5 LinkedIn Tips For Your Nonprofit

We found this great blog post from Serenic and we wanted to share, enjoy!

We often talk about social media and the various uses it provides for NFPs. In this post we will focus on LinkedIn, which is fast becoming one of the top social media channels for nonprofits to use as part of their online marketing strategy. Did you know that it can also be used to reach out to prospective donors, volunteers and board members too? Check out our five top tips for getting the most out of LinkedIn for your nonprofit below.

1. Visit the resource pages
LinkedIn is all about building relationships, which pairs well with ethos of philanthropic organizations. The content you post should be relevant and engaging, and the connections you make should be authentic and nurturing. There’s a great range of free resources tailored specifically for the nonprofit sector including webinars, guides and examples of different types of post as well as advice on how to build a community. You can even get help with recruiting volunteers and board members, which could save costly recruitment fees.

2. Pepper your page with keywords
In the same way that you would include your keywords across your website, so you should with all your social media profiles. You can use keywords in your profile, company page, your posts and your search queries. This way you’ll be helping search engines pick up your profiles in search results and gain maximum exposure for potential stakeholders who might be looking for an organization to get involved with. Likewise, you can refine your searches by using keywords to quicken the process of looking for connections.

3. Showcase your campaigns
LinkedIn’s new Showcase Pages allow you to highlight specific campaigns and programs. They work as an extension of your Company Page and can be used to target your audience segments and enhance relationships. LinkedIn also has a range of advertising options including Sponsored Updates, which are similar to Facebook’s Boosted Posts and Twitter’s Sponsored Tweets. All of these features are paid so it’s important to focus on your most relevant activities and content to really get the biggest bang for your buck.

4. Follow the leader
Having a look at relevant organizations and influential people who target similar causes to yours can provide valuable insight into the type of content you might want to share, and who to connect with. You never know – there may be a major donor just waiting for your message!

5. Start a Group
As we said in point one, LinkedIn is about building relationships. One of the ways you can interact with many people on LinkedIn is by participating in Groups. Once you’ve familiarized yourself with the platform you could even start your own Group – this could be focused on mission-specific topics, or broader topics relevant to your organization. Avoid creating a Group that’s overly similar to any other already established on LinkedIn and don’t use it as a sales pitch or you could deter people.