How do you join groups? First thing, decide what are your fields of interests are. What does your business do? Real-estate, law, consulting? In almost any subject you’ll find groups and subgroups with many professionals in them. People (like you) on each group are looking to hire, talk and write on the selected topic. In other words, people are looking to connect – to network.

Groups Search on LinkedIn

Once you join a group, you can get noticed by participating in conversations. You can get notified by mail on conversations that interest you. You can start a conversation yourself. You could approach people by leaving a comment on conversations, sending a message, and eventually becoming their connections on LinkedIn.

Here are some of the groups I found useful and with great contacts, that I joined lately:

Social Media Today – All about the world of social media, tactics, conversations and the people of the relatively new industry. The group is a part of the Social Media Today website. Recent conversations are about social media for businesses, legal issues on social media and etc. I found the group very effective and useful. The people participating there are pros, have great insights and some of them became my connections.

The Blog Zone – A group for bloggers- a group all about blogs, bloggers, blog content. One of its subgroups is The Bloggers Bulletin. This is a blog platform hosting a few bloggers and their content on a variety of topics.

Business Development – A group with discussions on sales, producing revenue and business development for companies.

Search for groups that interest you, and start being active. The networking will happen by itself.

This type of linking method isn’t that complicated. You write a post that relates in one way or another to what someone else wrote. It’s better to focus on something that you would write about anyway. And while you’re writing your post, you link to your fellow blogger’s post when you relate to the topic he wrote about.

This method is the best way to link, and you can repeat it as many times as you wish. Here are the main advantages:

• Writing such a post is more “natural”: You write a post on something that you have interest in or something that you can contribute through. This makes the post interesting and worthy for your readers. It fits into your regular writing, and doesn’t stand out as a link post. So, these kind of posts can be repeated over and over, contrary to link posts that can be tiring.
• No risk of over-flattering: When the link to your fellow blogger is a natural part of a serious post, he’ll be pleased that you’ve noticed him, but he won’t be intimidated by a post directed only at him.
• Discussion: After seeing the incoming link and some traffic from your post, your blogger might join the discussion on your post. A deeper post triggers deeper interaction. And, what’s networking about, if not social interaction?

This method of linking is the best way for networking. It is an approach in the right dosage – serious enough to be noticed, but not direct to scare off the other side.

The disadvantage of such a post is that it takes more time to write. But if you want to give your readers quality content, you have to put some effort into it, don’t you?

When I talk about a link post, I’m referring to a very short post, which is usually not longer than 100 words. This kind of short post focuses solely on the link. You can look at such a post as a road sign. It briefly tells you where to go.

Advantages of a link post

• It takes no time to write. Apart from being a short post, it’s content is based on the linked post. Adding a small note of your own will enrich the content, but it’s still short.
• A link post drives traffic to your fellow blogger’s site. Since it’s focused on the link, the click through rate will be high. Like the aforementioned road sign, it tells your readers: “Go there!”. Sending traffic is naturally appreciated by your fellow blogger.
• If you’re promoting a cause, a link post is an excellent and quick way to show your show where you stand. It isn’t necessary to elaborate on your exact opinion. You just take sides quickly. Being part of a group is another networking opportunity.

Disadvantages of a link post

• It’s not really original. Linking to specific opinion tells also something about yourself, but in someone else’s words. Try not to write too many link posts. Remember that this post isn’t an isolated approach to someone, but just another part of your blog. In many cases, the blog is your “large business card”. If you have many links that you want to share, Twitter is a better choice for most cases.
• Too direct: Making a link post could be perceived as flattering by your fellow blogger. If it’s the initial connection with him, this way might be too direct.

Conclusion: All in all, a link post is easy to do, drives traffic, and especially useful for joining a group. It shouldn’t be used very frequently, and in most cases it’s better to use it after an initial acquaintance with the blogger that you’re linking to.

Do you have any link post experiences that you wish to share?