Friday, 30 August 2013

Social Media Marketing: Linked In Announces LinkedIn Groups Redesign

LinkedIn Groups, a popular feature of the professional networking site and social media platform, LinkedIn, has recently gone through a makeover. LinkedIn officially shared the news yesterday on their blog. Though the new features are currently only available to the English speaking members of LinkedIn, the exciting new changes are part of an overall goal at LinkedIn to continue to be an online destination for business professionals to gain important insights, ask questions, share ideas and engage with others each day.

Some interesting stats surrounding LinkedIn Groups:
  • More than 2 million LinkedIn Groups currently exist
  • More than 200 conversations happening each minute across LinkedIn Groups
  • More than 800 groups are created each week
  • Professionals are signing up to join LinkedIn members at a rate of more than two new members per second.
  • There are more than 30 million students and graduates on LinkedIn, and are LinkedIn’s fastest growing demographic
  • There are more than 3 million companies with LinkedIn Company Pages
  • LinkedIn members performed more than 5.7 billion professionally-oriented searches in 2012.
LinkedIn Groups have been a key feature of LinkedIn for many years and LinkedIn supports the formation of interest groups, and extremely large groups have as many as 744,662 members. The vast majority of LinkedIn Groups are employment related, but academic and alumni groups make up more than 130,000 groups.

Groups have been created for nearly any topic imaginable including social media, technology, real estate and small business, as well as community centric groups focusing on specific metropolitan areas like the Hampton Roads Technology group, alumni groups, formal associations such as the Board of Realtors, and online networking opportunities for Chambers of Commerce. LinkedIn Groups can vary in size, depending on participation, content, and number of active members. Certain groups require approval to become a member, while others allow you to immediately join.

Groups are some of the most highly trafficked areas of LinkedIn, and where many users within the LinkedIn community flock to discuss industry news, seek resources, support and advice, and look for recommendations of businesses with whom to do business.

With the new design, LinkedIn has mirrored the newer Facebook layout changes we’ve all experienced with an overall goal to make LinkedIn easier and simpler to use. Additionally, the overall look of LinkedIn Groups has been streamlined, and with the new changes, LinkedIn has focused on providing more options and control to the LinkedIn Group managers and members when it comes to customization and visual presentations of their particular conversation space.

One great feature of LinkedIn Groups is the ability to moderate content and posts as well as approve or remove members. This is extremely beneficial when you amass a large following in your LinkedIn Group, only to have members that try to use the forum to skirt the anti-spam regulations that are so prevalent in other forms of communication. LinkedIn has implemented a few resources to alleviate
 
As part of the launch today, LinkedIn shared a neat info graphic for those new to LinkedIn Groups and who may be looking to find out more information.

LinkedIn Groups Infographic 2013
LinkedIn is one of the oldest social media sites, having launched on May 5, 2003. It is geared towards business professionals and boasts the largest professional network with over 238 million members in over 200 countries and territories.

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