Groups #1 – Becoming a XING Groupie

The 26,000+ groups on our platform form a key part of the interaction that takes place every day on XING. Groups are the ideal place for members to demonstrate their expertise in a particular field, learn new things, or find new contacts and potential business partners. In the first of a multi-part series I’d like to show you how you can make the absolute most of XING groups – both as a member and as a group founder and moderator.

Step 1: Finding and joining exactly the right groups

All group features are available to both Basic and Premium Members. Logically enough, you’ll find most XING groups by clicking on corresponding tab in our site header.
By clicking on “Groups” and choosing “All Groups”, you will be redirected to a page where you can browse for groups that might be of particular interest to you – according to specific categories.

You might also find it useful to search by specific languages, or to search for the largest groups under specific categories.  This page also features groups that individual contacts of yours have joined – which may throw up some interesting new ideas for groups you want to join as well.

And right at the bottom of the page you’ll also find the largest and the most recently created groups on XING for you to browse.

Don’t be afraid to join groups that might be of a relatively private nature. You can control who sees your group membership by clicking “Edit group visibility” under your settings. More to come on this in the next MaximiXING blog posts!

If you’re already a member of at least one group, you will find a list of the groups you moderate or are a member of under “My Groups”, as well as info boxes including “Most active groups”, “Largest groups” and “New groups” at the bottom of the page.

You’ll find your bookmarked groups here too – a useful feature as there might well be groups you find interesting by don’t want to join straight away.
Generally speaking, we recommend you join those groups that spark your interest and in which you’ll be an active member – intermittently at least. This doesn’t mean you need feel obliged to post previously unseen expert information every 48 hours – particularly if you’ve joined a group to draw on other people’s knowledge rather than share your own expertise with others. Following and reading threads within a group counts as active participation in our book too – a fact that moderators sometimes overlook.

Your “presence” in the list of group members often serves a purpose in itself, e.g. if you wish to be invited to alumni events held by your university. At the same time, this list is often useful for locating old contacts and finding interesting new ones – as all of you have at least one thing in common already!

Returning to the issue of activity: Posting a short article introducing yourself is usually considered good practice by other members. If you’re stuck and think the other group members might be able to help you out, post your question (and thank anyone providing you with information or a solution). This goes down very well and means that you are remembered in a positive light.

No-one expects you to spend days on end posted essays in a group.

Having said that, if you feel you have something useful to contribute to a discussion: Do it! This brings a number of key benefits for you:
You are perceived as a helpful individual with good social skills

• You demonstrate your specialist expertise in a certain field, exposing your skills in an excellent light to prospective clients
• You contribute to the overall level of interaction, which in turn boosts the attractiveness of the group, its member numbers and activity levels
• Inviting your contacts to join groups that are relevant to them is also very worthwhile. All you have to do is click here on “Groups”  “Group Invitations”, which includes links to all of your groups.

Private vs. public

The start page of each group clearly shows whether discussion posts or the group itself are publicly visible to non-members.

If you post articles in a public group, but don’t wish to be identified by name outside of the platform, you should deactivate the option “Make my posts in public groups available to search engines” under your Privacy settings. This means however that other members will assume you don’t want to be quoted and will refrain from referring to you by name. Many groups have established a workaround whereby “copy & paste” is used to quote members, and the author is then referred to using their initials.

By the way, subscribing to new posts within a certain group means you can automatically be notified whenever new comments or articles are posted. You can activate and manage your subscriptions under “Groups” -> “Group Subscriptions”.

You can also subscribe to RSS feeds from visible groups, which allows you to what’s being posted offline.

Although there aren’t any differences when it comes to the groups themselves, there are other additional little perks especially for Premium Members too. The Powersearch option “Members in the same groups as I am” is an excellent way of locating other people with the same professional and private fields of interest, who may wish to connect with you.

Of course only those groups are featured here where the list of members is public. There is also a category of group that isn’t visible in profiles or using the search. These groups can only be seen once members have either been sent a link or been invited to the group. The subject of these groups is often a sensitive one where members prefer to retain a little anonymity, such as top management groups in some industries, for instance.

In my next post I’ll be looking at how best to set up and moderate a group. If you have any questions, suggestions or requests so far, feel free to post a comment here.