Here’s Why More and More Nonprofits are joining LinkedIn

LinkedIn now has almost 740 million members and about 40% of those users engage with the tool regularly. Aside from its wide reach, this tool also does a lot specifically for nonprofit organizations, and in this blog article, we’ll uncover all of it. Let’s start with why.

Why should nonprofits use LinkedIn?

1. It’s the world’s largest professional network with 55 million registered companies on the site. With corporate social responsibility becoming a bigger part of more and more companies, it’s important to make yourself visible to and connected with these companies.  
2. Empathy and social good have turned out to be trending formats of content on LinkedIn, which means people are likely to engage with a nonprofit. 
3. There’s a volunteering section on every profile that is given considerable preference. 
4. Again, LinkedIn does a lot to support nonprofits. They have a dedicated microsite, blog, and guide that focuses on educating people on how they can make the most of LinkedIn to promote their cause. Additionally, they offer up to a 50% discount on core products in Talent, Learning, Fundraising, and Marketing Solutions. 

Given these reasons and the fact that your content strategy isn’t going to be very different in comparison to your strategy on other social media platforms, it wouldn’t hurt to give this channel a fair shot to understand what it can do for your NPO. 

How should nonprofit organizations use LinkedIn to reap maximum benefits?

1. Use LinkedIn for fundraising – LinkedIn Sales Navigator is a powerful tool that will help you map your organization’s network, identify strategic prospects at scale, and provide you real-time updates on the prospects and donors that matter to your nonprofit organization. 
2. Use LinkedIn for volunteer sourcing and hiring – LinkedIn may also be the most intuitive tool to source the right team for your organization. While this may not be the only way you can build an awesome team, they surely have some creditworthy tools that help you source the right talent. 
3. Get your staff and volunteers to update their profile to show their association with your organization – This helps you reach a wider audience. All of your staff and volunteers’ connections get to know about your nonprofit every time someone checks out your staff’s profile or they post an update.
4. Have your staff attend the monthly ‘Better Together’ webinars –  This is LinkedIn’s flagship nonprofit speaker series which offers informative sessions on the trends and strategies that will help nonprofits accomplish their objectives. They also offer cause-specific webinars at times, so be sure to keep an eye out here so as not to miss sessions that are relevant to your brand. 
5. Plan a content strategy that caters to all your audiences and keep it regular – Since you will be using the platform to hire, find volunteers, and communicate with donors, it becomes important to include content that caters to each of your segments. Posting calls for volunteers to help with certain projects and events will get good traction, and posting about the impact your nonprofit is having will entice users and corporations to donate or get involved. 
6. Include cold mailing strategies to try to strike partnerships with business entities – Having someone from your marketing team keep an eye out for profiles that are more likely to interact with your organization’s cause and getting them to build a connection in order to pitch your NPO could be a very effective way to increase corporate sponsorship. Templatize content, have it approved at all levels and make sure it is in line with your guidelines before rolling it out with minor personalization.  

With all these perks, doesn’t LinkedIn seem like a must to include in your nonprofit’s social media marketing strategy?