LINKEDIN BEST PRACTICES
It’s one thing to throw up an organizational profile on LinkedIn, and check in once a month. It’s another thing entirely to build an engaging and influential profile that fosters relationships on the platform—all of which can significantly bolster your nonprofit’s goals. Here are a few steps you can take to boost your visibility.
Hit the Ground Running
There are a few ideas you can use that will leave you sitting pretty for increased engagement on LinkedIn.
Put some care into your profile: Make your profile a resource. Your company profile should clearly convey who you are. Adding pictures and video can visually enhance your profile and make it more engaging. A profile picture makes your profile 14 times more likely to be viewed.
Create a little fanfare once you’re online—don’t just quietly sign up for LinkedIn like you’re sneaking into church late. Ask employees, volunteers and partners to follow your profile and link their own profiles with yours. The more profiles your organization shows up in, the more visibility your organization gets.
LinkedIn Rules of Thumb
Once you've situated yourself, burn these rules into your brain through recitation, deep hypnosis or any other method you choose:
1. Keep your page current! If your organization undergoes structural, missional or major program changes, be sure that the changes are reflected on your LinkedIn page.
2. Don’t self-promote. This is one of the biggest turn-offs across social media. Social media is about sharing, informing and building relationships, NOT asking for money or endlessly tooting your own horn. Support for your cause will spring naturally from the relationships you build and the stories you tell.
3. Post during high-traffic hours. LinkedIn is used mostly on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays during working hours. That’s when your followers are in a business mindset and more likely to engage.
4. Always respond in a timely manner. Engagement is the whole point of social media and nothing kills momentum like posting a comment and getting no response for days. Acknowledge your commenters, and keep the conversation going.
5. Make it easy for your employees to engage. Who is more engaged with your organization than your own staff? Employees are 70 percent more likely to click, share, and comment on an update than a typical LinkedIn user. Send office-wide notifications and links to updates so they can supportively engage with the content. Let your staff know when important updates are about to go live.
6. Always include a link in your company updates. Updates that include links garner double the engagement rates than those that lead nowhere.
7. Post at least once a day during the work week. If you post 20 times a month, LinkedIn claims you will reach 60% of your audience.
8. Use your analytics. You can glean some helpful info from the analytics feature at the top of your screen when you are logged on as an administrator, which can help you know more about your follower’s demographics and sources. This is also a great place to look for patterns regarding which posts spur engagement.
9. Share your wisdom. Industry insights rank as the most sought-after content among users, followed by company news. So, share your wisdom, tips, news and compelling stories. Do it consistently and well, and you’ll move closer to positioning yourself as a leader in your field.
10. Facilitate discussions. Lead on LinkedIn rather than just follow. One great way to simultaneously establish yourself at the vanguard of a cause and enrich your own understanding is to present issues and raise questions for discussion. This is one of the facets of LinkedIn that can be most inspiring.