LinkedIn groups and your reputation or goto jail!

This week I came across this post, which neatly summarises some of the difficulties you can get into using LinkedIn. Did you know for example that making a “mistake” in one LinkedIn group can cost you your ability to post in ANY group?

Interestingly there are some site wide implications for actions, and its worth a read for anyone using LinkedIn groups. You are in the hands of group owners and moderators!

Pay particular attention to this part: 

SWAM’ed: You posted something somewhere in some group that someone didn’t like and now you are automatically in moderation-required mode for ALL 50 of your groups. (Yes, you read that correctly!)

SWAM stands for “Site Wide Auto Moderation” and it means that each post or comment in LinkedIn groups goes into the “sin bin” and must now be manually approved by the group owner before it is posted and visible. If ANY group owner “blocks & deletes” you or marks your posts as “requires moderation,” you will then automatically be SWAM’ed in ALL of your groups. This new policy is highly impactful for both group members as well as group owners who now have many more posts and comments to sift through and approve/move/delete. 

Source: here

Reduce your risk by:

1. only join groups that really add value – leave groups you are not active in
2. understand the rules and culture of the group 
3. understand your unique purpose of each groups membership and ensure this is aligned to the group rules and culture

 Points to note

1. read and follow the LinkedIn rules – no logos as photos, use your name, not company names, read and follow the individual group rules
2. look at who moderates the group, if public make sure the group is not full of spam (self promotions) as all it needs are a few people saying your post is inappropriate.. and bang.. off to jail you go

Getting out of LinkedIn jail

If you have upset a LinkedIn group moderator by breaking the rules, or applied to an inappropriate group, you are in moderation for all groups. tha only solution is to manually write to each group owner and “beg” to be allowed to post un-moderated. The very busy groups may only check their email every week or two, and then may have so many messages, they ignore of delete them. So be patient. One group I am a member of I know the group owner only visits the group to manage moderated posts every 2-3 weeks!

Note to LinkedIn,

please consider the following:

• do not SWAM on one “moderation” flag, but say 3
• put up on group pages when the last visit by the owner was, and average frequency of visits, this will help people select the most engaged and managed groups
• have a “like” for group moderation? management, that is shown on the group dashboard
• let members know at least what group put them in moderation or blocked them

References for LinkedIn groups and your reputation or goto jail!

according to Social Media Today it seems that actually this has been around for a year now, but most users, and group owners are still unaware of it