5 Ways to Use LinkedIn Groups for Personal Branding

When sending a résumé to a prospective employer, there is a strong likelihood they will look you up on LinkedIn.  LinkedIn has become a widely used tool to learn about candidates’ backgrounds and make a determination regarding competencies that fit with a potential role. This means that the information you have on your resume must match the profile you have available on LinkedIn.  It doesn’t need to be exactly the same.  In fact, it is good to have some variations.  

Dates and job titles must be reflected accurately on both your résumé and your LinkedIn profile. Otherwise, it could look like you are being less than honest. If you haven’t already had your LinkedIn profile updated, you may want to seek the help of a career expert that understands how to use LinkedIn for job related networking and professional branding efforts.

One of the features that make LinkedIn such a powerful tool is Groups.  Groups provide users with a way to network in a virtual environment that can span continents. Groups allow those with similar interests to gather and share information and expertise.  The use of Groups has revolutionized networking and taken it from a local arena to a multinational one.

Below are some helpful hints on how to gain maximum benefits from LinkedIn Groups to extend your personal brand.

1. Prospective employers will be looking at the groups you join. There are many options; choose groups that match your interests, career aspirations, and those where you can contribute, as well as reap the benefits from the other members. 

If you have worked at a company in the past, do a search in the Groups section to see if your former company has an alumni group you can join. You will also want to join groups where you can identify senior level executives who may be doing the hiring. Be sure the groups are relevant. No point in signing up for a group that isn’t going to bring value.

1. If you have expertise in a certain area of technology, healthcare, or any other discipline, run a search for the keyword and see what groups come up.  Try to select groups that have the most members; some of the smaller groups get limited activity which means less exposure.
2. Once you have joined, you can send InMails at no charge to members who may have important connections for you. You can also comment on discussions and even add content to start your own discussion. If you have a blog, you can post a link to your relevant blog article in the group. You can also post a link to someone else’s article and then add your thoughts and unique perspective on the topic.
3. Another thing you can do is start a group of your own. Careers Done Write has a LinkedIn group that grows daily.  We post informative articles from our main blog and add content from those sites where I contribute as a guest writer. Our group members discuss career related topics and vote on polls.
4. In case you are thinking that belonging to Groups is not important for your career and your personal branding strategy, think again.  I have several excellent résumé writers and staff members who came to me as a direct result of active group participation, so I know firsthand how effective Groups can be.

I recently conducted a survey asking people whether or not they felt they were able to devote as much time as they would like to towards participating in LinkedIn Groups.  The majority of respondents said no.  I can certainly understand this challenge myself.

Given that this is the case, a good personal branding strategy would be to set up a weekly calendar and choose a targeted number of Groups for active and regular discussion / participation.  Determine how much time you can realistically devote, stay on schedule, and be sure to enhance your brand regularly by providing informative content on LinkedIn Groups.