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AfSAE: SOCIAL MEDIA 101
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HOW TO
LEVERAGE LINKEDIN With nearly 660 million members and over 30 million companies listed, LinkedIn is the largest professional networking platform. Here’s how to make it work for your association.
A
bastion of professionalism in the social media landscape, LinkedIn has been connecting the workforce for ages. But did you know that there are several ways in which LinkedIn assists non-profits? According to Tatiana Morand of Wild Apricot, LinkedIn is, “the place to establish your non-profit as an impactful organisation, your executive staff as thought leaders in your industry, and enlist high-quality members, board, volunteers, and staff.”
Set Up Your Non-Profit Page Setting up a LinkedIn page is easy and can be done in about half an hour. Be sure to take the time to complete it fully, since pages with complete information get 30% more weekly views. The two main sections to complete are the ‘header’ and ‘about’. “In the header section, you will provide the name of your organisation, a tag line, and a button to add your website to your page. In the about section, you will provide a brief description of your organisation’s mission and more details like contact information, company size, and industry,” Morand explains. Add the relevant images to your profile image and banner. Be sure to use the correct dimensions so that both are seen in their entirety. The recommended profile image/logo size is 300 x 300 pixels, while the recommended cover image size is 1536 pixels wide by 768 pixels high.
Once this is complete, it’s time to use LinkedIn as a resource. Here, users engage with leaders and colleagues in their industry and causes they care about. There are about 90 million senior level influencers on the platform, 63 million decision makers, 17 million opion leaders, and 40 million mass affluent, among others.
LinkedIn as an Outreach Tool According to Nick DeSarno, Director of Digital and Policy Communications at the Public Affairs Council, LinkedIn is a must for your association engagement strategy. “It’s where your members are. Gone are the days when your members come to you. Your association
needs to be active where your members are spending time and consuming content,” he says. “In addition, since many of the users provide extensive amounts of professional information in their profiles, LinkedIn has unmatched professional user data.” You can find new members through LinkedIn’s robust search function that allows you to search by industry, company affiliation, interests, degrees or certifications, and job titles. It also has a specific Volunteer Marketplace designed to help likeminded people find you. You can use the paid-for job posting feature in addition to posting organic job opps on the site. LinkedIn has
