In fact, 499 of them are represented by director-level and above employees.

If the number of requests to join LinkedIn, the business networking network, that clog your email inbox is any indication, then you know it is becoming a legitimate business tool, and one that most professionals need to effectively leverage to boost their professional prospects. LinkedIn, in fact is a web worker’s best professional friend.

And although it’s just one of many such networks, LinkedIn, is in short a network for business opportunities. On LinkedIn, people don’t chat about music or what they did on Saturday night, but instead focus on opportunities and how the network can help you. And that’s a winning formula. Here are just some of the most common and productive uses of LinkedIn. :

1) Grow your business. Perhaps you’re not connecting with the right people. LinkedIn can increase your chances of hitting that big deal that puts your business exactly where you want to be. Again, this can take some time, but it doesn’t hurt to give it a try.

2) Improve your Google results. When someone Googles you, do you really want the first thing they see to be your posts on the fly fishing forum? As your LinkedIn profile will have a fairly high Google PageRank, it should rank fairly high in your search results. And you can fill it with stuff you want people to see.

3) Check references for potential hires. Well, you’re not likely to find out about an applicant’s sordid past mistakes by calling the references on their application. Do a search for others who worked at the same company at the same time, and get a better background check in minutes.

4) Get advice. Use LinkedIn’s Answers feature to ask a question and get some great answers. As always, you’ll have to sort through the self-promotional fluff, but there are some true experts on LinkedIn, and it’s worth a shot to ask your question.

5) Do research. Need to find out about business trends for an article, need to find an expert or need to contact people for further information? LinkedIn is a decent place to start, especially if you’re running dry on Google. Start with the advanced search feature.

6) Jazz up your profile. Don’t just go with a plain Jane, boring profile — be sure to put the right information on it to give it the most impact.

7) Get connections. When you start out with LinkedIn, you probably have between 0 and 1 connections. That’s not very productive. Get others you know in your network by allowing LinkedIn to access your Gmail contacts.

8) Do your home work. Wouldn't it be nice to know the background of the person you’ll be talking to. Check out their LinkedIn profile to find out more about their work experience, interests, education and more. This will give you an edge.

9) Get to know a company. If you want to know about a company, you could Google them or go to their website. But using LinkedIn, you can find out much more about it. For example, do an advanced search on the company and uncheck “current companies only” to see what kind of talent has left the company, and how fast. And connect with them to see what they have to say about their former employer.

10) Batch process messages. LinkedIn, like any other social network, can become just another stream of information and messages that you need to wade through. That’s not productive, and you have enough of these streams to deal with already. Simplify that by setting it to only give you weekly messages all in one batch, or to only notify you of new messages whenever you decide to log in.

11) Increase your credibility!. If you’re trying to market yourself as an expert, for example, or develop credibility in your field, it looks good to have a strong presence in a network such as LinkedIn, with lots of connections. If you answer questions with the knowledge of an expert in the Answers section, even better.

12) Brand yourself. What do people think of when they hear your name? A strong presence on LinkedIn only reinforces the branding you’re doing elsewhere. And while you’re at it, be sure to link to your website from your profile.

13) Find people. Looking for potential candidates or old business associates that you want to re-establish a relationship with but can’t find their card? Do a LinkedIn search.

14) Help others. The best way to network is to help others succeed. They’ll never forget you, and you will be paid back tenfold some day. Use LinkedIn to help others — promote them, link to them, connect with them, recommend them, answer their questions.