How to start your own hyper-local LinkedIn group

I guess the first question to ask regarding starting a hyper-local LinkedIn group is, should you?

Many people are not familiar with LinkedIn. A simple description would be – it’s like Facebook for business people.

Most members are business people. You can create a Profile, join and form Groups, Network with other business people, etc.

Just like other social media, the immediate appeal is that it is FREE to join.

Melissa Pederson, the Director of Business Development for the lifestyle search engine SpatialMatch, wanted to network with more real estate people. So she started a group titled: “Sell More Real Estate.”

There are now 475 members and the discussions are very lively and informative. Some of the topics include, “Tips for Better Real Estate Photos,” “How to mine Facebook as a Realtor Tool,” and “Social Media Flowcharts for Real Estate Leads.”

If you are in the real estate biz, this is interesting stuff.

I remember years ago when LinkedIn was just kind of a weak place to hang out.

But since the whole concept of “social media” has exploded, so has LinkedIn.

They now have 100 million members and they are not all people in suits. The membership includes 997,000 teachers and 74 Elvis tribute artists.

By the way, they just went public this year – the market cap is now $754 million, but some experts say the site could be valued as high as $9 billion.

Whoa. Something’s obviously going on there.

So what sort of group should you create as a hyper-local minded real estate broker or agent?

Here are some suggestions:

a)      Make it clearly local: include your market area in the name.

b)      Put in a benefit message: “Opportunities in Oskosh,”  or “Happenings in Hoboken” for example. (Come one, who can resist “Sell More Real Estate?”)

c)       Require pre-approval: many people will want to join, but check out who they are first. Make sure they are local and the type of individual who you believe will contribute something of value.

d)      Monitor the group: you don’t want spammers in there, but people who provide helpful ideas. If they have helpful products or services, that’s  fine,  they may be of use to the group members and members will want to know about them. Just don’t let them get carried away.

e)      Ask members to invite others: tell them, the larger the group, the more input and content.

f)       Set the tone for content: if you are seeking to publish content about things going on in your town, start adding the content you want to see so others “get” the concept behind the site. Talk about new subdivisions going up or new shopping centers opening or new employers coming to town.

g)      Encourage participation: here’s the biggee. If you want the group to thrive, you as the group organizer have to make it happen. Ask members privately if they have something to contribute. Send out a newsletter to members summing up some of the cool topics that were posted to get them excited about participating.

While you might get frustrated that more people are not joining in, it still will come down to your energy in keeping the group active. At some point, it’s going to get bigger and you will see more input. Then it might slack off again. It will ebb and flow. But persevere.

h)      Keep SEO in mind: if there are certain keywords you want to target, use them. Search engines will pick up on LinkedIn discussions. That will help everybody in the group.

Like Facebook, LinkedIn is basically a net you will be putting out there to network with more people in your community. And as real estate professionals, if anybody knows the benefits of networking, you do.

You may be surprised who you run into, like that dude with the big sideburns, the sequined suit and twitching lip who is looking for a new home in your market area.