I love social media, but I don’t really love LinkedIn. It’s not that I don’t see the importance of the platform and how it helps job seekers, recruiters, etc. But, I’ve really never been able to find any personal value in using it to network. (In fact if you really want to know how I feel about LinkedIn, check out Ron Bronson’s article on why he dumped LinkedIn). So when I got an e-mail announcing that LinkedIn was creating subgroups I wondered, will they save LinkedIn for me?
LinkedIn describes these subgroups like “breakout sessions at a conference,” which allows group managers to send messages to personalized audiences.
According to LinkedIn, “A subgroup is a space within your group where members can collaborate based on a function, project, topic, location or anything you wish. Subgroups have many features including Discussions, News, Jobs and Digest Emails, etc.”
This sounds pretty cool to me, so I logged into LinkedIn to check them out. Unfortunately, none of the groups I belong to have created any subgroups. And since I’m not a manager of any LinkedIn groups, I couldn’t create a subgroup either.
Seems to me like this will be an especially helpful feature for groups made after conferences and trade shows. It would be great to have location and interest based subgroups in a lot of the groups I belong to. But if you ask me, subgroups won’t really add that much to my user experience.
What do you think? Will subgroups saved LinkedIn?
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Blake: create a group and I will join
Dave,
What should the group be about? I figure I should probably make one just to try out the functionality (especially since I know I will have at least one member in it).
Blake,
Try joining this group:
http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/54066/0725305D5A49
It has just started 10 subgroups. It is focused on sales and marketing so it is probably up your alley anyway.
Dave
I personally love LinkedIn. In the beginning, I was confused too. But I realized that the trick with LinkedIn is joining the groups that share your interests and reading the posts and news articles that users submit. I have found many, many new connections through the discussions I’ve posted.
I’m a journalist so when I want to get opinions from a target group, I pose my question in a related group’s Discussion. For ex, I was working on a feature about Facebook friend requests from bosses– http://bit.ly/BpBFl — and I posted it in all HR and Recruitment group Discussions. I got like a gazillion responses. I was also working on a feature about young bosses and I posted my questions in the Recruitment group. Again, I got a flood of responses. Once my article went live, I posted it on LinkedIn and the ppl that I interviewed thanked me for including them.
Maybe it’s just the industry I happen to be in, but I do think getting involved in Discussions and News really helps to get to know what’s on everyone’s mind– always a good way to connect with ppl.
Here, I found a good article on using LinkedIn. “How to Monetize LinkedIn – Engage Your Connections – Part 1″
http://bit.ly/284p5c
Thanks, I will def. check that article out!