If your nonprofit has been ignoring LinkedIn, it’s time to reassess your social media priorities. Some view LinkedIn as a virtual corkboard to post a resume on and be ignored. However, your nonprofit having a LinkedIn page might be more important than you think. A recent study has shown LinkedIn to be the most popular social network behind Facebook.

How can your Nonprofit benefit from utilizing LinkedIn?

  • Take advantage of LinkedIn’s new page analytics. With page analytics you can identify the updates that drive the greatest engagement, get more detailed demographic data about your followers, and more.
  • Reach out through your other social networks to gain LinkedIn connections. Linking your LinkedIn page to your Facebook, Twitter, or newsletter is a great way to gain connections.
  • Have a goal for how many people to connect with per week. Your nonprofit will be more likely to succeed on LinkedIn if making connections is part of your weekly routine.
  • Send personal notes to new connections whenever possible. If you individually make contact with your connections, your supporters could be more likely to return the favor in ways such as donations, spreading the word about your organization, or volunteer time.
  • Sometimes coupon codes for LinkedIn advertising are available if you have a company/organization page set-up. Using these limited time offers to run tests of LinkedIn advertisements allows for free advertising as well as for a chance to see if LinkedIn advertising would be a good investment for your nonprofit. If not? Nothing lost. Look for those coupon codes in your email.

If you need some inspiration, you can read this article for examples of well done nonprofit LinkedIn accounts.

Pro Tip: If you use your smart phone to connect on LinkedIn, there is a glitch that allows you to add people without having to have “worked with” or know anyone. You can use this by reaching out to people you may not know, but might want in your network. But be careful with this, because if people you are trying to connect with don’t know you, they may think you are spam, so they may ignore and/or report you.