How Changes to LinkedIn Groups Impact Ad and Sponsored Update Targeting

Change is inevitable. Anyone who has used social media for any length of time knows that statement to be very true. So when LinkedIn announced changes to LinkedIn Groups in late 2015, it didn’t come as an incredible surprise to the platform’s estimated 400 million users, and even went unnoticed by many. LinkedIn has rolled out a few additional changes to groups already this year, but in essence all of the changes are aimed at providing a more engaging, less spammy experience for group users. For example, group conversations now won’t be visible to non-members on the group’s home page and the promotions tab has been eliminated from every group. Group conversations can now also include photos and you have the ability to tag other group members when you want them to join in on the conversation. Sounds great, right? Well, yes and no. While overall this new set of LinkedIn Groups features seems to be a step in a positive direction, there is one change that poses a problem for both LinkedIn members and those that advertise on the site. Group owners now have the option to make a group Standard or Unlisted. Standard Groups can be found by anyone searching LinkedIn, while Unlisted Groups are not searchable and only the group owner can invite others to join. These screen shots show how you will see the two types of groups for those you are a member of already: This means that Unlisted Groups are now much harder to…
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