Five mistakes your company is making on LinkedIn

Although many businesses use LinkedIn as a way to investigate people's professional backgrounds before hiring or doing business with them, there is more to the social media network than searching profiles - it can be used as a valuable marketing tool.

Here are five mistakes companies typically make on LinkedIn, and how they can better social media skills to improve business:

1. Your company doesn't have a LinkedIn profile

Although many larger companies have active LinkedIn profiles, many small- and medium-sized businesses have lacking company pages. Social media experts suggest filling out as much company information as possible and using it as a business resume that shares positive company news with prospective customers and employees. It also may be beneficial to link a LinkedIn page with other social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.

2. You don't show off your products

LinkedIn company pages allow businesses to display photos of products, giving consumers an even better idea of what the company is all about. Upload high-quality photos when possible, including a LinkedIn profile picture.

3. Your business doesn't use the LinkedIn Answers feature

LinkedIn users are all able to ask and answer all types of questions using LinkedIn Answers, which range from general questions to inquiries asking for product suggestions and industry advice. Companies may establish themselves as industry experts by answering questions, which could drive views to a LinkedIn profile and even bring additional business to a company.

4. Using LinkedIn wastes valuable company resources

If maintaining a comprehensive company page and updating social media outlets takes an inordinate amount of time away from necessary business dealings, something has to give. The whole point of using social media is to mass-market a business for little money using few resources - if having a LinkedIn account wastes money, the point is lost. Time and energy may be saved if multiple social network feeds like Twitter and Facebook are connected with LinkedIn.

5. You don't use LinkedIn analytics

A benefit to having an updated LinkedIn page is using the analytics feature, which indicates how many people follow the page and how they react to posts and company updates. The analytics are recorded by page views, the number of visitors and the most popular links and information within a specific LinkedIn page. Following these numbers could ultimately show business owners what social media updates work and which can be scrapped.