Have you started using LinkedIn yet as one of your social media strategies?  If not you should get started asap!  With over 200 million affluent professionals it is not to be overlooked for it’s power of influence.

LinkedIn is one on my top recommended ways to market your business online.  You will find everyone from CEOs from Fortune 500 companies to work-at-home solo-preneurs, including experienced professionals from large and small companies from every type of business and industry imaginable.

One of my favorite ways to expand your reach using LinkedIn is by using LinkedIn Groups.  Since you can join up to 50 different groups the potential for finding targeted connections is huge if done correctly.

There are several ways to choose the best groups to join based on your goals.  The first way would be to join groups related to your industry, so since I am a social  media manager a lot of the groups I am a part of are related to social media, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.  These are great groups for me because I can network with like minded entrepreneurs, share my expertise with the group, and also learn from the other members.

The second way to choose a group would be to find groups where your target market is hanging out.  Joining groups related to my industry is great but those groups are also full of my competition so I don’t want this to be my only group I am networking with because that would be limiting my potential for finding new customers with this strategy.  So as a social media marketer my targeted potential clients are small business owners, so finding groups where small business owners hang out is a great place for me to join and then share my expertise.

The other thing to focus on when networking in LinkedIn Groups is to stay “Group Topic” focused.  There is a reason groups are categorized certain ways and that’s because everyone in that group is interested in that topic … so when you interact in groups make sure you are sharing quality content that is related to the groups topic to build yourself as an authority on the topic of interest.

My last tip on LinkedIn Groups is to consider starting your own LinkedIn Group.  What better way to be considered the expert on a topic then to be the leader of a group on that subject.  This gives instant expert status on the target subject and as long as you are providing top quality content and resources you can easily create a targeted way to build your following of raving fans.

If we haven’t connected on LinkedIn yet make sure to send me a request and tell me how we are connected by being a reader of my blog. I would love for us to be connected! http://www.linkedin.com/in/themarketingmomma

To Your Success!

Kate Wilber

The Marketing Momma