This week’s Entrepreneur University comes courtesy of Omaro Ailoch. Omaro is a senior software engineer, an internet marketing expert, an entrepreneur and the founder of OC IT Services a highly skilled California based web development, design, and search engine optimization firm. Omaro shares his thoughts on how you can use LinkedIn to grow your business:

“When you consider that LinkedIn has nearly 10 million users hailing from over 150 industries around the world, it is surprising that B2B websites aren’t paying more attention. There are, though, several methods your website could be employing in order to improve your exposure within the business oriented social network, while also potentially improving your search engine visibility.

Invite, Invite, Invite

Your LinkedIn network not only consists of those connections that you personally invite. The connections of your connections, and their connections are also added to your network. It sounds confusing but you essentially get three tiers of connections for every person you invite. This means that you can gain an introduction to somebody through one of your existing connections.

In order to build your profile and greatly increase your connections list, you should invite everybody that is relevant to your business and your industry that you deal with. If you are a service provider, then you should politely invite clients to become one of your connections. As they add their own connections, these same people will be added to your own list and so on.

Make Your Profile Available To Search Engines

Your profile page on LinkedIn can be made visible to search engines. LinkedIn is viewed quite highly by the major search engines, particularly Google. When creating your profile, ensure that you create a public profile and opt for Full View. As such, include links to your websites, but also include the keywords most important to you.

By doing this, your LinkedIn profile will receive better search results so that people searching for your service, or those searching for the service you offer, will be more likely to see your profile page. Don’t forget to modify the link details to your pages, so that they use your most targeted keywords. This will also help to improve the performance of your own pages.

Use Advanced Search Tools

LinkedIn enables you to perform advanced searches within your trusted network. You can look for those connections that are starting a new venture or a new project, or anybody that might be looking for the type of service you offer. This provides you with the perfect opportunity to introduce yourself and promote your particular service.

Answer Questions

LinkedIn Answers is a service similar, in essence, to Google Answers or Yahoo Answers. Registered users can ask a question and other users have the option to answer that question. Regularly check the Answers service to see if there are any questions within your field of expertise. Give a genuine answer that provides valuable information and the member that asked the question is likely to view your profile. Because you answer questions in your own field of expertise this may mean a new connection and a new business contact.

Using LinkedIn To Improve Your Business Networking

LinkedIn is quite different to many of the social networking sites online. It is positively geared towards businesses and business members. As such, it enables you to build a powerful business network and the community does not frown upon the action of promoting yourself, as long as you do it properly and at the most appropriate times.”

How have you used LinkedIn for your business?