 As a LinkedIn affection auto, one of the features that always keeps me coming back for more is LinkedIn Groups. It's one of LinkedIn's most underutilized features and maybe with good reason. LinkedIn Groups can appear a bit clunky and you're not sure if there is a lot of engagement. But I assure you, if you stick it out, there is great ROI to be found in LinkedIn Groups. Today we're going to talk about six ways and a couple tips on how you can maximize your time in LinkedIn Groups. Stick around. My name is Leanne and my daily time on LinkedIn always includes some time in LinkedIn Groups. Now I do have to admit there are two camps on LinkedIn Groups. The camp that believes that there is no value there, no engagement with the members, and it's just become this spammy wormhole. And I have to agree with them on some extent, but I prefer to belong to the camp that sees the value in Groups and perhaps it's my personal mission to bring Groups back to life. I do have to caution, Groups can be a bit of a treasure hunt and some days you come up empty. But with every treasure hunt, when you find some treasure, it is pure gold. In Groups you never know when you're going to stumble upon your next client, your next collaborator, or your next rock star referral. So I keep going back to Groups and today I'm sharing six best practices that might encourage you to check out Groups the next time you're on LinkedIn. But before we begin, don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel and click on that little bell to be notified of new content. Each week I post content related to personal branding and LinkedIn as it pertains to sales professionals. I'd love for you to capitalize on the tips, so we'll see you here. And if you're a sales professional, stick around to the end of the video. I have one bonus strategy for using LinkedIn Groups that you might find a little bit interesting, so stick around for that. So here we go. Six ways that you can capitalize on LinkedIn Groups to grow your brand and grow your sales. Tip one, engage in the right groups. As you may have seen on LinkedIn, there is a group for everything, which is fantastic because now you can find a lot of communities that you want to contribute to. The trick is finding the balance between communities that speak to your passions and interests, but also speak to your ideal client. So find a good balance of communities and make sure you're spending time in the communities where your ideal client is hanging out to listen in on their conversations. And that brings me to tip number two, when you're jumping in the groups with your ideal client, make sure you're listening in to what they're talking about. You can learn so much about their challenges, their struggles, their current pain points, and now you are front and center to help point from the right direction of resources that are going to help them make their day better. And tip number three, contribute where appropriate. Ensure that your contributions don't come across as spammy, but that you are genuinely providing great value to that individual. You're helping them with their day, not giving them another piece of sales and marketing collateral that they can push off to the side. Tip number four, ask permission to send a direct message. Sometimes someone will ask a question where your product or service will actually answer that question. But instead of being spammy right there inside the group, politely ask permission to direct message them and send them your resource in private. It's very respectful. And the other group members will pick up on your tact and potentially even ask you about your resources as well. Give it a try. See if you gain any traction. Tip number five, provide something of value outside of your product or service. Again, these groups, there's a plethora of different discussions going on. And if you can meet a need of theirs that is outside of what you directly sell, you will position yourself as someone that is welcome anytime inside of the group. Revisit tip number two, see what conversations that people are having, ensure that you have some resources ready and provide them at the right time. And tip number six, keep your eyes open for everybody inside the group. It may not even be your ideal client that you want to connect with, but potentially a collaborator, a future mentor, someone that can help you with your business or someone that you can help with their business. So keep your eyes open for all kinds of individuals inside of the group. Remember, the cardinal rule of groups is no self promotion. People will find your message very spammy and ignore it, and it could lead to expulsion from the group. If you're spending time in the group and over the couple weeks, you're still not seeing any ways to engage and contribute to the conversation. Perhaps take a look at some other groups that you can join and see if the conversations any different over there. And the bonus strategy for all of you sales professionals, consider starting a group yourself. Not only does it give you visibility to all the group members that you might attract, but it gives you a platform to share valuable content and even boost some pieces of content. So it shows up in the group members notifications. Starting a group is a great way to grow your personal brand. Just be ready to put in the elbow grease to keep that group engaged and active. Do you plan on spending more time in LinkedIn groups this year? I'd love to hear what groups you're hanging out in, especially if you're a sales professional. Let me know in the comments below. If you are interested in growing your LinkedIn connections, I have just the challenge for you. The five days to 50 connections LinkedIn challenge is a great way for you to spend some intentional time on LinkedIn each day for a week to start to grow and attract new connections to your profiles. You can sign up at liankolderwood.com forward slash challenge and the challenge officially begins on Monday. I hope to see you there. My friend using LinkedIn groups can turn up some real gems and I do hope that you spend some time in there this week finding gems of your own. Until next time, bye for now.