In this lesson, you learn how to participate on LinkedIn groups, manage your groups, and create your own group.
LinkedIn groups offer a way for like-minded individuals to share and discuss relevant topics related to the focus of the group. With LinkedIn groups, you can network and share ideas with industry peers, discover job leads and recruit quality talent, promote your career or business, and learn about a wide range of professional topics.
Remember, to maximize the publicity potential of LinkedIn groups, focus on visibility and sharing your expertise rather than overt sales or advertising.
LinkedIn groups take many forms. There are groups for alumni, associations, nonprofits, professional interests, corporations, general networking, conference attendees, and personal interests. Your group activity appears on the Group Updates section on your home page, providing additional visibility for your group actions and your groups.
LinkedIn imposes a limit of 50 group memberships per account holder. If you reach 50 groups and want to join another, you need to leave a group of which you’re currently a member. Because of this limit, it’s important to consider carefully which groups will provide you with the most value and help you meet your goals.
In general, you must request to join a LinkedIn group to participate in it. However, LinkedIn is currently introducing open groups as another group option. The discussions on an open group are visible to all LinkedIn users and don’t require you to join the group. Other benefits of open groups include search engine indexing and sharing on Facebook and Twitter. All existing groups will remain members-only unless the group owner chooses to change the group’s status.
One of the best ways to find a group to join is to search LinkedIn’s Groups Directory. To search the directory for potential groups to join, follow these steps:
Figure 11.1. Join a featured group or search for one that meets your criteria.
Figure 11.2. Select your group contact preferences on the Join Group page.
The My Groups page opens, which lists your current and pending groups. Group managers approve join requests manually unless the group was set up for automatic approval. Your status for a new group on the My Groups page is listed as pending approval. This status remains until the group manager approves you. If you want to follow up with the group owner about a join request, click the Send Message to the Group Manager link. If want to cancel your request to join the group, click the Withdraw Request link.
Participating in discussions is one of the greatest values of joining a group. With LinkedIn group discussions, you can view discussion threads for relevant professional information, add a comment to a current discussion, start your own discussion, or share news and links with group members.
As with everything else on LinkedIn, focus on intelligent, meaningful comments that add value to a discussion. Don’t post a sales pitch or irrelevant comment just to lead people to your profile.
To view discussions for a group you belong to, click the Groups link on the global navigation menu to open the My Groups page. From there, click the title of the group you want to view. Near the top of the Discussion tab, the discussions carousel (see Figure 11.3) rotates new discussion content every few seconds. This is a great way to preview what’s new with your group.
Figure 11.3. Preview a rotating carousel of new discussion content.
Below each carousel item, you’ll find buttons that enable you to like the discussion (similar to Facebook’s Like feature), add a comment, or flag the post as promotional, job-related, or inappropriate. To view a discussion item in more detail, click its headline.
The most popular discussions display below the carousel. Again, click a discussion item’s headline to view the entire discussion, like it, add comments, follow it, flag it, or reply privately to the author.
If you find a discussion item particularly useful and interesting, you can show your support by clicking the Like button below it in the discussion carousel or on its detail page (see Figure 11.4). Liking a discussion alerts other group members as well as your followers that you found the discussion worthwhile. If you change your mind or click this button by mistake, you can unlike the discussion.
Figure 11.4. Click the Like button to point out quality discussions to your fellow group members.
To add a comment to a discussion, follow these steps:
Figure 11.5. Contributing your own thoughts to a discussion.
To reply privately to the original poster or anyone who posted a comment, select Reply Privately from the More drop-down menu.
After you post a comment, LinkedIn gives you 15 minutes to revise it. Click the Edit Comment link below your comment to make any changes. Click the Delete link to remove your comment from the discussion at any time.
If you want to know when someone adds a new comment to a discussion item you find particularly relevant, you can follow the discussion. To do so, click the discussion item’s headline and click the Follow link below the discussion text on the detail page. LinkedIn sends you an email anytime someone adds a comment. By default, you follow any discussion that you start or comment on unless you specify that you don’t want to receive email notification.
If you decide you no longer want to follow a discussion, click the Unfollow link below it. You can also manage your group-following activity by clicking a group’s Following tab to open the My Followed Discussions page.
To follow a group member, click the Follow link below that person’s photo. You can unfollow people by clicking the Stop Following link below their name or by going to the My Followed Discussions page.
On the Discussions tab, you can start your own discussion or share relevant news and links with other group members.
To start your own discussion, follow these steps:
Figure 11.6. Start a discussion or share some news.
Submitting your own articles, blog posts, or media coverage is acceptable, but don’t overdo this feature as a promotional tool. Submit only the most informative, meaningful content that offers value to the members of your group. If your post is promotional, click the Promotions tab to post a promotion to your group.
Figure 11.7. Attach links to relevant external sites, such as a website, blog, or news site.
If you’re recruiting for a position that would interest the members of a specific LinkedIn group, you can post your job on the group’s Jobs Discussion Board, located on the Jobs tab. This is also a great place for job seekers to find targeted jobs.
For more ways to search for and post jobs on LinkedIn, click the Jobs link on the top navigation menu. Refer to Lesson 9, “Finding a Job,” and Web Lesson 1, “Recruiting Job Candidates,” for more information.
To view job postings for a group you belong to, click the Groups link on the global navigation bar. On the My Groups page, select Go To, Jobs in the preview box of your target group. The group opens with the Jobs tab selected.
The Jobs tab displays a preview of the jobs with the most recent activity. Each preview box includes the name and photo of the person who posted the job, when it was posted, and links to follow the discussion or add comments.
Although Recent Activity is the default view, you can also click any of the links on the left side of the page for additional views.
To view the actual job posting, click the job headline. The links below the job description text enable you to like the job posting, comment on it, follow it, flag it, or reply privately to the poster. These functions are very similar to responding to a discussion item, covered in the “Participating in Group Discussions” section earlier in this lesson.
To post a job, follow these steps:
Figure 11.8. Post a job targeted to members of a specific LinkedIn group.
LinkedIn offers you lots of flexibility in how you participate in, manage, and view the groups you join. You can also search for and share specific group information, and leave a group any time you want.
You can view a list of the groups you belong to by clicking the Groups link on the global navigation bar. The My Groups page opens, shown in Figure 11.9.
Figure 11.9. View information about all your groups in one place.
This page lists all your groups with the following links appearing below each group’s name:
• Go To: Click the Go To link and select one of the following options from the drop-down list: Discussions, Subgroups, Jobs, Updates, Members, or Settings.
• Actions: Click the Actions link and select one of the following actions: Forward, Start a Discussion, or Leave Group.
If your request to join a group is still pending, you’ll see a notification in that group’s preview box. The links to specific tasks aren’t available until you’re approved for a group. If you are not yet approved, your options include emailing the group manager or withdrawing your request.
If you’re the group manager, a Manage link is also available.
You can also view a list of the groups you belong to on your profile.
For easy access to your groups, LinkedIn displays the first three groups in your My Groups list on the Groups menu you access from the global navigation bar (see Figure 11.10).
Figure 11.10. Access your favorite groups directly from your home page.
If you’re a frequent participant in group activity, it’s a good idea to display your favorite groups on this navigation menu. You can also increase the number of displayed groups from 3 to as many as 10.
To change the display order of your groups, follow these steps:
Figure 11.11. Choosing the order in which your groups appear.
You can specify different settings for each of your groups. Click the Member Settings link to make changes to a particular group. See “Managing Group Settings” later in this lesson for more information.
To view the latest group updates, pause your mouse over the More tab on any group page and then select Updates from the drop-down list. The Updates page lists activity for the current and previous day, such as who joined the group, who started a discussion, who posted comments, and so forth. The default view is All Updates. Click the People I’m Following tab to display updates only from those group members you follow.
To view a list of group members, click the Members tab on any group page. This page tells you how many members a group has and displays previews of each group member, starting with you. From there, LinkedIn lists your 1st degree connections, your 2nd degree connections, and, finally, all other members.
Depending on members’ settings and connection to you, their preview could include a photo, a profile link, a professional headline, their number of connections, and links to connect and send a message.
To search a group’s member list for members matching specific criteria, enter keywords in the Search Members box and click the Search button. You can also search groups from the quick search box on the top navigation menu. Refer to Lesson 7, “Searching on LinkedIn,” for more information on searching for people.
To revise your settings for a group, pause your mouse over the More tab on any group page and then select My Settings from the drop-down list. The Settings page opens, which gives you the option to modify the visibility and contact options for a specific group.
The Settings page is identical to the Join a Group page. Refer to “Joining a Group,” earlier in this lesson, for more information on the settings you can modify on this page.
If you’re a member of a particular group that you think your connections would also enjoy, let them know about it by clicking the Forward This Group link on the Discussions tab of any group.
LinkedIn takes you to your Inbox where you can send a group link to as many as 50 of your connections. For best results, let your connections know why you recommend this group or why it’s appropriate for them.
See Lesson 6, “Communicating with Other LinkedIn Members,” for more information about the Inbox and sending messages.
If you decide that a group no longer meets your needs or you have to pare down your current group membership to make room for new groups, you can easily leave a group.
To do so, select Action, Leave Group on the My Groups page. LinkedIn displays a pop-up box asking you to confirm that you want to leave the group. Click the Yes, Leave Group button to remove the group from your My Groups page.
Creating your own group is a good way to develop a community for a topic, profession, or interest. Before you create a group, consider the following:
• Is there already a similar group on LinkedIn Groups? If so, how will your group differ? What value will you add?
• Is your proposed group an advertisement in disguise? Although many LinkedIn members do benefit from their participation with LinkedIn groups, you need to create a group whose focus is providing value and community to its members. If you don’t, your group most likely won’t succeed.
• Do you have the time to maintain and support your group? If you don’t respond quickly to join requests and keep the activity going with your group, it won’t flourish.
To create a new LinkedIn group, follow these steps:
Figure 11.12. Creating your own group.
LinkedIn reviews your request to create a new group and approves the group if it meets LinkedIn’s guidelines.
After LinkedIn approves your group, you can start inviting and accepting members.
As a reminder, click the Groups link on the global navigation bar to open the My Groups page where you can access all your LinkedIn groups. To manage your group, select the Manage tab on your group’s page.
On the Manage tab, you can
• Approve or reject requests to join your group.
• Send invitations to LinkedIn members asking them to join your group.
• Upload a pre-approved list of email addresses for your group in the CSV format. This option is useful if your group also exists outside of LinkedIn, and you know the members you want to pre-approve.
Enter your list of pre-approved members in an Excel file with columns for first name, last name, and email. Save your spreadsheet as a CSV file. CSV stands for comma separated values, a common text file format.
In this lesson, you learned how to join and participate in LinkedIn groups, create your own groups, and manage your own groups.
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