from AskMyDaddy

Managing closed LinkedIn Groups

You asked

How strict are you with your membership criteria ? While its hard to

say no sometimes not saying no would devalue the group as a whole I

suppose. How do you say this in a nice way? Do you correspond with

them or just not approve them ?

My LinkDaddy writes

That depends on your group qualifications. I can share what I do in my own case.

While I manage a horde of open groups, I also manage a closed alumni group, which is painful due to the manual effort involved. This is exacerbated by interlopers as I list it on MyLinkGroups.com . I am strict about membership as I have the approval of the school and so must meet their expectations about it being a clean group.

It was easier when LI published all the applicant email addresses. But they no longer do that. For a time I checked LI profiles. But that frankly was too much work and is now impossible with LI's network problems.

Ideally LI should have an application form where the user qualifies himself, or at least a Hold area or status field for applicants who aren't new and for whom you don't want to accept or reject yet.

So I now use the following process.

1. I have an email folder where group admin mail is filtered and stored for easy access.
2. Once a week I process group applications.
3. I reinstate removed members who later write me with their qualifications.
4. I approve all members who belong if they have a qualifying address or have already written me. I copy and paste their email addresses (or extract them if more than several), add the reinstated members, and send them all a welcome letter.
5. For all others, I copy and paste their email addresses (or extract them if more than several). I then reject them all. I send them the form letter below.

~~~~~~~~~~

re: xxxxx LinkedIn group membership status

Hello. You applied for membership to the xxxxx group. I appreciate your understanding and cooperation in the following to navigate the application process.

Per the directory at http://MyLinkGroups.com , this is a CLOSED group exclusively for students, alums, and staff You have not previously contacted me. Your primary LinkedIn address, the only info I have direct access to, is not a registered school email address. Therefore I've temporarily removed your request.

1. If you qualify and want to be reconsidered:

A. Your LinkedIn profile must show your school affiliation if it doesn't already do so. Please update it accordingly.

B. Respond to this email with your request, any explanation, full contact info, and LinkedIn profile URL. See http://linkedin.pbwiki.com/YourLinkedInAddress to get your URL.

2. If you don't qualify:

Applying to groups that you don't qualify for is an abuse of LinkedIn. It could result in complaints and account restriction. On a practical basis people like me invest our time with little reward to create and manage groups. It wastes our time to have to check qualifications and reject applications like this. Please be more considerate in the future and don't apply to closed groups. Thank you!