Over the past couple of years, LinkedIn has gained traction in the social media sphere because of its niche focus on the professional world. Covering more than 200 countries the site now has more than 347 million members. Your organization should take advantage of these significant numbers! It can help increase your reach and improve your credibility as an organization. By creating and maintaining your organization’s company page and establishing a group page in LinkedIn you can utilize the available tools and greatly benefit from its resources.
Here are just a few basic tips and tricks to best use LinkedIn:
- Know the Difference. When you are first learning the tools of LinkedIn it can be confusing to know the difference between a company page and a group page. Through your nonprofit’s company page you can control the content that is posted along with any information on the page. To claim the company page you must meet LinkedIn’s requirements, which primarily includes having a personal profile set up.
You can also join the 87,000 groups organized under the “nonprofit” category! Establishing a group page allows for a more organic interaction with your followers, they are able to post their own content onto the page. You can set up a group using either your nonprofit’s name or that of a cause. - Locate Staff & Board Members. First and foremost LinkedIn is a realm for professionals to find one another and expand their professional network. Users’ profiles are basically an expansive resume. Need new board members or to expand your staff? Use the information already available on LinkedIn! You can use LinkedIn’s advanced search tool, which uses location, job title and the like, to find the right fit for your nonprofit. LinkedIn even offers a 90% discount on job postings for registered nonprofits!
- Post Volunteer Opportunities. You can attract volunteers for upcoming events and activities by posting a volunteer opportunity, similar to making a job posting. Interestingly, 75% of LinkedIn’s members are located outside of the United States. This is a great source to tap into for organizations looking for volunteers internationally.
- Reach and Engage Supporters. Publish regularly to remain on the top of people’s feeds. Best practice for LinkedIn is to share a post/update 3 times a week. Posting too often can damage your following list, much like sending too many emails – people will unsubscribe. Upcoming events, tracking goal achievements and success stories are great examples of content to post. You can also encourage peer-to-peer participants to reach and engage their network to boost their fundraising efforts.
- Monitor spam. For the best interactive experience with users coming to your LinkedIn page it is best to monitor spam that appears in the comment sections. Spam and other intrusive posts can deter your followers from visiting your site and can reflect poorly on your nonprofit. Make sure that your page is clean and relevant to anyone who stops by.
I hope your organization is already using LinkedIn to expand its reach and engage supporters, if not, get going! There’s a lot more resources out there to help you get started. If your organization is already using this social media channel, do a quick audit of how effective it is.
PS. Did you hear that Boundless Fundraising™ will now do automated donation asks on behalf of your peer-to-peer participants on LinkedIn?