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#BestofFSCBlog : #SocialMediaNetworking – Leveraging the Power of LinkedIn Groups. A MUst REad for All!

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No doubt, you know by now that LinkedIn is the place to be if you are an executive or professional looking to advance in your career. But just how can you leverage the power of LinkedIn to do that? One of many ways you can leverage LinkedIn is by participating in different groups. Joining a few groups can boost your LinkedIn profile development, since you’ll naturally gain more connections as a result. However, you have to be careful with how you approach these groups.

Here are some great tips on how to optimize your LinkedIn profile and expand your network by joining groups.

 

Be Wise When Choosing Groups

Currently, there are over 2 million active LinkedIn groups with 8,000 joining the ranks each week. You could join 50 groups, but you can’t actually utilize that many, nor do you need to join that many to leverage LI’s power. Consider joining groups related to your industry, your social life, interests, hobbies, school affiliation, and other similar groups. The more groups you join with relevance to your interests, the better chance you’ll have of expanding your network properly with people you can relate with.

 

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Observe Group Conversations

Once you join a group, watch and learn. Don’t jump into the conversation right away. People in groups are generally familiar with one another, so they may not like it if you barge in on their discussions. Instead, sit back and observe conversations for a few days or a couple of weeks. See how the group members interact with one another, so you’re able to fit in more naturally once you become more active in the group.

 

Introduce Yourself

After taking some time to observe the climate and determining whether this group is a good fit, write a nice introduction to the group. Tell them to visit your LinkedIn profile to learn your background, but also tell them things about yourself that aren’t on your profile. The more you talk about yourself, the wider range of people you’ll be able to relate to. When you’re trying to boost your LinkedIn profile with more connections, relating to people is the best way to go.

 

Become Active

Now that you’ve introduced yourself, be sure to reply to any comments welcoming you to the group. From that point on, people are at least familiar with your name and would enjoy having you in discussions. One mistake people often make is not being active in a group, so other members will forget about you. Activity in LinkedIn groups is the best way to expand your network. The hard part is over—find the group and introducing yourself. Now, be active and participate in the group.

FSC Career Blog Author:  Ms. Erin Kennedy, MCD, CMRW, CPRW, CERW, CEMC, is a Certified Professional Resume Writer/Career Consultant, and the President of Professional Resume Services, named one of Forbes “Top 100 Career Websites”. Considered an influencer, she is consistently listed as a “Top Career Expert to Follow” on Twitter and LinkedIn.

 

FSC Career Blog – June 15, 2021

Your #Career : The Three Smartest Ways To Use #LinkedIn Early In Your Career…Why Bother using LinkedIn. When you Don’t have Much #JobExperience to Put On your #ProfilePage ? Here’s Why–and How to Do It.

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LinkedIn is a great place to build a network, diversify your knowledge, and find new career opportunities–even when you’re early in your career. Students and recent grads may neglect LinkedIn, thinking it’s premature to start investing time into the platform before actually building up a solid amount of work experience. That’s a mistake.

I’ve found unexpected opportunities lurking within LinkedIn that simply require some ingenuity to take advantage of. Here are a few tips that have worked for me in the past few years I’ve spent in the tech industry after graduating.

Related: How To Update Your LinkedIn Profile At Every Stage Of Your Career

1. START NETWORKING CONVERSATIONS YOU CAN TAKE OFFLINE

Yes, LinkedIn is kind of like a database. You load it up with information on your interests, objectives, skills, and accomplishments so the leaders and peers you connect with can tell what you’re all about. Obviously, when someone checks out your profile, you’ll want it to be thorough and compelling.

But all the work you put into your profile is just a springboard for reaching out to other professionals in your industry. Whenever you come across someone you’d like to connect with on LinkedIn, your real objective should be to take the conversation you strike up offline as quickly as possible. Don’t treat LinkedIn the way you might operate on Instagram, racking up contacts you have no intention of interacting with in the real world.

LinkedIn is a means to an end, and that end goal should always be real-time conversations–ideally face to face, or by phone if necessary when you live in different places and don’t plan to visit soon. Using LinkedIn to set up face-to-face meetings with new people is a crucial and underutilized tactic for younger professionals working to build their networks in a meaningful way.

Related: Recruiters Explain What The Worst LinkedIn Profiles Have In Common

2. TREAT LINKEDIN LIKE A FREE SEMINAR

Learning quickly at a new job is one of the most exciting and daunting tasks entry- and associate-level workers usually face. First you have to learn your role and size up the work culture. Then you’ve got to get a handle on the industry and understand how your company is competing in the market. LinkedIn can actually help you with all of that.

So search for and join groups, follow leaders, comment on conversations, and share interesting stories. You can start by following industry-specific groups, first as an observer, and then as a participant as you get more comfortable. Make sure you also pay attention to what your company and its competitors are posting. Staying engaged–even by checking in on the chatter just once a week or so–can help you stay informed and ahead of the game.

 

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3. SCOUT FOR JOB OPPORTUNITIES WHEN YOU AREN’T ACTIVELY LOOKING

Even if you’re not actively looking for a new job, you should be using LinkedIn to reel in potential opportunities pretty much all the time.

How? The first part is just network building: Add the people you meet through work and at industry events on LinkedIn, and follow up with personalized notes. This might not feel like job searching, but it’s a crucial precondition to hearing about openings that may bubble up. Plus, if you want to reach out later when you are ready to job search, they’ll remember who you are. The second step is to keep putting yourself out there. Write articles, comment on your connections’ posts, and share interesting news stories you read. This is another great way to lay a breadcrumb trail that potential employers can find.

When you’re early in your career, recruiters and search firms might not be as likely to land on your doorstep–they’re often retained to help organizations fill higher-level roles. So it’s all the more important to be proactive, treating pretty much all LinkedIn activity as a potential step toward your next role. With that said, when you do get contacted about job opportunities on LinkedIn, make sure to respond even if you aren’t interested. You never know if you might want to work with that organization some other time.

In short, LinkedIn is a great place to learn, grow, and build relationships–even when you don’t have the most impressive credentials to plaster your profile with. It’s a competitive business world out there, and early-career professionals should get engaged early in order to get an edge over those who don’t bother to do the same.

Stephanie Glass is the head of product marketing for Aera Technology’s AI solutions, where she’s responsible for product strategy and the execution of product marketing programs. She brings to Aera experience in AI, machine learning, planning, and analytics, with past roles at Anaplan, GoodData, and Jive Software.

 

FastCompany.com | April 25, 2018 | BY STEPHANIE GLASS 3 MINUTE READ

Your #Career : Four Things You Must Do On #LinkedIn Once A Week…Think of #LinkedInGroups as Online Professional Associations.

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It’s been a decade since LinkedIn starting adding features that help you do your job better, but many people still aren’t taking advantage of those features. They only visit LinkedIn when something big happens, like a job promotion or a move to a new company.

To start getting the most out of LinkedIn, here are four things you should do each week.

1. Review what’s happening in your groups.

Think of LinkedIn groups as online professional associations. When you want to know what’s on the minds of the decision makers in your field, groups are a great place to start. You can learn and grow, adopt best practices, and get some fodder for your next meeting. Here’s the best way to do it – so it doesn’t feel overwhelming and so you can zoom ahead to the important stuff. Click on “Work” in the upper right corner of the home page (it looks like a 3×3 box with nine little squares). You’ll get a page with two columns. Use the one on the left to scroll through the latest posts from your groups. Use the one on the right to help you determine which groups are most active. Just like with real-world professional associations, you want to participate in the groups that have the most activity and engagement.

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2. Respond to messages

You get notified in your email when someone sends you a LinkedIn message, but should you go to the message right away? Probably not. Save them up and go in once weekly instead – after all, lots of them are “thanks for connecting” messages and others that don’t require a response.

And just because someone is connected to you in LinkedIn does not mean you need to do what they ask in their message or even respond. You shouldn’t feel guilty if you don’t. That might be the protocol with other forms of communication, but it’s just not realistic in LinkedIn – especially if you have a lot of connections. You have limited time. Because of the work I do, I get at least a dozen requests to “please check out my LinkedIn profile and tell me what you think.” And as much as I would love to do that – I love looking at LinkedIn profiles, and I love helping people – I would have to give up my day job to accommodate each request. Even responding to let people know I don’t have the time would take too much time.

3. Check out who has viewed your profile.

When you’re looking at the home page, you can see a snapshot of your profile in the left column on the screen. Right below your headline, you can see “who’s viewed your profile.” If your privacy settings are not set to “private mode,” LinkedIn will show you a subset of the people who have visited your profile during the previous 90 days. This is important because it helps you determine if you are attracting the right people – the decision makers and influencers who can help you expand your success. When you check this out monthly, you start to get a feel for the impact of your activities.

4. Measure your activity.

You spend time updating your network and posting articles, but are they working for you? When you click on “views of your post” in your profile the left column of the LinkedIn home page, you’re brought to a page that shows you the impact of your communications. If you’re using the LinkedIn blogging feature, you can check stats on your articles. You can do the same with your updates. It shows you the number of views, likes, and comments. When you click on the number of views, you get valuable information about the impact of your communications. There are three key pieces of data you receive about the viewers: What company they work for, what their job title is, and where they are located. When you view this, ask yourself: Am I attracting the right people to my profile? Then adjust your communications (both the content and the groups to which you post) accordingly.

To make all four of these actions happen, start the week off by scheduling some time in your calendar so you commit to this, just as you would to any meeting or conference call you have. You only need 15 – 30 minutes a week to start getting the most out of LinkedIn!

William Arruda is the cofounder of CareerBlast and creator of the complete LinkedIn quiz that helps you evaluate your LinkedIn profile and networking strategy.

 

Forbes.com | March 26, 2018 | William Arruda , CONTRIBUTOR