The Most Common Ways Leaders Use LinkedIn

According to market-research firm Lab42, top-level executives use LinkedIn the most for industry networking, while middle management individuals use the social network mostly for keeping in touch.

The more experienced professionals, versus entry-level professionals, use LinkedIn for:

Demonstrating thought leadership and expertise
Promoting their businesses
Conducting market research
Winning new business

LinkedIn has more than 100 million members in more than 200 countries, on all seven continents.

A full recap of Lab42's findings (conducted in July 2011) are in the October issue of Entrepreneur magazine.

A few tips for leaders:

Participate in LinkedIn groups that cater to your target market to engage in conversation.
Seek out groups with lots of activity rather than lots of members.

Note that you can also now add your volunteer activities to your LinkedIn profile. Here's how:

Open up your LinkedIn account
Click on Profile
Click on Edit Profile
Click on Add Sections
Add the names of organizations you support and fill in the spaces to designate where you volunteer

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