LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network with over 660 million members worldwide. LinkedIn groups allow you to connect and engage with other professionals in your industry or with similar interests. As a group owner or admin, you may want to analyze your group’s membership base and understand where your members are located. LinkedIn provides a filtering option to view group members by their location. This can help you gain insights into your audience and craft content and discussions accordingly.
In this article, we will walk you through the steps to filter LinkedIn group members by their location. Whether you want to view members in a specific country, state, or city, LinkedIn makes it easy to segment your members and understand the geographic distribution. Let’s get started!
Why Filter Members by Location?
Here are some key reasons why filtering members by location can be beneficial:
- Understand your member demographics and identify high concentration areas.
- Craft region-specific content and discussions to better engage members.
- Plan local events and meetups in areas with many members.
- Identify locations to focus marketing and recruiting efforts.
- Analyze growth over time by location as you expand internationally.
- Compare different locations to see engagement levels and growth.
Having a sense of where your members are located allows you to make data-driven decisions about your group growth strategy. Segmenting by geography gives you critical insights.
How to Filter LinkedIn Group Members by Location
Filtering group members by location is easy to do right within LinkedIn. Here are step-by-step instructions:
- Go to your LinkedIn group page and click on the “Members” tab.
- On the members page, click on the filter dropdown menu towards the top right.
- Select “Location” from the dropdown menu.
- You can now choose to filter by country, postal code, or region.
- Select the location you want to filter by from the various options.
- The page will now show you group members located in that specific area.
- Scroll through to view all the members filtered by your selected location.
See the visual example below for reference:
The filtering options make it easy to segment your members and analyze the geographic distribution. Keep in mind you can also filter by industry, company, job function, seniority level, and more. Location is just one useful way to group and sort members.
Filtering Tips
Here are some tips when filtering members by location:
- Try filtering by country first to get a global view of your membership.
- Then drill down into specific regions or cities within a country.
- Sort by number of members to see your largest locations.
- Export the filtered list to Excel for additional analysis.
- Compare filters over time to identify growing and shrinking locations.
- Layer location filters with other filters like industry or company.
Get creative with different location filter combinations to unlock insights. Don’t forget to also view member engagement metrics by location as well.
Benefits of Segmenting Members by Geography
Filtering LinkedIn group members by location provides many advantages:
- Identify member concentration areas to inform content strategy.
- Craft region-specific discussions about local issues and events.
- Plan local meetups and events where you have high member density.
- Target marketing campaigns by geography to drive awareness.
- Gain insights on global vs regional vs local engagement.
- Determine locations to focus growth efforts on.
- Understand cultural differences across regions.
You can optimize your group in many ways by better understanding the geographic distribution of your audience. This allows you to engage members based on their locations and needs.
Country-Specific Content
One of the biggest benefits is being able to create country-specific content that resonates better with members in those locations. This allows you to localize content like:
- Discussions about local news and regulations.
- Events and conferences in specific cities.
- Job opportunities in that country.
- Content in the native language.
You can even recruit local ambassadors to help create localized content and build communities in their country.
Local Events
When you see cities or regions with high member density, you can plan local in-person events there. Events like:
- Networking mixers and happy hours.
- Trade shows and conferences.
- Seminars and training sessions.
- Volunteer activities.
- Company site visits.
Events give members the ability to connect face-to-face and network. Having the location data allows you to organize events where interest is highest.
Compare Locations Over Time
An additional benefit of location filtering is the ability to track growth across locations over time. You can:
- Look at member numbers year-over-year.
- Identify which locations are growing or shrinking.
- See if growth correlates to your offline events or campaigns.
- Determine which geos to invest more in.
- Monitor international expansion progress.
The location filters serve as an easy tracking mechanism for membership growth. Maintaining this geographic data in a spreadsheet allows you to analyze trends over years.
You may notice growth in a new country after expanding your marketing efforts there. Or stagnation in a location after an event concludes. Tie your location tracking to key initiatives to quantify results.
Location Tracking Example
Country | 2019 Members | 2022 Members | Growth % |
---|---|---|---|
United States | 500 | 1,500 | 200% |
Canada | 150 | 400 | 166% |
UK | 350 | 700 | 100% |
This table shows higher membership growth in Canada after expanding marketing efforts there in 2021. The US remains the largest location but growth has stabilized.
Combine with Other Filters
Another powerful filtering technique is combining the location filter with other filters. You can filter by:
- Location + Industry
- Location + Company Size
- Location + Functional Area
This allows even deeper analysis of your member base. For example, you may see a high number of members in the New York area are in finance roles at large banks. These insights can inform content and recruitment.
Some examples:
- Finance roles in New York
- Marketers in San Francisco
- Engineers in Seattle
- Founders of small businesses in Austin
Get creative by mixing and matching filters to uncover unique insights.
Export Filtered Lists
Once you filter members, you can export the list to Excel for further analysis. Here’s how to export:
- After applying filters, click “Export LinkedIn Group Members”
- Select either Excel or CSV format.
- The file will download with the filtered member data.
You can now manipulate this data in Excel to:
- Count members by location.
- Create pivot tables and charts.
- Identify top companies.
- AddCOLUMNS for engagement data.
- Track trends and metrics over time.
The ability to export filtered data opens up many possibilities for custom analysis.
Limitations
While location filtering provides valuable insights, there are some limitations to be aware of:
- Members may not always fill out location in profile.
- Expat members living abroad will still show home location.
- Not all members are active.
- Doesn’t indicate if member engages with local content.
- May need supplement with survey data.
The filters show where members are based but not necessarily if they engage locally. Supplement with surveys and check local post engagement. Also recognize many members opt not to add location details.
Recommendations
Here are some best practices when using location filters for LinkedIn groups:
- Filter by country first to understand global footprint.
- Drill down into cities/regions where member density is high.
- Compare locations over time to identify growth trends.
- Mix location and other filters like industry for deeper insights.
- Use filters to drive local content and event strategies.
- Export filtered lists for further analysis and segmentation.
Location is just one tool for better understanding your member base. Combine it with other methods like surveys, engagement data, and personas.
Conclusion
Filtering LinkedIn group members by location provides valuable demographic insights. You can easily segment members by geography right within LinkedIn to uncover concentration areas. Use these location insights to drive content localization, events, growth strategies, and more. Just remember to combine location with other filters and data sources to get a complete picture of your audience. Location gives you a powerful additional lens into your members so you can engage them better based on their local needs and interests.