Indeed, now that LinkedIn is enjoying increasing prominence as a sign-in tool among users of business sites, small and medium-sized companies should make sure they're incorporating the professional social network as fully as they can. Here are a few suggestions:

1. Integrate

First and foremost, it's clear from Gigya's data that if you operate a business-oriented Website, you should be sure to offer customers and other visitors a way to sign in using their LinkedIn identity. As a recent Wall Street Journal notes, "people do seem to be separating their online professional identities from their personal identities more than they used to, now that the tools are available." Visitors may not want to use their Facebook identity, in other words, when signing into a professionally oriented site.

2. Participate

Make sure your company has a presence on LinkedIn. Given all the new ways to connect through the site, you'd be remiss not to get involved and at least use it to connect with customers and post company news. It's a good idea to synch your LinkedIn and Twitter accounts, for example, and blog content can be promoted there as well. You can also search LinkedIn's Groups directory for industry groups to get involved with and use the resulting connections to find service providers, seek mutual referrals and advice, and generally grow your network.