PGI Launches its LinkedIn Group
Over the past few months I’ve seen an increasing number of independent grocers – many from our Independent Grocer Network group, as well as those whom I have met at trade shows – connecting to me via the LinkedIn social media platform.
Progressive Grocer, PGI’s parent publication, has had its LinkedIn group for several years now, and it has upwards of 6,000 members, and since I’m in favor of meeting our readers on the platforms they use in their daily lives, we launched our LinkedIn group for PGI.
For those of you not familiar with LinkedIn’s groups, they are very simple to navigate, yet enable a wealth of content and discussion among members. Like Facebook, the LinkedIn platform enables easy sharing of content found on other websites as well as this active discussion around that content among LinkedIn members. It also allows for several subgroups, and while we find these valuable, the amount that we begin with will be limited until we build a critical mass of members in the main group.
As with the Progressive Grocer LinkedIn group, PGI’s will be members only, in order to keep out spammers and those not allied to the industry.
Invites will be sent to all members of IGN, as well as to my independent grocer connections in LinkedIn that are relevant to the group. LinkedIn group members can also invite their colleagues to join, however the group’s moderator – either myself or Kyle Shamorian, must approve their membership.
The LinkedIn group also has a very friendly discussion tool, and I encourage members to post and to comment on discussions on a regular basis. The more interaction the group sees, the greater its value for all members. As with our other groups none of the content from the LinkedIn group will be published in the pages of PGI without the permission of those who created the content.
I look forward to seeing you there!