How to re-think LinkedIn Groups as a source of lead generation for your data consultancy

I was recently watching a Mars documentary on the BBC. 

Mars resembled Earth in its early days. Dynamic weather systems created oceans and rivers, carving the largest canyons in the Solar System.  

And then suddenly, for reasons we don't fully understand – it all changed.

Everything stopped. The oceans dried up, and rivers ceased to flow. The dynamic landscape became an arid wasteland.

Then around a few billion years later, pretty much the same thing happened to LinkedIn Groups.

LinkedIn Groups – The "Good 'ol days"

When LinkedIn Groups first launched, I was one of the first to jump on board. I created two data-focused groups and joined about 50 more.

For a long time, the engagement was good, too good in fact.

Like many other data firms trying to grab attention, I syndicated my blog posts, webinar registration pages, and additional 'useful' information into any groups aligned with my focus (Data Quality / Data Migration).

My naive strategy was 'throw the kitchen sink at enough groups, and let's get some traffic'.

A lot of the group content we put out created discussions and a lot of traffic back to my websites at the time (Data Quality Pro/Data Migration Pro), fuelling around 50% of our inbound traffic and countless leads/sales over time.

But it didn't last.

LinkedIn makes a change (cue the Mars-effect)

I don't know the exact date when things went South, but I remember Groups first got demoted to a back-water of LinkedIn. They weren't as visible on the homepage, and I noticed a drop-off in group engagement.

Around this time, I noticed the volume of promotional spam markedly increase within LinkedIn groups (which I had also guiltily been a part of in the past).

LinkedIn embarked on a flurry of changes – archiving threads, adding and then removing features, and generally flip-flopping the entire experience over several years.

As a group owner, I noticed my group count and engagement dropping during this time, which made me think on more than one occasion – "what's the point?".

Many group owners went one step further; leaving their groups to 'wither on the vine'.

How to capitalise on LinkedIn Groups in 2021

Where are LinkedIn Groups today? 

There are still gripes, but if you're struggling to find new clients, it could be time to give them another chance because there are encouraging signs, particularly in group growth and engagement – with some caveats.

I recently had a busy week with back-to-back training workshops and new clients onboarding, so I neglected to accept my group admission requests for a few days.

When I got around to adding them, we had 105 requests in the Data Quality and Data Governance Professional Forum that I still own and moderate.

And of those waiting to be admitted, a significant number were senior data leaders and influencers.

The tide may be turning. But there are caveats.

The elephant in the room – unconstrained content submissions

At this point, some of you may be thinking:

'Ooh, that's lovely news. I've got just the webinar to post into that data group'.

Join the queue. Literally. 

We have about 15 posts pending in the group on most days. The majority are promotional and shared by marketers/sales reps. Some are useful articles that we would have allowed in the past, but we're taking a different stance moving forward.

There's one simple reason why: article/job/promotion submissions are terrible for facilitating discussions and are the main reason for the failure of LinkedIn Groups.

There are a couple of reasons for this:

1. Articles drive people away from the group to other websites instead of keeping people engaged around a topic (that's if they even get you any traffic in the first place).
2. Too many article submissions mean that any good discussions will soon get buried and pushed down the feed – where they perish.

You only need to look at a group that was once popular (the IQ International Information & Data Quality Group) to see the impact of unchecked moderation. This group is devoid of engagement as a result of promotional posts featuring links to articles, jobs, webinars and services:

There is barely any discussion or interaction, aside from two questions which get a handful of responses. With this type of engagement, people will join a group, notice the lack of chatter, then never return.

In the (The Data Quality and Data Governance Professionals Forum) group, we've opted for a different approach.

Here is a brief snapshot of the engagement we've had on some posts over recent months:

As you can see, it's very different to what you see in most LinkedIn Groups, particularly those in the data space.

The question then becomes – what tactic creates these results?

A revolutionary group tactic: Double-down on discussion

Moving forward, we're only allowing discussion-style submissions (with a twist that I'll explain in a moment). 

Why only discussion-style text posts? Because we want to generate lots of commentary and traffic for each post – a crazy idea, I know!

After we started blocking spam, we noticed group admissions increase from a handful a day to triple figures on some days (especially when we promote the group). And as mentioned, many people coming in are senior leaders.

We're also seeing one member of an organisation coming into the group, witnessing the discussions, and then a few days later, other members of that organisation requesting access.

And this is where it gets interesting, especially if you want to use groups to find clients or employers. The approach I'm about to share doesn't require you to drive people away from a group. Instead, you build engagement and relationships directly within the group, based on your expertise as a seasoned data practitioner.

(As I explained earlier, pitching your offsite content doesn't work anymore in LinkedIn Groups).

Let me explain with an example.

Step 1: Turn your article into a discussion

Lara Gureje is a highly accomplished Data Governance practitioner, speaker and consultancy owner. She provides data governance and stewardship training, advisory and implementation, especially for organisations who operate within regulated industries (e.g. banking/insurance etc.).

Full disclosure: Lara is one of my clients from the myDataBrand training program, where I advise/help data consultancies on how to attract a consistent flow of clients through thought-leadership content.

Lara publishes a LOT of great content, but as we've seen, merely posting a link to an article does nothing to generate traffic and engagement in a LinkedIn group.

How does someone like Lara get engagement within the group without coming across as 'salesy' and promotional? It's simple, we turned her article into a discussion.

Look at the post below:

To create this post, we sat down (virtually, as she's in San Francisco, USA and I'm in Stratford-upon-Avon, UK!) and identified one of her recent articles that would resonate with the group. In this case, the topic of KDEs (Key Data Elements) often pops up in the group, and there had been some recent discussions on this theme, so we knew there was interest.

Then we took seven key points from her article and shared these as a text post, as you see in the image. 

But here's the important part – we asked the group for their thoughts on what to add.

That last step is critical. 

To get your post noticed, you need to invite discussion. Even if your post implies that comments are welcome, you need to spell it out, just as Lara has done.

And of course, when the comments come in, be sure to engage and add value to the questions and advice others are sharing – just as Lara did in this post.

Step 2: Promote your discussion

As group owner, I'm in a fortunate position that when I see a great post (such as Lara's) that's creating engagement because I can put more fuel on the fire by promoting it to our entire group of 9,600+:

But if you're not a group owner, there's still plenty of tactics you can employ to boost your discussion visibility:

• Take a snapshot image of the post and post it out to the LinkedIn status feed with a link to the discussion
• Mention the discussion in your newsletter
• Share a link with your 'inner circle' of close contacts in the field and ask for their viewpoints
• Tag other prominent group members in the post who are likely to jump into the discussion (go easy on this, it's overdone these days)
• Ask the group owner if they would be interested in featuring it as a recommended post – helps if you've built a relationship with the group owner beforehand obviously

Remember that you can't expect your post to reach the masses without a bit of a lift, so get creative.

Footnote: On that last point about building relationships with the group owner – it's vital. I would say 95% of data vendors who join our group have never reached out to we, the admins. Instead, they enter, and often within minutes, start promoting their webinars, products and content, which gets blocked.

Step 3: Build relationships (aka prospecting)

When you submit a post that gets noticed, you'll create three types of engagement: 

1. Direct (those who comment and contribute, ask questions etc.)
2. Indirect (those who post a like or share)
3. Invisible (the lurkers – those who consume the content, e.g. after being notified, but don't engage directly with the discussion)

It may seem as though you cannot do much with those in group 3 to engage and build a relationship. However, what you will notice is that your profile views will increase when you post content. This increased traffic is often from people who see your discussion then drop by your profile to check you out. Always review your profile regularly when you've created content and connect with those visitors who are a good fit for your business/employment goals.

Those in groups 1 and 2 are ideal for developing a further discussion with outside of the group, but it's far too soon to be 'peddling your wares'.

In the first instance, connect with the individual and thank them for sharing/commenting on your content. If they asked a question in the discussion, obviously answer it there first, but then follow up with the person who posed the question and strike up a conversation around the topic. Using this approach, you can often discover that there is a much larger program or challenge that relates to their question, and you may be ideally suited to provide additional consulting to help them.

Side note: By taking relationships 'offline' from the group, you're able to develop a much deeper understanding of the problems and aspirations of your target audience, which helps you improve your services, promotional messaging, and thought-leadership content in the future.

Step 4: Add your article link (optional)

Once the group has attained a good level of discussion, it's fine to include a link to your original article either in the comments or in the main body of the original post (I prefer to post as a comment, that way everyone gets notified). By including a link once the engagement is building, you still get some traffic back to your website if that's your goal.

But as we've seen in Lara's example above, there were at least 60+ people for Lara to engage with, many of whom would have been relevant to her data governance training, consulting and advisory business.

Caveats for success

If you want this strategy to work, there are some caveats to bear in mind:

Don't pass the buck: This strategy won't work if you divest responsibility and ask other marketers or salespeople in your team to post the content for you – it requires peer-to-peer engagement. This is why I advise marketing teams to increase the profile of the founders and principals of their firm; it's far more effective for gaining traction than asking a marketer with limited knowledge to post a topic.

Build relationships with the group founders/admin: Too many data vendors ignore this step, and as I've mentioned above, it won't win you own any favours. Find out what the group owners want from the group and see how you can help them out.

Engage with other discussions: If you want to build a cohort of supporters, pay the same compliment to others posting useful discussions. Jump in with your insights and help develop the community. Remember that a rising tide lifts all boats.

Serve first, sell later: It won't work if you view everyone who engages with your content as a lead, ripe for 'conversion'. The 'pull-selling' system I teach works on the realisation that when an ideal client 'sees themself' in the content you're sharing, they'll also see you as the guide to take them out of the mire. They'll then reach out to find out more about what you do, or begin to consume your content and get pulled into your 'gravity of expertise'. The system I've outlined in this post acts as a catalyst to get that conversation moving across a larger group of contacts who resonate with the problem/methods you're publishing.

Consider creating your own group: Many groups are, to put it bluntly, screwed. The group owners gave up long, and they're beyond salvaging. If you have a tightly defined niche (which you should have if you've positioned your data firm correctly), think about building your own group. It will take a lot of time and effort, but it can be the catalyst you need to kickstart your own sales growth. You will need to moderate it daily, keep out the spammers, and build a long-term engagement strategy – it's not for those searching for an immediate lead generation boost.

How can your data consultancy attract more clients with its expert content?

Developing a LinkedIn Group strategy forms part of a broader set of LinkedIn lead generation approaches I teach within the Lead Generation Accelerator Program for Data Consultancies.

This program is exclusive to data consultancies, is available worldwide, and is perfect if you have considerable data expertise, but are struggling to build a consistent pipeline of clients.

We go deep into your messaging and positioning, then build a content marketing and social selling strategy, customised to the strengths of your data firm.

Our clients often see their website/LinkedIn leads shift from 1 or 2 per year, to 3-5 per week, once all the pieces of the content marketing puzzle are assembled in the right order.

If you would like to learn more about the program or apply for the next intake, please visit the following web page: https://mydatabrand.com/services

If you prefer to hop on a call to discuss your challenges, and see how we can help, book a discovery call on my calendar: https://mydatabrand.com/breakthrough