LinkedIn tops the list when it comes to the most useful social networks for professionals and business owners. It is not only a quick and seamless way of re-connecting with your past co-workers and old college friends but also a powerful tool for market research, lead generation, and global networking. However, not every user is taking advantage of what this versatile social media platform has to offer. Learning more about LinkedIn’s hidden features can help you unlock its potential to a greater extent. Without much ado, the following is a quick overview of further benefits that you stand to gain if you become a LinkedIn expert:

• You will discover a lot of data about your prospects and customers, which makes initial conversations online and offline simpler considering that you will be having their personal and company profiles at your disposal.

• Through personal contacts, career goals, discussion groups, and answering question in the platform’s Answer section, you will have easy time maintaining relationships with your current and potential customers.

• You will gain more visibility as a brand. Remember, your profile is not only going to appear in LinkedIn but also in major search engines such as Google, yahoo, and Bing as well as other question Question-Answer networks.

• Participating in group discussions, answer, and expert points sections will make your potential leads to perceive you as an expert.

• It can reinforce your word of mouth publicity: As an expert, you will receive a lot of recommendations from people talking about you in Discussion and Answers sections as well as outside LinkedIn.

• Since recommendations that you receive from other people cannot be modified by you, they are perceived to be stronger, and can help your business bottom-line because they are visible to both your customers and potential prospects.

• Like other social media platforms, LinkedIn has groups where users with similar interests can join and have industry-specific discussions. By becoming a member of some of these groups, you will have an opportunity to not only understand the needs of your clients but you will also pick a number of industry-related trends which you can leverage to boost your productivity.

LinkedIn provide users with the opportunity to combine the benefits of marketing, branding, and lead generation. Becoming a LinkedIn expert, therefore, can help you boost your business‘ authenticity and credibility. Being the world’s biggest social network for professionals and business owners, it also offers you access to a resourceful audience that is ready to communicate with your brand in a more professional manner.