Maria Elena Duron wrote the post: Being Consistent In Your Brand Doesn’t Mean Be Annoying… it is a good read. She is talking about the frequency of your updates on sites like LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.

How much is too much?  How much is too little?

She throws out the number 15, in one day (presumably on Twitter).  Wow, that is A LOT.  Unless you have someone dedicated to social media outreach I’d say that (a) you are going to alienate people and (b) you are wasting your time that should be spent elsewhere (like pursuing deeper relationships, instead of spewing your kewl ideas all day long).

Her post talks about some ideas on frequency for Facebook and Twitter, and on LinkedIn she says:

On LinkedIn, my personal thoughts are on once or twice a day on status updates and then a whole lot of answering and asking of questions along with participation in groups. I’ll defer to my esteemed colleague, Jason Alba, author of “I’m on LinkedIn – Now What?” as he knows that network well and more specifically provide greater direction there.

I would never recommend you have a strategy that ties you to once a day, or more than once a day.  I think it’s okay to do it once a day on LinkedIn, but I wouldn’t do it more unless there was some really important stuff to share.  Even then, can’t it wait until tomorrow?

If you want to be front-and-center on LinkedIn I think anywhere between once a day and once a week is FINE.  Don’t do it too often… if you want to do it more encourage your LI network to follow you on Twitter (which is what Twitter is made for).

She also suggestions “a whole lot of” questions and group participation.

Again, I think you can overdo this…

Check out this brilliant post by Scott Allen: It’s Time to Practice a Little Selfish Networking.

Some times you can have too much of a “good” thing… the danger is when you let this get in the way of what you should be doing…

Here’s a question I just got:

I am finding it hard to find the URL for the two groups that I manage so I can email this on to prospective members. The only URL I come across is when I click on send invitations and the URL is at the bottom of the left-hand column.

Is this the best that LinkedIn offers? Is there not just a general URL for each group’s home page rather than having to invite people to register?

This used to be easy, in a messed-up-sort-of-way.

Now it is even more messed up, but even easier (in other words, it’s easy to get the link, but it makes NO sense how they’ve done it, and why they removed the link from where it used to be).

Step 1: Click on Groups

Step 2: Mouse over the name of your group and copy/save the Group URL

Step 3: Paste the URL in something (notepad, and email, etc.) and chop off the last part (the part in blue below… anything after the “&” character after the Group number).

That’s your Group URL, afaik.  Test it with some friends (I did on Twitter and the response was that that was, indeed, my Group page).

Mine is this: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=59081

Now you can email that to people, or put it on a blog, newsletter, behind an image, etc.

LinkedIn has a great opportunity to clean up spam on its network… it would be a very simple enhancement that would help the community self-police.

On a LinkedIn Profile page, on the right, there are a bunch of links:

The closest they get to deleting a contact is to “report profile photo as…” but that is not exactly what I want to do… I just want to delete a contact.

My suggestion, obviously, is to put a link right there to delete the contact.  Even Facebook allows you to “remove” a “friend” from the friend profile page… but on LinkedIn I have to:

1. Click on Contacts,
2. Click on Remove Connections (from the top right of that page),
3. search for the name (and hope I don’t choose the wrong person, if the name is a common name (in this case, this morning, it IS),
4. …. OH WAIT!!

No, it’s not a connection I’m dealing with!  It’s someone who’s in the same LinkedIn Group!

Now I’m really hosed.

Okay, two issues here… first, make it easier to remove the connection from the profile page.

Second, if someone from a Group spams me (blatant, obvious spam), allow me to somehow report it, block messages from that person, etc.  I’m not talking about a Group Discussion, I’m talking about blocking the person (like Twitter has: block and report for spam).

I’m not an advocate of becoming more like Facebook or Twitter, but these are two options that I really think need to be implemented, to protect the integrity of LinkedIn as a system.

I recently saw this question on an alumni LI Group:

Any chance we can merge this group with the “other” [insert school name here] Alumni Group? We are missing opportunities to connect and share information.

It is a good idea but I don’t think it will work… here’s why:

TECHNOLOGY

As far as I know, there isn’t any technology that allows two groups to be merged… whether an option from the group admin interface or from LinkedIn’s employees. I bet they can DELETE a group, but I’d be surprised if they could/would merge multiple groups.

Developing technology shouldn’t be too hard… but, the bigger issue is…

POLICY

Of course, Policy could be written, rewritten and updated… but let’s look at the heart of the issue: OWNERSHIP.

Ownership: anyone can start a Group on LinkedIn. To start an alumni group you don’t have to be in the alumni office… heck, you don’t even have to be an alumnus!  There isn’t really an ability to have an “official” group – that is, a single group that is THE GROUP.

For example, if someone starts a Group for alumni of a school (or company), and they get, say, 20,000 members, and then the real alumni office/rep starts a group and they get 7 members, which is the better, more official Group?  I wouldn’t join the Group with 7 members because there is nothing going on there.

• Should LinkedIn GIVE the Group to the “official” alumni rep?
• Should LinkedIn CLOSE the unofficial Group and encourage people to move to the official Group?
• How does LinkedIn decide which Group is “official?”
• What if the person who is admin of the Group moves on, with some spite… how is Group ownership transferred involuntarily?

Another issue is kingdoms…. if I start a Group with 1k or 100k people, and there is a “competing” group with 1k or 100k members, why would EITHER of the group admins want to merge?  I would lose decision-making ability, and the power to send out Group Announcements, etc.  I want the Group to be my own… right?

If I’m worried about people sticking around, or having the Group grow, I should worry about the value I provide… sorry if we can’t merge and have one place for you (in other words, the consumer loses out because of the fragmentation), but I want my kingdom to thrive… not merge.

What do you think?

This seems like a no-brainer but I’ve done a soft 180 on it since I read the email.

The question comes from Jennifer Armitstead, who just started a Utah County (think: 40 miles south of Salt Lake City) job club.  This is one of two independent job clubs that I know of here and I’m really excited to see how it rolls out.

I asked her what the URL was for the job club so I could promote it and she responded with this:

I don’t have a website set up for this. I figured that I could just use a LinkedIn Group. I hadn’t even thought of doing a website. Do you think I need one?

Utah County Job Club LinkedIn group: http://www.linkedin.com/groupRegistration?gid=2086511

Understand I’m grossly biased because my professional background runs deep in website development, intranet, marketing sites, eCommerce sites, etc.  I could not imagine a LinkedIn Group replacing a website for an organization.  In general, I think a volunteer job club needs a website – it’s free (or cheap) and is googleable.

Having said that, here are my counterpoints.  I went to the LinkedIn Group to become a member.  There are already 140 members.  That isn’t a ton, but consider this is quite niche and new.  I was impressed (I guess I expected about 50).

• This Group allows others to network with one another online …. if you meet at the club and join the Group, you can message one another, regardless of your connection.  You don’t get that from just a website.
• Also, Jen can message all Group members, so she essentially has a free email distribution system (like Constant Contact or iContact – but at no charge).  This is really powerful.  You don’t get that from just a website.
• She also gets a bit of viral marketing when people join the Group, or contribute to Group Discussions, etc.  You don’t get that from just a website.

It probably took all of three minutes to set up.  Of course you can do some of this with a Ning site, but you know LinkedIn is going to be promoted quite a bit to this audience, and people will get accounts (if they don’t have them already).  Trying to get someone to sign up for, or USE, a site like Ning is a stretch (I think).

So, back to Jen’s question… do you need a website?

Need: no.

I still recommend one – have one of the job club people volunteer to set up a kewl design and put it on your server… have things like time of meetings, locations, etc. but definitely, definitely point people to the LinkedIn Group, because of the functionality you get there.

Note: many job clubs complement their on-site meetings with a Yahoo Group… something to think about (but realize it brings the task of administration with it).

In my LinkedIn DVD I talk about the value of Groups, how to optimize your time in Groups, Group Discussions, communicating with Group members, etc. Order the DVD here.

Preorder the LinkedIn for Job Seekers DVD here.

If you own a LinkedIn Group you have a quasi-opt-in newsletter available to you at no cost.

A LinkedIn Group own can go to the manage page and “send an announcement.”  This goes to all of the Group members except the ones who have opted out… I think most people don’t opt out.

Similar functionality from icontant or Constant Contact costs money each month…. there are differences, of course, between the two solutions, and one isn’t a replacement for the other, but LinkedIn Announcements is pretty powerful as a communication tool.

You can only send one message every 7 days (I think that’s the limit), but that’s enough… your Group members don’t want to hear from you every day, anyway.  If they do, start a blog.

Aside from sending out the Announcement via email, it can get posted as a Discussion, even a “featured discussion,” where Group members can leave comments.

Have you done this yet?  If you are behind a company, group or movement, I encourage you to start a LinkedIn Group and use this as a communication tool.

I’m a member of a lot of groups… almost 50 (which is the limit).  Some of them are awesome, others are beyond useless.

One, in particular, ONLY has discussion spam.  So I went to the Group page to get out – no more spam from them and I free up one of my 50 slots.

The only problem is I couldn’t find out how to leave the Group from the Group page – I poked around quite a bit, and I hope I just couldn’t see it, nonetheless, I think the only way to leave a LinkedIn Group is to do this:

1. Click on Groups from the top main menu,
2. Find the Group you want to leave and click on the Actions link, for a drop-down
3. Select “Leave Group,” and then confirm you really want to leave when the popup pops… up.

That’s it.

I would suggest you stay in Groups unless you have a compelling reason to leave, which might be:

1. Because of spam, like my issue, or
2. Because you are at your limit and there is another Group that you really need to join.

Cool?

Last week I wrote about LinkedIn Companies, and the work I’m doing prospecting people on LinkedIn.

I was comped an upgraded account on LinkedIn (thanks LinkedIn!) and have really loved it… I have the ability to communicate with people I’m not connected with quickly, easily and immediately.

However, if you don’t have an upgrade there is a way to cheat the system.  Actually, it’s not really cheating the system.  And if you had my LinkedIn DVD or LinkedIn book you’d already know this… it is a powerful almost-loophole to help you contact people in LinkedIn.

Did you know that if you are in the same LinkedIn Group as someone you can message them for free, no matter how you are connected?

It’s perhaps the most compelling reason to join multiple LinkedIn Groups.

Here’s how you can apply this:

Let’s say you find a target contact… but she is a third degree contact.  You don’t want to do a LinkedIn Introduction (for various reasons)… you’d rather contact them directly.

Go to their LinkedIn Profile, scroll down to their Groups, and find Groups that might be relevant to you (in other words, Groups you would join whether they are in them or not).

Then, join that or those Groups.  Hopefully you’ll find a Group that let’s you in right away… if so, you can then message that key person right away – all because you are in the same Group!

Pretty cool, huh?

Remember, you can only join 50 Groups at a time, so you might find yourself joining and leaving Groups the more you do this… I haven’t had to do that because I have the upgraded account, but it’s a simple fix to the problem

I wrote LinkedIn Discussions – Noise vs. Real Value almost a year ago, talking about the amount of spam I was seeing in LinkedIn Groups. The thoughts there are just as relevant today as they were 10 months ago.

Bob Roman just asked a few followup questions, which I’ll answer here.  Note that he is the owner of a Group, so my responses are for a LinkedIn Group owner, not simply a LinkedIn Group member.

Question: How do I send out Events just to my LinkedIn Group? Do I use LinkedIn Announcements?

Answer: Right now either starting a Group Discussion or sending a Group Announcement are your two choices.  Discussions are good because you can start as many as you want, whenever you want.  Announcements are awesome because they typically go into your Group Members email boxes, as opposed to assuming they are going to otherwise notice any chatter in the Discussion.  In other words, I assume that people aren’t going to see many discussions, whereas they almost can’t help but see the Announcement.

Question: Is there a time limit on LinkedIn Announcements?

Answer: I always make my Announcement a featured Discussion.  AFAIK it stays there forever.  The other limit you have on an Announcement is that you can only send one every seven days.

Question: When will LinkedIn Create a tab for Events?  Discussions is just not the same.

Answer: I have no idea, I haven’t heard any whisperings of that, but it is a terrific idea and I hope LI picks up on it.  An “Events” tab would be way more valuable to my Group than a “News” tab, which is essentially the same thing as a Discussion.

Question: How can I use sub-Groups better?

Answer: I wish I had an answer for you, but I don’t.  I haven’t played around with this.  My thoughts are:

- for most, it won’t really matter until you have a very large group,

- perhaps you can send one announcement per sub-group every 7 days, which means you can send more announcements,

- managing multiple sub-groups might become a major administrative pain,

- I’m guessing this is a “would be nice to have” feature that they threw in that some people requested, … but perhaps not anything that many will use, UNLESS,

- they mimic more Facebook functionality… with their richer Groups.

There you go, a quick brain dump on LinkedIn Groups.  More information can be found on my LinkedIn DVD, LinkedIn for Job Job Seekers (not jut for job seekers).

Short answer: yes.

It might not be as easy as you think, especially if you are looking for easy money, or passive revenue.  Don’t use LinkedIn as the only tool to sell your $47 product… you’ll have to sell a lot to make any real money, and to sell a lot you’ll have to be all over the place, and being all over the place will make you look like a spammer, and looking like a spammer can get you banned :p

Here are two stories about people who made money because of LinkedIn:

Story 1

I asked a question on LinkedIn.  Someone answered the question with a really good answer.  Someone else

was interested in my question, saw her answer and hired her.  I don’t know if that was a $700 contract or a $2,700 contract, but by taking a few minutes and sharing her knowledge she got new business.  Even if it where a $700 contract, she now had a new client (perhaps she could sell more stuff to that new client down the road) and hopefully an evangelist to spread some word-of-mouth goodness.

Story 2

I was doing a presentation at a law firm and an attorney said he belongs to his alumni group on LinkedIn.  Someone started a group discussion that had nothing to do with law… if I remember correctly it was a discussion/question that had to do with an upcoming football game, and perhaps asking for hotel recommendations for that away game.  This attorney simply responded with helpful information… someone else saw the response and said “oh, I kind of remember now that so-and-so (the person who answered the question) was an attorney, but I didn’t realize they did *that* type of law – I’m looking for that expertise right now!”  Contact was made and a contract was signed – just from being helpful on a discussion in a group the attorney got business.  I’m guessing the contract was worth more than $700 :p

LinkedIn is a tool – it’s a communication vehicle… it is not a get-rich-quick thing… the reason these people made money was because they were in the right place, with the right information, and accessible.

There are more stories, but the point is, YES, you can make money from LinkedIn!