This is an implementation aid to enable you to create and manage LinkedIn groups.Please feel free to send us feedback to help us incorporate changes so that the larger community is benefited
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Groups
• LinkedIn Groups provide a place for professionals in the same industry or
with similar interests to
a. share content
b. find answers
c. post and view jobs
d. make business contacts.
e. establish themselves as industry experts.
• You can find groups to join by using the search feature at the top of your
homepage or viewing suggestions of groups you may like.
• You can also create a new group focused on a particular topic or industry.
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In this Slideshare, we will cover the
following Topics in LinkedIn Groups
1. Creating a Group
2. Editing Group Information
and Group Settings
3. Group Rules
4. Inviting People to Join Group
5. Approving and Pre-
Approving Group Members
6. Promoting and sharing the
group
7. Appointing manager and
moderators
8. Managing a Group
9. Posting discussions, jobs,
promotions.
10.Sending Announcements to
Group Members
11.Deleting Group Discussions
& Comments
12.Merging Groups
13.Closing a Group
14.Group limit for members
15.Creating a sub group
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Creating a Group
• You can start a new group by filling out the fields
on the Create a Group page.
• You'll be the owner and manager of any group you
create, but you can also assign other members to
be managers or moderators.
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Image requirements
• Group Logo - up to 100 x 50 pixels, maximum size 100KB,
PNG/JPEG/GIF format
• Small Logo - up to 60 x 30 pixels, maximum size 100KB,
PNG/JPEG/GIF format
• Hero Image - minimum 646 x 200 pixels, maximum size 2
MB, PNG/JPEG/GIF format
• If your logo does not meet the requirements above, it will
automatically be resized. There are several online tools
that you can use to modify your images including
http://www.shrinkpictures.com & http://www.webresizer.com.
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Image requirements
• To upload and save an image, you must check the box that
says. "I acknowledge and agree that the logo/image I am
uploading does not infringe upon any third party
copyrights, trademarks, or other proprietary rights or
otherwise violate the User Agreement".
• LinkedIn doesn't allow excessive changes to a group's
identity because it affects member confidence in your group
and in the LinkedIn Groups product.
• You can only make a total of 5 group identity
changes, including any group name and logo updates.
• Changes to the group Hero image are not counted in this
limit.
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Members-Only (Closed Group) and Open
Groups - Overview
The main difference is who can see the discussions.
• Members-only group discussions can only be seen by other
group members.
• Open group discussions can be seen by anyone on the web
and can be shared on other social networking platforms.
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Difference between Closed Group &
Open Group
Closed Group
• There's a padlock icon next to the
group name.
• You must be a LinkedIn member
to join.
• Discussions won't show up in
search engine results.
• Discussions are visible to group
members only.
• Discussions can’t be shared using
social networking sites like
Twitter and Facebook
Open Group
• There isn't a padlock icon next to
the group name.
• You must be a LinkedIn member
to join.
• Discussions are searchable
• Discussions are visible to anyone
on the web.
• Discussions can be shared
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Members-Only groups
• There's a padlock icon next to the group name.
• You must be a LinkedIn member to join.
• Discussions won't show up in search engine
results.
• Discussions are visible to group members only.
• The group manager has the option to switch to
an open group. This change can only be made
once and cannot be undone. Members are
notified if the group is switched to an open
group.
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In open groups
• There isn't a padlock icon next to the group name.
• You must be a LinkedIn member to join.
• Discussions created before switching to an open group are
archived and visible to group members only.
• Discussions created after switching to an open group are
searchable and visible to anyone on the web.
• Discussions can be shared using social networking sites like
Twitter and Facebook.
• Group managers have the option to allow LinkedIn members
who aren't group members to contribute.
• Currently, subgroups can't be open groups
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Only group owners or managers can make changes to
Group Information or Group Settings.
NOTE
• LinkedIn doesn't allow excessive changes to a group's identity because it
affects member confidence in your group and in the LinkedIn Groups
product.
• You can only make a total of 5 group identity changes, including any group
name and logo updates.
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Allowing Group Members to Flag and Remove Content
• Make sure the box is
checked next to "Enable
the Discussions and
News features".
• Check or uncheck the
box next to
"Automatically remove
content flagged by
group members" to turn
this feature on or off.
• Enter a number in the
Number of flags box
(between 1 and 100).
– By default, content
is removed after it's
been flagged 10
times.
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The Permissions
section determines
what goes into your
submission queue
based on the content.
The Restrictions
section determines
what goes into your
submission queue
based on who is
submitting the
content.
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Group rules are posted by group managers to provide participation
expectations and guidelines. If rules are posted, you'll find the Group rules
link in the upper right of your group page.
If you're a manager, you can post or update group rules.
• Move your cursor over Interests at the top of your homepage and select
Groups.
• Click the group's name.
• Click the Manage tab.
• Click Group Rules on the left.
• Enter or update your group rules.
• Click Save Changes.
NOTE:
The text field will not accept HTML, so rules won't display hyperlinks for
websites or email addresses.
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Inviting People to Join Group or Subgroup
• If you're a group manager, you can invite others from the Send Invitations
page within the group.
• Click the Manage tab.
• Click Send Invitations on the left and then do any of the following:
– Type a connection's first or last name in the Connections field, and
select their name from the list.
– Click the address book icon to choose connections.
– Click the "Add other email addresses" link and enter email addresses
of contacts.
– Click the "Upload a file" link to upload a file after exporting a CSV file.
– Click Send Invitations.
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Send Invitations to your connections
Type a connection's first or
last name in the Connections
field, and select their name
from the list.
OR
Click the address book icon to
choose connections.
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Send invitations to people by uploading
a file of email addresses
Click the "Upload a file"
link to upload a file after
exporting a CSV file.
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Approving and Pre-Approving
Group or Subgroup Members
As a group owner or manager, you have several options for approving
members for your group or subgroup.
• Auto-Join
• Sending an Invitation
• Pre-approval
Pre-approval by uploading a file of email addresses:
Pre-approval by individual email address:
Pre-approval by email domain:
• Manual approval of all other member requests to join
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• If your group or subgroup is
Auto-Join, you do not need to
take any further actions.
• Everyone is automatically
approved upon their request to
join the group.
Auto-Join
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Setting Up an Auto-Join Group
• If you're a group owner or manager, you can adjust your group's Auto Join
setting on the Group Settings page.
• If the setting is turned on, any LinkedIn members requesting to join the
group become automatic members without the owner or manager
needing to approve the individual requests.
To change the Auto-Join setting
• Click the Manage tab.
• Click the Group Settings link on the left.
• Select Auto-Join or Request to Join and then click Save Changes.
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Sending an Invitation
• If you use the Send
Invitations option for your
group or subgroup, you do
not need to pre-approve
members (this includes
"Invite-Only" subgroups).
• These members will be
automatically approved upon
their request to join.
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Pre-approval to invite
• If you plan to invite people to your group or subgroup using an
outside website or email system, you can pre-approve the people you
are going to invite.
• By pre-approving specific email addresses or email domains, they will
be automatically approved upon their request to join.
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Pre-approval by uploading a file of
email addresses
NOTE:
If you have an existing pre-approved list loaded in the system, it will merge with
any new list that you upload. Duplicated items will only appear once in the
merged list. If an uploaded list contains members who've already joined your
group, we'll leave them off the merged pre-approved list.
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Pre-approval by email domain
Enter email domain in the box titled: "Auto-approve users with these email
domains (e.g. linkedin.com, cardmunch.com)".
– You cannot pre-approve email domains like gmail.com, hotmail.com
or yahoo.com because they are too generic.
– Separate multiple domains with a comma. Do not separate domains
onto separate lines or separate with spaces because the system will
not function correctly and you won't be notified that there is an
entry error.
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Manual approval of all other member
requests to join
• You can manually approve a request to join your group from the Requests
to Join section.
• You will not receive notifications of requests to join your group, but you
can check the group periodically to accept or decline any pending
requests.
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Manual approval of Members
requests to join
• Click the box next to the
member's name and click
Approve.
• Instead of Approve, you can
click Decline or Decline and
Block to decline and prevent
that person from applying
for membership again.
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Promoting My group
• Optimize and edit your group information to include keywords
that prospective members are likely to search for.
• Encourage and allow group members to invite people.
• Advertise your group with LinkedIn Ads by clicking the
Advertising link at the bottom of any LinkedIn page.
• Share other news, articles and websites to spark discussions.
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How do I manage my group?
If you're a group owner or manager, you have control over membership,
discussions, settings, subgroups, rules, and more.
To manage your group:
• Click the Manage tab in the row under the group's name.
• Use the links on the left to manage your group.
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Submission and Moderation Queues
Overview
As a group owner, manager or moderator, you can use your group's
submission and moderation queues to help monitor content postings from
your group members.
These queues could help you screen out spammers and/or validate valuable
new contributors.
Submission Queue
Allows your group management team to preview content posted by members
before it's displayed or deleted from the group.
Moderation Queue
Allows your group management team to repost or delete group content, as
well as review content that has been flagged by your group members.
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Managing Your Group Submission and
Moderation Queues
How do I manage items in my group's submission and moderation queues?
• If you're a group owner, manager, or moderator you'll see a notification on
your Groups page to let you know that you have an item to manage.
To review items in your submission and moderations queues:
• Move your cursor over Interests at the top of your LinkedIn homepage and
select Groups.
• Scroll down the page and click on the notification number under the
group's name. There will be no number if there is nothing to manage.
• Click either the Submission Queue or Moderation Queue link on the left to
choose the appropriate action and manage the item.
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Managing Your Group Submission and Moderation
Queues
Scroll down the page and
click on the notification
number under the group's
name. There will be no
number if there is nothing
to manage.
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Managing Your Group Submission and Moderation
Queues
Click either the
Submission Queue or
Moderation Queue
link on the left to
choose the
appropriate action
and manage the item.
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Submission and Moderation Queue
Settings in Groups
How do I adjust my submission and moderation queue settings?
• If you are a group owner or manager, you can view or change the group's
submission and moderation queue settings on the Group Settings page.
• Click the Manage tab and then click Group Settings on the left.
– The Permissions section determines what goes into your submission
queue based on the content.
– The Restrictions section determines what goes into your submission
queue based on who is submitting the content.
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The Permissions section
determines what goes
into your submission
queue based on the
content.
The Restrictions section
determines what goes
into your submission
queue based on who is
submitting the content.
Group Settings for Submission Queue
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• Approve – Post will be moved under Discussions.
• Move to Promotions – Post will be moved under Promotions.
• Move to Jobs – Post will be moved under Jobs.
• Delete - Removes the item or items from the group.
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Clear Flags – To clear the Flags (Flagged by the group members).
Delete – To remove the content from the Group
Move to Jobs – To move the posted content under Jobs
Move to Promotions – To move the posted content under Promotions
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Allowing Group Members to Flag and Remove Content
How do I allow group members to flag content and have it automatically
deleted?
If you're a group owner or manager, you can adjust your Group Settings to
automatically remove content flagged by group members and set the number
of flags needed.
• Click the Manage tab and then Group Settings on the left.
• Discussions and comments cannot be retrieved once removed by this
automated feature.
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Allowing Group Members to Flag and Remove Content
• Make sure the box is
checked next to "Enable
the Discussions and News
features".
• Check or uncheck the box
next to "Automatically
remove content flagged by
group members" to turn
this feature on or off.
• Enter a number in the
Number of flags box
(between 1 and 100).
– By default, content is
removed after it's
been flagged 10 times.
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Remove
Takes the member out of the group, but doesn't delete the member's past
contributions. They can request to join the group again.
Block
Takes the member out of the group and places them on the Blocked tab, which
prevents them from requesting to join again. It doesn't delete the member's
past contributions.
Block & Delete
Takes the member out of the group and places them on the Blocked tab, which
prevents them from requesting to join again. It also deletes all past
contributions. Please be aware that when you select Block & Delete for a group
member, this will result in automatic moderation of all their future posts in any
group sitewide.
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• Enter your topic or question in the "Start a discussion or share something
with the group" box (required).
• Enter details in the "Add more details" box (required).
• Add a link to a website by typing in the URL.
• Click the type of your post (discussion, job, promotion).
• Click Share.
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Posting discussions, promotions, jobs.
Jobs tab gives group members a place to share jobs and jobs discussions. Jobs
discussions are automatically removed after 14 days. You can always post a
job on LinkedIn if you want to reach a wider audience or need a job posted
longer.
Promotions tab gives group members a place to post their product
promotions. Promotions don't expire, but they can be deleted by the poster
or by a group owner/manager.
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Group managers can send up to one group announcement per week to
members who have chosen to receive such emails.
• Move your cursor over Interests at the top of your homepage and select
Groups.
• Click the group's name.
• Click the Manage tab.
• Click Send an Announcement on the left.
• Enter your Subject (up to 200 characters) and Message (up to 4000
characters).
• Click Send Announcement.
NOTE:
By default, announcements are sent as an email to members and also
posted as a featured discussion within the group.
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Who can delete group discussions and
comments?
• Only group's owner, managers, or moderators can delete discussions or
comments.
• They also have a certain degree of latitude for deciding the purpose of the
group and what type of discussion content to allow.
• Owners and managers may at times need to exercise their right to remove
difficult members from their group.
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Deleting a discussion
• When a comment is deleted, the member's name will remain but the
comment will be replaced with a message that states "The comment
was deleted by the group manager".
• When a discussion is removed, the discussion will no longer be
visible to anyone
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There is no automated process for merging groups. Group owners can decide to
combine their groups by choosing one group to remain open. If you're the
closing group's manager, you can send an announcement to inform your
members about your plans.
Within the announcement:
• Include the other group's Join URL. (You can ask the other group's manager
for the link.)
• Suggest they click on the URL to join the new group.
• Remind them when the group will close.
To maintain member privacy, LinkedIn don't offer the ability to export a contact
list of your group's members.
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Closing a Group
How do I delete my group?
• Only the owner can
delete a group. If you're
the group's owner
• Click the Manage tab in
the row under the group's
name. Select Delete
Group from the Manage
Group column on the left.
• Click Yes, delete this
group.
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Group limits for members
• How many parent (main) groups can anyone own and/or manage at one
time? 10 (total).
• How many subgroups can anyone own at one time? 20.
• How many groups can anyone be a member of at one time? 50.
• Once you reach 50, you would need to withdraw from one before you
would be able to request to join a new group.
• How many subgroups can anyone be a member of at one time? 50.
• How many groups can anyone be a moderator of at one time? 50.
• How many people can anyone follow at one time? 5,000.
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Group limits per main (parent) group
• How many owners can a group have? 1.
• How many managers can a group have? 10.
• How many moderators can be in a given group? 50.
• How many members can be in a given group? 20,000 (maximum
default).
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Group limits per subgroup
• How many subgroups can be created under a given parent group? 20.
• How many owners can a subgroup have? 1.
• How many managers can a given subgroup have? 10.
• How many moderators can a given subgroup have? 50.
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LinkedIn describes the subgroups like break-out sessions at a conference.
“They enable you to create more focused areas than in the main group.”
Essentially, it’s a way to build smaller, more focused communities within the
larger community of a group.
These are the current “types” of subgroups listed in the setup drop-down
menu:
• Alumni
• Corporate
• Conference
• Networking
• Non-profit
• Professional
• Other
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The “other” enables you to categories your subgroup by yourself.
For example:
Divide your LinkedIn subgroups by geographic location:
If you run a large-scale group around an industry or interest, divide the
subgroups by location. You can do this by
country, state/province, metropolitan area, zip code – however broad or
narrow you want to focus. This will allow members of your group who are
close in proximity to one another to easily connect, online and off.
Divide your LinkedIn subgroups by industry:
If you manage a group based in a geographic location (i.e. Linked Chennai)
divide your group into industries so that members within that area can easily
connect.
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Divide your LinkedIn subgroups by specialty:
If you manage a group within a broad industry (i.e. marketing), narrow the
subgroups into specific focuses. This will allow members with the same
specialty (i.e. broadcast, design, PR, social media, etc) to allow members
easily connect.
Divide your LinkedIn subgroups by experience level:
Within a group centered around an industry, experience level subgroups can
allow entry-level members to share their experiences and grow together and
allow senior executives to take advantage of each other’s wisdom. Of course
these groups can still collaborate within the larger group.
Divide your LinkedIn subgroups by age range:
For localized groups, especially ones with active members who like to
collaborate in person, age range divisions can allow members to easily
connect with other members who are similar to them in life experience.
Probably not the best division for a professional group.
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Creating a subgroup
Only group owners or managers can create subgroups.
To create a subgroup
• Click the Manage tab in the row under the group name.
• At the bottom of the left pane, click Create a Subgroup.
• Enter the subgroup's information and choose your settings.
• Click Create Subgroup.
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Other Useful Slideshares
We have been consistently conducting LinkedIn Training Programs since
Oct 2012.
Our philosophy and approach is reflected in the following documents
• Spectrum Consulting Social Media Workshop
• Maximizing ROI on Social Media
• Endorsements: The hidden perils of your network
• Are you leveraging linkedin adequately?
• A simple Litmus Test to check your Visibility on LinkedIn
• LinkedIn for education: An Implementation Aid
• LinkedIn Profile Improvement Tips
• Spectrum Consulting Social Media Workshop Participants Feedback
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Thank You
Contact:
Raghunath Ramaswamy,
raghu@spectrumconsultingindia.com
9840925155
Twitter:@RaghuRamaswamy
LinkedIn Pub url: http://in.linkedin.com/pub/raghunath-ramaswamy/2/216/341
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is a registered trademark of LinkedIn Corporation
Link to Register: www.spectrumconsultingindia.com/Training.aspx