1.    First, LinkedIn provides an excellent way to document your business career. It’s “resume” section is user friendly and easy to update. As such it allows your contacts an efficient way to identify your capabilities and your company’s offerings, your experience, who to contact, etc.

2.    LinkedIn site can be used to identify individuals you’d want to know about your business. Simply search by name, company or organization title to locate potential customers.

3.    Third, you can use LinkedIn as an entry mechanism to your business by using their email service. No need for someone to search for your email address. They can simply contact you using LinkedIn’s service.

4.    you can notify prospective contacts of any changes to your business. LinkeIn Makes it easy to do this. By linking to your prospects you can issue “broadcast” updates that would be of interest to them.

5.    LinkedIn allows you to locate people you may have lost track of. For example if you need an accountant to help you with an issue in your company, use LinkedIn to search for someone by looking for current and past colleagues at a particular company or school.

6.    Sixth, LinkedIn can block unwanted contacts – those that require you to spend too much valuable time on a contact that does not help your business. Taking time away from what you really need to do is counterproductive. LinkedIn can be used to minimize those type of contacts.

7.    LinkedIn provides regular updates. Anytime someone you are linked to updates their status, you get a notification. Those can prove invaluable as you look for new contacts that would need your business’ service or product.
8.    LinkedIn has a large number of partners that can be used in your business processes. Advertising is an important element in any business. LinkedIn’s Share feature is available on Adage.com. This allows you to read and share articles on advertising that may assist your growth efforts. Business Week, CFO.com and Reuters are other partners you can access.

9.    LinkedIn  allows you to ask questions and get back answers from experienced colleagues. Using subject matter experts to help you solve a vexing problem is something others pay management consultants huge fees for.

10.    And finally, the tenth reason to use LinkedIn to grow your business… You can use its People Search to locate someone you need in your business.

Using the LinkedIn provides something akin to a reference in terms of being introduced. A “cold contact” is not “cold” when that person sees an invitation to talk via LinkedIn. Use this tool to find the right person for a job opening or to introduce your company and its services/products to.