Most Popular ArticlesOctober 20, 2009
Once you have thoroughly researched potential groups and have been accepted into as many as possible, the next step is to find people to invite to your group. LinkedIn allows you to contact group members directly without an upgraded account. The more groups you belong to, the more people you will be able to directly access and invite. You may want to send an invitation to every member of the other groups you have joined.
However, you may end up with people that don’t fit your target market this way, so here is a different tactic. If members of your target market tend to work for similar companies, use the “Companies” page to search for current employees. You won’t be able to see everyone who works for the company you searched, but you will be able to see those who are first, second or third connections or are members of a group that you belong to. (A first connection is someone to whom you are linked; a second connect is someone to whom they are linked; and a third connection is someone to whom that person is linked.)
By now, you should have invited your first connections to your group and you won’t be able to invite your second or third connections without an upgraded account, so ignore those people. The people you will want to invite are the group members. You can send an invitation to everyone with “group” next to their name. Do this by clicking “Send a message.” Briefly describe why you are inviting them, state the purpose of the group and include a link for them to join. Since you will have to invite each person separately, this can take hours to complete. I recommend you have an administrative assistant or intern do this for you. Continue to do this with different companies until you have either exhausted all of the possible invitees or have a solid membership base. From there you can rely on the LinkedIn group directory to continue to organically grow your group membership.
Weekly maintenance
A group needs regular activity to be successful. Monitor the group discussions and answer any questions you can – either publicly or privately. Discussions and news articles will eventually disappear if there is no activity, so make sure that there is at least one new discussion or news article each week. Eventually, group members will begin participating on their own, which will provide for richer content and will spur more participation.
In the meantime, it is up to you to keep the group alive.
If you have something particularly important to share with your group, such as a new study or white paper, use the “Send an Announcement” feature to email the entire group. This provides another outlet to contact your target market. Use this feature sparingly since you don’t want to be perceived as spamming your members.
A final word of advice
This is an advanced LinkedIn marketing tactic. Make sure you are comfortable with LinkedIn before initiating this tactic, or seek assistance to ensure that it is done correctly. Be clear as to the purpose of your group, who you are targeting and focus your communication to meet their needs. Let your group know that you are available to answer any questions they may have and provide them the opportunity to contact you so you can measure your results.
Kristen Luke is the Principal of Wealth Management Marketing, a firm dedicated to providing marketing strategies and support for financial advisors. Kristen works with independent advisors to develop effective marketing plans and provides the back office support required to implement the strategies. For more information visit www.wealthmanagementmarketing.net.
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