Over the past few years, LinkedIn has been growing in both it’s user base and it’s reputation. The social networking platform has practically become synonymous with the online resume and business hobnobbery and recently boasted over 225 million members across 200 countries.

LinkedIn-LogoBut, with so much happening on LinkedIn, getting noticed can be a real challenge. Add to this the fact that LinkedIn has chosen to discontinue several services and apps, such as LinkedIn Answers and Polls, that were quite popular among small business owners. For this reason, if you are just starting out on the platform, you need to do what you can to optimize your time and presence there.

To get you started, here are four LinkedIn success tips that are frequently over-looked, yet can generate a tremendous amount of interest in your business:

Include a call to action. You can have the most optimized profile in the whole of LinkedIn that’s generating tons of traffic, but if you don’t have any calls-to-action, it won’t do you much good. Instead of simply filling in LinkedIn’s generic “my website” or “my blog” links on your profile page, make the effort and to give your visitors reasons to click on your links.

Showcase your products, services, and expertise. There are several areas in LinkedIn where you can showcase your work. In your profile page, you can now highlight specific projects including media-rich documents. If you are maintaining a company page, then be sure to fill out the “Products and Services” section. Not only is this your opportunity to explain what you offer in a compelling way, individuals can recommend and share the products you list, becoming ambassadors for your brand.

Optimize your profile for search. With hundreds of millions of people searching LinkedIn, you want your company’s profile to stand out. When crafting your profile language, be sure to include keywords that are related to your business and industry to help improve the chances of your name appearing in LinkedIn’s internal search results. Think of these keywords as the words a potential client would type in when searching LinkedIn.

Use InMail and targeted updates. LinkedIn gives you the option of putting your updates and messages in front of the people who matter the most. LinkedIn’s internal mail system, InMail, can help you reach professionals that may not be so reachable elsewhere. Targeted status updates can be an effective way for business owners to tailor the content in their status updates to specific types of company followers. These can be accessed from your LinkedIn Company Page.

In short, when it comes to success on LinkedIn, you need to make sure that your presence is properly optimized. It gets your foot in the door to take advantage of all that LinkedIn has to offer.