I have a trade specific LinkedIn Group with over 15,000 members. I own the group. I am a business consultant whose niche is in working with this trade. I am interested in offering seminars to the members on business systemization. The demographics of the group are perfect for the seminar and I can run the seminar live in different cities, really anywhere in the world there is enough interest (15 people minimum) I do not want to do a webinar as part of the benefit from the seminar is the experience of meeting face to face with peers in their industry. In the past I have offered the seminar for 2 days and 3 days. I set up a webpage and posted links to the site with information about the seminar and got very little response. How do I foster more of a community in the group and establish my company as a go to resource for this type of consulting work in the hopes of drumming up more interest in the Seminar?
3
Answers
LinkedIn Specialist, LinkedIn Profile Writer
Getting people on the "dance floor" is always tough. Less than 2% of people online engage and in my opinion, LinkedIn Groups seem to be even more challenging than Facebook Groups because LinkedIn is the business network and people are more cautious about affecting their professional brand online.
The best way to foster engagement is to appeal to emotions: how are you solving their pain? Can you speak to their problems using their language? Can you give them an "a-ha" moment that they hadn't thought of?
You could ask simple questions to your group such as: "Which option works better for you: A or B?". (Include a visual for better reach & exposure)
Not knowing your industry, you could ask the group at large: I need your help. I'm looking to get some deeper insights from __________ (insert role/position here) about ___________ (solution you provide). More specifically, are you challenged with _______ (the problem) and how are you currently handling it?
This way, you can do a deeper dive on what their problems are, how they are handling it, and if your solution fits within this.
Hope this helps.
Answered over 9 years ago
Google AdWords & Remarketing Strategist
I would start by posting some great content related to your seminar in the Group. There's also very targeted, paid advertising now on Linkedin. Creating a "Sponsored" post Ad (like you see every day in your newsfeed) could get alot of people's attention.
Check out this great podcast: http://baconwrappedbusiness.com/joshturner/
Answered over 9 years ago
Partnership & collaboration facilitator
I like the idea of asking questions to the group to help them identify potential challenges that are both relevant to the issue area of the group and could be addressed by your seminars. From there you may be able to facilitate a consensus building approach within the group towards effective problem solving addressed by your seminar. Perhaps making the problem solving being about getting everyone together in one room to address the shared challenge rather than it be a 'salesy' seminar pitch is best. That way there's ownership among the group to help develop specifics of the seminar content and you are positioned to be the convener. Happy to discuss further if interested.
Answered over 9 years ago