One of the most underutilized features of LinkedIn is "LinkedIn Groups." There are groups for just about anything you can imagine - groups for people in a specific field, alumni groups with people from the same college, fraternity, sorority, etc, groups for people who share a common interest, and more.

It is so easy to use this feature of LinkedIn to target the right market for your business, but most people are not aware of all the different things you can do with LinkedIn Groups. The most important thing to remember when it comes to utilizing LinkedIn Groups is that you have to have the right strategy planned out ahead of time.

To make it easier for you to get started, I've shared 3 easy tips to remember when trying to take advantage of LinkedIn Groups.

1: Always Join New Groups That Are Relevant to Your Industry: If you want to become known as an expert in your field, you have to do research on what people are talking about and what they need help with. Joining groups that are focused on your industry will give you plenty of insight into what people are looking for and how you can target them.

2: Start a Discussion! Once you've joined the proper groups that are relevant to your field, get your name out there! Start a discussion that you can monitor, and encourage people to ask questions, share interesting information, and more. When people see that you've started the group and you're interested in the same things that they are, they are more likely to trust you and turn to you for help when they need it.

3: Connect With the People You've Interacted With: Groups are a great way to connect with people on LinkedIn that are in the same line of work that you are. Once you've commented on someone's discussion or shared interesting information with them in a group, be sure to connect with them on LinkedIn. You never know when the contact may come in handy!

These are just 3 of many tips that show you how you can use LinkedIn Groups to establish yourself as an expert in your field and lead to new sales and customers. For those of you that need more help on getting results from LinkedIn (and I'm sure that's most of you) be sure to check out our upcoming LinkedIn training class in January!