Are LinkedIn Groups Here to Stay?

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LinkedIn groups serve many valuable purposes. They have the potential to bring professional people together with common goals and common passions. You can join up to 50 groups on LinkedIn. That should be a sufficient number to do what you need to do and connect with the appropriate people successfully.

The advantages of LinkedIn groups

First and foremost, LinkedIn is among the top social media channels for professional people. LinkedIn can be a major source of online traffic to your website and other parts of your web presence. If you have come to rely on LinkedIn to draw traffic to your business, doing without it is not a viable option for you. If you are managing a group or several groups, you should do your best to be as active as possible in that role. There are several aspects of your role as manager, including:

  • Interact with your group members directly and often: Each group member who registers for the group must be approved by you manually. If you feel that they are appropriate for your group, you should reach out and welcome the person to the group personally (through Email is fine). Subsequently, you should make it a point to interact with them on at least a semi-regular basis.

  • Share valuable information: Whenever you have something valuable and educational to share, you should send it to your groups. They will definitely appreciate your efforts.

  • Search LinkedIn for appropriate members: It is very important for you to take an active role and finding members who will benefit the group is part of that role.

  • Encourage your members to post valuable information in the groups: It is very important that you show your appreciation on behalf of the entire group. The more people post valuable, informative information, the better and more interesting the group will become.

  • Encourage discussions among the group members: There is absolutely nothing wrong with stimulating conversation and that includes controversial comments at times. Of course, you will have to be careful that your group members don’t become offensive in any way.

In addition to managing your LinkedIn groups, you will want to make every effort possible to engage your group members. It is important to keep in mind that it is not about you alone. It is about your entire community of members (in all of your groups).

  • Encourage participation: You should definitely encourage your group members to participate in discussions and you should do the same. After all, you are one of the members of the group in addition to being the manager of the group. In that regard, you are the same as everyone else in the group.

  • Be as creative as possible: It is a great idea to be as creative as you possibly can with the group whenever possible. As you take on new members, try to tailor your efforts not only to the existing members of the group but also to the new members. Hopefully, they will bring a new dimension to the group.

  • Stimulate new discussions: There are many ways in which you can stimulate discussions in your groups. One great way to do that is by asking thought-provoking questions. People generally love to offer their opinions what an interesting question is asked. Allow them the opportunity.

  • Grab inspiration from as many places as possible: There is no limit to how many places you can find inspiration for ideas and topics for your groups. Keep an open mind and realize that many different people have something valuable to contribute.

It is really important that you share whatever information you feel is valuable. Your members will benefit and you will benefit.

  • Take advantage of new LinkedIn tools as they are introduced: LinkedIn offers new tools on a regular basis. It is up to you to take advantage of those tools and to introduce them to your group members at every opportunity. The next step after that is to try the tools out and to encourage your group members to do the same.

  • Encourage your group members to share among themselves for the benefit of the groups: Your group members should be comfortable interacting with each other. They will definitely get a lot out of that.

Promoting your groups is an excellent idea and you will get a lot of mileage out of it.

  • Encourage promotion of your LinkedIn groups: The sad fact is that if you don’t tell anyone about your groups, people may not even be aware of their existence. You should “talk up” your LinkedIn groups to your entire list of LinkedIn connections so that they become aware of how great they are.

  • Share the URL for the groups on your LinkedIn profile: You definitely want people to check out your groups. You may gain valuable new members that way and they may be able to contribute a great deal to the groups.

  • Promote your groups on other groups: You should try to promote your groups whenever you get the opportunity to the appropriate people and the appropriate places. Of course, only do that if you think that it is at the right time and the right place.

Conclusion

LinkedIn groups have many advantages. Once you work your LinkedIn groups to the best of your ability, you will wonder why it took you so long. You will also see that LinkedIn will do you and your business a great deal of good and it is a great idea to include it in your online social media strategy. It gives you opportunities that you may not have had otherwise and you have the opportunity to connect with other valuable professionals. LinkedIn offers a great deal of value in the form of usability and exceptional tools. All you have to do is take advantage of everything that it has to offer.

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Author

  • Michael Cohn

    Michael Cohn is the founder and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of CompuKol Communications. He has decades of experience in IT and web technologies. Michael founded CompuKol Communications to help small businesses and entrepreneurs increase their visibility and reputation. CompuKol consults, creates, and implements communication strategies for small businesses to monopolize their markets with a unique business voice, vision, and visibility. Mr. Cohn earned a Master’s degree in project management from George Washington University in Washington, DC; and a Master’s degree in computer science and a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck, NJ.

13 Responses

  1. Tsufit says:

    Via LinkedIn Groups
    Group: Step Into The Spotlight!
    Discussion: How Do You Leverage LinkedIn Groups for Your Business?

    Michael, is Linkedin a direct source of business for you? What about other social networks like Facebook or Twitter or any others? Same question to the rest of you guys!

    Do you get business directly from Linkedin groups?
    By Tsufit

    • Michael Cohn says:

      Hi Tsufit,
      The answer to your questions is a big YES.
      90-95% of our leads come from LinkedIn and primarily from LinkedIn Groups.
      Some of our clients found us through LinkedIn groups directly or were introduced to us by someone else who is following our discussions on LinkedIn.

      We use Facebook and Twitter as amplifiers to spread our discussions but so far we did not have significant business from these channels.

  2. Paul Parkin says:

    Via LinkedIn Groups
    Group: Succeed: Small Business Network, Powered by Staples
    Discussion: How Do You Leverage LinkedIn Groups for Your Business?

    Most use the groups just to post links to their blogs. While there is nothing
    wrong with that, they tend to have no other interaction. No replies on other
    people’s posts helping or leaving opinions. I ignore those who only use
    a group for traffic to their blog. One must engage with group members,
    not just talk at them.
    By Paul Parkin

    • Michael Cohn says:

      Paul, you are absolutely correct and in fact LinkedIn requires you to add a title and additional optional content when you share a link. We try to promote engagement by posting a question in the title field.

      Readers who involve in discussion related to the subject and ask additional questions will always get a response from us.

  3. Tsufit says:

    Via LinkedIn Groups
    Group: Step Into The Spotlight!
    Discussion: How Do You Leverage LinkedIn Groups for Your Business?

    Michael, can you give us more detail, please? First of all, what percent of those leads become clients? Secondly, specifically, step by step, what you do on LinkedIn groups and how it leads to clients. Spill the beans, my friend…
    By Tsufit

    • Michael Cohn says:

      Hi Tsufit,

      The percent of leads that become clients depend on your personality and ability to follow up and engage the leads. That’s is where the transformation from Inbound Marketing to traditional or Outbound marketing and your sales skills take place.

      Regarding “Spilling the Beans” this is not the right forum for that and if any business owner will “spill their beans” they will not be in business.

      You have 2 options to get educated on how we use LinkedIn for business. Both options will involve spending some time on your part as things do not happen overnight:

      1. Read all the blog articles we wrote on LinkedIn. You can go to our blog and select the tag “LinkedIn”. There are a lot of articles on the subject. If you read all of them you will know everything we know and do. 🙂

      2. You can register for one of our one-on-one LinkedIn training session. Those sessions last several hours and can be broken into several segments. Details on our training you can find here: https://www.compukol.com/linkedin-training/

  4. Mark F Simmons says:

    Via LinkedIn Groups
    Group: Succeed: Small Business Network, Powered by Staples
    Discussion: How Do You Leverage LinkedIn Groups for Your Business?

    I like to contribute and help answer questions where I can. I do learn about topics I don’t have experience in as well. I’ve met some great, business-minded people on LI, more so than other platforms. LI is just built for that.
    By Mark F Simmons

  5. Haught Records says:

    Via LinkedIn Groups
    Group: Social Media Mastery for Business Leaders
    Discussion: How Do You Leverage LinkedIn Groups for Your Business?

    This article is pretty interesting. I have been a member for a long time but now that I have mingled a little, I see this similar to a chamber of commerce networking event with the convenience of taking your time to ask a question and get several options without leaving the office. there are people who for sure you wouldn’t have contact with due to location or scheduling. I agree with you why didn’t I do this before?
    By Haught Records

  6. Erin Schwartz says:

    Via LinkedIn Groups
    Group: Succeed: Small Business Network, Powered by Staples
    Discussion: How Do You Leverage LinkedIn Groups for Your Business?

    I believe that LinkedIn groups has its advantages and disadvantages. One one hand, the feature that displays which members are influencers and top contributors is terrific. LinkedIn is about networking and knowing who the thought leaders in each industry/group are is key to building a valuable network. A disadvantage however is the approval process that group moderators go through when filtering and approving discussions. Offering moderators the chance to review posts before going live can be seen as somewhat ineffective as it goes against the whole purpose of discussions. By holding a thought in a sort of ‘purgatory’, you are going against the very essence of a potentially thought-provoking conversation. Some members argue that they should be able to post what they want, when they want. If a moderator feels the post is inappropriate, they can delete it. This is how it’s done on Google Plus Communities, which many feel is the best feature of the up-and-coming network.
    By Erin Schwartz

  7. Maricela Fernandez says:

    Via LinkedIn Groups
    Group: Succeed: Small Business Network, Powered by Staples
    Discussion: How Do You Leverage LinkedIn Groups for Your Business?

    I agree with you absolutely, once working with a LinkedIn or any other group there is nothing but positive and yes I’ve already asked myself and keep asking why it took me that long. LinkedIn has being a little bit harder for me to comprehend but I’m so lucky to be here! There is too much to learn.
    By Maricela Fernandez

  8. Loren Gelberg-Goff says:

    Via LinkedIn Groups
    Group: Linked-N Bergen County NJ
    Discussion: How Do You Leverage LinkedIn Groups for Your Business?

    Valuable material in your article. Not so easy to accomplish. Sometimes I get notified of new comments and sometimes I don’t (I always check the box to receive comments). It’s often difficult to get people to respond to questions… I do my best to post comments since I am always eager to support and encourage the discussion.
    thanks for posting this message. It’s definitely worth exploring.
    By Self-Esteem Expert Loren Gelberg-Goff, LCSW, CHt

  9. Joseph Norcott says:

    Via LinkedIn Groups
    Group: Small Business Accelerator
    Discussion: How Do You Leverage LinkedIn Groups for Your Business?

    I believe in sharing information. Sometimes it may solve a problem. LinkedIn members appreciate assistance and it does come back to you for referrals and recommendations..
    By Joseph Norcott

  10. Daniel Rose says:

    Via LinkedIn Groups
    Group: Linked-N Bergen County NJ
    Discussion: How Do You Leverage LinkedIn Groups for Your Business?

    I’m pretty new to the whole social media arena myself. I’m quickly learning that content is king and providing valuable, useful information is what attracts people to your business not “pitching your business” post after post. Have a great weekend and be safe.
    By Daniel Rose