One of the many ways to use the LinkedIn platform to build the reputation of your brand is to create and join Groups related to your subject matter. It creates an environment where business owners can discuss their industry, meet future partners and find potential clients. LinkedIn Groups have been around for years, but the company recently announced they would be upgrading some features for Group managers and other major changes.
Like many social media platforms in recent months, LinkedIn is modifying the interface for some of their Group pages as well as changing some features available to Group page managers. Similar to other social platforms, the changes are coming sooner than later. According to LinkedIn, the new Groups platform will begin rolling out to members globally on desktop and mobile at the end of this month. It won’t be matter of choice. Even if you prefer the older design all Groups will be automatically migrated to the new platform.
One of the biggest, and possibly most important, change in the update is bringing Group pages to mobile devices. The new Groups platform integrates Groups content into the main LinkedIn website and mobile apps. This makes Groups more valuable and useful by giving more visibility and accessibility to Group discussions.
Group admin roles will also be able to manage Groups on both the iOS and Android versions of the LinkedIn app. These updates will make it easier for people to engage in Group discussions and make it easier for Group owners to manage their page without having to be on the desktop version of LinkedIn. This is clearly a case of LinkedIn giving Group managers something they had been asking for, and they know it.
“We’ve heard from many of you over the past year that boosting engagement and enabling vibrant discussions in your groups is important, so we’ve prioritized those features that support this,” said LinkedIn in a notification email that went out to current LinkedIn Group managers.
As for making engagement more lively, the new Group platform will give Group owners new options for posting so it’s faster to engage with the Group. In the new version, members and admins can reply to comments, edit posts and comments and post native video to Groups, as well as interact within Group discussions directly in the main LinkedIn feed. LinkedIn also said notifications about Group activities and conversations are also coming, which they noted were extremely useful in increasing Group engagement during trials of the new platform.
Unfortunately, as is often the case with major interface changes, LinkedIn Group Managers will see some features go away after the new update. For example, managing the pages might become a little harder because the role of “Moderator” is being removed, leaving only “owners” and “managers” roles within the system.
This is a major change for people who have been using moderators to help manage a page. LinkedIn says moderators will be downgraded to regular members once the new platform is in place. Since the new system should be launch in the next few weeks, anyone needing access to manage a Group who is currently listed as a moderator needs to be “promoted” to a manager.
There will also be changes due available features during the migration to the new system. LinkedIn warned users in the email that moderation queues will be temporarily unavailable, as well the admin and auto-generated group emails for things like digests, automated templates and announcements.
According to a report from MarketingLand, “a LinkedIn spokesperson said Group admins will have access to moderation tools for blocking and removing group members, with the new version rolling out in the coming weeks — but the newly built moderation queue won’t be available for the next few months.”
This will be a big change for LinkedIn Group users and it’s coming soon. Be sure to check that your moderators get upgraded to managers and that you let Group members know about any changes that would affect them.
For more information about upcoming changes to popular web platforms, read this article about recent changes to Google ads.