How To Leverage LinkedIn Groups For Growth

With over 850 million LinkedIn members worldwide, LinkedIn is fast becoming the go-to destination for people who own and run businesses or are content creators.

Like most social networks, some of the best interactions and connections happen in small groups and closed spaces.

Community creation can be a key strategy for businesses looking to engage more with their audience, making community management more important than ever.

Today we are going to discuss LinkedIn Groups. Read on to find out why LinkedIn Groups are great for growing your business and the best practices for creating a successful LinkedIn Group.

What is a LinkedIn Group?

LinkedIn Groups are dedicated spaces for professionals and help you:

• Share expertise
• Seek advice
• Build meaningful relationships

It’s been around for a while, but its importance continues to grow as social media trends shift toward more conscious and self-selected communities.

In other words, LinkedIn Groups are a targeted way to build your personal brand and professional community on LinkedIn.

Only members of a specific group can view, post, or comment on conversations within that group, set their eligibility criteria, and select admins.

How To Create A LinkedIn Group

Before jumping to creating a LinkedIn Group, learn its benefits and see if it’s worth it for you.

Simply put, LinkedIn Groups can:

• Increase your content reach
• Show expertise
• Create new leads
• Receive feedback

 Now to continue, this is how to create a LinkedIn Group in 5 easy steps.

1. Go to the LinkedIn Groups section
2. Click Create group on the top right of the page
3. Add the group name, description, and discoverability
4. Click the pencil icon to upload your group logo and cover photo
5. Click Create.

We attached two images to make it easier for you. Follow the steps below, and you will create your first LinkedIn Group.

Linkedin Groups Best Practices

Whether you’re a group owner, manager, or member, here are some best practices for getting the most out of your LinkedIn Groups.

Pick A Topic

The topics you choose can be anything from discussing industry news to sharing tips and tricks about your product or service. It can also be a broader topic if you want. It depends on your goals.

To help you decide which subjects to focus on, you can start creating a strategy by asking yourself questions such as:

1. What are the most frequently asked questions from your customers?
2. What are your community goals? 
3. What are the common topics your brand is associated with?

Or you can look at previous customer interactions, for example, discussing your product or service with others, etc.

Layout The Rules

LinkedIn Group rules help your members understand what is recommended and what is not. Clear group rules make it easier to manage and moderate conversations.

You can make it clear in your LinkedIn Group description. For example, you can write a few rules such as:

1. “We monitor all submissions to the group.” 
2. “We only accept industry-relevant conversations.” 
3. “We learn from each other through constructive and insightful discussion.”
4. “We will delete all discussion posts containing promotions, links unrelated to our topics, etc.”
5. “Members who don’t follow these rules will be removed from the group.”

Some of these sentences may sound harsh but trust us, enforcing these rules will lead to meaningful discussions benefiting your business.

Invite Your Connections

When creating a group, LinkedIn allows you to invite your LinkedIn connections. You can also invite members from the group’s main page. This page will ask you to invite your contacts from LinkedIn, and we recommend using both.

Another way to promote your LinkedIn Group is by sharing the group on your personal LinkedIn profile or other social media platforms, your blog, or newsletter and encouraging people to share it too.

Pro Tip: Remember, before expanding your group, consider that many of the largest LinkedIn Groups have loads of links and you do not want that!

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Lead Discussions

The most successful LinkedIn Groups are those with active discussions. If you want to ensure the group’s success, become an active member yourself and start a discussion.

For example, you can start by creating a welcome post as the first post in the group. It is a perfect way to welcome new members, share what the group is about, and gently remind them to review the group rules.

In other words, create a meaningful discussion culture, and your efforts will surely pay off. Then, new LinkedIn Group members will tend to follow the same behavior as existing members.

Moderate Posts

This next step is just as important as the previous ones. Once members have taken action, it’s important to moderate LinkedIn Group posts.

Fun fact: Most groups on LinkedIn fail due to a lack of moderation. According to LinkedIn, spam is the number one reason people leave groups.

LinkedIn Group spam usually comes in the form of links. As such, we suggest you be very careful about sharing links in LinkedIn Groups, deleting posts, and removing members. How to do that?

To delete a post or comment in a LinkedIn Group, click the three dots in the top right corner of the post or next to the comment and select Delete. 

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Key Takeaways 

The ability to create groups on LinkedIn is a great feature of the platform, and if you maximize its potential, you can be sure to increase your engagement. 

• LinkedIn Groups offer a unique way to connect with people on your professional and thriving social network through your LinkedIn profile.
•  You can create a LinkedIn Group in 5 easy steps. (read above)
•  Set clear group rules to make it easier to manage conversations.
•  Easily invite your LinkedIn connections to your group.

Now, some questions for you! Are you part of any LinkedIn Groups? If yes, are you participating in some discussion?

Either way, let us know in the comments below!