Yes, people still have LinkedIn groups. And yes, people are still starting LinkedIn groups. You can read this quick post from SourceCon to see why you still need a LinkedIn group if you’re not convinced.
If you are convinced, or if you already have a group, let’s talk about how to get people there.
There’s one thing you need first and that is the Group Join Link. You get that link through four simple steps:
- Click Groups on the top of your home page
- Click the group’s name
- Click the Manage tab and then Send Invitations on the left
- Copy the Group Join Link
Got it? Good.
Simple ways to grow the audience size of your LinkedIn group
Personal Outreach
Leverage your internal team to send personal invitations to their networks. This will only work if your employees are happy, engaged and excited about social media — so think of it as an optional way for your LinkedIn-savvy team members to participate in social media.
You’ll want to narrow down your connections by industry and make sure to make the message relevant to them. Don’t be spammy. Be real. This works especially well if you are genuine and want to offer real value to followers of the group.
Inbound Clicks
Place the group join link on your company website, blog, emails and share it through social media. You could include the call to join at the bottom of every blog post for a designated period of time as well. Figure out how your audience already interacts with you and share the new opportunity to connect there.
Customer Outreach
Write a personalized email to major clients and customers to invite them to join the discussion. If your group doesn’t have the perfect mix of content to be relevant for your existing clientele, you need to restructure the content and the strategy of the group.
Keep Your Content Interesting
Import your blog’s RSS feed to the group, update content daily, interact with members, use visual content … make sure the content is interesting enough to keep people there once they join.
Visual Street Cred
Create a badge for the group that lets group members wear their group pride on their blogs, sites, etc. Link the badge to the group join link so others can join in on the discussion. The badge should say something like “Proud Member of Your Group” or something like that. Be smart. Be creative.
Make it Easy to Join
Buy a URL for the group and redirect to the group join link. For instance, if your group is called HR Folks and Cats — you should buy http://hrfolksandcats.com to redirect to the group. Make it easy to share on printed materials and throughout social media. Don’t be cheap.
Advertise Your LinkedIn Group on LinkedIn and Facebook
Get some new followers from your existing page fans on Facebook or with simple self-serve Facebook and LinkedIn ads. Both platforms have very cost-efficient, easy-to-use ad dashboards that could drive a high number of fans for a low cost.
What do you think? Do you get value out of your LinkedIn groups? Aside from being able to connect with new people, do you use groups? Let’s talk.
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