I thought that I would share my experience with using LinkedIn Groups for banking systems and provide a link to some that I like to read on a regular basis.
My thoughts are, I generally I find them very good as point of discussion for topics that people within our industry are debating. I find that because there is no anonymity the quality of the posts and general tone of the conversation are very professional in nature. It is the type of conversation you would have with a colleague in the office.
The major strength of LinkedIn Groups is that anyone can start a group in a particular area of interest. This is also a weakness as there are various groups in the same topic area. There currently is no user based rating system and generally I use the number of people within a group to determine the quality. This in most cases is a reasonable method based on the information provided. There is currently a limit to how many groups you can join (currently 50). This does sound like a lot, but I do find this limiting.
The other feature that I do like is the Influencer and in general it is a great way to increase participation in discussion within a group. There is one issue I do have with this feature and it is the way it ranks influencers. Like most this Social Media is related to quantity not quality, but this is a small issue. If you would like more details on LinkedIn’s groups functionality and how best to use it try this link http://learn.linkedin.com/groups/.
Here are some of the groups on banking systems that I like on LinkedIn. If there are other LinkedIn Groups on banking systems that people like, please feel free to drop me a line via the comments section.
Banking and Finance Technology
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=42854&trk=myg_ugrp_ovr
Retail Banking Network
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=83277&trk=myg_ugrp_ovr
Social Media and Web 2.0 in Banking and Finance
