This is a great LinkedIn Group case-study for marketing and self promotion

An example of a great LinkedIn Groups for marketing and self promotion

How can you use LinkedIn Groups for sales, marketing and self promotion

Last week I updated my LinkedIn groups. You can see my LinkedIn Group List Here:  

A perfect example great LinkedIn groups growing exponentially and buzzing with dialogs and networking is the LinkedIn group “Books and Writers”. This group has grown quickly to almost 7,000 users. Even better, the dialog and interaction is fantastic. 

Why is this group so great?  Simple, it is really a networking group full of action and adventure!  Well, maybe not adventure but it is filled with great members and excellent discussions on writing, books, publishing, how to market your books and everything book writers need to start and be successful.

How active is the group? It is so active that some discussions are reaching 1,000 comments. Wow!!!  Even better; there is no spam or “please add me to your network” or bad promotional material.

What’s in it for me?

Ok now you know the group is great and how all the members benefit from the group but you could be asking “what’s in it for you?” or “how do you use this for promotion?” There are a few basic steps that you must follow to grow you group and use it for promotion.

Administration of LinkedIn Groups:

You have to spend some time administrating the LinkedIn groups. Make sure you send jobs and promotions to the jobs and promotion tabs. Delete any spam or super-promoters that don’t add any real value to your group and moderate discussions at least once per week so that you know what’s going on with your group.

Your Discussion Posting:

Post something at least once per month. Better if you do it once per week but let’s be realistic! When you post a discussion make sure you make your discussion “featured” on the group. If it’s a great discussion that will add value to the LinkedIn groups you can send a blast to the whole group by email. Everyone will get an email about the post.

Don’t be a car salesperson:

No offense! Don’t just sell. Add value first and then sell into your LinkedIn Group. Let me give you an example. I started this LinkedIn groups as market study to see if there was interest in a social and professional network for authors.  Instead of paying a fancy marketing company thousands of dollars I did the research myself on LinkedIn Groups. I started a group and paid attention to the writers wants, needs, and problems.  Now that I have all the results I can start this new network for authors.  What’s the best part? I already have almost 7,000 book authors I can invite.

Remember… start your LinkedIn groups, add value and manage it once per week.

LinkedIn Groups

Here is a List of My LinkedIn Groups

To date you can create and manage up to 10 LinkedIn Groups

LinkedIn groups are one of the strongest networking and marketing strategies. If you look throughout the blog you’ll find a lot of information on LinkedIn groups, how to use them for sales, marketing and self promotion.  Here is an eclectic list of LinkedIn Groups from Beverage Development to Venture Capital, Literature, Mexico and more.

I have several LinkedIn Groups. You are welcome to join them all.

Venture Capital

Members = 2,900

Entrepreneurs, Executives, Investment Bankers, Venture Capital, Private Equity Companies and Investors can network, exchange ideas about deal flow, strategy, mergers and acquisitions, sales, marketing and everything related to business and money. For Entrepreneurs and Investors looking to network, connect; learn about deal flow, valuations, meetings and events. It is an active network that will combine information and experience to help entrepreneurs and investors make the right business decisions.

http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=875017

Beverage Business

Members = 3,204

Beverage Business Networking for Beverage Executives, Entrepreneurs, Manufacturers, Distributors, Importers, Exporters, Wholesalers, Retailers and Brand Managers. Find colleagues, expand your distribution, collaborate with other members and participate in beverage industry discussions. Beverage Development, Energy Drink, Energy Shot, Beer, Water, Convenience Stores, Retail, Supermarkets, Spirits, DSD, Soda, Vitaminwater, Coca Cola, Pepsi Cola, Dr. Pepper, Snapple, Wholesale Distribution and more. Lean about beverage development as well as beverage sales and distribution. Join our teleconferences and webinars all around the beverage industry.

http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=140132

Keynote Speakers

Members = 1,800

Professional Keynote Speakers and Event Managers learn abound keynotes, events, technology, knowledge and topics for presentations, seminars or training. It is an active group that talks about sales, books, marketing, social media, and other self promotion and tactical information. Network with Professional Keynote Speakers, Presenters, Coaches and Trainers as well as Seminar and Conference Organizers.

http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=883047

Book Sales and Marketing

Members = 6,500

Sell more of your books. Learn and network to get more of your books sold into book stores, Amazon, Barns and Noble, direct sales and even international rights sales. This group is for authors, publishers, editors, book literary agents and even future writers.  Learn about writing books as well as marketing and selling books. About how to create your author platform, find agents or self publish and collaborate with thousands of book authors.

http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1697027

Unselfish Self Promotion

Members = 400

Self Promotion & Self Branding. Promote & market yourself, your business, your products & your company… with a twist. Being unselfish as a form of marketing and promotion, what an idea! Unselfish Promotion is not just a business strategy, it is a life strategy. Join the Unselfish Self Promotion Group, learn more, & network with other unselfish promoters on LinkedIn.

http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=167595

Global Open Network

Members 1,100

Learn how to network on LinkedIn for marketing & business. Take advantage of all what LinkedIn has to offer with this knowledge & networking group delivering strategies and information on growing your network for your job, for marketing and to get more business. Use the Web 2.0 Social Networking strategies in LinkedIn to supercharge your business finding people in your industry that could turn into employees, partners, suppliers or customers.

http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=977707

Mexico Sales Group

Members = 1,180

Group Dedicated to doing business and networking in Mexico including Retailing, Export/Import, and Wholesale Distribution. If you do business in Mexico or are thinking of doing business in Mexico this is the group for you.

http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=56913

Linked For Marketing

Members = 552

Are you using Linked in to promote yourself, your products and services or your company?  Is LinkedIn now a top part of your marketing & communications?  It should be.  This group is dedicated to teaching, networking, & sharing how to use LinkedIn for Marketing.  www.LinkedInForMarketing.com

LinkedIn is one of the most effective channels for marketing in the world and yes, on the internet.  It has close to 30 million high earning business executives with their full profile.   You can use LinkedIn for PR, marketing, sales, communication, for finding talent, finding a job, writing, getting feedback, experts on any field, and more.

http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1788316

Make sure that you visit my other articles on how to use LinkedIn Groups for Sales, Marketing and Self Promotion

5 Things You Should Be Doing On LinkedIn But Likely Are NOT

Don’t you love it when people tell you what you are doing wrong?

Well, if you’ve read the book “how to win friends, and influence people” you’d know to avoid this tactic, for making friends.

However, in the blogging world, we get the benefit of skipping some of the practical rules of the world.
So let’s get to it. You absolutely should be doing these 5 key items:
1) Use the Widget and Links on Your Profile Page to Maximize Exposure. Getting people to visit your profile is half the battle with LinkedIn, however once they are there are you inviting them to go where you want them to go? Using the website links as well as widgets such as “Wordpress” to add your blogs post to you profile are a great way to engage people. These people are already interested in you, they are reading you profile. Don’t limit their engagement to what you can type on LinkedIn, take them to other places that can educate them further and/or promote your brand or your products.
2) Respond to Questions and Answers. This is often encouraged to gain expertise and “rank” within communities as an expert. This is very true, however there is also a very important aspect of engagement when you provide value to a conversation in this format. You automatically engage a targeted audience who all have a certain mindset. If you’re savvy, you cannot just build expertise, but you can weave in relevant self-promotion that is usually highly effective.
3) Provide research to a community. This is basically providing a group with interesting data and topics as news or discussion. Similar to the reasons above, this type of engagement will not only provide you an audience and build your rank within a community, it will also make people more receptive and engaging when you lead them to self promotion. People don’t mind being “pitched” or getting some level of promotion from folks as long as they first get value from them.
4) Figure out what you want, then build a group to accomplish it. Most people feel intimidate to start their own group on LinkedIn or feel like it’s going to be a hassle to maintain. Before you dismiss it, give it a try. It’s not that hard and you may be surprised by how many professionals out there are interested in same goals or topics you are. Owning a group has several advantages, perhaps the largest is you can communicate directly to them at any time.
5) Use LinkedIn. Ok, this one sounds a bit dumb. However a majority of people we train do not login and interact frequently. They use it more as a repository for their online resume, which they update once every few months, then happily go about “facebooking” several times a day. This is ok if you’re 18 or if you have no current professional goals or needs. However, if you need a job or have a business objective that requires others, get on LinkedIn! It’s overlooked often, but truly is one of the most effective and powerful networking tools today.
For more information, join one of our linkedInformarketing.com webinars and subscribe to our newsletter.
Dave Albertson
Small Business Growth Expert

Keynote Speakers Network on LinkedIn

Network with thousands of other Keynote Speakers, Event Organizers and Speaking Bureaus on this new group on the LinkedIn.com Social and Professional Network.

Professional Keynote Speakers and Event Managers learn abound keynotes, events, technology, knowledge and topics for presentations, seminars or training. It is an active group that talks about sales, books, marketing, social media, and other self promotion and tactical information.

Join the social network LinkedIn.com and then the group Keynote Speakers to network with Professional Keynote Speakers, Presenters and Trainers as well as Seminar and Conference Organizers. The network is based in Southern California and welcomes members form all over the world. Updates are made every two weeks and we have meetings in Southern California.

Join the Group Here: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=883047

”Would You Like to be a LinkedIn Marketing Star? Don’t forget to sign up for our LinkedIn For Marketing Newsletter to get free videos, audios and strategy once per week.

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Find a Job With The New Job Feature on LinkedIn Groups

LinkedIn has a new feature on the Group section, it is a job board. This is a great idea as many people are using the Group Discussion as a job board and many group administrators don’t like it. Many administrators even posted a dedicated discussion thread for jobs, many times entitled “Post Your Jobs Here”.

As of today, you can’t see the job board inside groups by simply looking at a list of groups; this is probably a bug. You actually have to click something within the groups such as news, discussion, or any other link. After you click any link you will see Jobs as part of the main menu within the post.

This new feature will complement the general Job feature that you see at the top of LinkedIn as one of their main menu items together with People, Answers, and Companies. The difference is that the Group Jobs are free to post, so you’ll see many more jobs there than in the general job posting.

What to do if you are looking for a job? Join all the groups that you can, LinkedIn allows you to join 50. Join the groups that relate to your industry or job expertise and also join any groups of HR or Recruiting professional so you can network with them. Finally, join groups in your city or area. For example, I live in San Diego, California and there are more than 10 groups dedicated to San Diegans.

Once you join all the groups go to the job posting part of the groups and start scanning for jobs. Contact the person that posted the job directly and strike a conversation or relationship. Don’t just send resumes to everyone, otherwise you are missing the point of networking. Remember, the power of LinkedIn lies in the people, the relationships you can establish and how you use these relationships.

If you have not already, make sure you profile is complete with photo, job history, education, skills, etc. This way the recruiters of HR managers can check you out before giving you a call.

Don’t forget to sign up for our LinkedIn For Marketing Newsletter to get free videos, audios and strategy once per week.

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Some comments from – Never Ask “Add Me To Your Network” in a LinkedIn Group Discussion-

These are some posts form the article -Never say “add me to yoru network” in a LinkedIn group discussion.

You can read the whole article here http://linkedinformarketing.com/never-ask-add-me-to-your-network-in-a-linkedin-group-discussion/

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It’s amazing that I came across this post. Being new to Linked In, I too wanted to begin making professional and reputable contacts, but my sixth sense was telling me that sending out invites to the unknown masses was not the best way to go. I am in the beggining stages of researching and preparing to begin my consulting career and this has just confirmed that I am going to continue to work hard at gaining reliable contacts!

Mia Goodwin
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Mia,

LinkedIn is a great way to find consulting clients as you can establish yourself as an expert in your industry.

Jorge Olson