Link and Communicate
2008
LinkedIn is more than a networking tool. It drives traffic to blogs and websites. None are mutually exclusive. Use them all to improve traffic and web visibility.
On July 25, 2008, I started a LinkedIn Group for a trade association. It’s been steadily growing ever since. In touching base with other groups and other LinkedIn Group Managers, the key problem facing most groups is “Now What?” Just being affiliated doesn’t do much. The key, it appear, as with everything else is to communicate.
I made the commitment in a welcome letter to early subscribers that I’d send out an e-newsletter at least once a month. I drafted it this week, but it didn’t seem quite right. For one thing, it immediately became too long. One group member wrote me back saying, ” I think that a monthly email would be just fine, and if you feel that there is much more to share than just once a month, I don’t think too many of us would mind.” So, I’m taking him up on the offer, and have decided to also change format.
I’m going to try writing shorter pieces dedicated to one topic at a time, and instead of e-mailing them, posting them to a blog. Why a blog? For one thing, it helps with SEO and traffic back to the association’s main website. In addition, it can be used to supplement and start discussions on LinkedIn’s discussion group function. dA blog also lends itself to short topics, but lets you write more than you can on a discussion forum.
Increasingly LinkedIn is becoming more important in business communications, but not to the detriment of blogs. The social media and networking world is increasingly intertwined. Discussion Group forums and blogs are just two of the strings in the growing web.
rbronson@napl.org
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