Anyone with a Facebook or LinkedIn account has seen these groups built around hobbies, professional experience, or even location. They exist on large social networking sites as well as on a myriad of smaller, niche online communities. These groups are similar to the clubs that we belonged to in high school and/or college (i.e. chess club, ski club), and are where likeminded people can exchange information, ideas and ask questions. What social networking has done however is allow us to join groups on a large scale.

Why do people join groups? Mostly, people join groups as a way to express themselves. For example, I belong to multiple “online marketing groups” on LinkedIn, for two reasons:
1. To show anyone that looks at my profile that this is my passion and
2. Because I want to connect to likeminded people who are at the forefront of the industry, and I am interested in what they have to say.

For marketers, this provides an opportunity to communicate to a mass audience of people interested in their products or services without huge media expenditures. That doesn’t mean that targeting social networking groups is free. Successful, well thought out, focused social media campaigns take time and strategic thinking. When done well, they can provide businesses a great outlet to engage potential customers and reinforce their relationship with existing customers.

Not convinced? Let’s say your company manufactures ski equipment and you are holding a ski demo at Stowe Mountain in Vermont (for those who don’t know what a ski demo is, it’s where a ski manufacture provides free ski’s to customers for a day so they can try them out). If your company had groups on existing social networks, it’s easy to let them know about your demo. But beyond letting your own groups know, you can find other groups, related to Vermont Skiing and Skiing, and notify them of the promotion as well. It’s targeted messaging to exactly the group that would most want to hear your message.