Nowadays with social networks becoming more popular than ever as an advertising specialty a lot of attention is focused on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, while LinkedIn seems to be getting less attention despite its effective commercial value as an advertising specialty.

So why is LinkedIn not in the center of the social media action and what is it really? LinkedIn was launched in 2003 and is specifically aimed at professionals who need a network to advertise their businesses and services. All the subscribers are professionals and companies and now number close to one million who regularly use LinkedIn.

The original aim of LinkedIn was to provide a network for professionals to advertise their resume, but has now evolved into a sophisticated tool for professional organizations and people as a means to advertise their services and products. Today more than thirty-six million professionals that log into LinkedIn every day and it is becoming one of the most important social networks of the moment.

So how do you work with LinkedIn to promote yourself?

First step is to create you profile. You need to spend some time creating an on-line personal profile that will stand out from the others. Try and avoid all the stereotype phrases used in the industry and describe what you do clearly and concisely.

In order to stand out from the rest of the professionals it may be useful to list your areas of qualification in the Specialties box, these are the keywords that people will be using when searching the Internet. Make sure you include your websites URL, so people can get more information on what you do, sell or offer as service.

Within LinkedIn there are thousands of professional Groups that are divided according to their profession, common interests, educational or professional organizations. You can join up to fifty groups; you will have to choose them following certain directives, including your market niche. You can interact with others and promote your profile as well as helping others; this is an excellent way to advertise your business. You can actively participate to top discussions that are carried out over the LinkedIn network as well as forums and offer advice.

It is essential you target your audience in order to reach out to the appropriate niche of the market. You can focus on specific groups or people according to their seniority, profession, industry and geographical location to start with.

You may also advertise directly using DirectAds, that works in a similar way as do Facebook and Google ads. You can create a campaign of fifteen logos and messages which is aimed at a specific niche on a pay per one thousand impressions or pay per click.

Although Facebook and YouTube have a larger traffic passing through their networks LinkedIn is more specific for the consumer market and is better if you want to promote a business, services or products.  As with any marketing strategy, make sure you devote enough attention to having a crisp and engaging profile, and devote enough time to interact daily with potential customers in your target market, be that through LinkedIn Groups, Answers or directly through the Advanced Search Engine feature.