Groups

Groups

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Top 10 Largest Linkedin Groups

by Jake on April 17, 2012

The power of groups on Linkedin should never be under estimated as it is one of the most powerful networking tools available on the site. There are well over 1.2 million groups on Linkedin so that gives you a fairly large field to play in although do remember, you are limited to joining 50 only. Due to this it is a good idea to choose wisely depending on what it is you are looking to gain from Linkedin.

If you are looking to find sales leads or hunt talent for clients or company, then it is beneficial to join the right groups that are relevant to your industry. It also helps massively if that group has a huge number of members rather than just a couple. Not that small groups are pointless, far from it. A small but highly targeted or niche group that suits your game plan is still worth engaging with.

If you bring up the groups option on Linkedin you will find that just about every conceivable niche is represented, so you should be able to find a few that are relevant to you.

A great reason to be in a large group is also the networking potential if you are looking to grow your 1st degree contacts. Now don’t go spamming people at random as this will simply get you a restricted account in no time. I get invites all the time claiming that we worked or have done business together. It’s a clear lie to try and get into my network and at best I’ll click ignore, but if someone pushes their luck I will report as spam.

But if you honestly want to network, then there is nothing wrong with making a connection and saying hi, we are both in XYZ group and I thought it might be beneficial to connect as we have a shared interest. You are far more likely to get an acceptance this way. Also, if you engage in the community discussions regularly with quality and relevant insights, then you will really boost your chances of the target person accepting your invite.

So which groups are the biggest and how many members are in them? Well let’s take a look at the top 10.

Job Openings, Job Leads and Job Connections!

#1 LinkedIn Jobs, Career and Networking Group: HR human resources recruiter recruiter’s executive executives managers management consultants consulting business marketing sales information technology finance media telecom healthcare open networkers education alumni US UK Europe Canada Asia India USA

770,147 members

Linked:HR (#1 Human Resources Group)

Leadership CHRO professional management executive executives consultant consultants coaching training HRIS SHRM ASTD corporate recruiter recruiters recruitment recruiting headhunting headhunters staffing hiring health care workforce safety employer employers employment engagement career education

640,422 members

LinkedIn Accounting OFFICIAL

Join the conversation with 500,000 other Accounting professionals. All contributions here are moderated to keep the conversation at a high level of quality. There are over a million groups on LinkedIn – discover other interesting groups at http://lnkd.in/GYML.

499,584 members

LinkedIn Residential Real Estate OFFICIAL

Join the fully moderated conversation with 500,000 other Residential Real Estate professionals. All contributions here are moderated to keep the conversation at a high level of quality. There are over a million groups on LinkedIn – discover other interesting groups at http://lnkd.in/GYML.

497,095 members

LinkedIn Entertainment OFFICIAL

Join the fully moderated conversation with 500,000 other Entertainment professionals. All contributions here are moderated to keep the conversation at a high level of quality. There are over a million groups on LinkedIn – discover other interesting groups at http://lnkd.in/GYML.

441,337 members

eMarketing Association Network

Largest marketing group with 411,000+ members. Managed by the eMarketing Association, the world’s largest Internet Marketing Association. Focus on Social, eMail, Search and Web Marketing. Open to all interested in business marketing. Join us April 3rd – 4th in San Francisco for the eMarketing Event.

417,521 members

Social Media Marketing

This is the LARGEST and most active social media group on LinkedIn.com with amost 300,000 members as of January 2012, and 20 special interest subgroups. It is intended for interactive advertising, marketing and other professionals who are actively engaged in social media and community websites.

350,589 members

The Recruiter Network – #1 Group for Recruiters

Recruiter: #1 LinkedIn Recruitment & Career Networking Social Media Group. Network with recruiters, find a job or headhunter. Read recruiting, HR, staffing, & employment news. Recruit talent, find jobs, careers, executive, alumni, and professional connection. Members in US UK Europe Canada India USA

318,994 members

The Project Manager Network – #1 Group for Project Managers

#1 Project Manager Social Media Group & Community on LinkedIn. Find PM jobs or a job in a PMO. Discuss methodology, management of projects. Research PMP certification, Prince2, CMMI, PMI PMBOK, RUP, Six Sigma, ITIL, IEEE, Agile & Scrum, Software, PDU career education. USA, Canada, UK, India, Europe.

304,171 members

Telecom Professionals

The group for Telecoms & Media discuss: New Devices & Technology, Mobile Content & Apps, Billing, IPTV, Cloud Computing, LTE, WiMax, Connected TV, Pay TV, Telecoms Marketing & Advertising, PR, Jobs, Events, Social Media, VOIP, iPhone, Blackberry, Android, Symbian, 3G, Wireless, SaaS, Broadband, OSS.

260,675 members

Now I’ll be honest, if you apply some advanced Boolean logic to the group members here you will find a lot of them contain a lot of recruiters and HR professionals. But they are still huge groups and depending upon your Linkedin strategy will give you access to a vast number of people to connect with and leverage off their connections.

So take a look and play around with the group function. Use it correctly and you can really start to network like a champion. Do a search for industry. Maybe you are into digital marketing or social media? Search the groups for those keywords and see which are the largest that get returned and join them.

As a final note though, size doesn’t always mean better with Linkedin groups. Some markets are naturally small or you may find a smaller group that has a high engagement of its users. This is a good thing. Take a look at the discussions and see how well they are moderated. If it’s all spam then maybe use it to quickly network then get out and join another. If its high quality content being discussed, join in and make your mark.

Good luck and let me know how it goes.

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Linkedin Overhauls Group Search

by Jake on April 11, 2012

Did you know there are over 1.2 million groups on Linkedin? That’s a lot of user generated content being posted and discussed every day. There are groups just about any conceivable topic and you are bound to find something of interest to you if you start looking.

With 150 million registered users you can make a near certain bet that millions of Linkedin professionals are engaging and talking via groups every day in order to win business, find job opportunities or simply share knowledge with others. It is one of the group’s major selling points in that you can not only learn something new or get a quick answer to a question, but help build communities and share things that you are knowledgeable in.

Linkedin have now overhauled the groups function and added some great new features to make things a lot easier for you to find relevant groups with smarter search results. This is a big improvement on what was already a great feature.

Before you had to simply rely upon the title and description within your search, but now Linkedin are presenting the results based upon how well the group’s conversations that are taking place match your search query. They are now also presenting to you your connections within those groups so as to help you better refine what groups best meet your requirements.

This is a great step up and should make things much easier for the user from now on.

You can now filter the results of your search based upon language, categories and your own network. Want to see what groups your 1st degree contacts are in? Use that as a filter.

Looking for a group to do with German speaking SEO? You can now search for that and find the best result. Want to join a group about open source development such as Perl or Python? It is now much easier to find the most active groups.

Go and have a little play around in Linkedin groups and see what you can find today.

Click here to go to the new Linkedin group search facility

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Top 10 Tips For Using Linkedin Like A Pro

by Jake on April 9, 2012

As you are well aware, Linkedin has to be just about the most powerful site online when it comes to networking for business. So how exactly can you get the most from this product? Like any tool it is only as good as the person using it.

So let us show you a few simple tricks and tips that will help you drive your Linkedin use up a gear or two.  It’s all about presence, so let’s begin.

1 – Goal Setting: 

So why have you set up a Linkedin profile? You need to think about this as it will be the motivating factor in what you do on the platform. Are you looking to be found? Maybe to get a new job or for business? Maybe you want to find new talent for your own company? Set a goal and work towards it. It can always be changed in the future as your personal or business needs grow.

2 – Picture Perfect: 

They say a picture paints a thousand words and never has a truer saying been so pertinent when it comes to Linkedin. This should simply be a headshot and preferably one where you are smiling. People love smiles. Forget those full body shots as they just don’t help you in business. Keep it as professional looking as you can.

Feel funny about people you don’t know seeing what you look like? Hit settings and make it so as only people you are connected to can see you. Simple.

3 – Headlines: 

You could simply use your job title, but with a little imagination you could really put this function to work for you. Why not have a call to action here too? If you are looking for work your might have something like ‘Highly Experienced <Your Job Title> Looking For Work’

The options are endless and you can update and change it at any time.

4 – Status Updates: 

Well Linkedin is a social media platform and so you should really look to engage with your connections. This is where status updates come into play. Each time you post an update it’s visible to your connections. I like to post interesting articles I find or you could send an update about something important that happened at work. This is a great way to stay in touch and on your connections radar.

5 – Your Summary: 

A summary should really be just about you rather than your company. People want to know about you personally and what it is that you do. Write about your duties at your current company and add in some highlights about major achievements. There is nothing wrong with letting people know you are good at what you do.

6 – Use Sections On Your Profile: 

Let’s say you are looking for a new job, or simply want to register on head hunters radars when they conduct their searches. Well a good way to do this is to add additional sections to your Linkedin profile.

These are extra pieces of information outside of who you work for and education. They can be things like languages spoken or projects you have worked on. I even set one up for public speaking gigs I’ve presented within my industry.

7 – Applications: 

There are now a large amount of applications that you can add on to your Linkedin profile. You might be thinking why bother? But let me tell you now, these can be a powerful marketing tool for you. They are an excellent way to drive engagement and showcase your skills to your connections. They range from Amazons reading list to adding slideshare presentations and integrating with WordPress blogs.

8 – Join Groups: 

There must just be about a group for any conceivable subject on Linkedin now. You are limited to joining just 50 so make sure you choose with care. I tend to join those groups that are related the industry I work in (SEO & Digital Marketing). These can be great places to get advice or help other people out. Social Media is all about engaging and whether you are looking for a new job or business opportunities you should start to engage within groups. Why not even start your very own group?

9 – Network: 

The real strength of your Linkedin network is the 1st degree connections you have. In some cases it is beneficial to connect with just about anyone as you want to really open up your network, but some people prefer to be more private and only link up with people they know. You do get a fair number of spam invites and I do screen people before I accept. Always personalise a message when you invite someone and explain why you want to connect. Don’t be a spam agent yourself as if 5 people say they don’t know you Linkedin will restrict your account.

10 – Skills: 

This is a new feature recently added and allows you to tag yourself with your skill set. This is a great option to highlight your personal skills, areas of interest or what it is your business can offer. Check it out and get yourself fully coded up.

So there you have it, a quick top 10 list of things you can do right now to improve your personal profile and start getting more out of LinkedIn.