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Effective Use of LinkedIn
Groups in Your Marketing
How to Engage and Drive Traffic with Groups
Viveka von Rosen
Founder, Linked into Business

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3.1 Million
Number of LinkedIn groups
LinkedIn

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8000
Number of LinkedIn groups
created weekly
LinkedIn 02/2013

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42%
Percentage of LinkedIn users
that consider LinkedIn groups
useful
Expanded Ramblings 02/18/2015

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7
Average number of groups
LinkedIn users join
LinkedIn 08/2013

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60.6%
LinkedIn members who find
groups useful
Inc. 2013

7. 1. The best methods for engaging in other people’s groups
2. Best practices in creating and managing your own group
3. How to quickly grow and engage your group
4. Marketing and monetizing your group

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1 Group Engagement:
Best Practices

9. When communicating in
groups, its good to have
a 30 thousand foot plan!

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1. Adjust your settings
2. Stalk the Influencers
3. Don’t be afraid to share
4. Be VERY afraid of SWAM
Group Engagement

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Adjust Your Settings
Keep your sanity and
choose weekly or no
updates!

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Stalk the Influencers – Make New Friends

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What’s trending in your industry?
What’s controversial?
What can you share that people might find valuable?
Customer service / advice and recommendations
What events might they be interested in?
80/20 and NO outright sales promotion
Don’t be Afraid to Share

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Affects ALL your groups
Managers/Owners can’t fix it
LinkedIn can’t fix it
Managers might be lazy
Mean people suck
Be Very Afraid of SWAM

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2 Creating Your Own Group:
Best Practices

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1. Should you even create a group?
2. Know your audience or niche or location
3. Focus your copy and communications
4. Create group rules
5. Commit to moderating (or delegate)
Best Practices (for Marketing)

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• Customer Service
• Company Communication
• Thought Leadership
• Lead Generation / Marketing
• Other
What’s the PURPOSE of your group?
To Group or Not to Group…

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New group = ultimate control
Adopt a group = existing audience
New Group or “Adopt a Group?"

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• Don’t be all things to all people
• The more niche, the more relevant and
engaged
• Location based groups drive and support
F2F interaction
• Consider user groups and focus groups
and membership groups
Know Your Audience (Niche or Location)

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• Make the most out of description fields
• Focus on WIFFT (What’s in it for them)
• Use CTA’s
• Promote relevance
• Use keywords
Focus Your Copy and Communications

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Create Group Rules
Don’t forget the Rules!
• Rules feature
• As an update
• Ask for feedback

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Commit to Moderation
• Realize groups are a commitment
• Get help!
• Download the Moderator’s Field
Guide
• Join the LinkedIn Group Moderator
Community

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3 Growing Your Group Membership
and Engagement

25. Put a Marketing Machine into Place

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1. Automate with templates
2. Send weekly announcements
3. Entice with Influencers
4. Create serial content
Growing Your Membership

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Build Your Templates
Automated Engagement
• Get them engaged right away with CTAs
• Guide them to another platform if they
don’t qualify for your group
• What can you share of value?
• Rules of engagement

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• WIIFT – for the group
• Recap of the week
• CTA to upcoming events
• Contest (and winners)
• Drive traffic back to group
• Easy shares
Weekly Announcements

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Highlight Influencer Communication
http://www.convinceandconvert.com/social-media-case-studies/amplify-your-content-
strategy-with-influencer-marketing/
• Build relationships with Influencers and leverage them to
build your credibility
• Get great content for free
• Expanding your reach with content from a wide range of
Influencers encourages people to visit your (Open) group

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Create Serial Content
• Create series and promote
• “Package” existing updates
• Promote pertinent updates

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4 Marketing and Monetizing
Your Groups

32. Integrate your Marketing

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1. Marketing your groups
2. Monetizing your groups
Ninja Tricks

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 Email marketing
 LinkedIn advertising
 Social marketing
Marketing Your Posts

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Anatomy of Email Marketing Campaigns
Send a simple, elegant invitation
via email
 Brand your email
 Clear CTA: Join Now
 Lead with the WIIFT
 Create a customized group URL
(http://bit.ly/join-the-group)

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LinkedIn Ads
Reach beyond your network and promote your group
with LinkedIn text ads and sponsored updates

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Sponsored Groups
Great option if you can afford it!
• Company affiliation and branding
• Advanced community management
• Included “Join Group” ads and Sponsored InMail messages
• Exclusively promote your content and messages in the right-hand rail with
units that support rich media and video
• Get advanced metrics and analytics

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Social Marketing

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Monetizing Your Group
 Hangouts and Blabs
 Sales funnels
 Announcements
LinkedIn's Terms of Services says this:
Don’t sell, sponsor, or otherwise monetize a LinkedIn Group or any other
service or functionality of LinkedIn, without the express written permission of
LinkedIn

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Hangouts, Blabs and Building Your Funnel
Create a Hangout (HOA) or Blab specifically designed to support
your group.
 Cross promote
 Give people a sense of who you really are
 Increase engagement
 Great enrollment
 G+ Community?

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A LinkedIn Group is like
any other marketing asset!
You have to work it to get it
to work.

42. Are you clear on the purpose of your group?
What elements of your group do you need to improve?
What strategies will you adopt to increase engagement?
What kind of content will you create and share through
your group discussions?
How can you promote your groups?
What platforms can you link with your group?
In Conclusion

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www.LinkedIn.com/in/LinkedInExpert
www.Facebook.com/YourLinkedInExpert
www.Twitter.com/LinkedInExpert
www.LinkedIntoBusiness.com
Viveka@LinkedIntoBusiness.com
Invite me to connect at
LinkedIn.com/in/LinkedInExpert
with vivekavr@gmail.com
Let me know where we “met”
Are we connected?