Searching for Groups
There are just over one million groups on LinkedIn, and the vast majority of the approximately 100 million LinkedIn members belong to at least one group. Think of all the networking opportunities at your fingertips through the LinkedIn Groups feature! The challenge is finding the right groups to join, so you can meet your goals for LinkedIn.
You can join up to 50 groups on LinkedIn and another 50 subgroups, which are smaller niche groups for targeted conversations and engagement within a larger group. Each group can have up to 20 subgroups. That gives you a lot of room to work with in terms of joining groups, evaluating their potential for helping you meet your goals, and deciding whether you want to stay in the group or leave it, ultimately.
When you search for groups on LinkedIn, you’re likely to find multiple groups focused on the same topics and targeted to the same types of people. Look for active groups that stay on topic and have a membership that adds value to conversations with their knowledge and experience. Even if a group is recommended to you by another LinkedIn member, you’ll have to join the group and get involved to determine whether or not it’s the right group for you.
Group Search Feature
You can search for a group using keywords at any time by clicking the drop-down arrow next to the search text box in the top-right corner of your screen when you’re logged in to your LinkedIn account. Just choose Groups from the drop-down menu that appears, and then type your keywords into the search box as shown in Figure 7.1.
Figure 7.1: Enter your group keyword(s) into the Groups search text box in the upper-right corner—in this case, “content marketing.”
Click the magnifying glass to get a full list of results in the Groups Directory as shown in Figure 7.2.
Groups Directory
You can also access the Groups Directory at any time by clicking the Groups link in the top navigation bar when you’re signed in to your LinkedIn account. Next, click the Groups Directory link in the drop-down menu to visit the Groups Directory shown in Figure 7.2.
It’s easy to narrow your search results using the Search Groups form on the left side of the screen in the Groups Directory. You can enter keywords, choose a group category, and select a group language using the search text box and drop-down menus in the form. Click the Search button, and matching groups are returned to you, which you can scroll through and evaluate. Just click the group name link in each entry to visit the group page and poke around.
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Click the Groups link in the top navigation bar, and then select the Groups You May Like link to access a list of groups that LinkedIn believes matches your interests. LinkedIn identifies groups you may like based on the information in your LinkedIn profile and the information in existing group members’ profiles.
It is possible that you could visit this page in your account and find no groups listed. There are a couple of reasons that might happen. First, you may have already joined all of the groups that LinkedIn has identified as good matches for you. Second, there might not be any group matches at a given time.
Don’t check the Groups You May Like list once and never view it again. New groups open all the time, so you never know what you might find on this list!
Other Profiles
One of the best ways to find groups that can help expand your reach and achieve your LinkedIn goals is to check out the groups that your LinkedIn connections belong to. Visit the profiles of your connections who are in your target audience, and scroll down to see the groups they belong to. When you find an interesting group on a connection’s profile, send that person a message and ask them what they think of the group. It’s a great way to evaluate the group and strike up a conversation to deepen your relationship with that person.
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Remember, the power of LinkedIn comes not just from your first-degree connections, but from your entire expanded network. Trolling their profiles for interesting and useful groups is a perfect example of how you can make your expanded network work for you.