Mark Bullock, Co-Founder of phoneBlogger.net explains why you may be placed into moderation when posting into groups and what you can do about it.A fairly recent “enhancement” on LinkedIn Groups is causing a bit of a tissy amongst members, as some posters to Group Discussions are all of a sudden getting notices that their discussions have been temporarily placed into “Moderation” across all groups. (Copy of an actual notice at the bottom of this article).

This is a bit complicated as to what it means, why it’s happening, and what you can or can’t do about it, but let me see if I can shed some light.

The fact is that now a single group moderator, by flagging your post, sets off a trigger. It‘s like a domino effect beginning with any initial post, and subsequently, all future posts.

What does this mean?

Every group moderator has to manually approve your posts for their group – for a period of weeks & possibly longer.

Even if a group moderator has already granted you carte blanche to post in their group, or is not moderating their group in the first place, they will now have to manually approve your post.

To add injury to insult, there’s no way for you to tell which group/group moderator pulled the trigger, and they are the only ones that can lift the temporary restriction (LinkedIn “claims” they cannot force the moderator to lift the restriction).

What can you do about it?

  • If you are a phoneBlogger.net client – let your pB Promoter know not to post to specific groups you suspect might have an issue with your posts (possibly it’s not relevant to the group’s intended charter?) and/or groups that you simply don’t care if your articles get posted there or not.
  • Wait a couple of weeks, and see if the restriction (mass moderation) get’s lifted. LinkedIn states the restriction is temporary. How long depends on whether additional moderators flag your post as well.
  • If the restriction does not get lifted automatically, you might consider contacting group moderators directly as indicated in some of the comments in the linked conversations below – to see if they will “un-flag” you – starting with those that, if of late, you’ve received an email from them asking you not to post “promotional” discussions to their group.
  • As we always recommend – ensure your blog articles & group postings are educational and informational in nature, and not self-promotional. The former gains you an attentive audience, and Branded Expert status in your industry over time. The latter risks getting your content shunned.

It’s important to understand a few things about LinkedIn Groups and their Moderators:

  1. Moderators are individual LinkedIn members that either set up their group in the first place, or were authorized to moderate on the Group Owner’s behalf. As such, LinkedIn gives them full authority to decide who they allow to join the group, and what Discussions, Posts, & Comments they allow within their group – as it is in fact “their group.”
  2. Moderators are people, and people do what people do, and that’s not always what we would expect or want them to do.
  3. Not all Owners, Managers, or Moderators have their Group Settings configured to automatically place discussions in Moderation in the first place, so if your post is waiting in their moderation que, they may not even realize it.
  4. If you have a significant number of Groups on LinkedIn, it’s highly unlikely your posts are getting through moderation, and being posted on all of them. I personally have 50 groups (LinkedIn’s limit), and last I checked, my posts are only getting posted regularly on 7 or 8 of them. Now granted, I’m a “Marketer,” so it’s likely assumed my posts are Promotional by many of the moderators.
  5. LinkedIn Groups were conceived, and still are intended, to provide Discussion Forums – focused on specific industries or topics. As such, you can’t expect everything you write about to be specifically relevant to every group. So don’t expect every article to make it’s way into every group – it’s simply not going to happen. The Groups do not operate as “broadcast channels” for blog posts or promotions, but rather for conversations that are relevant for that group’s topic.
  6. Also see: Why Do My LinkedIn Postings Show Up in Some of My Groups, but Not in Others?

There is a great deal of heated discussion on this issue, here are a few places to see what’s being discussed:

http://help.linkedin.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/38735/kw/swam

http://community.linkedin.com/questions/159275/your-posts-are-being-moderated-temporarily.html

Example Notice From LinkedIn:

Hi xxx,

Thanks for your continued involvement in Groups. LinkedIn members have asked for help in keeping their group discussions on topic, so we’ve introduced a new moderation feature to enhance the overall Groups experience. This feature may hold a member’s discussions in the submission queue for review based on their past posting behavior.

You may have noticed your group posts haven’t been published because they are being moderated. This can be triggered by group and moderator actions like blocking, deleting, flagging, and moving discussions to other tabs (learn more). This moderation is only temporary, and in the meantime here are some tips to avoid moderation in the future:

Understand your group: Check out other group posts to see what kind of discussions will be welcome. Be sure to review the group rules and try participating in discussions before starting them.

Engage with the group: If you’re promoting a business, take part in conversations and help other members before asking them to consider your service, event, or blog.

Use the Jobs and Promotions tabs: The best place to post jobs and promotions is under the right tabs – this keeps the main discussion area focused on general conversations.

Want more details on this new feature or the types of content that might trigger moderation? Go to Moderation across Groups, Group member best practices, and Self-promotion in Groups to learn more.

Thanks for being an active part of the LinkedIn Groups community,

The LinkedIn Team


Making Sense of Google+ Profiles and Pages to Best Promote Your Business-Related Articles
Mark Bullock
Telephone: (631) 754-0800
Email: Mark@phoneBlogger.net
Website:phoneBlogger.net

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