It’s been almost a year since I started the North Fulton Business Group on LinkedIn. When I first created the group I looked at the functionality available, and other than a member having the ability to view additional profiles with a common interest, there really wasn’t much else. You couldn’t even search groups. Most people found groups to join by seeing them on other members profiles.
In September of 2008 I was the only member of the NFBG. At that point I decided that If I wanted to create value for potential members then I would have to create an offline site. Thus the NorthFultonBG.com site was created. With it came the ability for members to:
- Post Articles
- Post Free Ads
- Post Events
- Add Contact Information
- Participate in Forum Discussions
- Add their business to the Business Directory
I even wrote a blog post saying in effect that these were the very things that LinkedIn should be providing with their Groups. Fast forward 6 months and much of this is now in place.
Within LinkedIn groups you can post discussion questions (goodbye NFBG forum), you can post news articles (NFBG Articles), You can add advertisements in the form of a question (NFBG Ads), you can view other members profiles and send them a LinkedIn message (almost as good as NFBG), you can post jobs under discussions (NFBG Jobs), I can now send a weekly newsletter, and you can search group members (sort of like looking at a directory).
So I’m left wondering if there is a purpose for the northfultonbg.com site and does it provide enough value to remain. It is a pain to have to register on the LinkedIn Group and the NFBG site. And posting articles and discussion questions is easier on LinkedIn.
LinkedIn could end the discussion by adding a few more features to Groups:
1. Allow all LinkedIn members to add their contact information to their profile. In conjuncture, allow LI members to segment their connections and choose who can access their full contact information – Part of this (the ability to classify connections) is in beta testing taking place. Hopefully once this is launched it will coincide with adding contact inf0…much like Plaxo does.
2. Add calendar and event scheduling to Groups. Currently this would be done through adding a discussion. But it would be nice to have a calendar of events within the Group. Currently LinkedIn has events, but when I look at upcoming events on my home profile it shows event in NY and CA, not my local events. Maybe you can set it up to only show local events but I have not stumbled on the “how to” yet.
I’m sure there are some additional things that would improve groups. For the time being I’m keeping the non-LinkedIn site active, but I am begining to wonder if the time spent on it would be better spent elsewhere.
How about you. What functionality do you think that LinkedIn should add to Groups?
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About Sean Nelson
Your suggestions on group functionality are very thoughtful and very foresightful. Thank goodness Linked In caught up with you. You have inspired me to further explore how to optimize my group memberships.
I’m a few months behind you and also stumbling for answers. Finding a good how to guide for Linkedin features is proving to be illusive.
I recently joined a local employment network group, which wants to create a separate website to advertise it’s members to potential employers, along with the features you mentioned on your site. I want to think that all of this can be accomplished within LinkedIn, to avoid redundancy and extra maintenance.
How do you send you weekly newsletter using LinkedIn, or is this using your offline site?
Also, search as I may, I haven’t found a way to post Events within a Group (your wish #2). Have you found a work around?
Laurie,
Too bad my response skills were not on display following your comment. Not sure how I missed the comment but just saw it.
Thanks for the comments and I’m glad LinkedIn updated their groups. It’s made a huge difference in the ability to communicate to a larger audience.
Sean
Gerry,
Thanks for posting to an old blog post. This is why blogs out perform email for communicating…the content has an extended shelf life in a blog.
As far as finding that elusive guide I think you should check out my LinkedIn MBA book. For $4.97 and at 155 pages it’s a great resource. The Workbook and the LinkedIn Marketing Secret formula books are good resources as well. Finally not in a book form, but you should find some good direction reading through the posts on this blog.
Groups have evolved since I wrote this post to the point that I cancelled the offline site. You can now post discussion questions, news articles, and jobs posts within groups.
As far as sending a newsletter the owner of the group can send a weekly newsletter to members of the group.
For events if you create an event you can then post the link to the event within your group as a discussion post.
As far as advertising the group to potential employers that can only be done through LinkedIn’s advertising feature or by members of the group posting in status updates or as discussions in groups.
Hope this helps.
Sean