Dont Just Follow A LinkedIn Group…

Dont Just Follow A LinkedIn Group…

Group-Share and Grow

We get excited when someone from our known community says, "Hey I come from the same town where you grew up". Instant chords of friendship start playing. People connect more with like-minded people. Our workplace is the same; we connect or lend a bigger helping hand to peers who are either of same town, college, past company etc. Formation of group is primarily driven by like-minded behavior or activities. LinkedIn has assembled this human behavior as �LinkedIn Groups�. Joining a new activity is exciting but constantly engaging is a challenge and LinkedIn Groups do have the same. Nevertheless, "Social Media is challenging this challenge."

Join and Monitor Group

You are on LinkedIn and you are aware of your purpose. So join a group that relates to you. For example a business analyst in capital market would join business analyst forums such as IIBA and capital market specific groups. Use the �Groups Directory� to search for your groups based on categories and language. LinkedIn kills the language barrier. Join groups of your language but start small. You can join 50 groups but do that only if you can have the skills to converse with all. Before you make the big leap in listening and talking its better to sit and monitor the group for a while that you have joined. Monitor means to get a feel of the group, checking the sub groups and securing your personal settings. Securing settings helps you to tailor your choice of email id, if you prefer email updates about the group and how often. Email updates are good to get a gist in your inbox daily/weekly.

Follow discussions

You have joined and you must be excited to jump into the ocean of discussions that are being conversed among people across the globe. Social Media is like a tormenter if you dont streamline your activities. Chances are that you will never know where you are and LinkedIn is no exception. Watch the discussions and start following those that interest you. Following keeps you posted about the discussions and the activities that are being performed. Start following and make your presence felt.

Join discussions 

Joining discussions are easy but join to add meaning to the discussion. So dont be in a hurry since groups have a larger audience. Think and join otherwise you might send a wrong single. Avoid personal branding as you would be considered next to a spammer. Be rational and inhale thoughts when you are not confident. Inappropriate thoughts may invite group members to Flag as Inappropriate. Don�t worry it�s better to be a learner than a self proclaimed guru. Your content added to the discussion would do your personal branding that will invariably lead group members to appreciate you by Likes� and Follows.

Start discussions

Initiating discussion should be a gradual progress, dont start a discussion on day one. Generally people love to discuss when the content is relevant and with an increase in comfort zone. Comfort zone will rise when you follow and join discussions. So start with a relevant discussion but make sure that its not a repetitive one. Members would engage with you as they have the same intention. Don�t forget to reply to comments but dont do a bulk reply. It just shows that you are only ready to take and not give back. �Share and Grow� should be the motto. 

Use Promotions

Promotions are a facility that allows you to do your personal branding and indirect sales pitch. You can post links and blog articles to go viral. So promote yourself but don�t own it. You are a member of a group, respect it and you will benefit.

Connect with your Influencers

Once you have a network you need to segregate and find influencers for you. Influencers can be termed as mentors. Dont connect with people just because they have a huge network, try to see if their engagement is benefiting your purpose. Groups are a perfect place to locate influencers. Thoughtful decisions for following, joining and starting discussions will influence people too. LinkedIn shows a list of all active members in the group so that�s a great starting point but dont make it a benchmark. Do your own analysis as after all its your professional network.

All the above �gyan� wont turn into gold if you dont act. Dont believe us blindly; ""social media is all about experimenting and few steps ahead."   

We shared our own thoughts about how one should treat LinkedIn Groups.

Have you used �LinkedIn Groups�, do you have something that you would love to share with us?

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