Top 3 Business Linkedin Groups to Join in Chicago

Social Networking has expanded past our personal lives and into our professional ones. When a Facebook or MySpace account was probably your first jump into social media, we now know that Linkedin is the place for your online resume. When we have a question, we now look to our online professional communities and groups for answers. 

If you live or work in Chicago here are a few Linkedin groups you should consider joining.

1. Business Network Chicago (BNC)

Launched on August 7, 2008 this group continues a steady growth each month. With at current count of 8,102 it's one of the largest general business oriented groups in Chicago on Linkedin. The BNC also has events and workshops tailored to getting more involved in social media and face-to-face networking. 

Following the motto of "educate, support and empower" there are a variety of interesting discussions to be apart of. We discovered a recent discussion topic regarding what you think about having a professional profile picture - a topic we touched on earlier this month.

Jean Pickering is the President & Social Media Director of the The Tektite Group and creator of BNC. Jean is responsible for making the group more than just a presence on linkedin, but carries over to Facebook, Twitter, and Meetup.com. 

Top Industries: Human Resources (13%), Marketing & Advertising (9%), and Information Technology (9%). 

2. Linked N Chicago (LiNC)

Whoever said bigger is better is part of this group. It's huge! Seriously. Numbering at 61,538, you will definitely find answers to any hard questions you would like to bounce off other business minded people. You will will see a wide variety of questions. Favorite of last week was a discussion on peer-reviewing giant, Yelp.

Created by Mary McFarlin and managed by Mary Toomy this group has seen a big bump in the last four months adding 14,902 members since January 2nd. 

Top Industries: Information Technology (10%), Marketing & Advertising (9%), and Financial Services (6%).

3. Chicago Young Professionals 

This is a great way to get started in a group especially if you are a Gen Y or Xer. The one thing to watch out for is that this group has more sales-oriented posts. Just last week there were 74 discussion topics posted/posts and only 41 comments. We wish more young professionals were using this group of now 5,380 people for networking and discussion.

Created by Attourney Jeremy Kissell on Feburary 25, 2008 it's another group that has consistently high growth in membership.

Top Industries: Marketing & Advertising (13%), Financial Services (8%) and Information Technology (7%).

Do you have a specific group to recommend in Chicago? Let us know!

Still learning all that Linkedin can offer for you? Check out these stats. 

---
As an business owner or manager you can help stay organized by using NextCrew as a source for temp and shift based work to hire at moments notice. Follow NextCrew on Linkedin and click HERE. 


Numbers as of May 29, 2012. Image: http://bit.ly/KZfbE6