The Best Thing You Can Do TODAY
If you only have a personal profile, and not an organizational profile, you’re missing a boat. It’s not just for individuals anymore.
If you’re not working your personal profile to help you achieve your business objectives, you’re missing another boat. It’s not just for personal networking anymore.
Here’s 30 steps you can take (19 in Part 1; 11 in Part 2) to work LinkedIn to your business or organization’s advantage. But before your take your first step:
DETERMINE WHY YOU WANT TO USE LINKEDIN
Do you want to create broader awareness that you exist? Are you looking for new major donor prospects? Might this be a way to develop deeper relationships with existing donors? Looking for foundations funders? Volunteers? New board members? Folks who’ll purchase products and services? Employees? Answers to questions that some of your peers may have? Folks to share your messaging around particular issues? Based on what your goals are, you can proceed.
1. Develop and optimize your company profile
The company page is a powerful tool enabling you to engage actively with your constituents: send status updates, messages and links from the “Overview” tab; spotlight best offerings (including videos and special offers) and promote to segmented audiences on the “Products and Services” tab; promote job opportunities on the “Careers” tab, and measure your constituents’ level of engagement on the “Analytics” tab.
- If your organization doesn’t have a company profile on LinkedIn, create one. LinkedIn even offers you a step-by-step guide and downloadable e-book . So, no excuses.
- Make your profile search-ready by identifying 10-15 keywords and phrases to best describe your organization (think about what folks would search for).
- Personalize your organization by adding your Twitter handle and blog name to the company profile.
- If you want to highlight specific products or services, do so through the “products and services” feature. You can also showcase glowing reviews and stellar employees here.
- Ask your supporters to share your profile. You can click on “Administrative Tools” and promote volunteer opportunities, etc. (see Taproot).
- Connect your Twitter account and your blog to your profile. DON’T FORGET: You can also cross-promote following you on LinkedIn in the same way you do so with Facebook and Twitter. Put it on your home page, and all places where you have share buttons.
- Share using status updates. . Share articles you’re reading, important announcements and thoughts on industry trends. A cool place to find content is right on LinkedIn Today’s nonprofit industry tab.
2 Optimize your personal profile
This is a venue for conveying passion about your work. To take full advantage, be sure to complete your profile so it’s at 100%.
- Relationship building is a person-to-person game, so put on a happy face (i.e., smile in your photo).
- Make your profile search-ready by adding 10-15 keywords and phrases that describe you professionally.
- Join and participate in groups where you can network with your constituents (e.g. professional colleagues; major donors and volunteers). Start discussions to position yourself as an authority. Comment on other discussions and offer help. If a group is inactive or not valuable, leave. Look for other groups to join.
3 Optimize personal profiles for key employees
This is a great
way to humanize your organization, and also leverage your searchability. I wouldn’t suggest making this a requirement of employment; however, it’s something your executive team will probably understand and want to do. Volunteer coordinators often see the benefit of this as well.
way to humanize your organization, and also leverage your searchability. I wouldn’t suggest making this a requirement of employment; however, it’s something your executive team will probably understand and want to do. Volunteer coordinators often see the benefit of this as well.
- Suggest employees put your organization’s website on their profile. This establishes your organization’s presence and is a way for employees to show passion for your cause.
- Ask employees to start discussions in groups that will add to the perception of your organization as an authority in targeted subject areas (see below). One great tip? If your employees are blogging professionally, have them start discussions around their blog posts. That way, there’s no extra time needed to develop content.
- Ask employees to use status updates to promote things like events.
4 Ask your board members to help.
Like your employees, there are a number of ways board members and volunteers can spread the word and help to generate awareness of your mission and work.
- Suggest volunteers connect to you as part of their network. This will expose your profile to many more folks than you could reach on your own.
- Suggest volunteers add your website to their profile. Again, this establishes your presence and conveys great passion for your cause.
5 Seek introductions to people you’d like to meet
If you’ve identified a foundation, business or major donor with which you’d like to connect, you may find you’re connected to them by relatively few degrees of separation.
- Search for people who work at targeted foundations or businesses.
- Ask for introductions to key personnel whenever you find someone to whom you’re connected.
- Message a potential donor directly and let them know you’d like to connect. It’s surprising how well this can work, especially if you’ve done your research and know that this prospect has an interest in your area of work.
- Search for folks active in your industry. LinkedIn has fairly robust search functionality . You can search not only by industry but also by company and location, among other parameters.
TOMORROW: 5 more tips; 11 more steps to take. Y’all come back now. Y’hear?
How are you using LinkedIn? Please share!
