Questions & Answers

What is the BLC LinkedIn group?

Many professionals advance their careers and business goals by counting on industry and professional groups, alumni organizations, industry conferences and corporate alumni groups to help them make vital new business contacts. BLC chose the LinkedIn Groups platform as it offers extra features to group-based organizations to help their members stay in touch with one another and discover powerful new business contacts within their groups and beyond.

Can anyone join the BLC group on LinkedIn?

No. The membership of the BLC group is determined by the JCF. You must be approved by JCF staff in order to join the group.

How do I join the BLC group?

BLC group eligibility is determined by your annual gift to the JCF Campaign. The BLC LinkedIn Group is open to San Francisco Jewish Community Federation Annual Campaign donors who pledge $500 or more, annually. Each year, JCF staff will identify BLC members eligible to participate in the BLC LinkedIn Group and send instructions on how to join the group on LinkedIn. It is an easy, two-step process.

1. Receive the BLC group invitation link in an email and click the link.
2. Click “Accept Invitation” on the BLC group invitation page.

If you are having problems, please contact the BLC Group administrator via email at blc@sfjcf.org. JCF staff will either have pre-approved you by email address for admission into the group, or will approve you after you have accepted the invitation. Make sure you add the email address to which you were invited to your LinkedIn account to allow the pre-approval to work; you do not have to make it your primary email address.

I tried to join the BLC group, but it’s saying that my membership is pending upon the approval of the group manager?

This may be because you attempted to join the BLC group with a different email address than the one used to send you an invitation. This is easy to solve, you can either register the email address you received the invitation with your current LinkedIn account or contact the BLC group manager at blc@sfjcf.org with a note that you would like to join the group with a different email address.

I’ve joined the BLC group on LinkedIn, now what?

You now have access to a tool that allows you to fully leverage your entire personal and professional network in one simple step. Click on the link on your homepage to browse or search your fellow group members’ profiles. Information you learn about your peers’ backgrounds and expertise will be highly relevant to your professional needs and inquiries. When you have searched and found a fellow group member you wish to reach out to, you can contact that member on a 1-to-1 basis, rather than sending your requests to a mass email list.

Can I get spammed by other members of the BLC group?

No. LinkedIn Groups is designed specifically for the individual and not as a group wide communications tool. Therefore, there is no way for an individual user to send broadcast messages to all members of the group.

Will I be able to contact fellow BLC group members?

Yes. Each member of the BLC group decides how fellow group members can contact him/her. Since group members share an affinity and are usually open to interacting with fellow group members, most LinkedIn users allow fellow group members to contact one another without referral. This is a setting that each group member can change from his/her homepage.

How do I make it so no one can contact me?

Go to your settings page and “turn off” direct contact with your group members. Fellow group members can no longer contact you directly and would have to go through the chain of referrals on LinkedIn.

Who can see me in the system?

Once you join the BLC group on LinkedIn, your profile becomes visible to all fellow members. However, they will not be able to see your network of connections unless you are personally connected to them (via an accepted personal invitation).

If I belong to the BLC group will I be able to see all of my fellow members’ connections?

No. Joining a group does not allow you to see a fellow member’s network. It only allows you to see other BLC group members. This is because membership in a group does not necessarily mean that you have a strong relationship with the other members in your group. Once you have developed a strong relationship with a fellow member, you can request to be connected to him or her and subsequently be able to see their network of connections.

How do I make it so non-BLC group members can’t see what groups I belong to?

Go to your settings page and “turn off” displaying your group logo to non-group members. With this off, only members from your group will be able to see the logo in your profile. If you do not see this setting available, your group is private and the logos are not visible to non-members by default.

I still see the BLC group logo even though I chose to not display the logo to non-group members?

Since you are viewing your own profile, the group logo will always appear. To make sure that you have properly changed the visibility setting, view your profile by clicking on the “Profile” tab. Scroll down to the bottom where the groups you belong to are shown. If you have turned off the visibility setting for a group, it will state that the group is “not visible on your profile.”

There are people I know who are part of my organization, but they do not show up when I search for them on LinkedIn, what’s wrong?

LinkedIn is an opt-in only system. All people showing up in search results are actual users who chose to sign up. Nobody is represented to be in the LinkedIn network without their knowledge and explicit consent. If they do not show up, then they have not signed up to LinkedIn or they have not accepted your group’s invitation.

Feel free to encourage your fellow members to join LinkedIn. Joining LinkedIn helps both of you to leverage your professional networks, which can easily become a critical solution to your professional challenges. Once they qualify for the BLC LinkedIn Group membership, the BLC group administrator will send and email invitation.

Do I still need to connect to someone if they’re already in the BLC group? I thought that by being in a group, they don’t have to connect to me?

Connecting to someone establishes them as a trusted person within your personal network, beyond the trust that was created through your mutual membership in an affinity organization. As part of your personal network, you are able to view and search through their network and vice versa.

What if I don’t want to add any contacts? I don’t want to bug my friends.

You certainly do not have to invite any contacts if you don’t want to. The good news is that if you join the BLC group and decide that you want to go through your LinkedIn experience one step at a time and not connect to anyone yet, then no one outside you group will be able to see you. Only fellow BLC group members will be able to see you. However, you must keep in mind that if you do not connect to anyone, you will only be able to search through the profiles of the members in your organization.

Inviting your contacts to join you on LinkedIn is very unobtrusive and LinkedIn does not take advantage of your friends’ contact information without their explicit knowledge and consent?

How do I quit the BLC group?

You are free to withdraw from the BLC group at anytime. Just go to the group settings page and click the link to leave the group.