By Dan Nye, CEO of LinkedIn

• There are over 145,000 CEOs on LinkedIn
• Executives from all 500 of the Fortune 500 companies are on LinkedIn
• CEO’s on LinkedIn have an average of 28 connections

What are CEOs getting from LinkedIn? More effective hires, more efficient sales, and better use

of their networks. Why? Because LinkedIn makes it easier to manage relationships. You can check out prospective partners, find experts, close sales, identify potential employees, contact media, and research competitors—and spend less time doing it. You control who sees your connections, your questions, your experience. Here are seven tasks LinkedIn helps you do better:

1.)    Help your team - You have a great network already, but it’s your network. LinkedIn puts your network to work for your whole team, when you and your team members connect with each other. Suppose one of your salespeople is calling on a new prospect. She searches for the company on LinkedIn and sees that one of your connections knows the VP of purchasing. She can leverage the trust of that connection to build her relationship with the customer. Net result: You accelerate your business.

2.)    Vet the demands for your time - Someone wants to meet with you to pitch a service. A group wants you to speak at an event. Is that person or group relevant to your needs? Legitimate? A good contact for you? LinkedIn makes it easy to check them out before committing. A quick search reveals anyone you know in common, gives you a capsule impression, and helps you allocate that valuable time.

3.)    Hire smarter - Looking for new talent? The best people aren’t looking; they’re already employed. So your best hires come from referrals—from people you and your employees trust. With LinkedIn you can leverage your employees’ networks to find more talent. After all, great people know other great people.

4.)    Check references with one click - The best time to check out potential hires is before you meet them. Do it afterwards and the tendency is to use references to validate the decision process. Validate the pool of applicants instead, before they jump in—with one click on a LinkedIn profile. Case in point: LinkedIn ran 23 blind reference checks on me, just by searching for people who had worked at my previous companies. By the way, reference checking also comes in handy when you’re considering an acquisition.

5.)    Find and reach experts fast - LinkedIn is a rich directory of experts that you can tap into when you’re looking for a critical skill set or need to perform market research. By using the advanced search page you can find a specialist on almost every topic, industry or company. LinkedIn’s inMail messaging system allows you to reach out to them directly.

6.)    Gather competitive intelligence - Contacting former employees of a company is a great way to conduct competitive research. Perform an advanced search for company name and uncheck the “Current Companies Only” box to find people who used to work at a company. This is also a good way of recruiting employees with experience at particular companies.

7.)    Gain insight - Use LinkedIn Questions to take solicit input and gain perspective from your connections or from the broader LinkedIn community. Learn how others approach new markets, revamp processes, and resolve problems. Find funding. Question industry experts. Draw on the collective knowledge of your trusted connections—and their connections.

Make your network work harder on LinkedIn, where networking isn’t just about who you know.

Tapping into who your connections know gives you greater access to talent, greater reach into your industry—and greater trust in the results.

The above article was written by Dan Nye, CEO of LinkedIn.com, it can be found on page 38 of the “Help” section or Click here to Download PDF.