12 Tips for Linkedin Group Members: How to get the most out of LinkedIn Groups -

Anne 🐝 Thornley-Brown, MBA

7 years ago · 5 min. reading time · ~100 ·

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12 Tips for Linkedin Group Members: How to get the most out of LinkedIn Groups

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Anne Thornley Bown
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It's no secret that many LinkedIn group members are struggling with the new interface. Some are questioning the value of LinkedIn Groups. LinkedIn Groups are going through some growing pains but they are still great for peer-to-peer interaction, asking questions, and bouncing ideas off others in your field.

I have been an owner and manager for over 8 years. In fact, at the time of writing, I manage one of the largest communities on LinkedIn, a group with 350,000+ members as well as 17 related groups. I got my training and start in online community management as a Geocities community leader. So, I have seen a lot of trends come and grow. I have lived through almost all of the changes in LinkedIn Groups since they were introduced in 2004.

As my way of saying thank you to the many group members with whom I have interacted, here are my tips and take-aways gleaned from an 8+ year journey, including tips to help you find your way around the challenges that the new interface presents.

1. Use these shortcuts to find your groups.

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+ For Small Business

Groups have been removed from the main navigation. To find them click, on the icon that looks like a grid to open the panel that reveals the Groups icon.

If your top menu looks different, please see "Alternative User Interfaces" at the end of this post.

Visibility Settings

Contact Semings
Updates Settings.

Click on the Group Icon to take you to your lists of groups:

https://www.linkedin.com/groups.

You can also bookmark the link.

Quick Tip: When you click on the Groups icon or link, you will be in the Discover tab. It will show you highlights from "Conversations" in your groups.

Click on My Groups to see a list of all your groups, links to access them, and a cog (to the right of each group) where you can adjust your settings.

2. Sign up for group digests and announcements in Group Settings.

Linkedin no longer sends many group notifications so group digests and messages from group admins are the only way that you will be informed of what is going on. Beside each of the groups on your group list, you can select settings by clicking on the cog to the right of the group.

Enable the following permissions for:

Allow the group admins to send me an email once per week. (These are Announcements.)
Allow members of this group to send me messages via LinkedIn.

Please note: At the time of writing, this setting is not working and it hasn't been working for quite some time now:

Send me an email for each new conversation.

3. Open group announcements and digests regularly and click through to access the group.

When you receive group announcements, it is extremely important for you to open them and, with images enabled, click through to view group content. (There is a 1-pixel hidden "web beacon" image in each email that "calls home" to report that you opened it.)

If you don't do this, LinkedIn will stop sending you announcements and Group Announcements and you will be out of the loop.

LinkedIn and all platforms are under pressure to reduce the volume of email they send out so it's a case of use it or LinkedIn will assume you don't want it and you will lose it.

4. When you join a new group, before you post, be sure that you are clear about how the group works and what is expected.

Take the time to read the welcome letter.

Group Owners and Managers spend a lot of time customizing and crafting them and they contain important information.

Review the following information:

Group Profile (on right panel in each group)
Group Rules (link can be found within the Group Profile)
Welcome message or recent announcement (usually pinned to the top)

5. Check into groups 2 - 3 times a week.

It bears repeating. In the new interface, members are only notified if someone tags them or comments on "Conversations" that they have started. If you don't check in regularly, you will miss out on a lot of valuable discussion and information.

6. If you see spam or any inappropriate content, don't join in the conversation, flag it.

Your group leadership team cannot be present 24/7. They need your help to keep the group spam-free. LinkedIn wil automatically delete content if enough members flag it.

7. Use a short title for each "Conversation" you start.

Formulating the titles as a question is a great way to encourage engagement.

8. Only share blog posts that are relevant and don't just dump and run.

It is never a good idea to bombard groups with your blog content. In fact, some groups ban blog posts as many members flood groups with them and never engage.

Here is how to share blog posts in a way that benefits the group:

Use a short title that is slightly different from the blog post so that LinkedIn will generate a link to the "Conversation". (This is due to a glitch that has just never been fixed.)
Include a couple of paragraphs from the blog post. (If the topic is complex you can go longer.)
Very Important: Include 2 or 3 key questions to get discussions going.
Engage: Participate in the discussion that follows.

9. Add value and don't spam the group with unsolicited promotion. It will get you banned in many groups.

10. If the content you post or submit is deleted, don't re-post it.

Review group rules and, if you are not clear why the content was removed, contact one of the admins by private message.

11. Monitor the discussion in any conversation you start and flag any spam or inappropriate comments or content so that the leadership team sees it.

To flag content, click on the 3 dots below each comment including the opening menu and, from the drop-down menu select "Report" so that the Group Owner and Manager can take a look at it. If enough members flag the same content, LinekdIn will delete it.

12. Participate actively in discussions started by other members.

Answer questions, make suggestions and add value. If you notice any spam, misposted or other inappropriate content, take the time to flag it.

Would you allow people to dump garbage on your lawn? Don't allow them to clutter up your group with content that adds no value. When all is said and done, creating effective LinkedIn Groups is a shared responsibility.

Alternative LinkedIn User Interfaces

A LinkedIn user who is free to identify herself has brought it to my attention that LinkedIn is delivering different top menus in the new User Interface. I am not sure why they would do that as this makes it confusing and almost impossible to prepare user guides. Perhaps someone from LinkedIn can comment.

No matter what top menu you see, click on the grid to find the Groups icon. The label on the grid may be Work, Tools, More, Apps, or Business.

There is a wide variety in how the new user interface looks and reacts on different devices. To help members who are struggling with the new LinkedIn User Interface, consult Donna Serdula's 98 slide (and growing!) slideshow that is attempting to capture all of the variations:

LinkedIn Desktop Re-design Explained ....Visually

Photo Credit: Mambembe Arts & Crafts (Flickr)

For tips for LinkedIn Group managers, please consult one of my other blog posts:

Tips for LinkedIn Group Managers: 8 Keys to Getting Group Engagement Going

Anne Thornley-Brown is the President of Executive Oasis International, a consulting firm in Toronto that specializes in executive retreats and team building. She has been a LinkedIn Group Owner and manager for over 8 years.

What questions do you have about using LinkedIn Groups?

Please post them and I will do my best to respond. I invite others who are just as knowledgeable to jump in as well.

""""""""

#Linkedin Group Members #Group Profile #Groups #LinkedIn #LinkedIn Groups

Comments

Anne 🐝 Thornley-Brown, MBA

7 years ago #6

Apparently, LinkedIn is delivering different interfaces to different users. I have no idea why they would to this. I have updated this post for clarity.

Anne 🐝 Thornley-Brown, MBA

7 years ago #5

I will tag you when the posts for group managers are live. A lot of us are stumped. There has been speculation that groups are not a part of LinkedIn's endgame. They have discontinued other popular features like Q&A and the travel widget that let you see when members of your network would be in your area. Enter Quora and that site where you can list your travel (name escapes me).

Anne 🐝 Thornley-Brown, MBA

7 years ago #4

Chris Lines a few more things: - don't send a private message and copy a bunch of members on it, there is no longer any BCC on LinkedIn, the names will be visible to everyone on the list and members find this very annoying - don't individually send out the same message to one member after another - I know some members who have had their accounts suspended for that Each individual has to decide for himself if it is worth starting a group over there. If you are starting from scratch, be sure that you automate the Welcome message and ask each member to connect with you. Let the members know in the Welcome message (which I hope they are getting) that you have set up a separate MailChimp account and you will be using it to communicate important information until the announcements function is fixed. Also in that welcome message, stress the importance of checking in regularly, ask members to sign up for group digests, and include a link to your latest announcement. If you want to include a list to this post, feel free. It will be visible to them.

Anne 🐝 Thornley-Brown, MBA

7 years ago #3

Unfortunately, yes. The only way members will see it is if: - the members have signed up for group digests - LinkedIn picks up the post for one or more of the group digests With respect to announcements, despite what the system tells you, they may not even get emailed out to members. It is a "known issue" according to LinkedIn Help. If the announcements and digests do get sent put, if members don't open them regularly with images visible and click through to the group, they will stop receiving them. The only way to engage members who don't check in regularly is to: - post in your status updates about what is hot in your group and hope that they see it (it won't be delivered to everyone) - tag individual members in comments once you have sent annoucements (viable if the group is small) - be careful, if you "overtag", your account can be suspended - you can tag a maximum of 10 people per comment and 20 per "Conversation" - if you have a team of managers and moderators, perhaps you can divide up the list between you. - go through the painful process of going through your member's list, grabbing the email address of everyone who is a first level connection and create a separate mailing list through a tool like Mailchimp I am in the process of doing that now for a group for which I have created a hive over here. I had planned to do a separate post explaining how to use the LinkedIn management tools. I see now that it is more of a priority to do a separate post here with tips for group managers. In fact, you have helped me get it started. There is no point in doing it in LinkedIn Publisher. Hardly anyone will see it.

Anne 🐝 Thornley-Brown, MBA

7 years ago #2

#3
Groups are buried. Members can't find them.

Anne 🐝 Thornley-Brown, MBA

7 years ago #1

You can click it but it doesn't work.

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Anne 🐝 Thornley-Brown, MBA

12 Tips for Linkedin Group Members: How to get the most out of LinkedIn Groups

Alternative LinkedIn User Interfaces

Comments

Anne 🐝 Thornley-Brown, MBA

Anne 🐝 Thornley-Brown, MBA

Anne 🐝 Thornley-Brown, MBA

Anne 🐝 Thornley-Brown, MBA

Anne 🐝 Thornley-Brown, MBA

Anne 🐝 Thornley-Brown, MBA

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