In my last video, I talked about how LinkedIn can help you to easily follow up, stay in touch, and interact with your real-life contacts and clients if you’re connected with them on LinkedIn. But LinkedIn is also a great way to expand your network beyond people you already know in real life. Today we’re going to talk about how you can do that using LinkedIn Groups.
Groups can help you find and connect with more people in your target audience – and that’s exactly where you should start.
When joining LinkedIn Groups with the specific goal of expanding your network, think about who your target audience is and what they are interested in.
What groups do they belong to in real life?
What information are they interested in receiving?
Then do a search for LinkedIn Groups on that topic.
Whether your target audience is small business owners in a specific industry (hospitality, insurance, or in-house counsel), or they have a specific interest, like cycling, there are groups on LinkedIn organized specifically for that audience.
You can also look at your best clients, connections and referral sources to see what Groups they belong to on LinkedIn. Chances are those Groups also contain other people that fit within your target audience.
To see what Groups your LinkedIn connections belong to, go to their Profile and scroll down until you see the “interests” section. Click on “see all” – the Groups your connections belong to on LinkedIn will be listed there.
Once you have joined a Group, you’ll be able to see a list of all of the members in that Group. Look for members who are second-level connections – these will be the easiest for you to connect with because you can send them a connection invitation directly. Once you start connecting within the Group, it will become even easier, because more members of the Group will become second-level connections by virtue of mutual connections within the Group.
So, if you’re looking to expand your network, give LinkedIn Groups a try!
To find out how I can help you with your LinkedIn or other social media strategy, please send me a message on LinkedIn or contact me by email.
See more LinkedIn videos:
- What Does It Mean To Be Yourself And Add Value On Social Media?
- Notify Employees of LinkedIn Posts
- Saving LinkedIn Posts
- Taking Control of Your LinkedIn Feed Part III
- Taking Control of Your LinkedIn Feed Part II
- Taking Control of Your LinkedIn Feed
- 5 Ways to Take LinkedIn to the Next Level
- Why Create a Poll on LinkedIn?
- Two Ways to Build Engagement on LinkedIn
- Writing Effective Comments on LinkedIn
