Yesterday LinkedIn announced an amazing new feature on their site: you can now have discussions within
your LinkedIn groups.
It seems like a no-brainer to me, but for a long time LinkedIn groups didn’t have this feature. All you could really do with a group you were a member of is look at the profiles of the members and invite them to connect.
To be honest, until now I felt the LinkedIn groups were pretty pointless. LinkedIn is all about connecting with people you know, but you couldn’t get to know other members of a group until after they became a connection. It seemed to defeat the purpose of LinkedIn.
But with this added feature you can have conversations with people in your groups. You can ask questions, comment on what others have to say, have a debate. In other words, you can get to know people.
Some of my best online contacts are people I’ve gotten to know through discussions in Yahoo groups. Over time I’ve read their comments, answered their questions and gotten an idea of who they are by their words. When we connected outside the group it was truly connecting with a colleague, not just random virtual meetings.
How do you make the most of LinkedIn group discussions?
Actually, this new feature presents a great opportunity for people who jump in quickly. This morning I checked all the groups I’m a member of. About half didn’t have any discussions started at all. The others only had one or two. By monitoring these groups closely over the next few weeks and months I can quickly establish my presence. When people discover the discussions and start checking them out, my name will be one of the first they see.
Of course, commenting for the sake of seeing my name online isn’t effective. My comments need to be thoughtful, intelligent ideas that add to the conversation. I don’t want to be the virtual equivalent of the overbearing boor at the party who doesn’t let anyone get a word in edgewise.
To make the most of this opportunity log into LinkedIn and check out the groups you already belong to. If there are no discussions started, consider starting the first one. Ask a question you’d really like to know others thoughts on. Make a slightly controversial statement about your industry – make sure it’s one you actually believe.
Over the next few weeks, check back frequently to see what develops. Better yet, in the “settings” tab of each group, sign up for an email digest of the discussions. This way you’ll know when others have made comments even if you’re not logged into LinkedIn.
If you don’t belong to any groups yet, join some. Look at the profiles of some of your connections and see what groups they belong to. If one – or more – interests you click on the logo of the group and join. You can also search the Groups directory. Type in keywords for your industry, target market, alma matter or geographic region. This should give you more than enough to choose from.
You don’t need – or want – to be a member of dozens of groups. A small handful is much better. Then you’ll have the time to make a meaningful contribution to the group.
Over time, if you find one of your groups never really gets very active, you may want to consider leaving the group for one that has more discussions. You can’t get to know people if they never have anything to say.
In case you haven’t figured it out, I’m really excited about the discussions feature on LinkedIn. It’s taken one of my favourite social media tools and made it even better.
Andrea J. Stenberg
If you enjoy my blog posts, please consider signing up for my More Effective Marketing ezine. This email newsletter includes specific marketing tips and strategies to help you build your business.
