By Brendan Cruickshank, Vice President of Client Services, Juju
On January 1 of this year, LinkedIn announced that it had 90 million registered users in over 200 countries and territories around the world. That means that LinkedIn represents a huge number of technology-savvy people with aspirations. Some of these people are likely to have hopes and values similar to those of your nonprofit organization. Their interest in the world implies potential for them to interested in what you and your colleagues are doing. And, some may even want to become involved by contributing to your cause, sharing knowledge, experience, or contacts, and/or financially.
Of course, there's a lot of competition out there among social networking sites, but you should know that according to eBizMBA Inc. - an Internet knowledge base addressing online business issues - as of March 1, LinkedIn has the fourth highest number of estimated unique monthly visitors. That translates into 50 million different people logged on to LinkedIn every month. And, it means that the site is growing rapidly. To take advantage of this potentially huge number of followers, you'll need to maximize the ways that LinkedIn users can find you.
Who Are "You" and Why LinkedIn
Before continuing, let's look at who "you" are and whom LinkedIn represents. In this case, "you" means anyone in your organization. If you're a small nonprofit, with little or no IT staff, everyone gets involved with the many aspects of your organization's functioning. And, the nature of LinkedIn lends itself to being most effective as more and more people are involved. So, we're talking about everyone that touches your organization - staff, partners, members, friends, etc.
Why LinkedIn, rather than Facebook or Twitter? Because its audience is composed of professionals - people who are working, interested in working, and/or value effective ventures. And, the topics and issues it deals with are of professional interest. That is, LinkedIn focuses on the kinds of people and causes that nonprofits like to engage with. As opposed to single websites, which are more static than social media, LinkedIn can be an especially effective tool for nonprofit organizations because it offers many ways for professionals to communicate with each other, each with a variety of possible benefits.
A Variety of Ways to Use LinkedIn to Promote Your nonprofit and Its Causes
First and foremost, LinkedIn is good for learning about people - professionals, that is - whom your organization may want to engage with, whether to consider hiring them, partnering with them to carry out your mission, or inviting them to contribute as members or supporters. Most serious professionals will have filled out a profile of themselves, which can be used to learn more about their interests, history, skills, experience and the people they know personally or professionally. And the most active networkers will have personal recommendations, written by their colleagues, on their profile page. This information is invaluable for learning how they can be of assistance to your nonprofit and/or to the cause(s) you are advocating. It can also provide clues on how to best approach them.
Second, through its Groups feature, LinkedIn can be especially useful to cause-based organizations through online discussions, often lengthy and information-packed, that take place on a variety of topics. If your organization establishes a group or, better yet, several groups, addressing topics of concern, and if you and other active LinkedIn members - staff or other - raise questions, engage in polemic discussions, or share interesting or potentially controversial information, lively discussions can ensue. As more and more people become involved, whether merely by reading the responses or by commenting, the issues, people and politics involved in your cause become better known. With a lot of buzz, calls to action can be that much more effective.
The "Company" feature offers businesses, as well as nonprofit organizations, a space to promote their purposes, vision, and programs and to provide a website address. In addition, it lists new hires and serves as a link to profiles of staff members. This can be useful if you are researching people as potential employees or partners, and it allows others LinkedIn users a way to learn more about the human resources in your organization. Finally, and maybe most important for nonprofit organizations with a message to convey, the Company page offers links to blogs and Tweets of interest to your organization and its followers. Within the blogs or Tweets, you can promote events, ask for assistance, pass on information, and more.
LinkedIn also offers a venue for asking and answering questions. You can ask questions of any sort, and they can be categorized into professional or business-related topics - including nonprofit category - or as pertaining to a particular geographic area. You can then send them to a general audience or only to your contacts or members of particular groups. In addition, you can identify them as job-related, which is especially useful if your interests are in staffing or finding a job. Of course, you can answer questions too, thereby demonstrating your expertise and thus bringing attention to yourself and your organization.
Ensuring Success on LinkedIn
The key to success - i.e., for obtaining maximum benefit from any of these features - is being active on LinkedIn. That is, you as an individual, as a member of your organization, as a "Company," and as member of a Group, must maintain a continued presence on the site. You can do this by continuing to add people to your connections list, by participating in discussions, by posting information and links, by recommending people and websites, and by asking or answering questions. The more you and your allies - or even your detractors - make their presence seen, the more people are made aware of who you (and your organization) are, what you believe in and do, and what resources are available or needed for services that you offer.
A Few Caveats
As with any tool, modern or time-tested, Using LinkedIn comes with caveats. If you're looking to hire staff for your organization, you need to recognize that some of your best candidates may have incomplete (or even no) LinkedIn profiles. Depending on their previous job responsibilities, they may have had little reason to communicate or network on LinkedIn. In fact, they may have been using their time more effectively doing exactly the work that they were hired for, finding other means - email, telephone, face to face meetings, etc. - of interacting with professional colleagues and gathering the information necessary to carry out their jobs. You'll need to find them using more traditional methods, but you chances are you can still use LinkedIn to identify their colleagues and for recommendations.
In addition, if you're researching a topic on LinkedIn, remember that the lack of information on the pages of a Group discussion or in response to a question does not mean that no knowledge exists. It may simply mean that the people most appropriate to respond have not done so, either because they are unaware of the posting or because they spend their time in other ways.
LinkedIn Well Worth the Effort
In summary, LinkedIn can serve as a valuable resource for your nonprofit, whether you're expanding or diversifying your staff, gathering information about the issues and causes of interest, finding partners to collaborate with, promoting your mission and programs, or seeking recognition. It's virtually impossible to know all the outcomes that a LinkedIn presence can have, but in this age of social networking and marketing, the site offers huge potential for any organization, large or small.
Currently Vice President of Client Services, Brendan has worked in the online job search and recruiting industry for the past 8 years. During this time in senior client services roles with major sites like Juju.com and JobsInTheMoney.com, has regularly contributed his expert insight on topics in employment and jobs trends in publications including the US News & World Report and Forbes.