Is your business making the most of its LinkedIn company page? As a professional on LinkedIn, you likely already use the site to network with other professionals and search for new career opportunities. But what about your business – are you leveraging the power of LinkedIn company pages to drive business results?

From building credibility to establishing connections, LinkedIn enables businesses to attract and engage customers at scale.

According to a recent LinkedIn survey:

• 3 in 4 new businesses say LinkedIn allows them to build credibility
• 2 in 3 agree LinkedIn allows them to connect and generate leads with potential new customers
• 2 in 3 say LinkedIn provides a relevant context to promote and advertise their company
• 2 in 3 agree that LinkedIn provides access to a broader community of other companies to seek opinions and recommendations

Is your business generating similar results from LinkedIn – or is have your LinkedIn marketing efforts failed to go beyond building a basic company page? These 4 tips will help your company start driving business results with LinkedIn.

Tip 1: Be a thought leader

With over 238 million captive professional readers, including luminaries like Bill Gates and Richard Branson, LinkedIn is ground zero for thought leadership. Social media experts predict that in 2014, LinkedIn will become a premium destination for industry news and peer-to-peer sharing.

Get a jump-start on this trend by curating a steady stream of industry news and cross-publishing your company’s own blog posts and white papers. Giving away free, relevant content will establish your business as an industry thought leader and build connections with other companies. When they have a problem, they’re more likely to turn to your company for help.

Tip 2: Find top talent

With 47 percent of Millennials saying a prospective employer’s online reputation matters as much as the job it offers, according to a survey by Spherion Staffing, finding top talent starts with LinkedIn. And we don’t just mean entry-level hiring either.

According to a 2013 survey of staffing professionals, 97.3% said they used LinkedIn as a recruiting tool, especially for top management and executive level positions. Skip the free-for-all job posting websites and instead leverage the power of LinkedIn to recruit top industry talent.

Tip 3: Learn from the best

Social media isn’t just for marketing; it’s also for learning. Businesses can use LinkedIn to access a network of peers to ask questions or get recommendations, to learn from experts in their industry, to obtain best practice insights, and to find answers to their questions.

Social learning is one of the hottest trends for 2014. If your business is not doing so already, use LinkedIn to find experts, collaborate with peers and learn both from and with colleagues.

Tip 4: Generate leads

When it comes to lead generation, LinkedIn is all about the soft sell – and LinkedIn Groups is the place to begin. Just like offline networking, LinkedIn Groups allows your business to join industry-relevant groups so you can connect with members and begin cultivating relationships. Plus, since you will be a member of the same community, you can easily connect with these individuals; no email address for an invite is required.

Get to know these leads better by asking questions about relevant industry problems that they may be facing. This opens the door for a conversation and increased engagement. If you are a member of a large LinkedIn group, you can also leverage this membership to drive participation in a webinar or other company-sponsored “free" knowledge giveaway. Don’t spam group members; only message them with relevant, meaningful information or you risk hurting your personal brand and sinking any sales prospects right along with it.

Summary

From thought leadership to lead generation, LinkedIn is a powerful tool for growing your business – and you do not even have to sign up for a premium membership in order to start seeing results. Remember, LinkedIn is not a place to make a hard sales pitch; instead, focus on building connections and raising your industry profile.