Another Nail in the Coffin for LinkedIn Groups?

I saw something interesting the other day when I logged into Hootsuite.

It was a message across the top of the page saying that as of June 30, 2017, Hootsuite would no longer be able to support LinkedIn Groups due to changes in LinkedIn’s API.

(BTW on the off chance that anyone from LinkedIn might happen to read this post, that’s a professional way to deal with your user base. I had to go looking via a Google search to find the notice on LinkedIn!)

What’s going on here?

Once again, without any explanation, LinkedIn is taking away functionality. (In case anyone still wonders why I don’t have a Premium account, here’s another great reason!)

Groups is still reeling from the last set of changes made to them which hamstrung their users. (I have yet to meet a user who thought that they were a good idea.)

Since then, I’ve been hearing anecdotally that Groups participation has fallen off a cliff.

LinkedIn says disingenuously that Groups will still be available “natively” within the application.

My retort is for how much longer?

For power users of Groups losing the ability to use a social media account manager like Hootsuite is going to be more than an inconvenience. I suspect that we’ll see Groups participation really dry up after this.

For how much longer will LinkedIn Groups still be around?

While I still tell my clients to use Groups, for the longest time I’ve been warning them that Groups are in transition and we should expect to see changes. I don’t want to see my clients make an investment in time and effort only to see it go away.

But, what might this transition look like?

Something new and improved or oblivion?

Will Groups simply disappear like so many other popular LinkedIn features?

Having some sense of where this is all going would be helpful to, not to say respectful of, their user base.

I’m getting very leery of doing any new work with LinkedIn Groups because I just don’t know what’s going to happen next.

I had hoped that Microsoft’s acquisition of LinkedIn would give some direction if not adult supervision to the application.

I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

That’s it for now!

Also, never forget to reach out to either ask questions or to ask for help from someone like myself!

In the meantime, thank you for following and reading my blog!

I look forward to any and all comments that you may have. I will reply to any comments made to this blog post as promptly as I can.

Remember!

I do this for a living and if I can be of any assistance to either you or your organization, please feel free to call on me. Our initial discussion will be of no charge to you.