You’re on LinkedIn. Your friends and co-workers and clients are connected to your personal and business LinkedIn pages. Your neighbor’s cousin’s roommate’s mentor is on LinkedIn, and even that person is probably connected to you somehow. 
That’s the beauty of LinkedIn. As the world’s largest professional network, this more-than-social site specializes in drawing together people of diverse but relatable backgrounds who otherwise never would have met – not even on Facebook. It’s six degrees of Kevin Bacon on a global scale, and for marketers that means plenty of opportunity to find best practices, grow your skills, read the latest news, identify prospective employees, ask questions and offer insight.
Ideally, your LinkedIn company profiles and personal profiles are robust with updates, contact information and industry links. Joining LinkedIn marketing groups widens your network considerably, and the choices among them are just as considerable.
Things to Consider When Selecting Groups
- Some groups are public, meaning anyone can sign up.
- Others are private, meaning a group owner or moderator waves you in after reviewing your (presumably sterling) credentials.
Of course, you don’t want to just sign up for just any LinkedIn group – you want the best. You got it.
Big-Picture Groups to Join
- Innovative Marketing, PR, Sales & Social Media Innovators Innovation Network by Gerald Haman. How could you not be drawn to such a mouthful of a name – and the fact that its leader calls himself “Solutionman” only sweetens the deal. But behind that name stands nearly a quarter million members who have joined in the group’s mission to share what they know and great stuff they’ve found online. Industry articles, webinar invitations, Q&As and how-tos abound, with most of the content already tried in the field. A recent load of content spotlighted marketing strategies for small businesses, a question about the new Jelly social-search app and a New Yorker article on what makes content go viral.
- Inbound Marketers – for Marketing Professionals was created by a HubSpot guru and attracts lots of other HubSpot fans and clients. (HubSpot for the uninitiated, pioneered inbound marketing and is the industry authority on its strategy.) Even a newbie to inbound can find tons of tips on this site – including non-techy reviews of SEO best practices, content creation and statistics to boost inbound success.
- The Harvard Business Review has drawn an impressive 500,000 members to its LinkedIn group. The content here covering values, leadership and management can only help you become a savvier marketer.
Discipline-Specific Groups to Join
- B2B Marketing’s 38,000 members ask pointed questions and get frank answers. For instance, what’s your take on telling your company’s story in a fun or lively way, as opposed to the traditional stone-faced “About Us”? Can a B2B be successful in social media without also employing an advertising campaign? And just for fun, what are the most ridiculous B2B buzzwords? (We vote for “impactful,” which sounds more like a toothache than a positioning statement.)
- Non-Profit Marketing is a private LinkedIn group that drills down on the unique needs of its discipline: grant writing, fundraising, public relations and digital engagement for nonprofits. If you can get past the moderator and join, you may discover different marketing perspectives.
Industry-Specific Groups to Join
Many industries have a dedicated LinkedIn marketing group. This is good for industry insights, networking and job posting.
- For example, healthcare marketing professionals use Medical Marketing Network for coverage of everything from using whitepapers to creating Showcase Pages that allow healthcare companies to highlight specific aspects of their practices.
- Chemicals Industry Sales and Marketing made it onto a list of the top 5 sales and marketing LinkedIn groups – not a small accomplishment for a page that tosses around words like dicalcium phosphate and vinyl acetate monomer.
To find the ideal marketing group for your industry, just search on LinkedIn’s homepage, or let the page recommend groups for you based on your profile.
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