For some time now I’ve felt that LinkedIn Groups had lost their value for building and maintaining networks. I examined the 45 or so groups I belonged to and found most of them were overrun with spam and offered little or no sign of discussion going on.
I left many of them.
Then some colleagues pointed out a couple things I was missing or not taking enough notice of.
And how I could increase my networking reach exponentially.
Here’s a brief summary.
For the purposes of being found, and connecting, on LinkedIn, your network consists of your 1st, 2nd and 3rd level connections, AND the members of the groups to which you belong.
Only those who are in your network will be able to see your profile in a search. So it makes sense to enlarge your network.
Also, you can message anyone in any group you belong to, directly and without having to pay. It has been said that such messages are more effective than email.
The exponential effect of joining groups was illustrated by one LinkedIn coach who told of a client who had 625,000 in his network and belonged to no groups. After learning this “insider” knowledge about groups, he joined 15 and with that took his network to 4,250,000. Subsequently he more than doubled that to 10,000,000.
I’m in the process of rejoining some groups I left and adding others.
The groups I join or rejoin will be as aligned with my ideal customer profile as I can manage.
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