How to use LinkedIn Groups like an expert
“Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected” – Steve Jobs
Who doesn’t want to be an industry leader? Be recognized as an authority in your field? Be considered an influencer and gain an advantage over the competition? If you truly want to build influential relationships online, it’s important to find the right channels.
LinkedIn is a great place to connect with potential clients and employees, stay in touch with co-workers, and interact with others in your industry. However, many members don’t use LinkedIn’s benefits to their fullest extent but rather just stick to maintaining a basic personal profile. Consider these tips if you want to use LinkedIn Groups like an expert:
- Join the right groups: Take some time to identify groups that discuss topics related to your expertise – and be sure they’re ACTIVE! Ask yourself questions such as “Do the users appear to engage with one another?” or “Is the posted content relevant to my capabilities and business?” Also keep in mind a group’s size. Rather than joining groups with a huge membership that can overshadow your participation, we recommend choosing those that range from a few hundred to a few thousand members.
- Engage, connect and interact: Don’t join a group just to promote yourself because your content will most likely be ignored – not to mention you’ll end up on the group moderator’s naughty list. Take the time to read what others are posting, figure out the key players in the group, provide an insight or opinion or even ask a provoking question to generate additional comments. You can also “Like” and “Share” these discussions with your connections. If your comments add value to popular discussions, members will begin to recognize you as a leader within the group. Once you’ve made a notable impression you can begin promoting your own content to further increase your awareness as a thought leader, and enhance your website’s SEO (Search Engine Optimization). In addition, if a particular group member is showing more interest in your work than others, don’t hesitate to directly connect with him.
- Start your own discussion: The purpose of starting your own discussion is to encourage as much engagement as possible, so prior to this step observe the contributions of the most active group members to gain an understanding of their concerns, goals, objectives and topics of interest. Remember, it’s important to be relevant when starting discussions and avoid promoting your own products, services or content. After you’ve earned some credibility you will be able to post one of your own blog articles from time to time.
- Create your own group: As the founder of the group, it’s actually your job to lead discussions and create interactions! What better way to showcase your expertise? When you start your own group, make sure that you have a defined niche or theme or you may not get much attention. Focus on bringing people together who can benefit from sharing mutual experiences and insights, and ultimately it will be the members who push the most interesting discussions to the top.
For these activities to be most beneficial it’s important to keep up with LinkedIn Groups. Don’t wait for the daily or weekly updates that come to your inbox. You should regularly monitor the conversations you’re participating in, identify your best opportunities, and make frequent and consistent appearances!
In addition, as you probably heard or read, along with a profile redesign, LinkedIn introduced a Thought Leadership component last October. This new feature allows members to “follow” 150 of “the world’s most respected thought leaders” including Richard Branson, Barack Obama, Arianna Huffington, and Marissa Mayer, to name a few. We recommend you check out the leaders who are most relevant to you for articles that include actual tips and advice that can be advantageous and inspirational to your career or business. This being said, the above recommended LinkedIn Group activities are a great way for the rest of us “everyday people” to establish ourselves as thought leaders!
By the way, have we connected on LinkedIn?
