The Truth About LinkedIn Groups

The next edition of?The Mango Effect is out! ?? If you're new, this is where we talk about all things related to growing our businesses and personal brands "the mango way" on LinkedIn -- from personal branding to growing our networks to attracting more ideal clients to optimizing our profiles... and everything in between!

Each week, I share ONE strategy that you can use to optimize your personal brand or grow your business on LinkedIn. Whether you're a subject matter expert at the top of your field, a business leader looking to get on more boards, or a gritty entrepreneur trying to craft an ideal sales & marketing machine -- you'll find one action item you can take away and implement each and every week to get you one step closer to your goal.

No topic is off-limits. We discuss the good, the bad, and the fugly. I do take topic recommendations, too!

My mission is to help more professionals learn how to use LinkedIn, so we can all "up our game" on the platform, build thought leadership, and grow as leaders in our careers and businesses. And, I like to keep things fun, practical, and inspiring.

Now, onto this week's topic!

??The Truth About LinkedIn Groups??

Ever wondered if Groups was a missing piece to your LinkedIn strategy? With all the hubbub about the importance of communities and getting connected with the right people, it's often easy to overlook the obvious.

LinkedIn Groups are usually NOT top of mind for most people when they start using LinkedIn.

And you may be surprised how many people are actually using them to identify their perfect-fit clients and starting up conversations (without ever needing to send a connection invitation!)

If you're a professional looking to make the most of your LinkedIn presence, you'll be interested to know that I am a fan of LinkedIn Groups for certain niches and industries.

In this Mondays with Mindi episode, we talk about the pros and cons of LinkedIn Groups and how you can conduct ONE super simple experiment to find out if Groups are right for you.

P.S. Are you a member of any LinkedIn Groups now? Any features you'd like to see added to Groups? ??

“LinkedIn Groups Are Dead”

If you follow any of the LinkedIn gurus out there, you might have heard them refer to LinkedIn groups as being dead. Like completely dead. You might as well stick a fork in them.

And, I’ve caught myself saying the same thing when asked about LinkedIn groups from time to time because it’s easy to compare them to other platforms.?

Do LinkedIn Groups have the capabilities of Circle, MightyNetworks, or Facebook? Nope.

If I was looking to create an all-inclusive infrastructure and robust community to support an online program or course, I would likely look at one of those other platforms.?

But the bigger question is not which platform has the most robust group capabilities.?

Rather, it’s actually WHERE are your people more likely to frequent and engage with the community?

If your people are NOT on Facebook and wouldn’t ever intentionally seek out another platform to log into your community, then you might be a prime candidate for a LinkedIn group.

What if you’re not trying to start a group, and you’re simply wondering if they are worth your time as a way to engage with your target audience?

That’s where it gets to be all sorts of fun!

Depending on your market, your industry, or your niche, you may have dozens of groups to choose from. The big question is… will you actually get results from interacting with these groups?

So, let’s talk about the ins and outs of LinkedIn groups when they make sense, why they don’t and what you can do to make the most of them if you run or participate in LinkedIn groups!

LinkedIn Groups vs Facebook Groups

So you’re curious about LinkedIn groups. Maybe you’ve found a few that are actually vibrant communities where you are able to message group members who’d make for perfect-fit partners or opportunities.

Maybe you’re wondering where to start, and you don’t want to waste your time.

So, should you discount groups completely or try an experiment to see if it helps you grow your network faster and start conversations?

Confession Time: I actually HAVE a Facebook Group that goes along with my membership and also another free Facebook group all about LinkedIn (oh, the irony!) -- you may even be watching this livestream inside that group right now!

But, I also have a LinkedIn group with more than 2,200 members. And, I get about a dozen requests PER DAY from people requesting to join that community.?

I do NOTHING to grow the LinkedIn group, and it seems to grow weekly on its own without much help from me.

Recently, I realized there’s a TON of potential in that LinkedIn group that I am not tapping into, and I decided to start running some experiments.

Why not? It might take me a whopping 10-15 minutes per week to do, and I might be surprised about the relationships I can build.

We’ll get into what I’m doing in that group in a bit, but for now, let’s just focus on the potential of LinkedIn groups. Yes???

Professional Audiences Prefer LinkedIn

Who’s your target market? Which communities are you wanting to be a part of??

If they tend to skew towards professional audiences (and you have a hard time reaching them on Facebook or Instagram), then LinkedIn groups might be a better place to start looking.

Many of the clients I have worked with over the years have managed and participated in LinkedIn groups, and their results were all over the spectrum.

Some felt like they were posting content and NEVER getting responses or engagement.

Others used LinkedIn groups to drive traffic to their content.

Still others found that direct messaging members inside LinkedIn groups who were a perfect fit helped them to minimize the risk of sending a connection invitation and having it ignored. Messages went directly to their LinkedIn inbox.

Your intention for using LinkedIn groups is absolutely key to your success and whether or not LinkedIn groups are going to be a fit for you.

Just keep in mind that you may have to work just a little harder to FIND and intentionally ENGAGE in your groups because LinkedIn doesn’t have as many (annoying) notifications set up to let you know when activities happen inside your groups.

And, professional audiences are key! If most of your target market is in the B2C (business to consumer) space, you won’t get much out of LinkedIn groups. Focus on Facebook communities as a starting point, and then go from there!

Okay, so let’s talk through some of the really neat features inside LinkedIn groups and how you can use them.

How to Get Started with LinkedIn Groups

If you haven’t sat down to think deeply about the groups you want to join or one you’d like to start, it’s high time that you do so as an expert. Too many experts just “start joining” a bunch of random LinkedIn groups without a plan or a purpose. It’s not enough to be a part of a LinkedIn group, as you will actually need to “work them” if you want results.

Let’s talk about five things you need to know to get started with LinkedIn groups, so that you can land more opportunities and scale your impact!

#1 - Identify the Best Groups

Start with identifying the best groups for your areas of expertise and where you think you’d find the people inside your market.

I’d recommend running a search using some good keywords, then looking to join 5-10 LinkedIn groups that seem to have a good number of members inside them.

Thing is, you won’t know how “good” the group is until you get inside the group.

So do your best to figure out if it’s a fit based on the information you can see on LinkedIn. I find that the logo and description can help you tell if it’s “dead” or not.

#2 - Set Your Intention

Get clear on what you intend to do while you’re a LinkedIn group member. Are you trying to generate leads? Message other members? Drive traffic to your content? Get into two-way conversations? Reshare your news feed content to members?

It’s very important that you know WHAT you’re planning to do inside your groups, because once you’re inside, you’ll be able to tell whether or not the group is a good fit for that intention.

For example, if you are trying to drive traffic to your content, but you see in the group rules that you’re not allowed to share links… that group is NOT a good fit.

Or maybe you want to message members, and it looks like the group is filled with spam bots who are not actually human. Just leave.

#3 - Run an Experiment

Let’s say you found a good group, and it looks like you might be able to reach your objectives in that group based on the intention you set. Awesome!

So what should you do next? Run an experiment.

Depending on what your objectives are for LinkedIn groups, run an experiment (nothing that will take longer than 15-20 minutes of your time each week) for a period of 30 days.

I recommend 30 days because that’s enough time to figure out how each group operates, what types of content to post, how best to message members or whatever else you’re trying to figure out.

For example, if my objective was to drive traffic to my content, I would try sharing one post per week in the group with a special bit.ly link that would tell me how many clicks I got from that particular post. If not getting enough traffic, I would re-evaluate my strategy.

Or, if my goal was to message members to get into conversations with them, I might message 5-10 people per week to see how many respond positively.

See? It doesn’t have to be complicated!

#4 - Evaluate Your Results

After you run your LinkedIn group experiments, look at your results. You’re looking to confirm your hypothesis of whether or not that group is a good one OR if LinkedIn groups (in general) are a good use of your time.

Determine whether your results are showing that there’s potential showing you whether it’s “good enough to continue” or whether it looks like LinkedIn groups in your market is just not a fit at this time.

For example, I’ve had some clients who were completely surprised that their groups actually performed well, while others determined it was a complete waste of time.

If all you take away from your 30-day LinkedIn groups experience is some learning about LinkedIn groups, you’ll be able to test those same tactics or strategies in other areas or on another platform. No learning is wasted!

Remember, things change on LinkedIn quite frequently, so even if groups didn’t work for you in the past, they may work for you in the future.

#5 - Take a Sneak Peek?

Curious what the inside of a LinkedIn group looks like? If you’re interested in starting your own group (or taking over ownership for someone who no longer wants to run the group… this is a GREAT option for those of you who don’t want to start from scratch and feel comfortable reaching out to group owners!)...

(Watch the last third of the video above to see what it looks like inside my group as an admin.)

How are you feeling about LinkedIn groups now? Are you going to try joining some groups or possibly starting or taking over an existing group? I’d love to hear your experience with groups in the comments!

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If you’re ready to get started with LinkedIn and take the next step to optimize your profile once and for all, so you can start growing your network on the regular or land your next opportunity, join me inside The LinkedIn Accelerator program which is opening in early April!

What additional questions do you have about LinkedIn groups? Leave your comments below or shoot me a private message. I’m happy to answer them??!