4 Tips to Properly Manage a LinkedIn Group

What is the right way to manage a LinkedIn group?

LinkedIn groups are among the most beneficial features of the business network. The added benefit of having and being able to manage a LinkedIn group of your own can be quite impressive.

As a member of groups on LinkedIn, you are able to engage with users in a similar field, share content relevant to your network and, additionally, find great content being shared by others much more easily. As the manager of a group, however, your brand is at the forefront. Anyone interested in social media is undoubtedly a member of certain LinkedIn groups, like Social Media Today or Social Media Marketing. Building a group as large as these takes quite a bit of work, but the payoff for your brand, blog or website is well worth it.

Below are four crucial tips that you should consider adopting if you want to successfully manage a LinkedIn group.

Promote

It might be nice to think that people will flock to your group the moment you create it, but the reality is that it is going to take quite a bit of work to get the group active.

With well over a million groups on LinkedIn and a quarter of a billion members, you are going to need to get out there and let people know that your group is open for business. The next step, however, is going to ensure that your group continues to grow.

Share

If your group is a barren wasteland with no new content being shared to it, you will likely lose members and disappear from the ranks entirely. People want to see content going up, and as a group moderator, a big part of your job, particularly at the beginning, is going to be sharing content to your new blog.

Conversations get started around insightful and useful posts. Break the ice with your new group members by sharing content first.

Engage

You are not the group’s overlord. Though you might be a moderator, you are as much a part of your LinkedIn group as any other member. As a part of the group, you need to be engaging in conversations, providing input and sharing content just like the rest of your group’s members.

Engagement is at the forefront of any good social media strategy, and it is even more important when you are responsible for a LinkedIn group’s success.

Moderate

While you should be sharing and engaging with your group as if you were a regular member, you should also keep in mind that you are a member with additional responsibilities.

People may try to bombard your group with spam or unsolicited promotions. There is no harm in letting a poster down gently at first, reminding them that the group is about engaging and sharing relevant content, but if you want your group to be taken seriously, you need to give it the attention it deserves. Make sure that users are not abusing your group’s open policy, and clean it up whenever you have to.

Your group is a reflection on you, and you certainly do not want it to look bad.

Do you manage a LinkedIn group? Tell us which one in the comments below or on Twitter!