I'm pretty sure that most nonprofits pay attention to other social media such as Facebook and Twitter before thinking about LinkedIn.
Many nonprofit professionals use LinkedIn to advance their own professional careers and to interact with other professionals who also live in the nonprofit world. Using LinkedIn for one's organization specifically is not always on their list of to-do's.
Using LinkedIn for one's nonprofit organization means setting it up with a "company" profile. LinkedIn, at this point, does not differentiate between companies and nonprofits. But a number of nonprofits have developed organizational profiles and are exploring how to best use LinkedIn to advance their goals.
The Humane Society of the United States is among those. I spoke with Carie Lewis, Director of Emerging Media and Online Communications at the Humane Society, and asked her what her organization's goals are for LinkedIn, and how they are figuring out how best to use the social network. Here is some of what Lewis said:
"We've had a LinkedIn Group and Company Page for awhile, but never really used either for much. We would have people request to join, and our intern would approve them as they came. We also had our Twitter feed and our CEO's blog auto-imported into the Page."Now we're taking a step back and evaluating if that's the best strategy. We've always focused on Facebook and Twitter, and now that we have additional resources we're looking into others like LinkedIn.
"Like any other social network, you need to participate and interact with your members, so relying solely on automated content is probably not the best method for that. It may be that we continue to do the auto-import, but accompany it with posts like we do on Facebook with status updates. I know there are more opportunities with posting and getting onto people's LinkedIn homepages, we just have to figure out how it works and understand the differences between a Group and a Page.
"Our goals in social media are advocacy, fundraising, and customer service / relationship building, so we're currently evaluating LinkedIn's capabilities and how to match them to those goals.
"Also, remember the niche of this platform is professional networking, so we don't want to just treat it the same way you treat Facebook. For instance, I might ask an industry-specific question geared towards veterinarians, or post a whitepaper on humane farming practices. It is so important to craft the message for the medium. We never post the exact same thing on Facebook and Twitter, and wouldn't do the same for LinkedIn, either.
"One success we've had with LinkedIn already is using it for hiring. It costs money to advertise an open position, but in our experience, if the position is technical or social-focused, it's a great audience to generate leads from. There's also a benefit in using your personal LinkedIn profile to spread the word about your organization's work. People may be more comfortable doing this because LinkedIn is more focused on your professional rather than your personal life.
"In putting out an update to my network, such as an open position in my department, I'm reaching a large number of people to whom I'm connected personally but who may not be connected to my organization. They might be more inclined to spread the word on my behalf, as well.
"We're really just getting started on LinkedIn, which I imagine most nonprofits are as well. I think the biggest thing for us is figuring out how to tie the platform's functionality to our goals, as well as crafting the message for the medium."
I love Lewis' terms: "tie the platform's functionality to goals"" and crafting the message for the medium." These would apply to an organization's use of any social media. I also think that it is obvious that an organization should not expect instant success on any of the social networking platforms. It really does take a philosopy of "jump in and learn to swim." Standing on the sidelines and wondering what you will do won't work. A plan will emerge after first hand experience over time.
More About LinkedIn for Nonprofits:
- Should Your Nonprofit Be On LinkedIn?
- Tips for Using LinkedIn for Nonprofits
- Why I Like/Dislike LinkedIn for My Nonprofit
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