How to Use LinkedIn to Drive Traffic to Your Blog

LinkedIn is a swiftly growing social network. Previously used mostly by business professionals, it can also be an amazing tool when used to grow your blog.

Here’s a list of ways to use LinkedIn to drive traffic to your blog:

• Make sure your profile is completed. This is probably the most important of any of these tips; if your profile isn’t complete, you won’t be able to drive traffic to your blog. You need to have information about yourself and what you do, and you should also have a link back to your blog and Twitter profile. Make sure to customize your website links, so that instead of “My Blog” viewers will see “How to Make Money Blogging”, for example.
• Ask questions. But make sure you’re asking excellent questions – the type that an expert might ask. Instead of saying “How do you get traffic to your blog?”, you could instead ask “What is the biggest challenge you face in driving traffic to your blog?”. Not only does this give you fodder for blog post ideas, it also makes people likely to click on your profile and take a look at you, which will then lead them to your blog. You could even mention in the additional comments area for your question that you’d be choosing one person out of the answerers to do a traffic consulting session with, or that the comments will be featured in a blog post, along with a link to your blog.
• Answer questions. This helps show other people your expertise and build up credibility. If your LinkedIn profile is set up correctly, this will also continue to drive traffic to your blog when people click through to your profile after reading your (well-written, helpful) answer.
• Join groups. There are many different groups on LinkedIn, including a lot of groups based around blogging and blogging niches. By joining a group and participating in that group, you’re building relationships with other bloggers – who might in turn link to your blog somewhere down the line. By being an active member, you’re also driving more traffic to your profile, and thus, your blog.
• Other ways to utilize groups. In most groups, if your blog is relevant to the group topic, you can enter your RSS feed under “News”, which will then automatically update the group every time you add a new post. You can also create new topics for the group to discuss instead of just commenting on others. Another great idea is to start a new group – every time a new member joins, they’ll see information about you and your blog.
• Add the Blog application to your profile. This can be done by going to the “Applications” page. Using this will let you show people who view your profile the title and a selection of your latest blog post.
• Update your status. This is especially easy to do, as you can set it so that your status is updated whenever your Twitter status is updated. Updating your status will show people that your profile is still active and used.