LinkedIn Groups with Rich Fiene – #RockTheWorld Radio History

Listen to our November 15, 2010 show!

Why join LinkedIn groups?

October 6, 2011

Back last November there were some awesome things going on with LinkedIn. We were psyched about the new features for company pages. You could now advertise for products and services, put up pictures of products, get recommendations for your company, and in general get much more engaged with customers. They also developed a badge you could get a link under the edit screen, throw out to other pages, and encourage traffic to your company page.

We also caught up with Rich Fiene in Minneapolis to talk about LinkedIn groups. Rich manages a local regional group as well as a Fantasy Football group and had some great advice for the rest of us.

He joined his local groups first because they help you get to know people in your area. He later started a Fantasy Football group because it was a hobby that he enjoys, and over the years it has become one of the largest Fantasy Football groups on LinkedIn. Although it started as just a casual interest, he has even used his it to find business opportunities.

That is the value of joining LinkedIn groups relating to your interests. When you have these opportunities to connect with people outside of work, you can develop better bonds. You develop a more personal relationship, which makes people more likely to remember you.

Rich also told us how he markets his groups differently. The local group he will advertise when he meets people in his area. The fantasy football group often advertises itself. People will see the icon on other people’s pages and seek to join the group themselves. That is one reason it is so good to have an attractive icon!

Rich also gave us the great search tip of sorting results by number of connections. This will allow you to see who actively uses LinkedIn (and whose profiles will be up to date), as well as how familiar the person is with the system. That is great to know when you are looking to connect with someone.

What awesome tips! Remember to tune in each week on Monday at 7pm!

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