Everyone always tells you when you sign up on LinkedIn you have to groups. But they don’t always tell you why to join groups, especially if you are in job search. So what makes groups so beneficial to job seekers?
The first reason that you want to join groups is to connect with like-minded individuals. There are almost two million groups to join. From sports-minded groups to alumni groups from all the colleges. There are groups for Human resources to groups for social media. If you can’t find a group on LinkedIn that you want to join, then you can start your own group.
Actually the first reason you want to join groups is because of the ability when you are in a group is to send a message to another group member. If the hiring manager at a target company is in the same group as you are you can message them directly. Any other time you would need to know that person’s personal email address to contact them otherwise.
The second reason to join groups for job seekers is you can ask to connect with other members of the group just because you are both members of the group. Depending upon the privacy setting of the other group members you could ask all of the members to connect, but LinkedIn only allows you to send out 3000 invitations. Most people using LinkedIn still don’t know you can restrict connecting from other group members so 95% of group members are available to connect with. Open to connecting with group members is a default setting by LinkedIn unless you change it.
The third reason to join groups on LinkedIn is to view the job sections. If you are a job seeker most groups have a tab at the top to select for jobs that have been posted by other members. So the groups you want to or should join are your industry groups. Another area of groups to join for job search are alumni groups.
The fourth reason (yes I know I said three reasons, but here is a bonus reason) to join groups is the ability to follow group members (See follow John above) If you see discussions or articles posted by a group member, you can follow that members updates. Their update are posted to your homepage every time they add a discussion or activity. Even if the group member doesn’t want to connect with you will still see their updates on your homepage. LinkedIn also doesn’t notify the group member that you are following them.
So join groups, join your industry groups, join HR and recruiting groups, and join alumni groups.
Guest post by Bruce Bixler, previously published on Hobknobery
I write practically perfect LinkedIn profiles and exemplary executive resumes. Contact me at 
224-221-9700224-221-9700 or Email me at BruceBix49@gmail.com.