LinkedIn Groups – why are they soooooo powerful?
Make mine strong and black like my bike.
Imagine being able to drop into a coffee shop comfortable in the knowledge that everybody in there was interested in the same thing that you are. What could you hope to gain apart from a caffeine-rush? Well for a start you can get information, news, latest developments, opinions, trends and all related to your pet subject.
Added to that you can meet new people who you could buy from, sell to or just interact with and learn from. You could even use it as a platform to show how much you know, confirm your personal belief that you are an expert and generally “get yourself around a bit” Brilliant!
Well that’s what the group feature of LinkedIn is like except without the coffee and the annoying background music.
The thing I really like about the Groups feature of LinkedIn is the way it enables you to communicate with people who have a clearly defined shared interest. If they’re not engaged with the general gist of the group why be in it in the first place?
So here are my top 7 tips for getting the most out of LinkedIn Groups: -
- Go through the profiles of your clients and prospects and see what groups they are in.
- Join the same groups.
- Spend a couple of weeks lurking around and seeing what the most popular discussions are.
- At the same time put your two-penneth in; make a few considered contributions where you can
- Launch your own discussion on a subject the group seems interested in or based on your own market knowledge
- When you seem to be developing an e-rapport with useful looking contributors invite them to join your network.
- On a weekly basis trawl through the members list and invite more useful looking people to connect.
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Mike Ames
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Great article Mike.
This goes along with my thinking of social media and linkedin and twitter. Initially people seem to think it’s about raw numbers, getting more people to follow you on twitter, getting more connections on Linkedin but in many ways these can have a negative effect.
I think you article above focuses on the important point. Quality not quantity.
The more unrelated followers and linkedin the more you get noise and distracted from the important connections.
I associate this belief with my maturity with social media and a refocusing on what is important and what the end goal of using the social media.
Hosk – that’s a fantastic reply – you’ve done my job for me – I was about to say the very same thing!!! Great minds think alike
Mike – Thank You for posting the article, I have a Linkedin Group sadly, it’s only for women – it’s called The Gossip Girls Community – I’ve a number of Facebook Gossip Girls Groups and they are working so well – as you say, it’s like an online Cafe without the background noise, having to pull your chair in or the distraction of wicked cakes!!!
Wicked cakes – how could you possibly have known? Glad you liked the post and even more pleased you are using the groups in reality. Very powerful part of LinkedIn ignored by most people I’m afraid.
Thanks Hosk. I agree with your comments: the smart money is on restricted volume. That is getting large numbers of followers but making sure they are the right people: get the quality up and the rest will take care of itself.