As a small business owner, you might think you've mastered LinkedIn with a complete profile and a blooming list of connections. But, are you taking advantage of LinkedIn groups?
Rather than scrolling through the Craigslist job board in your city, search and browse LinkedIn's groups. There are groups for different industries, professional associations, alma matters and more. And if there isn't a group for what you're looking for, you can always create one.
To help you get started with this feature, Business News Daily talked to two professionals about how their experience with LinkedIn groups.
Be patient
Just like Facebook groups, LinkedIn groups are communities, some of which are tightly-knit and lead to real-life relationships. It can sometimes take time to become a part of them. If you jump in too quickly, your connection could feel artificial, discouraging others from working with or referring you in the future.
"The most successful approach is to treat it like any other community where you wouldn't barge in and start making entitled demands, but instead cultivate connections over time by contributing and interacting," said career coach Janet Scarborough Civitelli, who has several clients who landed jobs or other business opportunities from these groups.
That's why it's important to stick around and wait it out. Browsing previous discussions and threads will also give you an idea of which questions have been already asked and answered and which questions that haven't been brought up yet.
"The biggest mistake people make is to think that you can rush results with LinkedIn," Civitelli added. "People try it for a week and then declare it useless. LinkedIn can be incredibly useful for your career or business but it takes time to build something meaningful."
By Danielle Corcione, Business News Daily Contributing Writer April 29, 2018 08:55 am EST
Posted By: Nyasia Jones
Tuesday, May 1st 2018 at 8:27PM
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