This is for B2B marketers. Linkedin has 660 million users and many are serious business users. Since Linkedin is an expensive social media platform to advertise on, you need to use Linkedin Groups to your advantage.

It's important to choose the right groups to join and participate in. In order to find the right groups to join use the keyword search and filter it for Linkedin Groups. This will give you search results in Groups for your keyword search and you can even drill-down from there.

The difference between using Linkedin Discover and your own keyword research of Groups is that if you use the Linkedin Discover feature, then Linkedin will recommend the Groups you should join based upon the information that you have in your profile. You can use this in addition to doing your own research, but don't rely on just this feature.

If you aren't able to find the perfect Linkedin Group to join, then create one yourself. This is a great way to be in front of your audience and in control of everything that takes place in your group. There are rules and limitations on what you can do with groups, so please follow the rules so that you don't get locked out of groups altogether.

It's equally important to follow the rules in the groups that you do join – every Group Manager establishes rules for their Linkedin Group and if you don't follow them you will get the boot.

Here are some tips when in a group and trying to make a connection:

~ use questions to create conversations

~ keep your posts short and sweet (nobody wants to read “War & Peace”)

~ don't post links that take people out of Linkedin (the algorithms favor you if your posts keep people in Linkedin vs sending them to a landing page)

~ listen to the issues and problems people are having (perfect place for you to gain the information to create a solution to those issues and problems)

Remember that the same type of rules in regular networking meetings apply, you don't want to be rude and blast out commercials for your business continuously.  Unfortunately, some people never get this.

To Success!

Kathy Perry - kathyperry.com