What are the key features you need to manage your LinkedIn group?
What tools do you need to organize your group and make a great experience for your members? Please include the goals of your group: discussion about professional topics? Alumni gatherings? A home for your real-world organization on the web?
Answers (28)
Brett S
Information Technology and Business Consultant
Best Answers in: Foreign Investment (1), Venture Capital and Private Equity (1), Personal Investing (1), Professional Organizations (1), Starting Up (1)
I'd like to be able to easily send a message to all group members (ie from the 'manage' group area).
Brett
Will I be able to sort my group member list by name and Date Joined like I could prior to the 13th Aug 2008?
Links:
Vaibhav J
QA Team Lead - Life Sciences
Best Answers in: Economics (1), Planning (1), Web Development (1)
-To be able to send a message to all group members.
-Automated welcome message to new joinees on the group.
-Discussion board
Andrea Z
On/Offline Reader, Writer and Research Wrangler
Best Answers in: Using LinkedIn (8), Career Management (2), Professional Networking (2), Events Marketing (1), Internet Marketing (1), Public Relations (1), Non-profit Management (1), Market Research and Definition (1), Ethics (1)
My main group is meant to offer paying members of a non-profit organization another means of networking with other members, particularly those in diff't chapter cities. It also allows for passive promotion of the non-profit to the professional networks of our members.
I need to be able to sort my pending and current member lists by name and date (applied/joined) -- it's really difficult to go in and reach out to the newbies with your most recent overhaul -- the names aren't listed in any logical order -- date or name -- so I have to go through the whole list every time the numbers change to compare back to what I had recorded before.
Hiding the e-mail addresses of pending members beneath a hyperlink is a pain in the ass because I use a spreadsheet to track my contacts with these individuals and it's more difficult to manage that info with your most recent change.
We're getting ready to roll out the group to several thousand members and almost all of my pre-approved members have disappeared -- with the exception of about 60. I tried to upload the list again, and my pre-approved list still remains at 60. I don't know if my pre-approved list is hidden somewhere and since I currently can't get a message through to customer service, I have no way of checking in on the status of what will soon be a sizeable group. So NOT LOSING DATA would also be wonderful.
Allowing members to post questions private to their specific groups would be great. Not that all members should be pinged every time there is a question, but that they have access to group specific Q's via their my groups section.
Allowing the group owner/manager to send limited messages to their entire group would also be useful, even if it's no more than 1 per week. Personally, I'd be using that function on very rare occasions, but I know staff at my non-profit have asked about the capability, even though they have their own email lists for their members.
Clarification added 10 months ago:
PS. Thanks for finally updating the group directory, and for starting the dialogue to allow for feedback and improvements to changes LinkedIn has been making.
Hi Ben,
As mentioned in my response to your other question, I quite liked the functionality we had before the changes but that is not to say things can't be improved.
Functionality that has gone that I found useful was being able to search members by date joined or alphabetically in long list (I liked the 100, 500 view option) and being able to see the e-mail address for quick reference. I also liked seeing all the pre-approved (I had a few hundred so I'm now not sure where they have gone).
Seeing where members are in your network which seems to be what has been added is something which you can already do as a member of the group so not particularly useful as a Manager.
New functionality should include a forum or a way of asking things in Q&A that are limited to a particular group and therefore only seen by it's members.
thanks
Jeff.
I understand from the answer posted on Get satisfaction by Allen that we we will progressively recuperate much of the previous group member administration functionality.
That said, it seems to me that beyond the ability to smoothly manage members, the key is actually group functionality. As a group manager, I have been reluctant to set up an external forum in the hope that this could eventually happen within linked. Basic functionality would include a discussion forum / event scheduling functionality. Any chance of this happening in the near future or should I go ahead and migrate group members to a third-party platform?
On top of what Andrea has wirtten already regarding the management of pending applications (and btw, I couldn't agree more!). The other thing that is missing is the ability to gather custom information during the join request, so as to enable easier verification of the applicants credentials to join "restricted" groups. Just one example: I manage a group which restricts itself to professionals with a certain certification. Presently I have to rely on every one of them mailing me or hitting the "I would like to join your gourp, my membership is pending" link and providing the information necessary for me to go and check their certification status. Being able to collect the two pieces of information that I need and being able to export that to structured file (TSV, CSV, XLS, XML ... wait, scratch XML, MSExcel doesn't do that ;-)) would greatly enhance the experience for all involved.
I'd also like to chip in on what Marc just wrote: there is presently a definite lack of community building tools available to the groups, which should include things like discussion groups etc. Without wanting to copy what has already been done by the competition, but if you look at the group functionalities offered, for example, by Xing, then this is far more like what I'd like to see here as well. That not only includes discussion boards that can easily be spawned by topic, but also the ability to create and track events that are relevant to the group.
John J S
Research Manager at BrainworksInc.
Best Answers in: Using LinkedIn (4), Mentoring (1), Career Management (1), Communication and Public Speaking (1)
Ben,
Like Oliver, I need more information than a request to join my group. Many realize this and send an email.
Perhaps you could allow us to Require an Email for membership as an option rather than always leave it up to the individual.
John
Marc-Alexandre V
► Producer at Artifex Animation Studios ► Designer ► MyLink500.com
Best Answers in: Business Development (2), Using LinkedIn (2), Offshoring and Outsourcing (1), Interface Design (1), Product Design (1), Software Development (1)
- The ability to send a message to all group members at once.
- A basic discussion board so that we don't have to set one up outside of LI to talk with fellow groupmembers.
Links:
I agree with Bret. The inability to message the group as a manager is a major handicap. Full interaction would be nirvana. But just to be able to message the group within LinkedIN would save a lot of hassle. Kudos on the directory though - this has certainly helped people find the groups I've been helping to build including my University alumni group
DTK
I'd like to be able to send a message to all members of my group - but I'd also like to be able to send a message to target cities - i.e. all my alumni in the Chicago area.
Brad D
President of National Information Security Group and Fieldbrook Solutions LLC
I would like to be able to better categorize groups. Right now all we can do is categorize by Corporate, NonProfit, School, etc. But what if I want to categorize my group as Technology/Computer/Security? That would be very helpful for us.
A feature that would send automatic rejection message with possible reasons for rejection. For example if the user's association with an official corporate group is not apparent from their profile (generic email domain, never worked in the company.. etc)
I REALLY, REALLY, REALLY would like the member demographic info to be included in the contact list spreadsheet for export.
Columns for City, State, Country. This will help us segment our member list so that I don't blast everyone globally about events & news of regional interest.
Geo-segmentation is such a hassle to do manually on a group that is growing virally!
Thanks for asking.
Regards,
Lorna Li
Founder, Search Marketing Salon on LinkedIn
Links:
Clarification added 10 months ago:
OK - great answers here, which is making me rethink my answer. I'd like to break it down into short term vs long term:
SHORT TERM:
1) Geo-segmentation by simply including city, state, country info in member .csv spreadsheet
2) Email functionality - wouldn't it be great to message the group in LinkedIn rather than have to migrate the members to an external email marketing platform?
3) Restriction exemption for Group Managers - as a group manager I periodically invite people to connect directly with my network. Since the group grows virally, the easiest way for me to do this is by exporting the members list and importing the .csv into my network. Each time I do this, a handful of people seem to forget they signed up for my group, and say they don't know me. YES - I send a personalized message. I don't know how else to jog their memories, this is out of my control. I have to ask you to remove the restriction every time. Why not just make us restriction exempt? Easier for you - easier for me.
4) A public, alphabetized members list with total # of members, somewhere, not displayed as a search results page, as you currently have.
LONG TERM
1) Private discussion forums / chat rooms for the group
2) Social networking capabilities with our own virtual space - something like Facebook Groups but better, because, at the end of the day, we want to cut business deals.
Thanks!
Instead of sending out mass emails - I'd like to be able to have a blog or BBS integrated where members can have ongoing threads on topics. Moderated by the group manager. We probably already get too much email, and I think this is a way to limit email communication - perhaps and option for a weekly digest of the threads to emailed to each member... I have created a announcement section to our group website to accomplish the same thing, but with our group having over 1200 ....
Links:
Sort by join date and then export result
1. Ability for the admin to send message to entire group. If that can be extended to sending message to a section based on city, even better
2. Group page to have more information than just description.
3. Group blog or wiki
Manage Page:
1. Display on the manage page the actual email address instead of the "Send Message >>" for the hypertext link.
a. Not everyone wants to use their default email app (corporate Outlook) to send out questions to prospective members
b. I visually scan the email addresses for corporate domains to automatically approve users without checking their profiles.
2. How about the ballon popup with basic user profile like on the homepage? I have to click through to every user applying to one of the groups. This would save alot of time.
Manage page > Requests to join tab
1. Just display the users asking to join, and not include everyone who currently is a member.
2. "showing # - #" is not accurate and has not matched the numbers I see on the member page since the recent upgrade
I am contemplating starting a group focused on a specific professional/networking population. However, without the ability to post questions to the group or access a discussion board, I'm not sure there is any point in doing so. I would be more than willing to pay for some type of upgraded account if I thought I would have the ability to really network through groups by using discussion boards.
The ability to create social networking functions - such as allowing members to post content to the group - comments, discussion forums, create interest groups - a lot of the things that you can do via services such as Ning.com - here is an example companion group that I've set up in the absence of one on LinkedIn: vcgroup.ning.com.
First, I appreciate very much the facility you provide... and I appreciate the open process of asking for feedback about the latest change. It happens rarely enough that it is worth repeating.
My vote is for (a) messaging all members, (b) sorting by "date joined."
Looking forward to the next improvements.
My biggest issue Is that I need to see Company and Job Title in the export. SO that it mirrors the export of the direct connections. I have been using my invitations to secure that data. but with a large group and a cap on invitations I have been put in the penalty box for IDKs and have exhausted my invites. Having those two items would save a great level of traffic on your site coming from group managers,
I'd like to expand on Oliver's suggestion and add that there needs to be a wa for us as managers to add information to the member's record. For example if I could store a unique member ID number that would also appear in your CSV export function then I could link that database to our existing databases and quickly verify which LinkedIn members have paid their dues. (for example)
Ideally the member would be asked for this value when asking to join the group, but even being able to add it afterwards would be good enough and would make it *much* easier to manage a restricted LinkedIn Group.
Greg H
Founder of Linking Raleigh, NC; Manager of Customer Retention at iContact; local Raleigh - Durham networking advocate.
Best Answers in: Public Relations (1), Professional Networking (1), Using LinkedIn (1)
I would like demographic information as well. City, State, Industry, Current Company(s).
If blogging on LinkedIn was an added feature for groups I would like to see it as an option that can be enabled and disabled. A number of groups are already running their own websites and blogs based on these groups.
It would be nice if the "What are you doing now?" feature could be broadcast to group members as well as 1st level contacts.
I would like to be able to see all members of the group, not up to 1000.
I would not like LinkedIn to become like Facebook or MySpace. LinkedIn fills a special niche among professionals that are looking for a less intrusive social media tool.
Links:
Robert F
President/CEO at eMarketing Association. Meet me at eMarketing 9 Conference in Atlanta
A lounge, webpage, or bulletin board would be nice, a place to post messages to other members of the group (although this could end up as a massive spam issue). A welcoming email that group managers could design on the LinkedIn site. A "member benefit" page that group admin could place various discounts etc., for the group.
I am very pleased with LinkedIn and the way it handles things. You have a great service, site and people. See our LinkedIn product review below
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1. Ability to email all group members
2. Ability to create an easy newsletter with group send
3. Single member to single member email exchange
(1) Group e-mail would be "best" if the group leaders could send them out by a limited set of leader-defined topics, and then the members had the abiltiy to opt in or out based on these topics.
Sample e-mail topics as defined for each group by the group leader: "Monthly Update", "Employment Opportunity in the "X" Industry", "Flash Traffic", etc.
A short description (authored by the overall group leader) for each group e-mail topic/ category would provide for informed consent on the part of the members who would then elect to opt in or out for the various group e-mail topics.
Some people are high bandwidth, others are not. I'd say let the members decide and tune in or out as they please, but a group e-mail feature without topics and an opt in/out feature could cause more problems than it fixes.
(2) "Recommend Group" Provide for a feature that enables members to forward a recommendation for joining the group to a selectable subset of those in their personal contacts network.
(3) Overall group forum website rather than a blog, but one oriented toward sub-group leaders and topics as chosen by the overall group leader, who will need to be able to delete posts and change sub-group leaders if/when necessary.
Clarification added 10 months ago:
Regarding #1 in my above list: The overall group leaders should also be given a feature that allows them to tell how many people are subscribed to each group topic, and ideally to also know who is subscribed to zero lists; as others have noted, the likely top overarching priority for each group is communications, so the group features need to be built-out with this top priority in mind.
[Biotech and Pharma Professionals Network.]
I want to echo much of what has been said, but emphasize two things:
1) talk to us before you make changes, not after, and
2) don't release systems that have obviously not been properly tested.
3) The CSV member list is cut off at 10,000 names, so I no longer have any way of finding out the compete membership of the group.
4) Quite a few of the records in the CSV member list lack email addresses: in my opinion the point of my group is communication and mutual assistance. I'll wait until the dust settles to see if they are withheld by the member or the result of a glitch, then figure out what to do
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Smaller stuff - 294 of my members, many of them are good active members, were moved to the Blocked list - not by me.
Can you restore the old system until you debug the new one?
Martin
