The Research Playbook

Posts Tagged ‘Discussion Groups’

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When you start a new discussion, it will be displayed on the first page, but not for long, especially if you posted your discussion in large group, with perhaps 100,000 or 200,000 members. A large number of discussions might be posted on such a group and to make room for the newest topics the not-so-old discussions are pushed to the background (page 2 and then to page 3, 5, 10 etc.) relatively quickly.

Unless your discussion attracts comments and “likes” very quickly it may not see the light of day for very long. Unfortunately, some good discussion topics that may attract attention simply do not stay on the front page long enough for interested parties to see them and comment. However, there are ways to extend the life of your discussion and give people who have an interest time to read it and hopefully comment.

If your discussion is quickly noticed and even one-person comments on it others are likely to comment on it too. Once the ball is rolling, you’ll have a fighting chance to achieve a measure of sustainability. Others will be curious and take notice, which often generates more comments and so forth.

Nothing succeeds like success!

The question is how to increase the chance your discussion will attract that all-important push from one or two initial readers. The answer is to invite people you have a connection with who are also members of the discussion group and ask them to comment or at least click on the like button.

Of course, this tactic works best if you are connected to a large number of people who share group membership with you. If this is not the case, get to work building your contacts!
 

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One of the most important activities on LinkedIn is joining and then participating in group discussions. This is where you meet people, explore ideas, make new connections, and overtime find resources and possibly clients. A question I am asked often is “Which groups should I join?”

There is no one answer, it always depends on your needs and objectives. However, allow me to make a recommendation that will serve you well regardless of the topic or your objectives for participating on group discussions.

It is relatively easy to find a LinkedIn discussion group that focuses on your topic of interest. In fact, you are very likely to find multiple groups that are specific to or touch on your interests.

How do you choose? Of course, relevance is the first criteria, but size matters too.

Typically, for any particular topic you’ll find very large groups with 10’s of thousands or perhaps 100’s of thousands of members, modest size groups less than 10,000 members, and small groups with hundreds of people. Each type of group by size has a unique value for your business.

The largest groups provide the broadest audience and a high volume of discussions. However, this is also a weakness, that is, with large groups, keeping your discussion thread on the front page will be challenging.

The modest size groups have a large enough membership to be of high value and you can more easily stand out in the crowd. You can achieve an influential status within a group by offering useful comments on other people’s discussions before launching your own discussions. With a few simple tactics (discussed in an up coming post) you can easily stay on the front page and perhaps achieve “Top Influencer” status for the week.

Small groups do not offer a broad audience, but they do offer you the potential of presenting your skills with little or no competition. A small group can provide you with a monopoly-like environment, where you’re the only game in town, at least for a narrow topic area.

The best approach is to explore all three types of groups and find ways to be known better, be helpful, and possibly attract prospects and resources.

Please listen to our video http://bit.ly/LinkedIn_Grps_Unleashed

And, comment on your experiences as a participant in LinkedIn groups – we’d like to hear from you!

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