Successfully Create & Manage A LinkedIn Group – LinkedIn Education Pt 3

How To Successfully Create & Manage A LinkedIn Group

This is the third and final part of the LinkedIn Education series. In this article you’ll learn strategies for how to manage a LinkedIn group in order to grow business. If you haven't already seen it, check out Part 1 on Networking Follow Ups With LinkedIn. Part 2 Developing a Personal Content Strategy for LinkedIn is important because the content you create with those strategies can be used in the group you'll create here.

You’ll want to use this strategy if it’s important that you or someone in your organisation is positioned as an industry leader. (Note that this strategy can also work if you join a previously formed group and participate heavily.)

Creating a LinkedIn Group:

You can create a group on LinkedIn by going to Interests >Groups and then clicking the Create Group button on the right side of your screen:

Follow the prompts on the creation page to get your group started. The two important options on that page are the Location setting where you create a group based on a geographical setting and Auto-join where anyone can join by clicking or Request to join where you must approve the members. There are benefits to both but it you want to capture a specific audience you may want to authorise those who join.

Ideally you have some contacts or colleagues that you can get into the group when you start it. Having a small number of people who you can get into the group when you start will show outsiders that you have something worth looking into. If you have connection who you want to invite, request their participation using a message that is compelling and inviting. Think about why the group would stand out to them or what value it would add to their business/ personal life.

Running The Group

There are three very important parts of running a LinkedIn Group:

1. Knowing the golden rule
2. Having enough content
3. Contacting those you want to do business with at the right time

The golden rule of all social media is that for every piece of content you post or create you should be commenting or reposting AT LEAST three articles or pieces of content from someone else.

In order to run a group successfully, you need a good amount of relevant and compelling content. A good amount is, at a minimum, one month's worth. You will come up with articles that are relevant at certain times, but you shouldn't be relying on fresh content for every post. This strategy is not for the faint of heart!

Because other people in the group will be able to post content of their own, you must make sure that you are posting enough to be the most visible. Remember that doesn’t mean you have to post all of your own content. Being active and acting as a resource or sounding board helpful are important.

As a moderator of the group you have the upper hand because it shows that you are interested in the subject and want to educate your network. A LinkedIn survey of 2,701 LinkedIn content consumers showed them that the most successful content does one of three things:

Members are more likely to share professional content that builds their professional brands, strengthens their professional networks, or helps them sell to their networks. Marketing content will be shared more if it fulfils these needs.

In order to achieve these goals you can utilise slideshare to improve engagement or use Sponsored Updates to increase your reach. Sponsored updates place your content into people’s news feeds and therefore drive people directly to your content. Because this is the case you’ll need to have a call to action in the content you choose to pay to promote.

Grow Your Business:

There are two things you should do in order to grow your business contacts and leads through your group:

1. Ask current members of the group to invite colleagues or other contacts who might find the group of value into the group.
2. Contact those who are valuable to your business already in the group.

To do this, start by doing a bit of research valuable group members and their companies. When you first contact them you should have enough information to personalise your message. This can take some time so it may be worth having an assistant or intern do some of the leg work.

Do your best to create conversation with the articles or posts that you disseminate to the group. On LinkedIn we recommend you post between 1 and 3 times a week. After about 10 to 25 posts you have built enough rapport to ask anyone in the group if they want a deeper connection (ie a chat with the goal of doing business). When just starting out, focus on getting one really high quality post or article out a week.

The Request

When asking for the business request, make sure to write a personalised message. However, you must be direct. People understand that LinkedIn is used for business so, if you’ve built a good relationship they won’t be surprised at the request. Use articles they’ve liked or comments they have made in your communication with them to show them you listen.

LinkedIn is used by people who are general users and those who actually want to grow their networks and businesses. It's not hard to tell who is there because they think they have to and who is actually using the channel. If you want to grow your business you need to stay active and participate in groups that potential leads are in. If you're serious about LinkedIn you can make it work.

*Original illustration by Diego Cornejo