O MANNY's

Did you know that people who participate or engage in LinkedIn Group discussions get an average of four times as many profile views?

LinkedIn Groups allow you to connect with thousands, even hundreds of thousands of people. Many more than you could connect with via your first-level connections.

With over two million groups, sometimes it’s hard to navigate successfully in the LinkedIn Groups world.

How do you find groups to join?

• l Check the profiles of your most valuable LinkedIn connections and see what groups they have joined.  Then choose those groups that align with your business focus.
• l Use the “Search” function in LinkedIn to find groups in a specific industry, skill set or topic.

Once you’ve joined a group

• l Spend time determining if the group works for you.  You’ll want to see how active the participants in the group are, as well as the types of posts and value of information being shared. 
• l Another reason to join groups (especially those with a large number of potential prospects) is the ability to send a message to anyone in your group, even those people who aren’t first level connections.  This functionality opens up your ability to connect with thousands, even hundreds of thousands of people you might not have any other connection with.

Participate in a Few

l The same rules apply to participation in groups as they do to the rest of LinkedIn:  Provide value.  Blatant sales pitches are a big turn-off.  Instead, provide and share useful information, ask and answer questions, offer comments and recommendations.

l Once you’ve spent time investigating groups, you’ll want to actively participate in five to ten groups.

*Originally written by a different author