How To Get The Most Out of LinkedIn Answers

LinkedIn is one of the most underrated social networking websites around. It may not be as fun as Facebook and people on it may not be as talkative as those on Twitter, but it still offers a lot of value to those who are willing to pay attention to it. LinkedIn has plenty of features for bloggers to take advantage of. My favorite feature is LinkedIn Answers. It’s a great place to find what people are curious about and learn a few things in the process.

LinkedIn Answers lets you go through questions by category and find those that apply to your niche. While being able to answer people’s questions is gratifying, there is more to LinkedIn Answers. Here are just a few ways you can use LinkedIn Answers to your advantage:

• Drive Traffic To Your Website: it looks easier on paper. Once you have created that perfect profile on LinkedIn, you can use LinkedIn Q&A to get more traffic to your profile and your websites. Also, there is no shame in promoting your own work on LinkedIn as long as you are not spamming. If someone is asking for a service that you are offering, there is no reason not to reach out.
• Set Yourself Up as an Authority: how many people have you seen who claim to be social media gurus? You can call yourself anything. That does not mean that you actually are what you claim you are. If you want to establish yourself as an expert in your niche, one way to do it is to be very active on LinkedIn. Answer people’s questions in the best way possible, and you are on your way to getting the recognition you deserve.
• Get Answers To Your Questions: maybe you just want to find out what people think about a topic in your niche or you just have question about something you don’t know. LinkedIn is full of professionals who are willing to share their thoughts with you as long as you have a valid question (don’t ask people whether they want to make money or other silly questions).
• Develop Ideas for Your Blog: are you stuck as a blogger? Just taking a look at the latest questions on LinkedIn Answers should give you some ideas. Looking at other people’s answers to certain questions could help too. Asking questions on LinkedIn and Yahoo! Answers has helped me a lot of times when I have been stuck.
• Create Your Own Products: you can’t be a decent blogger unless you are passionate about what you are writing about. But passion is only going to get you so far. You don’t want to end up broke in the long run. Blogging can get you there if you don’t take time to develop your own products. Just take a look at blogging superstars. They all have their own membership sites, books, paid forums, premium content, and so on. Most people don’t get there overnight but LinkedIn Answers can help you come up with some ideas.
• Find Potential Partners: LinkedIn Answers is more than just answering questions and getting answers to those of your own. You should pay attention to other LinkedIn members who are active and take time to provide the best answers. Sometimes, it’s possible to partner up with these folks to take your business to the next level.

What other ways are you taking advantage of LinkedIn Answers?