LinkedIn group for MIPs?

StuartW

Hello all,

I wonder if I could pick your brains please. At AAT we've been discussing the potential value (or lack thereof) of a dedicated LinkedIn group for Members in Practice. If we were to do this it would probably be in the form of a private group; an AAT administrator (and potentially group members) would grant access to those whose AAT membership status is up to date, etc (this would be up for discussion, however).

Some potential benefits:

- The opportunity to network and make contacts outside of AAT's existing forums community under your own name/job title, with your credentials & career history easily viewable
- A place for us to attract more MIPs to AAT's online presence, who could in turn be introduced to the supportive and more informal environment of these forums
- The more members aligned to an AAT group on a platform of this nature, the better for the organisation's reputation and, in turn, that of its members

Some potential drawbacks:

- A danger that conversations might be duplicated
- A danger that people wouldn't be sure which platform to use (and, potentially, decide to use neither as a result)
- A private group would need to be monitored closely as far as its members' statuses - those who failed to renew their membership may need to be ejected

What do you think - would you use a group of this nature? Would you be interested in driving the discussions in such a group? Do you think such a group would be unnecessary alongside the forums? Honest feedback would be much appreciated.

Thanks very much,

Stuart

Monsoon

Hi Stuart

I can't think of any occasion where I've wished we MIPs would have a private section of the forum. If there was a need for it, I think having a private section of the forum would be better than a LinkedIn group; not everyone uses LinkedIn. If there's not a need for it, then I don't think there's a need for a LI group.

I'm not convinced a MIP group on LI is really needed at all. I do use LI, but not much, and I'm already connected to AAT members on there and I don't feel a group would add anything, but that's just me. I think the drawbacks you've highlighted are genuine ones that are all in line with my gut feeling that it would be unnecessary. Just my 2p

StuartW

Thanks Monsoon, that's a well-reasoned response.

Any more opinions out there?

anniem

I think the only two things it would do is to remove the annonimity (which can be retained on here if you wish) and to provide more information about you/your business. Those who are happy to share who they are do it here anyway. You would lose many of the important and valued people in 'this community' who are not current MIPs for whatever reason, they are important to us too!

I also suspect that it would be incredibly hard/time consuming to monitor and manage if you were to try and restrict it to currently licenced MIPs.

With my 2p we are now up to 4p!

deanshepherd

I have a LinkedIn profile but never use the site. I don't see any advantage in using it as a discussion board for members. This forum already adequately meets that need and time may be better spent promoting the forum to other members to encourage more people to use it.

The advantage LinkedIn has it that no-one has anonymity and you can control who belongs to the group so you can exclude non-members and also have sections exclusively for MIPs, council members, AAT staff etc.

I think if LinkedIn is going to be pursued then you need to have a markedly different use for it than just topical discussion amongst members.

I would suggest you 'force' all AAT staff, council and board members to join up and have separate sections for each (viewable by all members) so that members can get to know the people behind AAT better and perhaps use the group to disseminate information to the membership or invite opinions on relevant topics to each board.

You could even have each local branch listed with committee members.

6p and counting..

LynWest

I agree I have a linked in profile, but i don't think it would be useful here. We are now up to 8p woo hoo

Gem7321

I agree. I also have a linkedin profile and don't really see the benefit of it. I don't think a specific MIP group is necessary. Anyone here that I want to network with I have on facebook!

JodieR

I agree with the others - i've got a linked-in profile too but I can't say i like the site and haven't found a good use for it yet.
Having said that, maybe it'd be a good idea if people posting on here could link to their linked-in profiles so that those who wanted to 'connect' on that platform would be able to easily? This may already be possible, it's not something that I've looked into.