MMLGF 9: Linkedin Groups Privacy and Visibility

In this long series of post about Linkedin Groups I’ve been writing in the last two or three months I talked about some interesting things like new features linkedin groups should add, exporting information, accessing linkedin groups from your home page and more and more… Although I talked too much, I haven’t said a word about Linkedin groups visibility and privacy.

 

Linkedin groups are on these days semi-public. why? Because you have to invited or ask for being added to any group if you want to be part of it. Maybe you find a group by word of mouth, by doing a search or by any way you want but…

 

… But what if we don’t want to own a semi-public group? What if we want or need some group to be really open or really private so nobody see it?

 

I thought three different kind of groups’ privacy will be just perfect for users.

• Public Groups: There are some groups just open to anyone, without the need to register. It looks like current Linkedin Answers where everybody can ask and answer.
• Semi public Groups: These groups will only let members participate in the groups where non-members must ask for subscription. This is the way Linkedin groups are being created these days that let users create groups for specific regions or businesses.
• Private Groups: That kind of group let companies and people start their own groups without appearing in any Linkedin groups’ directory. That option would let businessmen do/prepare and invite people to meetings online as well as be informed from many different sources or communicate with partners or clients in a silent way.

 

As Private groups are not listed and you just can be member of by invitation , maybe this kind of groups should not be free but let Linkedin or any business social network implementing this decide…

 

This is post #9 of the (M)aking the (M)ost of (L)inkedIn (G)roups (F)unctionality (MMLGF) Series. Ideas for free 😉