Creating and managing successful Linkedin groups
Posted on: June 15, 2010
This quick guide is designed to help owners with creating and managing successful groups on Linkedin. Following the popularity of my Tips to grow your group on Linkedin post I crowdsourced further advice from Linkedin users. The results were fantastic and many apply more widely than Linkedin groups. So big thanks to Ed Han, Robert Burns, Kim Bailey, Paul Castain, Bernard Gore and Dustin Plett …who made this post possible…
A group should…
- Be unique / fill an underserved niche
- Have a clear sense of identity
- Develop a core of 4-6 engaged members to help establish critical mass
To promote success…
- Be active / engage: post quality content, ask questions, contact members through the group
- Ask questions with a human / unusual angle: successful examples include favourite quotes and dress codes
- Find active members: seek out people who contribute in other groups. Try asking someone to post their great discussion in your group or simply invite them. There will be groups which overlap in subject and potential membership, but have sufficiently different purposes to be useful separate entities – try to find those and engage in discussions on them – if you are complementary rather than competing for members then this should be mutually beneficial.
- Use the featured discussions tool: try featuring a discussion to help get its momentum going. After that, give someone else (another discussion) a shot. (Here’s a good example of how NOT to use featured discussions).
- Be clear and firm on spam: post the group’s view on what is / isn’t spam.
- Protect community culture / enjoyable activity: e.g if there is mis-use of discussions consider making it ‘discussions only’ in discussions area.
- Moderate: have clearly posted commuity guidelines and enforce them. Consistently moderate: set a schedule – even if it’s a little random, that’s sometimes better – and stick to it. And remain consistent in the content you are pulling or leaving up: try to moderate as objectively as you can. Do not over-moderate. Find the right balance.
- Deputize members: to manage/moderate in response to the amount of activity.
6 Responses to "Creating and managing successful Linkedin groups"
[...] Creating and managing successful Linkedin groups [...]
October 23, 2010 at 12:35 pm
I am thinking of starting a group on LinkedIn. I have not narrowed my niche for the group. Do you have any suggestions for creating a unique group?
October 23, 2010 at 6:47 pm
Hi Julia, can I ask why you want to start a group – and what you want to achieve from it? Is it about becoming an author? In advance of answers to this, I’d say to start by searching your subject area(s) on Linkedin and (selecting ‘groups’ from the drop-down). Then map the universe of groups around your subject. It should then become clear where the gaps are – and what is already being done well, and hence should be avoided.
October 23, 2010 at 7:12 pm
Mariamz
Thanks for the advice. For the past year I have been in groups that have helped me increase traffic to my blog. Now I want a group on tips for authors, publishing, or blogging for authors. I have not searched all of the groups. That should help see where I can fit in.
Thank you
October 23, 2010 at 11:04 pm
Glad that was useful Julia. When you have narrowed down some ideas you could try running them past Heather Townsend if you’re on Twitter – she is a prolific blogger who has been working on getting her first book published this year – she’s always very helpful and happy to share her advice / opinions.
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June 15, 2010 at 2:32 pm
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Mariam Cook, ed han. ed han said: If you want your #LinkedIn group to be active, please see MariamZ's new #blog entry for good, practical tips: http://bit.ly/daEdD5 [...]