LinkedIn might be the most underrated and underutilized out of all the leading social media platforms available. Yet, it's considered the world's largest professional networking platform with more than 810 million members in over 200 countries and territories worldwide!
Facebook is a valuable tool for sharing links, videos, and other interactive content. Instagram is ideal for visual content. Twitter is great for sharing quick updates and "tweetable" soundbites. LinkedIn offers a unique tool for establishing a reputable online presence and building a robust local, national, and international network.
Really, LinkedIn is a digital relationship map of everyone you know and everyone they know. It helps you explore those first, second, and third-degree connections you might not even know you have! For that reason alone, LinkedIn offers many opportunities for nonprofits to use the platform to grow their network and expand their impact.
Let's explore some of the benefits of LinkedIn and best practices to help you get the most out of your presence and activity on the platform.
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4 Basics of LinkedIn for Nonprofits
As one of the original social networking platforms, LinkedIn can provide powerful networking, fundraising, and marketing benefits, regardless of the size of your organization.
1. LinkedIn offers access to a unique audience
While other social media platforms cater to the general population, LinkedIn's target audience is primarily business professionals. Many LinkedIn users log in several times a day for business contacts and other valuable information. This provides a unique and powerful networking opportunity to expand your potential donor list.
2. Exchange nonprofit knowledge and resources via LinkedIn Groups
LinkedIn Groups are designed for professionals with similar interests or even in the same industry to connect, share content, make business contacts, and establish themselves as industry experts.
That means nonprofits can use LinkedIn Groups to connect with fellow development professionals and find people who are passionate about your nonprofit's cause or work. Whether you're networking to hire top-notch talent for your nonprofit or expand your fundraising network, LinkedIn Groups can be a great resource to accomplish your goals.
3. A Nonprofit "Company Page" creates visibility and brand trustworthiness
A free "company page" is a strategic way to promote your work and invite people to "follow" your efforts. Over 100,000 organizations currently have a "company page" on LinkedIn and use it for various networking and information-sharing endeavors.
4. Use LinkedIn Today to keep up with nonprofit news, trends, and best practices
With all the websites, blogs, newsletters, and social media outlets, staying in the know can be time-consuming and overwhelming. It's increasingly difficult to figure out how to keep up-to-date! LinkedIn Today helps you keep up with industry news and share relevant articles with your connections and followers.
You can set up a customized LinkedIn Today feed to help you curate the latest news about industries, news sources, or specific categories that are relevant to your nonprofit. That way, you've got all the latest updates in one place, saving valuable time and energy.
7 LinkedIn Best Practices for Nonprofits
Now that we've covered some of the benefits of LinkedIn for nonprofits let's explore some best practices and strategies for using LinkedIn effectively.
1. Understand how LinkedIn fits into your overall networking strategy
As with most other networking and fundraising strategies, it's critical to understand how LinkedIn will fit into your overarching networking and fundraising plan. If you're hoping to use
LinkedIn to achieve a specific goal, then take the time to make sure that goal is an integrated part of your communication strategy on LinkedIn.
Clearly define how you intend to use LinkedIn to accomplish your goals. It's also helpful to define specific "measurements" to determine whether your LinkedIn strategy is working.
For example, if your goal is to increase your potential donor list by 10% via LinkedIn, how will you track the number of people you add to your prospect list via LinkedIn?
2. Establish a consistent presence on LinkedIn
Like most social media platforms, your organization's "company page" should have the latest information about your nonprofit's mission, work, and activities. Don't forget to add your logo, updated contact information, a link to your website, and a brief description of your mission.
Your LinkedIn "company page" might not seem as valuable as other social media pages, and you probably won't see a lot of traffic there, especially compared to other social media platforms. Still, it's important because it allows people to tag your nonprofit in posts, and your staff, board members, volunteers, and other people can include your nonprofit on their personal pages.
Once you've got your page set up, invite your staff, board, and other people to add their experience with your nonprofit to their personal profile pages. This is especially valuable when your executive director/CEO and other senior team members add your information to their profiles.
3. Share relevant content to your personal LinkedIn pages, NOT your company page
With more than 2 million posts, articles, videos, and other content added to LinkedIn every day, the platform is bursting with new content. But, LinkedIn prioritizes personal connections and networks rather than organization or company pages.
There's no need to spend a lot of time posting to your company page, where you're likely to have fewer followers and less traffic. Instead, leverage your personal network and the networks of your staff.
Invite your leaders and staff to share relevant content about your organization once a week. This might include anything from news or updates to shedding light on important discussions or debates related to your mission.
Sharing regular and relevant content to your personal pages helps establish your team as thought leaders in your space while also boosting your nonprofit's presence within your network connections.
4. Quality content is valuable for your LinkedIn company page
One of the best ways to strategically connect with various audiences on LinkedIn is to create informative, relevant, and engaging content. One strategy is for your staff to join groups and participate in conversations. It's also essential to add valuable content to your company page.
As you publish content to your company page, it gets added to your "Content" section. It also appears in the feed of anyone who follows your nonprofit. Some categories of content that tend to do well on LinkedIn include:
- Organization announcements (new hires, etc.)
- Announcing when new board members join your nonprofit
- Blog posts with relevant and insightful content
- Community events, accomplishments, and celebrations
- News updates that are relevant to your mission
Steer clear of personal life updates, links with no context, poor quality images, and content that might share sensitive or protected information. This type of content wouldn't fit well on your organization's LinkedIn page.
5. LinkedIn Ads can be helpful for nonprofit marketing
LinkedIn Ads help you target a specific audience on LinkedIn. Whether you want to connect with people based on job titles, industry, or other details, you can create targeted ads for your nonprofit.
Whether your goal is to generate leads, promote an upcoming event, or even increase brand awareness, LinkedIn ads can be a viable approach.
While this marketing strategy isn't free, you can control your spending with flexible pricing options and the ability to start and stop your ads campaign at any time.
There are different types of paid ad options to choose from. Whether you want to send direct messages to people that will appear in their inboxes or create dynamic ads that drive traffic to your page, there are many versatile ad types to help you accomplish your specific goal.
6. Don't forget to use LinkedIn Analytics for your nonprofit
As with everything in nonprofit networking and fundraising, it's critical to know that your hard work produces the right results. Don't overlook the built-in analytics engine that LinkedIn offers. Once you've got everything set up, you can track all kinds of valuable data, including:
- Number of followers
- Unique visitors to your LinkedIn page
- Audience demographics
- Custom button clicks
Linkedin also offers detailed insights and breakdowns of each post you create. You can see the click-through rate, reactions, comments, shares, and other helpful insights. All this data will help guide your LinkedIn strategy and determine whether you're accomplishing your stated goals.
7. Always be networking on LinkedIn
The most effective fundraisers know that networking and relationships are essential for success. LinkedIn is a powerful hub for building those relationships and business connections.
Begin by cultivating relationships with key people in your network, including your board members, current donors, and community leaders. When you meet someone at a conference or event, add them on LinkedIn. These connections can lead to important opportunities in the future, even if it isn't immediately apparent.
As you expand your personal network, you can begin searching for second-degree connections that you'd like to build relationships with. Ask your mutual friends to make direct introductions for you. Your nonprofit board members and other network members can offer a lot through their second-degree connections!
Like any other networking and communication tool, LinkedIn is most powerful when used to cultivate real relationships. With a bit of effort, strategy, and intentionality, you can easily use LinkedIn to advance your nonprofit's mission and accomplish your fundraising goals.
Now that you're well on your way to building a powerful LinkedIn presence, here are three more resources to keep your online fundraising going strong.
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