4 Tips for Attracting Followers to Your Nonprofit’s LinkedIn Page

Your nonprofit’s LinkedIn Page is a great place to spread awareness, share updates, and build an engaged and active community of supporters. But if your follower count isn’t quite as high as you’d like it to be, you may be wondering how to move the needle. 

The good news is, follower growth corresponds with even bigger gains in engagement and exposure, so time spent increasing followers can pay off in spades. Still, you don’t want to invest too much time and energy to only gain a couple of followers at the end. You need tried-and-tested strategies—and you’ve come to the right place. Here are a few of the most effective steps you can take. 

1. Master the basics first

To begin attracting any significant following, your LinkedIn Page needs to be complete and up to date, so start by doing an audit of what you have already. Have you added your logo? A link to your website? A clear overview of what your nonprofit is all about? Be sure to include keywords related to your mission and programs, as this can help your LinkedIn Page rank highly in search results—a great way for people to find out about you.

Once your LinkedIn Page is ready for visitors, add a “Follow” button on your website and newsletters, and encourage staff to add a link in their email signatures. You can also encourage people you’re connected with on LinkedIn to follow your LinkedIn Page using the “Invite to Follow” function. 

2. Share thought leadership content 

Original and insightful thought leadership content can capture people’s attention and get them thinking, encouraging them to follow you for more. Your nonprofit has a perspective that people want to hear, so share it. If you can get various leaders at your organization involved, even better, as this adds an extra layer of credibility and can often help you attract an executive-level audience.  

To build a sustainable and high-impact thought leadership strategy, focus on quality over quantity. A few succinct yet thought-provoking paragraphs commenting on a news story relevant to your nonprofit are infinitely more valuable than rambling articles that leave people scratching their heads about the point you wanted to make. Equally, one truly insightful piece of thought leadership content posted by a leader every month will likely gain much greater traction than lower-quality content posted daily ever could. 

3. Join the conversation

The best LinkedIn Pages aren’t engaging in one-sided dialogues—they’re having conversations. Responding to people’s comments on your Page is a good place to start, making your nonprofit come across as interactive and approachable. But you can also engage in conversations beyond your own Page by exploring hashtags associated with your mission and sharing your organization’s perspective on content posted by other people and brands. 

For example, if you were an environmentally focused nonprofit, you might search hashtags related to sustainability and add encouraging comments or helpful tips on posts from companies talking about their new recycling initiatives or their commitments to go green. Some of the companies’ employees and followers will see these comments and may decide to follow your organization as a result. And the more conversations you take part in, the more likely people who follow those hashtags are to stumble across your nonprofit, see that you’re engaged in work they’re interested in, and give you a follow. 

4. Get your whole team involved

Your nonprofit team is one of your biggest assets. When they get involved in helping you grow your brand on LinkedIn, your follower count can soar. 

Start by asking everyone to ensure their own LinkedIn profiles are fleshed out, including their experience at your organization. This ensures there will be a link leading directly to your LinkedIn Page on every existing and former employee, board member, and volunteer’s profile. Next, share a weekly update with your employees about the most important content you’ve posted that week, asking them to engage with the posts or share them with their networks to increase organic reach. 

Lastly, tag your team in posts whenever possible. Whether you’re sharing photos that they’re in, welcoming new employees, or recognizing their achievements, tagging increases the likelihood that they will engage with your Page’s content—while strengthening their connection with your organization.

Discover what works for your organization

Every nonprofit is a little different and has a unique audience. As you work to increase your follower count, pay attention to what resonates most with your followers by exploring your LinkedIn Page Analytics to see which posts and updates are driving the highest engagement, and adjust your strategy accordingly. 

For more ideas about what kind of content to post—and how often—download our free guide, LinkedIn Pages: Action plan for nonprofits. And to take your reach on LinkedIn to the next level, consider investing in paid advertising on the platform. Learn more by contacting our team today.

This article was inspired by the LinkedIn Marketing Solutions Blog post “Increasing Followers on Your LinkedIn Page: Tips and Tricks From LinkedIn Marketing Labs,” authored by Kylee Lessard.