Regularly

Publishing content to your corporate page is great but also include your personal profile. Treat LinkedIn like Google and use SEO best practices when publishing content. Share your industry knowledge and expertise to increase engagement and send traffic back to your website. Don’t forget to insert a call to action at the end of your article.

Utilize InMail

LinkedIn’s InMail allows you to send direct messages to any degree of connection whether you’re connected or not. Statistics show that InMail is 30X more likely to get a response than a cold call / cold email.

Build Brand Influencers and Awareness

Brand advocacy and building customer / client advocates happens through positive engagement and thought leadership. As a brand you should always engage with your customers to build strong relationships that are based on respect and trust. Responding to all comments left on your articles or updates is important, and tells the customers you’re listening.

Do you have other best practices that you would like to share? Tweet us at @meetSOCi we’d love to hear from you!