If you're on LinkedIn, there is a chance you may have participated in or even created a LinkedIn group. Familiarity can make a big difference in your business's social media strategy. 

Getting Started

Creating a LinkedIn group requires an active personal account on the social platform. 

You have the option of creating a standard group or an unlisted one. The unlisted group cannot be found when searched so admins will need to invite all of the members. 

Creating A Group

1. Go to ‘Interests’ at the top of your LinkedIn homepage and click on ‘Groups’.
2. Click ‘Create a group’ on the right.
3. Fill in the required information shown by the red asterisk.
4. Add a group image and create a group name 
5. Choose a group type
6. Enter a summary for your group using keywords that are relevant to your group and company brand. About 100-200 words
7. Enter a full description, go into more depth around 300-500 words.
8. Enter your website and group owner’s email
9. Decide whether you want people to join automatically or request to join. You can also pre-approve members from a particular domain.
10. Choose a language for your group and decide whether you want to open it to all countries or you want to base it in a single location.
11. Click on Twitter announcement to promote the group on your Twitter account.
12. Read terms of service and check ‘Agree’.
13. Click ‘Create’ to set up your group as an open group or a members-only group.

Helpful Tips

Some of the following tips can help you begin after you create a group. 

Inviting Members

• Send out invites to your connections
• Utilize your email list
• Post to other social platforms to bring in members

Engagement

• Update existing members with a weekly email (announcements)
• Require an introduction upon starting the group
• Check the group regularly to keep up on conversation

New Features

LinkedIn released a variety of new features throughout 2016. 

All Groups Are Now Private Groups

“Our research has shown that professional conversations are most effective in a private trusted space, so conversations in groups won't be visible until you've joined the group.”

All Groups Are Now Members-Only Groups

"Joining a LinkedIn group now requires either an invitation or approval of your request. Our data has shown that open groups have historically attracted a larger percentage of low-quality conversations. Members-only groups have created significantly more participation and conversations than others (up to five times more), indicating that members feel more confident contributing in these types of groups.”

Removal of Subgroups

"We recognize that subgroups were important to the organization of some of our larger groups. However, for the majority of our members, the experience was confusing. In order to surface these subgroups to members and to help these subgroups grow, they will now be treated as their own independent groups. As a result, group owners will no longer be able to create subgroups.”

Social Media Marketing

We can help you get started on social media marketing or answer any existing questions.