Get Involved With LinkedIn Groups

Last week’s Tuesday Tech Tip was an introduction on how to get involved on LinkedIn. This week we are narrowing the focus to LinkedIn Groups, because they are a great way to share interesting information and connect with others.With the large number of groups on LinkedIn, it can be difficult to find the right ones. Check out the tips below for how to search for the right groups.

1. Use LinkedIn Search to Find Relevant Groups
Start by searching for groups using keywords that are relevant to your location, industry, education history, organizations, or interests. For each group LinkedIn displays, you have the option to view similar groups or members that are already in your network.

2. Join a few!
You can join up to 50 groups on LinkedIn. Go ahead and join about 50, but select only about 5 of them to spend your time on in order to get the most benefit out of your participation. Look for groups that have a lot of members.

3. Evaluate the Quality of the Groups 
Sometimes you’ll have to spend some time in a group to determine the quality.
Here are some things to check for:
a. Make sure a good majority of the discussions involve questions and dialogue.
b. If there are a bunch of promotional links or self-promotional updates, you probably don’t want to join that group.
c. Are the group managers engaged and are there an established set of rules for the group?

4. Once You Join — Build Influence
To successfully build influence within groups, be sure to contribute to ongoing and new discussions consistently. Don’t use groups to promote your products or services. Instead, share insightful and reputable content with your own thoughts added to the content you share.Send invites to connect with other group members in your groups after you’ve spent some time participating in them. The best time to send an invite is after you’ve interacted with those members in a discussion.