One of the most disappointing things about Linkedin Groups is that there’s no way to message all the members in your group through Linkedin. Not anymore!
Good news for any associations with a Linkedin Group. Facebook’s older sibling just added a cool new feature:
This Friday, we will be adding several much-requested features to your group:
* Discussion forums: Simple discussion spaces for you and your members. (You can turn discussions off in your management control panel if you like.)
* Enhanced roster: Searchable list of group members.
* Digest emails: Daily or weekly digests of new discussion topics which your members may choose to receive. (We will be turning digests on for all current group members soon, and prompting them to set to their own preference.)
* Group home page: A private space for your members on LinkedIn.
We’re confident that these new features will spur communication, promote collaboration, and make your group more valuable to you and your members. We hope you can come by LinkedIn on Friday morning to check out the new functionality and get a group discussion going by posting a welcome message.
Tagged: Association Management; Associations; CAE; Certified Association Executive
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Good that they put in discussions. Wasn’t sure the value of Groups unless people can collaborate via forums. Although the question is still how much moderation and administration rights does it give association staff?
This is cool. I am guessing that only the group adminstrator can post a message to all?
Yay–thanks so much for this info. Just yesterday I was searching LinkedIn for “future enhancements” and any other way I could think of saying it because I knew it would just be a matter of time until they added capabilities like these.
We’ll get answers to those questions on Friday, I guess. @sterling, the only value I saw from Linkedin groups was ability to see who else from the association was also on Linkedin and the opportunity to add some flair to your Linkedin profile.
Good but no cigar… Until linked in can integrate with your AMS it will be a poor substitute for a decent integrated social network. Linked in is so big that it lacks the sense of community and exclusivity that associations excel at.
I’m a huge fan of linked in, but I don’t think it will get where it wants to go – as a community tool for professionals… that’s the job of the respective associations (for those associations that recognize it). Good effort though.