To me, the groups feature of LinkedIn is the heart of this multi-faceted professionally-oriented social media site.

By being a member of a group, you can:

• Gain more knowledge from experts in diverse fields
• Share your insights and expertise
• Connect with potential clients and referral partners

Being that a LinkedIn user can only be in no more 50 groups at one time, it is important to be selective when deciding whether or not to join a group. The best way to do this is to review a group’s membership list, see what they discuss and the tone of those discussions before deciding to join.

 

Some Questions to Ask Before Joining a LinkedIn Group

• Are your current or potential clients in this group?
• Are your competitors in this group?
• Does this group offer discussions that are of value to you?
• Would starting and/or contributing to group discussions enhance your reputation?
• Can you be of service as a member of this group?
• Does being in this group make it easier to connect with potential referral partners?
• If this is a closed group and you want to join it, do you have the credentials required to become a member?

When you first get involved with a group, you can easily become overwhelmed and frustrated. Without taking the time to adjust the settings in the group, you can get inundated with emails and simply receive too much information. Therefore, once you join a group, it’s important to adjust your settings right away.

 

Adjusting Your Settings

• Find the groups you might want to belong to by clicking on the Interests tab in the menu bar and then clicking on Groups.

• Select a group and click on the cursive “i” in the right segment of the screen.
• Now click on “Your settings”.
• Unless you want to get an email for each new discussion that starts in the group, uncheck the box to the right of the word “Activity.”
• If you want to get a daily or weekly digest for this group, click on the appropriate box. However, if you would rather not get either kind of digest, uncheck the box next to “Digest Email.”
• Similarly, if you want to get announcements from the group manager, be sure there is a check in that box. If not, uncheck it.
• Most folks opt to keep the check in the box next to “Member Messages,” which means members of this group send will send you messages via LinkedIn, including invites to connect with you on LinkedIn.

 

How About You?

What kind of criteria do you use when selecting which groups to belong to on LinkedIn? What level of activity do you have in the groups you join?

 

About Joyce

Joyce Feustel helps people, especially those age 50 and up, to become more effective using social media, especially Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Twitter.

She works with business owners, nonprofit organizations, retired people, consultants, and many others. Find her at www.boomerssocialmediatutor.com