How to manage your LinkedIn Group like a decent human-being
In this blog:
How to be a good LinkedIn Group owner
LinkedIn launched on May 5, 2003, and there are now over 20 million LinkedIn members in the UK alone - with a total global membership of approximately 450 million professionals.
It's been hard to track down a solid, verified figure for the total number of LinkedIn Groups that exist on the platform, but a bit of online digging seems to commonly throw up a figure in the region of over 2.9 million (Groups).
I'm a member of about 20 groups at the moment, and although I'm not a prolific contributor, I dip in and out of a great many of them often enough to see what's happening. Lately, I've had my first negative experience as a group member (I won't say which group) and it made me ponder about the general 'responsibilities' of being a group owner.
What had essentially happened, in my case, is that I'd been a member of this particular group for a good year or so I'd say, and it seemed like a pretty good group on the face of it; full of relevant, articulate professionals sharing content, etc.
The problem was that I'd posted links to a couple of blogs from this very site, and the group owner had taken exception to this; publicly commenting on the content and trying to call it out as pure self-promotion.
At first, I assumed the blame wholeheartedly, but then, when I looked around at other content links posted by 'peers', I saw that they were getting much the same treatment. Strange, as the group description stated "Please share your information freely on this group".
Some of the posts left by others had been subject to some very bitchy public feedback from the group owner. In fact, the group owner seemed to be telling people off quite regularly'; using a tone akin to that of a teacher telling off some naughty schoolchildren.
I soon realised that this group was harbouring a pretty toxic vibe, and with a membership of over 3k people, I wasn't the only person who'd noticed it.
To cut a long story short, I decided to delete all of my posts and leave the group.
This blog has been borne out of this experience, as I wanted to focus on the best practice conduct of current LinkedIn Group owners.
How to be a good LinkedIn Group owner
Over many years, I've managed the social channels of countless organisations — including any associated LinkedIn Groups they might own.
Setting up a group is pretty easy — a few clicks, and you're off. You don't have to be an experienced marketer or social media expert to do it either.
Once you've set the agenda and 'terms of reference' for your group, then the real work begins.
You open the gates. You've made a commitment to start a group and manage it, but you have no members. There's no environment, no credentials, no existing kudos, or real presence.
Month on month, the process of building up the group trudges on. It takes ages to get any real traction, and as a group owner, you're investing time (pretty much daily) to:
Manually invite new members to your group
Spread the word outside of your group to encourage join requests
Moderate any incoming content
This is all fine if you're patient and happy to follow through with the commitment and build up membership. And in all likelihood, eventually you'll reach a point where you've achieved a pretty decent-sized group. The Content Therapy Group is now getting close to 3k members.
Below, you’ll find my advice about how to be a ‘good’ group owner…
1. Set some clear ground rules
If you're flying a plane and your passengers are not told when they can board, get up, eat, etc, then you can't be mad when they start to do whatever feels ok to them. It's the same with LinkedIn Groups; setting simple, clear terms of reference about how the group should be used is always a good idea.
Ensure you've utilised the auto-send invite email function so that when new people are accepted, they get sight of these ground rules right away.
Having something solid in place allows you, as the person responsible for managing the group, to refer people back to these guidelines should anything off-piste arise.
2. Behave like an ‘equal’ member of the group
Yes…you're the group manager, but essentially, the point of your LinkedIn group is be an open space for discussion, sharing content, and providing insight and help to others.
It goes without saying then, that this is not your vehicle for going on about yourself every five minutes, being all ‘salesy’, or making snippy comments if you disagree with the angle/message/content of a post:
Good group managers treat everyone equally, and I think they should only speak up/post when they've got something relevant to say. They should also follow the same rules as everyone else — no exceptions.
3. Moderate submissions with an ‘objective’ mindset
So you're not a big fan of that new Facebook trend that someone's posting about in your Group? So what? It's actually not about you. If it's a valid contribution which others in the group might be interested in seeing, let it through the moderation process.
There's absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to moderate post submissions from members, but remember to be fair and balanced in your judgement.
4. Deal with ‘rule-breakers’ fairly and discreetly
My natural tendency when something annoys me is to let it out and externalise it in some way(!), but…the ‘professional’ in me knows that it's best to try and deal with things with as little fuss and bloodshed as possible.
In the case of your LinkedIn Group, if you see that someone's contravening a group rule — and whether it's a genuine error or you suspect it’s a deliberate p***-take — do your level best to deal with it behind closed doors, and certainly away from your other members.
The best way to approach a situation like this is to send a direct message to the group member in question and have the conversation there. Nine times out of ten, it will get resolved with very little upset or offence having been caused.
And if that doesn't work, you of course have the power (and the right) to click a few buttons and remove the insolent troublemaker from your Group…!
5. Don’t act like ‘teacher’
Avoid telling people off publicly on your group newsfeed. It can cause embarrassment to the member you’re directing it at, and it sends a negative message to the rest of the group about you, as Group owner.
With my recent negative experience, I saw a number of snide comments being made — and what’s more, they were clearly condoned by the group owner as they were left live for several weeks:
It's just not on.
Well. That does feel a bit better now I've got that out of my system. And, if you want some tips direct from LinkedIn on this subject, you can also read through their Best Practice PDF.
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