If you're a business professional, you most likely have a LinkedIn profile— along with 400 million others. But does your profile get the traction and visibility you need? Do people share your content? Do they request to be connected to you? Do they learn about your skills and services?

Promotional Consultant Today shares these tips on how to post super-engaging tips on LinkedIn that generate the traction needed to build relationships with your LinkedIn audience, as shared in an interview with LinkedIn expert Mark Williams.

1. Posting an image. The most important thing is on the right-hand side of the 'What's on your mind' box. It's a little symbol that is critical in that it allows you to add a photo or picture to your update. Updates with pictures get significantly more views than those without.

Images are absolutely critical to get someone's attention. Most people these days have busy homepage feeds and it's no different on Facebook, is it? Getting someone's attention is about bright colors and strong imagery.

It doesn't matter how good your content is. If they don't see the image, they're not going to read it. The image needs to be bright, colorful and relevant to get people's attention. You can also put a link in your image.

2. Comments are key. There was a florist who was highly effective on LinkedIn simply by creating the opportunity for comments. For example, she shared two colorful, engaging pictures of floral arrangements—one in a vase and one in a box. These were simple pictures taken on her mobile phone and uploaded to the site. Then she asked for comments.

In this case, the opportunity for choice was key.

If you ask people a question, 'What do you think of ... ', then you might get a few comments. If you provide an alternate—say this or that—then you get lots of comments because you make it easy for people to answer. Comments are key because comments spread fast. Likes are okay, but they don't spread like the power of comments.

3. The direct sell. I know what you're thinking: people shouldn't really direct sell on LinkedIn. Occasionally a direct sell can be very effective. Take the florist just mentioned. She typically comments or shares updates. She will sometimes simply post a special on her update, of course with a colorful image of the arrangement. But she adds this simple statement, "Please press like if you have any connections."

One of the first comments generated by her post was, 'Hi, any chance I can have that delivered today?' A direct sell like that can only be effective if done in context of having done all the other activities and being seen as a real giver and contributor to the community as opposed to what a lot of people do which is just posting ads.

4. Use tools that make it easier to be active online. One tool suggested is WordSwag. This simple app for the iPhone allows you to add text to your photos in seconds with fun, engaging fonts. Another good tool is Canva, which can help you create decent-quality images that really get traction when used on your status updates.

5. Ask a question. In a recent LinkedIn update there was a picture with sales statistics. It was a bright purple with white text and it said 48 percent of salespeople never follow up with their prospect and 25 percent of salespeople make a second contact and stop. Its source is the National Sales Executive Association. Statistics are commonly used in social media posts and typically get very little traction. However, this LinkedIn user did something different. He shared the stat with a question at the top that read, "Interesting stats, anyone care to disagree?" This generated 14 comments and 30 likes.

Take a few minutes today to create an engaging post for your LinkedIn profile. Try these strategies and see your comments—and your sphere of influence—soar.

Source: Kenny Goodman is a business coach who is passionate about finding new ways to quickly break new ground. He founded Find The Edge, to help business owners grow their businesses in a non-hype and down-to-earth coaching environment.