One of the best ways to network is through LinkedIn. It can be challenging to network with like-minded professionals in Big Data, but LinkedIn offers you the opportunity to connect with people when it’s most convenient for you.
As the central social network for business, it’s important to put your best foot forward on this platform. A complete profile is table stakes at this point. You need to go above and beyond on your profile and with your social networking tactics to stand out among the digital noise.
Joining LinkedIn groups is an important part of this networking process. This popular industry has hundreds of groups to choose from, so I gathered the 12 best groups I’ve found from my past 5 years in the industry.
1. Big Data and Analytics
339,508 members
Founded in 2012 by Rob Howes, “Big Data and Analytics” has grown to be the largest and most active group of it’s kind. With over 300,000 members, it has become the go-to community for all things data. You will find a wide range of topics including AI, Machine learning, Blockchain, and more.
2. Big Data, Analytics, Business Intelligence & Visualization Experts Community
240,057 members
A community for both expert professionals and companies researching big data analytics and discovery, Hadoop, data warehousing, cloud, unified data architectures, digital marketing, visualization and business intelligence.? Join this group if you’re a Hadoop developer, data scientist, business analyst, statistician, business leader or marketer trying to leverage data to compete. Executives-level membership includes CIOs, CMOs and CDOs of large enterprises.
3. Big Data | Analytics | Strategy | Finance | Innovation
237,818 members
This group connects industry leaders across the business spectrum, from leading Fortune 500 companies to disruptive and exciting new startups, facilitating the sharing of ideas through webinars, articles, white papers, and on-demand video content. Join this group to share interesting information and to consume valuable big data focused content.
4. Business Intelligence Professionals (BI, Big Data, Analytics, IoT)
220,352 members
Business Intelligence Professionals is the knowledge repository for BI Analytics, Big Data and Mobile BI Technologies. This group focuses on the value you can extract from your data, and includes professionals ranging from data prep and data integration through advanced and predictive analytics.
5. Business Analytics, Big Data, and Artificial Intelligence
195,979 members
The owner of the group being from Microsoft gives it instant clout. Consider this your first stop for information related to data mining, AI, data visualization, predictive modeling, and the advanced technologies that drive these processes.
6. Data Mining, Statistics, Big Data, Data Visualization, and Data Science
171,561 members
This group is for data mining and statistical professionals who are looking to expand our network of people and share ideas. Methodologies are fair game, as well as discussion of software (SAS, R, WEKA, etc), technology (Hadoop, relational databases, etc) conferences, and job postings. This group has separate sections for jobs and advertising, so be sure to be intentional with your posts here.
7. Big Data, Analytics, IoT (Internet of Things) & Blockchain
71,314 members
The group promotes discussion around Big Data, NoSql and Cloud technologies.?Like-minded industry professionals are encouraged to share ideas and best practices from their day to day. With each post being reviewed before making it available to the larger group, you’ll be sure to find quality content.
8. Data Warehouse – Big Data – Hadoop – Cloud – Data Science – ETL
63,860 members
This group is central for people to connect with other professionals who specialize in Data Warehouse, Big Data, Hadoop, Clouding Computing, Data Warehousing, and Data Science. Technology discussions span from ETL tools to databases and BI tools. This is a recruiter-friendly group, so if you’re looking for your next opportunity in big data this may be a good place to start.
9. Big Data & Hadoop Professionals
54,286 members
Discussing tools, frameworks (Hadoop), and best practices related to Big Data, Data Mining & Data Analytics. This group is open to professionals using technologies like MapReduce, Hive, HBASE, Flume, Kafka and Storm, MatLab, Python, JSON, Java Cloudera, Hortonworks, MapR and many more. If you’re a technical Hadoop professional, look no further than this group.
10. Data Science, Big Data, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence Professionals | DataScience.US
25,292 members
This group showcases the latest trends about Data Science, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. Share your professional experience and consulting advice to a targeted group of Big Data professionals in the US and abroad.
11. Smart Cities and Urban Innovation Network — IoT, Clean Tech, Blockchain, AI, Big Data, Drones …
25,744 members
This is the fastest growing community for smart city professionals, technology experts, business leaders, innovators and entrepreneurs. Discussions are focused on the latest technological solutions, digital trends and business models that will power the cities of the future. Look for conversations around Smart cities, IoT, connected homes, open data, AI, autonomous vehicles, smart grid, 3D printing and much more.
12. Awesome Ways Big Data Is Used To Improve Our World
7,655 members
This group, founded by industry pioneer Ronald Van Loon, is aimed at inspiring future big data leaders. Look for best practices, use cases, and thought-provoking questions about how big data is being used to influence our future.
After joining these groups, consider following some important thought leaders in the space. This will let you source content and ask contemporary questions that address today’s hot topics. For more information on who to follow on LinkedIn in the Big Data industry, read my recent blog post.
