If you are looking for ways to improve your B2B social media results, then you should be using LinkedIn as your main platform. Many businesses see results with this professional social media network by having employees represent the company through company pages. Most people use LinkedIn to build connections or to post updates/content to their activity feeds. However to achieve real engagement you need to have a presence within the LinkedIn industry groups.
So how can you tell which Linkedin groups are worth your while?
Well the simple answer is that you could just join a horde of groups relevant to your industry and follow the activity that takes place on those pages. However, you will find that most groups will have that one person who will spam constant links to promote or drive traffic to their content and website. Not only this but with over 1 million LinkedIn groups and the fact that you can only join 50; it can be a difficult task to whittle down the groups that will be relevant to you. Most people would much rather spend their time in fewer groups where the discussions are topical and of interest, rather than a spam fest.
It isn’t productive to spread yourself too thin across many groups that will not add any value to you or your business. LinkedIn has the answer by providing a function to aid you in your decision making process. LinkedIn group statistics helps you analyse a number of thing to help you decide which groups would best suit your needs. Firstly you need to review the group by using the “group statistics” button on the group page, so don’t just add the groups just yet. The statistics tab is located in the right hand column under the “top influencers for the week” section. Once you have selected this option, you will see graphics and tab options that you can choose from. From here you will want to look at the “activity” selecting the same titled tab to review the group’s statistics. The graph show the number of discussions and the number of comments made within the group. You need to consider the ratio of discussions posted and the comments that have lead from those posts. Remember LinkedIn class discussions (in green) as the original topical post, not the activity that proceeds from a post, comments (in Blue).
Confused!? You simply you want to see if people are having conversations within this group. You have to compare the number of discussions to see if they are much higher than the number of comments. This is to determine if people are leaving new posts, but they’re not starting conversations. Once you have used the stats to determine the group’s activity, you will then want to look at the conversations being had within the group. The stats may show relevant activity, but it doesn’t tell you whether the topics and discussions being had are healthy and worthwhile to you. Use the groups activity feed to see if the discussions are interesting to you, you may surprise yourself and find a few questions you can answer.
The last thing to look at is whether the group is open or closed. Closed groups tend to be less spammy because they are actively monitored by a “community manager”. Some of these groups even have rules about what you can or can’t do. Once you have followed this process and you are happy that the group is valuable, introduce yourself, start a discussion and join in with others. From there you will build relationships and can increase your connection network; you maybe even start to do business with people. If you are trying to get to grips with LinkedIn but are not seeing the desired outcomes why not attend one of our “LinkedIn for Business” training courses . Contact us to learn more: 01245 791969 or email [email protected]
