Are You Using LinkedIn Groups to the Fullest Potential?

While LinkedIn is a very popular social media platform, especially for professionals looking to connect with colleagues and potential employers, not everyone uses all of the features available on it. One of the lesser used, but very helpful, functions available to all members is LinkedIn Groups.

According to LinkedIn, these groups “provide a place for professionals in the same industry or with similar interests to share content, find answers, post and view jobs, make business contacts, and establish themselves as industry experts.” They’ve recently added new features to the Groups to make them even better:

All Groups Are Now Private

LinkedIn conducted surveys and did research that showed professional conversations are most effective in a private trusted space. For this reason, conversations in Groups won't be visible to you until you've joined the Group.

Better Content Filtering

LinkedIn has improved the filtering of spammy and low-quality content so that promotional conversations stay out of the conversation feed and conversations can happen around more relevant topics. Content Moderators help this by removing off-topic and inappropriate comments.

Removal of Promotions Tab

General member feedback indicated to LinkedIn that promotional content in Groups isn't a valuable experience, as it can quickly lead to spam. In an effort to focus on quality conversations, they removed the Promotions tab. Promotional posts are still accepted, but they must go to the moderation queue for the owners, managers, and moderators to approve.

Posting Images in Conversations

The ability to post images is big on all social media platforms right now, it’s a great way to boost engagement. LinkedIn Groups now allows for it as well. When you start a conversation, you can click the image icon in the lower left corner of the conversation window to upload your image. Share motivational quotes, funny industry-related cartoons, or even pictures of your coworkers and yourself hard at work!

There’s more new features, listed here, but the best way to figure them all out is to get active in your own LinkedIn Groups. Finding and joining a group is easy, and you’ll probably find the conversations extremely interesting if you chose a Group relevant to you. You can member of 100 Groups at a time! For more help with building a LinkedIn profile and reaching out to others on the platform, connect with me on LinkedIn, and download Impulse Creative’s free eBook Mastering Social Media for Business.