Discussing obstacles and opportunities with peers can help professionals not only in their workdays (as chances are someone else is facing similar dilemmas whether it's increasing organic reach on social media or issues with the latest WordPress update) but also to extend their personal and professional brand.
For those very reasons, check out some of the top LinkedIn groups by role, where people sound off about everything facing their industries. Before joining, however, remember don't spam groups, only ask to join ones relevant to your experience and always, always be genuinely helpful as your reputation will suffer otherwise.
"Digital Marketing" provides updates on the latest whitepapers and industry reports to keep members updated on trends, innovation and best practice digital marketing. Group discussions include topics such as social media marketing, mobile marketing, search engine marketing, online PR, email marketing and nearly all other areas of digital marketing. Unfortunately, however, the group has hit its cap at 1 million users so new members likely won't get in (although you can try here). Terrific alternatives are: Digital Marketing Optimization, Inbound Marketers and Social Media Marketing 2.1.
A leader in SEO tools, the "Moz" LinkedIn group is a great way to get quick answers to your search engine optimization questions, discover best practices and learn more about Moz tools (join here).
Those looking to interact with other designers, exchange ideas or discuss their first drafts should consider joining the "Designers - Web/Graphic, User Experience (UX, UI), Interaction Design (IxD)" group (here). "WordPress Web Designers" is also a popular group that reviews its members before admission, which keeps discussions authentic and helpful.
With nearly 40,000 members, "Cloud Hosting & Service Providers Forum" group offers dedicated daily cloud hosting news, industry insight and editorials that give readers a unique perspective of the rapidly evolving cloud computing services, managed cloud data center and Web hosting industry.
"Web Professionals Connect" boasts roughly 40,000 members and is for Web applications developers, Web developers, Web content specialists, Web editors, Web project managers and other specialities. It should be noted, Website Magazine also provides a group for similar professions.
As the name suggests, the "Business Intelligence Professionals (BI, Big Data, Analytics, IoT)" group helps professionals watch the space to stay ahead of the pack and share insights. A similar group exists in, "Business Analytics, Big Data, and Artificial Intelligence."
From affiliates to ad networks, "Online Marketing & Media Advertising" covers it all.