LinkedIn has rolled out some great improvements over the past few weeks, making it more and more valuable as a lead generation channel. We always knew it was where business-focused folks hung out, and now LinkedIn is giving marketers some great tools to reach them properly and more effectively.

Here Are 7 Pro Tips for Using LinkedIn for Inbound Marketing:

1. Post blog articles and offers directly to your LinkedIn company page. LinkedIn recently added status updates as a new feature to company pages, making them a great channel to promote your content! Mix up promoting blog posts and landing pages to give your followers a variety of content to consume. Check out how HubSpot does it by following our Company page here.

2. Encourage discussion in each of your status updates to help expand each post's reach. Taking advantage of the viral effect of commenting and liking is a great way to get even more content distribution. Introduce the content you post with a question or comment to spark discussion amongst followers.

3. Use LinkedIn Ads to generate company page followers. There's no harm in using some cash to promote your organic efforts and give yourself a jump-start! Create an ad to encourage folks in your industry or within a specific LinkedIn group to follow your company on LinkedIn. Just monitor your growth closely so you can report on the cost-per-follow and justify the expense.

4. Promote your company page on your website and other social networks. I bet you're already promoting your blog, Twitter profile, and your presence on other networks on your website. Make sure you're promoting your LinkedIn company page, too! Also, why not tell your Twitter followers and Facebook fans that they can also follow you on LinkedIn?

5. Answer questions in the "Answers" section of LinkedIn, and link to relevant landing pages when helpful. This underutilized tactic is an oldie but a goodie. Make sure you're scanning the questions on LinkedIn weekly, answering when appropriate, and including a link to content on your blog or website that might be helpful to the person who asked. 

6. Use LinkedIn ads to promote your best offers. Have you already had great success with a certain landing page or offer? Give it some extra juice by promoting it using LinkedIn ads. There's even a new LinkedIn leads tool to help you follow up directly with the leads you generated through your LinkedIn ad. Give it a spin!

7. Send [useful] LinkedIn Group announcements on your off-email days. Investing the time to manage a LinkedIn Group gives you the opportunity to periodically send announcements to the members of those groups, just like email sends. Sending interesting content like a blog post digest or a specific offer is a great way to get a boost in leads in one swing! Just make sure you're sending valuable content, and be sensitive about the frequency of your sends to avoid seeming spammy.

What other LinkedIn pro tips can you think of? What has worked really well for you?