LinkedIn groups are, in fact, still a thing. And if you know what to look for, some of them are even pretty good.
Especially if you’re looking to build connections and have conversations with your fellow B2B marketers. Because for folks like us, LinkedIn is a must. According to the Content Marketing Institute, 96% of B2B content marketers use LinkedIn — it’s the most effective platform to reach business audiences, and we tend to spend time where our audiences are.
But, much like the platform as a whole, there’s a lot of spammy self-promotion and faux-inspirational anecdotes floating around in LinkedIn marketing groups. It takes some time and effort to separate the good from the cringe.
So we did it for you. We joined and evaluated dozens of LinkedIn marketing groups, and cherry-picked our favorites. (Spoiler alert: good moderators are worth their weight in gold.)
And if none of these groups strike your fancy, keep reading. Below the list, you’ll find a set of guidelines to help you find the absolute perfect-fit LinkedIn group, just for you — because we discovered that the more specific the group, the better the experience.
The Top 5 LinkedIn Marketing Groups
With over 326,000 members and counting, this is the largest group on our list — but it’s shockingly useful. The community is private and new posts require admin approval, so spammy posts are few and far between. The topics at hand are fairly focused on all things social media (organic and paid), along with tangential conversations about SEO, content marketing, and career development.
This is an active group, with members who seem genuinely interested in answering questions and providing advice when people ask for help. Several new posts appear in the feed every day, mainly text and videos discussing the latest news about social platform features, tests, and algorithm changes — with a sprinkling of Taylor Swift memes and Elon Musk jokes for good measure.
Managed by the online publication of the same name, the Search Engine Land LinkedIn group has over 115,000 members and sees a handful of new posts every week. The discussions are primarily focused on SEO and PPC, and a strict moderation policy forbids any external links in posts or comments (with the exception of links to searchengineland.com, natch).
The no-link rule cuts down on spam, but some of the posts and conversations feel a little thin without the ability to link to outside sources. But there are still plenty of in-the-weeds discussions among smart and helpful search engine marketing pros, like how to anonymize an agency client’s results for a case study or how to handle discontinued product pages on e-commerce sites.
Self-described as “a safe place to discuss email-related topics”, this private community requires admin approval for new posts and salary information for any job postings (a welcome rule for weary applicants). The posts tend to be high-quality and the conversations among the group’s 33,000+ members are very action-oriented, with real humans asking for advice on topics like setting up software integrations, choosing the best deliverability analytics tool, and lively discussions about Apple’s latest privacy policies.
DesignersTalk is a sizable community of 246,000+ design professionals across disciplines, from illustration and photography to UX and web design. The group is public, so anyone can view posts, but all new posts must be approved by moderators before they’re visible to others.
While there’s not much outright spam, the quality of posts varies widely in this community — some are thoughtful reflections on design concepts, like using the golden ratio in typography or the proper adjustment of radii on nested rectangles. But many, many others are similar iterations of “I’m new to this field, how do I get started?”, which can get a little repetitive. Still, community members seem happy to help — unless a poster asks about using AI. Then the gloves come off, and the comment section can get quite heated.
Over 87,000 brand representatives, influencers, and influencer-wannabes populate this private community. New posts must be approved by admins, but since part of the community’s mission is to help influencers find sponsorships, the feed feels a little spammier than most other communities we’re recommending. Plus, there are too many polls.
But, if you work with influencers or need to get up to speed on how this growing marketing discipline actually works, you will find plenty of friendly faces here.
How to find the best LinkedIn marketing group just for you
As we combed through way too many bad LinkedIn marketing groups, we uncovered a few common themes. So if you want to further personalize your search, keep these in mind:
More niche = more useful
Almost all of our recommended communities specialize in a certain subset of marketing, like SEO or email. Broad communities around topics like “Digital Marketing” don’t seem to attract the same quality of community members — and therefore, the same quality of conversation — as niche communities. People want to nerd out with like-minded specialists, so find your crew.
In addition to your marketing niche, consider searching for marketing groups in your industry (like Fintech B2B Marketing), your location (like SEMpdx – Search Engine Marketers of Portland), or your career stage (like Marketing Director Support Group).
Moderation is a must
Moderated communities are the only option. Unless membership access is tightly controlled, allowing new posts without admin oversight will result in way too much spam. Skip communities that don’t have tight controls over post quality.
Bigger isn’t always better
Some of the largest communities out there had over two million members, dozens of posts per week, and not a single thought-provoking conversation among them. Look for an active and engaged community, not just a high member count.
First stop: the comment section
To evaluate a new group quickly, check out the comments on popular posts. Quality comments are a clear indicator of a group’s potential. When members are engaged and conversing with one another in a discussion, that’s a community worth joining.
When a group’s feed is just people screaming their latest hot takes or product launches into the void, you might as well keep scrolling on LinkedIn’s main feed.