LinkedIn Groups

Digital Marketing - Study Notes:

What are LinkedIn Groups?

A LinkedIn group is a page that supports discussions which are moderated by group owners and managers. You can find groups to join by using the search feature at the top of your home page or viewing suggestions of groups you may like. You can also create a new group focused on a particular topic or industry. LinkedIn groups also keep their members informed through emails with updates to the group including most talked about discussions within your professional circles.

Value of LinkedIn groups

The value of LinkedIn groups is in:

• Increasing brand visibility
• Developing thought leadership
• Building a community
• Being a source of insight into your target audience.

Setting up a group

You can start a new group by filling out the fields on the Create a group page. You will be the owner of any group you create but you can also assign other members to be administrators who can help moderate conversations.

To create a group:

1. Move your cursor over the work at the top of your home page
2. Select groups from the drop-down.
3. Click My groups.
4. Click the Create group button on the left side of the page.
5. Fill in the requested information. A red asterisk means that it's required.
6. Click the save changes button to create your group.

Once you create your group you can customize different aspects of the group as the group administrator. These customizations can include logo, group name, group type, summary, and including your website URL.

LinkedIn doesn't allow excessive changes to a group's identity because it affects members' confidence in your group in the LinkedIn groups product.

Group management

You can add or remove a group manager from the member section of the Manage tab by following these steps.

To add a group manager:

1. Select the Member tab under the Manage members heading.
2. Search for the member you want to give permissions to by using the find a member function.
3. Beside the member's details, you will see permissions tab where you can set the team member's permission to either a manager or a moderator.

To remove a group manager:

1. Select the Admin tab under the Manage members heading then select the manager you would like to remove permissions from.
2. Beside the manager's details, you will see a permissions tab where you can demote the manager to a team member.

If you create a group, you are the group owner unless you have transferred ownership of the group to someone else. As the owner, you can change the role of a member to be a manager or moderator to help share in the management duties of the group.

All three roles can:

• Manage the group moderation queries.
• Monitor and delete group conversations and comments.
• Add featured conversations.

Group visibility

All groups on LinkedIn are private by default. However, when you create a group you can choose a visibility level from the group creation page.

Standard groups

Standard groups appear in LinkedIn search results and allow members to invite their connections to join the group.

Unlisted groups

Unlisted groups don't appear in LinkedIn search results and don't allow members to invite their connections to join the group. Standard groups can be used to increase engagement and for marketing. In this case, it is crucial to engage and share good quality content in order to meet fellow group members and develop meaningful discussions.

The unlisted category is ideal for internal groups within your company. Your content will be completely private since there's no chance for outsiders to gain access. There are plenty of reasons to start an unlisted group. For example, you can create user groups to beta test new products and concepts and use groups as a customer service support for clients or start internal groups for employees.

Remember that unlisted groups are strictly for content, not marketing. So they're valuable for communicating with designated people. To keep your LinkedIn group engaged, check at least once or twice a week for requests to join, submissions to approve, and flagged posts to moderate.

Keeping a group engaged

Carry out these steps to help keep groups engaged:

• If possible, check daily to encourage group growth.
• Always listen to your group members' feedback.
• Remember to keep it professional and polite and post regular questions and debates.
• Because spam is the top reason people leave a group it is extremely important and your responsibility to keep your group spam free. By reporting spam and reviewing flagged content in your moderation queue.

Encouraging engagement

Use manager choice to highlight important conversations and information. Manager's choice is a setting that allows managers to organize the content on the page. Encourage engagement with high-quality conversations by closing announcements, answered questions, and other content that no longer needs comments or likes.

Celebrate milestones. For example, you could send an announcement when your group reaches a certain number of members. If you need help managing or moderating, ask one of your top contributors for assistance. You can also add managers and assign moderators to your group.

Removing and blocking group members

If you're an owner or a manager you can remove, block, or block and delete any member of your group.

• Remove takes the member out of the group but doesn't delete the member's past contributions. They can request to join the group again.
• Block takes the member out of the group and places them on a blocked tab, which prevents them from requesting to join again. It doesn't delete the member's past contributions either.
• Block and Delete takes the member out of the group and places them on the blocked tab, which prevents them from requesting to join again, and it also deletes all of their past contributions.
• Unblock and Remove can be found within the blocked tab. It takes the member out of the group without deleting their past contributions and they can request to join the group again. You can also remove a group manager from the member section of the manage tab. This may be necessary if the group manager is no longer following the guidelines of the group and managing it ineffectively.