Utilize your network.
Discover the power of your nonprofit’s network for creating awareness and promoting content.
Cross-promote your organization’s LinkedIn Page.
Bring more people to your nonprofit’s Page with these quick tips:
• Add a call to action (CTA) to follow your organization’s Page in emails and other digital assets.
• Add the “Follow on LinkedIn” widget to your nonprofit’s website.
• Add a link to your nonprofit’s Page in your email signature. If you have a standard template for everyone in your organization, be sure to update it.
• Announce your organization’s new LinkedIn Page in an email newsletter and request that people follow the Page for regular updates. Add a “follow” icon or a CTA at the bottom of all future newsletter editions.
Encourage sharing among employees.
Let employees know the benefits of your organization’s LinkedIn strategy and how they can get involved.
• Encourage employees to like, comment on, and share posts from your nonprofit.
• Tag relevant team members with the @mention and photo tagging features to increase the likelihood of content engagement.
• Use the “Notify Employees” feature to ensure employees never miss important or high-priority posts.
Note:
Page admins can do this by clicking the three dots in the top right-hand corner of posts and selecting “Notify employees of post.” Employees will get a notification within a few hours, making them more likely to engage.
Empower your nonprofit’s leaders to join the conversation.
If you have someone at your nonprofit with a unique perspective about your cause, like your CEO or founder, encourage them to post on LinkedIn. This can help you grow awareness for your organization and help establish them as a thought leader in the nonprofit space.
Get a pulse on the current conversation.
Learn from established thought leaders.
If you’re new to producing thought leadership content for yourself or your organization’s leadership team, start by following other leaders in the nonprofit industry. This can give you an idea of what kind of content they’re posting and what topics are top of mind. The LinkedIn Top Voices in Social Impact list is a good place to start if you aren’t sure who to follow.
Engage with existing content.
Once you’ve discovered other nonprofit thought leaders and organizations to follow, you or your thought leader should start engaging with this established thought leadership content by leaving insightful comments on relevant posts and sharing your own content.
Join relevant groups.
Become a member of LinkedIn Groups relevant to your cause and observe what kind of content people are interested in. Use these insights to inspire your own content. These groups can also act as a testing ground for your own thought leadership content, allowing you to practice and find your voice in front of a smaller audience. To start, check out the LinkedIn for Nonprofits group.
Note:
Make sure these engagement efforts come from you or your leaders’ personal profiles, and not from your organization’s Page.
Start posting thought leadership content.
Post from your leader’s or your individual profile.
Thought leadership content should come from an individual person — not an organization. However, if you’d like to amplify your thought leaders’ content or your own after it’s been posted, you can engage with it from your nonprofit’s Page.
Turn on creator mode.
Before posting, make sure you or your nonprofit’s thought leaders have creator mode turned on in their LinkedIn profile. This provides access to more features and allows you to share what topics you talk about at the top of your profile. It also swaps the placement of the “connect” and “follow” buttons, helping you grow a following.
Engage your followers.
Use questions and prompts to drive engagement and make sure to engage with the people who comment on and share your thought leaders’ or your content. It’s important to make thought leadership content feel like an ongoing conversation.
Start small and ramp up.
Don’t feel pressured to post every day, but try to post regularly (ex: weekly or biweekly). Quality is always better than quantity. Here are a few ways you or your leaders can jump into the thought leadership conversation on LinkedIn:
• Provide commentary on stories in the news and current events.
• Share knowledge on a relevant topic.
• Discuss key takeaways from a recent event or conference.
Be active.
Continue to engage with other thought leaders’ content, including commenting on and sharing their posts if they’re relevant to your audience.
Utilize your team.
Remember, thought leadership doesn’t have to be a solo effort. Other people in your organization can help you or your leaders by drafting posts and helping to plan content.
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