Power Groups in the LinkedIn Newsfeed.

Power Networking on LinkedIn.

In one of my previous posts I discussed how small and medium sized businesses are simply not being seen in the newsfeed due to competition with 1000s of other posts.

I also mentioned that big businesses are gaming the system.

Here's how it works. When you post to the newsfeed, in principal only your 1st connections and followers can see your post. Not many of them will see it because the post is competing for the very limited attention of each connection with hundreds of other posts. However, if someone interacts with the post, then this interaction together with the original post can appear on the newsfeed of that user's followers too. So big businesses can concentrate the power of their employees on LinkedIn by getting them all to interact on a post and widen it's circulation enormously.

That this works we know, because when we had the little newsfeed update analytics tool, I measured this "Power Group" idea. When I just posted normally to the newsfeed, I was averaging just twenty views per post. When I choose the right informal group of interlocutors who I knew would be amenable to joining in a conversation on a topic, those posts were getting viewerships in the high hundreds.

I still use this technique to great effect. I do it by using a informal collaboration of LinkedIn Users who I know to be responsive, by occasionally bringing them into a conversation with mentions using the @ symbol.

However, there is nothing to stop small business networks nor medium size businesses more strategically planning newsfeed posts and campaigns. All they need to do is formulate processes whereby multiple parties agree to interact with or share specific posts. In other words, particularly for network groups like BNI, 4N, JCI, FSB, CBI more strategic use of the LinkedIn newsfeed is possible by forming collaborative posting "Power Groups", allowing them to beat big businesses at their own game.