There are 133 million LinkedIn users in the U.S., according to the latest data from Omnicore, with 40 percent of those users using the social network daily. Among B2B companies, it's considered the No. 1 social platform — and is the dominant platform where business professionals hang out.

But how can you use LinkedIn for business? Here's everything you need to know to boost your business with this social media channel.

Look Like You Mean Business

Every business should be on LinkedIn. Whether you're in high tech, a plumber or a consultant, you should have a presence on the network. The best way to establish yourself (in addition to a personal page) is to create a company page for your organization. Why?
LinkedIn pages rank high on search engines, making your business easier to find when searched for via Google or Bing.

To create a LinkedIn page for your business, follow these instructions. Once you've set up a profile, you can start sharing company updates, welcome new hires, post videos and blog content, showcase promotions and more. To expand your reach and encourage people to follow your page, re-share these updates with your own personal network and encourage employees to do the same.

Showcase Products or Campaigns

Step up your presence with a showcase page. These are extensions of your brand and let you exhibit different aspects of your business or a company initiative, like a new product line, marketing campaign or recurring event. You can also use these pages to target specific clients or audiences.

Showcase pages aren't a good fit for everyone, though. If you only provide one product or service, you're better off focusing on building your company page. In addition, one-time events or advertisements are better served with LinkedIn marketing solutions (more on these below).

Find Talent

LinkedIn has three million active job listings. Use your company page to list open positions or add a career page to help attract talent. A career page goes one step further than your company page by letting you build custom modules and share insights with targeted audiences that want to know what it's like working for your organization. You'll also benefit from the platform's analytics, which can provide insight into the efficacy of your recruitment efforts.

Remember, career pages aren't free. Use your company page as a starting point to launch your recruitment initiatives, then reassess your needs as your business grows.

Be a Thought Leader

No longer just a place for networking and job hunting, LinkedIn has grown into a formidable content platform. More and more business professionals are creating (and sharing) original content to establish thought leadership — and it's working.

A recent Edelman survey shows that 37 percent of decision-makers and 41 percent of C-level executives believe that a company's thought leadership "directly contributed to inviting a previously unconsidered company to pitch against incumbents and established firms."

One way to share content is to write an article (you can also repurpose blogs). Make sure your content is relevant and applicable to market trends, developments, news or topical events. If that's too much, share informative updates from other outlets and add a comment to encourage your audience to share their opinions. LinkedIn offers these best practices to help you get started.

Another way to establish thought leadership is to join interest groups and become an active contributor. Use the search field on the top left of the navigation bar to look up industry-specific groups or groups that are relevant to your customers.

Advertise

LinkedIn offers several options for reaching your customers through paid advertising. These include pay per click (PPC) advertising, sponsored content (which puts your content in front of targeted audiences, not just those who follow your company page) and personalized ads that are delivered to target audiences via their LinkedIn inbox. Use LinkedIn's campaign manager to manage and track ad performance.

Before using LinkedIn for business, make sure to review the user agreement and privacy policy. It's also useful to outline social media guidelines or establish a social media policy of your own.