If you are new to LinkedIn Groups, but in business to make money. Here are ten idea’s to help you manage, engage and empower your LinkedIn Group members. This will ultimately result in brand extension and ultimately new business.
1) Send a personal welcome message from the Group Manager with a personal invite. Add in some points of interest from the group and 1 call to action with special offer for being a Group Member. This can be a product discount, an invite to a private online event, opportunity to enter a contest, be a guest blogger.
2) Send out one, non sales, email a month with a helpful tip or article that is not within your corporate website. No sales, all helpful! This will help the open and action rate. The other email each month can be more promotional. All in, 2 emails to the group a month, one helpful, one somewhat promotional but also extending value.
3) Pick 3 Groups on LinkedIn to engage in and invite members to join your group. In a perfect world your will be able to identify members of those groups that are not currently your customers, and invite them to the group to taste the value. Many times this depends on how advanced your CRM is.
4) Empower members who comment and post to do more of it. Pay attention to what is happening and react accordingly.
5) Ask questions once a month. These questions are exclusive to the LI Group and can be coupled with the helpful tip email.
6) Contact non LI Group Members and ask them to join. So outwardly ask in your companies mailer for them to join and receive some additional offers and insights not available on your corporate web presence. The more numbers you pile up, the greater the desire to join from organic folks who find your group on LinkedIn.
7) Poll them once a quarter.
8) When Linked In rolls out new features, email them with an explanation on how to use the new features. Then roll in company offers and other pertinent brand events. It gives you another reason to reach out.
9) Empower members to promote their business within the group. It will spill over into your corporate site and brands once they beta test it within the LinkedIn community.
10) Include your LinkedIn Group link in all of your auto signatures in addition to other social profiles that might already be there.
11) Pull in relevant RSS feeds. Not to many, try to limit it to 3, and don’t share all of your unique content from your corporate site within the group. The LinkedIn Group should be an appetizer to your brands main course.
12) If you are a retail company, get on Groupon now and link it to your LinkedIn group. Smell what I am cooking?
Social Schmoozing 
March 3rd, 2011 at 8:25 pm
One thing I would add, use the LinkedIn Answers feature. It’s a great way to develop a reputation for relevance and network with people in your field, and it isn’t that hard to steer people from the Question and answers to a group (we were discussing this in group ABC123, what do you think?, etc.)
March 3rd, 2011 at 9:33 pm
Perfect Scott, love it.
September 26th, 2011 at 7:42 pm
These are great tips- very original.
I’m going to try out 1-3 especially. Thanks!