I’ve seen many LinkedIn groups that are plagued by massive waves of self-promotion and spam from businesses; both of which are a huge turnoff.
Those two problems prompted me to test various methods to see if I could create a different kind of LinkedIn group… one that people actually find helpful (speaking in broad terms).
This post won’t give you overnight success tips for building a LinkedIn group, but it will help you build a successful LinkedIn group.
Here are five tips that helped me create a new LinkedIn group that topped 1,000 members in less than 3.5 months, not to mention it hasn’t received a single self-promotion post (no vendors plugging their business, spamming with links).
- Determine your target and market the group specifically to these individuals. Yes, you have to market a group… it’s not a build and they will come type of thing.
- Give the group a name that implies that it’s “different.” The group I’m referencing in this post was titled Economic Development 2.0.
- Create a point of differentiation (POD); without having this elements it’s just another group. My POD was that members aren’t allowed to self promote. Doing so gets you removed from the group (this has gone over fantastic!).
- Manage the community. Prompt others to share, take part in discussions… stir the pot if you will.
- Reward the community. I gave away Starbucks gift cards when the group hit 500 members and Dunkin’ Donuts gift cards when it hit 1,000. The amount of the gift doesn’t matter as much as the fact that you are saying thank you for being a member and taking part in discussions.
Those five tips might not be the gospel, but they helped me create a very successful group that topped 1,000 members in less than 3.5 months.
