Linked to Influence

by Stephanie Sammons

  The Exceptions to Sending Bulk Messages to Connections

  LinkedIn allows you to send the same e-mail message to up to fifty of your contacts at one time. Each one of your connections would receive the exact same message, which means there is no way to customize or personalize the message on an individual basis.

  I generally believe that most people on LinkedIn are not opposed to receiving a message like this if they know you fairly well and your message is professional and relevant.

  An example of an acceptable bulk message is when you are traveling to a city where some of your connections live and you want to set up an informal gathering. Another example might be to invite a group of your connections to an event or webinar you are hosting. I also believe it is acceptable to send a content piece that you have developed that can benefit a specific group of your connections.

  Make sure you do not allow the recipients to see each other’s names or e-mail addresses!

  I have also used the bulk-messaging feature to ask for feedback on a project I was thinking about launching. I sent a message to a small group of my connections to tell them about the project and to ask for their feedback. I knew the individuals in this group would give me their honest opinions, and they did.

  As long as you use the bulk-messaging feature carefully and don’t abuse it, it can be beneficial in certain situations

  From One-to-One Messaging to Phone or In-Person Meetings

  If you truly want to move a connection to a client, you are most likely going to need to have a phone call or face-to-face meeting with them (including virtual face-to-face). Taking the conversation to the next level is almost always necessary for developing the appropriate level of trust for doing business together.

  The good news is, one-to-one LinkedIn messages can accelerate the relationship-building process and get you to this point with someone more quickly.

  Leverage LinkedIn messaging to build that necessary rapport around common connection points and shared connections. Use these messages to stay in touch, add value, and introduce your connections to people they should know within your network.

  I have found that when you consistently add value through personalized LinkedIn messages, your connections will be much more receptive to getting on the phone with you or meeting with you in person.

  In Summary

  While most LinkedIn members are either not utilizing or abusing LinkedIn’s messaging features, you can make this an area where you stand out.

  Start building your personal influence on LinkedIn with one person at a time! Use LinkedIn messages to expand your smart network and network smarter with your connections.

  Most importantly, understand that no form of electronic communications can replace face-to-face interaction. What it can do is enhance and strengthen your relationships.

  Chapter 6—RULE #6: Get LinkedIn to Groups

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  Individual commitment to a group effort—that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.

  -Vince Lombardi

  As a college basketball player, I’ve always been plugged in to teams and groups. There is tremendous value in the collective knowledge of people who share common interests, struggles, and goals. Groups also need leaders. Whether you step up your participation in existing LinkedIn groups you belong to or start your own, it’s a chance to be a leader and grow your influence.

  LinkedIn groups offer a dynamic experience to connect and converse with other members around common topics, goals, and passions. LinkedIn has also been making an effort to improve the groups experience for its users.

  LinkedIn groups are a great opportunity to build rapport, make new connections, provide value, find new prospects, engage with existing clients, and grow your influence.

  Creating your own LinkedIn group also has its advantages. When you create your own group, you have much more control over the experience. You put yourself in a leadership position when you are a group owner, which is key to building your personal influence on LinkedIn.

  I created a niche LinkedIn group several years ago that today has over thirty-five hundred members. It has been a quality source of new leads for me and continues to attract new members on autopilot. I will be sharing more about how and why to start your own group later in this chapter.

  Currently there are over two million groups on LinkedIn. You can find local groups, industry groups, interest-based groups, and everything in between.

  How to Find LinkedIn Groups to Join

  LinkedIn allows you to join up to fifty groups. The key is to find relevant, quality groups that are managed well.

  I recommend joining up to the limit of fifty LinkedIn groups. Although you likely won’t be able to effectively participate in all fifty groups, there are benefits to joining that many. The main benefit to joining up to fifty groups is that you can see the full LinkedIn profiles of mutual group members, and they can see yours. You also have the ability to message mutual group members on LinkedIn directly (limited to fifteen messages per month) without being officially connected.

  Some LinkedIn groups are open and some are closed. With open groups, discussions are indexed by Google (and other search engines) and are discoverable in LinkedIn searches. With closed groups, discussions are hidden. You won’t be able to see them unless you join.

  Join the LinkedIn groups that align most closely with your unique marketing opportunities, where you can connect and engage with the people who fit within your “smart network” parameters (covered in Rule #2).

  Also, review the LinkedIn profiles of your existing connections who are clients, prospects, and referral sources to see which groups they belong to. Most LinkedIn members will showcase the groups they belong to on their profiles due to this being a default setting.

  I have seen some LinkedIn experts teach that you shouldn’t join LinkedIn groups of your industry peers. I strongly disagree with this. Your peers can be some of your greatest online advocates and can help build your influence. You can also find editors and journalists spending time in industry-related groups.

  To find relevant LinkedIn groups to join, conduct searches within LinkedIn. Look for industry-related groups, location-based groups, association/organization groups, peer groups, alumni groups, hobby/interest groups, and affinity groups that are a natural fit for you. Enter keywords into LinkedIn search to narrow your search results.

  Out of the two million groups on LinkedIn, you will most likely be able to find fifty worth joining. It is important to conduct some due diligence before you submit that request to join.

  How to Conduct Due Diligence on a LinkedIn Group

  Before you request to join a group, click on the group’s “About” tab to learn more. Here you can see the group’s profile, owner, and number of members. If it’s a public group, you can see the discussions and members of the group. You will be able to see group members who are in your network, whether the group is public or private. With a private group, you will not be able to see any of the discussions.

  Keep in mind that the number of group members and the types of discussions taking place don’t always tell the full story. Once you identify groups that look interesting, you will want to dig deeper to determine if the group is well managed. A spammy group will be immediately obvious when you look at the discussions, for example. They will be highly promotional.

  Look for the frequent presence of the group owner and/or manager within public group discussions as well. This is usually an indication that the group is well managed.

  As mentioned, you won’t be able to see any discussions within private groups until you become a member. Private groups tend to be better managed than public groups. Also, some LinkedIn groups require that your request to join be preapproved. Typically, I have found that these groups are better managed than groups that allow anyone to join.

  Corporate-sponsored LinkedIn groups are typically very high quality and usually have large memberships (Citi “Conn
ect” for Professional Women and “Succeed” Staples Small Business Network are two examples). These groups, along with any official LinkedIn groups, will be marked with an “Official” badge.

  Specific industry association groups and some local groups tend to be better managed as well. I’ve also seen some wonderful “interest” groups that are thriving because the topics of discussion are centered on a specific hobby or interest.

  Keep an eye out for suggestions from LinkedIn on which groups might interest you. The key to making LinkedIn groups work is doing your homework and finding the quality groups that are well managed.

  Try to build rapport with the group managers of the groups you belong to. This is a good way to earn their trust and respect when you do have valuable content to share.

  Add Value and Avoid Self-Promotion in Groups

  One of the reasons that the popularity of LinkedIn groups has declined somewhat is because of high spam levels. For a time, members of groups could post links to their own content or offers across multiple groups with the click of a button. This is no longer allowed.

  LinkedIn groups are now set up by default to flag promotional posts and send them to the “Promotions” tab. Group managers can review link posts that you share, but most of them opt for the default setting where LinkedIn does the work for them. If you engage in the practice of promoting your content links frequently across your LinkedIn groups, you may get banned from posting and participating altogether.

  In the past, you could also share your status updates on LinkedIn simultaneously with any of your groups. This option is also no longer available.

  In order to successfully build influence in LinkedIn groups, utilize them in the way they were designed to function. Authentically engage with other group members by participating in group discussions. It’s not just the active members who will see your discussions and comments. Many of the non-active group members are receiving e-mail notifications daily or weekly highlighting the active discussions.

  With public LinkedIn groups, your discussions and comments will post automatically to your news feed, where your connections can see what you are sharing. Public groups and discussions are also discoverable within LinkedIn search.

  Asking good questions to start discussions is hands down one of the most successful ways to engage group members. You will get far more engagement from a discussion initiated with a question than you ever would from posting a link to an article.

  Another huge benefit of asking questions to start group discussions is that it is free research. Getting feedback, ideas, and suggestions from your fellow group members can be very helpful. Once I asked the same question across relevant LinkedIn groups about the best resource for earning my continuing education credits I needed for a certification I have. I received over one hundred responses. Best of all, I uncovered a terrific resource for getting my continuing education credits completed very quickly!

  When other group members are asking questions, jump in to share your thoughts and feedback. People greatly appreciate hearing suggestions and feedback from group members. Participating in these discussions can also position you as a leader. From time to time, if you have a relevant piece of content to share that could be helpful to the discussion, just make sure it is educational and not promotional.

  For example, I had written an in-depth article about LinkedIn that was pertinent to a group discussion I was participating in. Within the context of the discussion, I pointed to one of my blog posts mentioning that I had done some further research on the topic that might be helpful. The group members involved in this discussion were very appreciative to have the resource.

  When you share content within groups, especially when it is your own, it is all about positioning.

  By participating authentically in LinkedIn group discussions, you set the stage for building rapport and trust with members, as well as group managers. Group managers are good people to know, as I will explain shortly! You will also position yourself as a leader, build influence, and grow your network by participating consistently in LinkedIn group discussions.

  Sending Messages to Out-of-Network Mutual Group Members

  There are two major benefits of joining LinkedIn groups. You can view profiles and send direct messages to any mutual group members, whether you are connected to them on LinkedIn or not. These reasons alone are enough to explore and leverage LinkedIn groups. Many LinkedIn users still belong to groups, even though they are no longer actively participating.

  Recently, LinkedIn limited the number of messages you can send to mutual group members to fifteen per month across all groups you belong to. This includes any 1st-degree connections you share group memberships with.

  Prior to this rule, you could send unlimited messages to mutual group members. Abusive marketing practices forced LinkedIn to put the new limitation in place. Additionally, this limitation is in keeping with the trend of LinkedIn offering fewer benefits to free members.

  I recommend using these fifteen monthly messages to build one-on-one rapport with mutual group members who fit into your “smart network” criteria with the single goal of connecting. Get them in your network. Once you bring someone new into your network, you have a much greater ability to build rapport and influence with them.

  When sending a message to a mutual group member, I recommend introducing yourself and mentioning the mutual group membership. After that, dive right in to striking up a conversation about a common interest. More often than not, I use this first message to ask for advice, insight, or feedback.

  Here’s an example of a message to a mutual group member:

  “Hi John,

  We are both members of [fill in the blank] group on LinkedIn. I noticed that you attended (name of industry conference) recently. I’ve been thinking about attending myself! I would love to know what you thought about it the experience and whether or not you would recommend it.”

  All you want to do with that first message is build some rapport and get the person engaged with you. Later in the messaging thread, after you have thanked the person for their feedback, let them know that you would like to send them an invitation to connect.

  If you are blocked from sending an invitation to this person, you will need to ask for their e-mail address. Or, you can review their profile and see if they have an e-mail address listed there.

  The key is to use your fifteen monthly group messages wisely. Find mutual group members who could be valuable connections for your network and build rapport with them through these messages.

  Partner with Existing Group Owners and Managers

  Building relationships with existing group managers is an overlooked opportunity for building your influence within a LinkedIn group.

  As mentioned previously, when you first join a group is the best time to connect with the manager initially. You need to be on the group manager’s radar and build rapport before you can think about partnering.

  Partnering works well when you have a valuable resource that the group manager can utilize to add value to his or her group members. You can find this out in two ways.

  First, review popular discussions in the group, including the “Manager’s Choice” discussions. Next, send a personalized message to the group manager and ask what key challenges group members struggle with and/or what are they most interested in learning more about.

  Ideally, you would already know the answer to these questions because this is your target market and area of expertise. Once you receive a response, tell the group manager you are happy to create or cocreate a complimentary resource (e-book or webinar, for example) to address the biggest struggle or challenge that group members are currently facing.

  You could also request to interview a group manager for a blog post or podcast episode on the topic. The group manager would most likely want to share this content with his or her group.

  If you build a truly valuable, relevant resource for a group manager, they are likely to promote it to their group mem
bers. Many group managers are looking for quality resources to share with their members!

  I have worked with a few industry-related group managers to create valuable content for them to share with their members. The group manager was happy to have something of value to share, and I was happy to have the exposure to the group members.

  Start Your Own LinkedIn Group

  Starting your own LinkedIn group can be a viable strategy for growing your network, your influence, and, ultimately, your business.

  One of the greatest benefits of launching your own group is that you immediately put yourself in a position of leadership. Growing and managing a group takes dedication and hard work. If it were easy, everyone would do it and all LinkedIn groups would be spam-free!

  When you step up and commit to developing your own LinkedIn group, members of your group will view you as an influencer in your industry or target market.

  If you create a group focused on the people you want to connect with on LinkedIn, you can build up your own LinkedIn network by connecting with your group members. Having a targeted group is a very effective way to grow your network.

  You can create many different types of groups on LinkedIn, but there are certain types of groups that work better for the purpose of building your influence and growing your business. These include a geographically based professional networking group, a group that serves your specific target market or niche, a group focused on your subject matter expertise, a group that compliments an event that you run, or a professional alliance group.