5 Steps to Optimizing Your Nonprofit's LinkedIn Company Page

Welcome back to the Summer of Social Media for Nonprofits! For the last few weeks, I’ve been discussing how to put your personal LinkedIn profile to work. So today, for Week 5, I’m going to switch gears and talk about your nonprofit’s Company Page.

Don’t let the name Company Pages deter you from claiming your nonprofit’s place on LinkedIn. Thousands of nonprofit organizations have created Company Pages and are reaping the benefits, which include: 

• Encourage all people affiliated with your organization to link to your Company Page.
• Showcase products and services…plus premium content and monthly events.
• Use the rotating banner module to showcase three calls to action.
• Optimize your Overview with keywords.
• Engage

Getting Started

Before you start from scratch, search for your company on LinkedIn to see if your Company Page already exists. If it does, follow these steps to become an admin of your company page.

If you come up empty-handed, follow these instructions to create a new Company Page.

Then, once you’ve claimed/created your Company Page, check out the strategies below to take your nonprofit’s LinkedIn presence to the next level!

1) Encourage all people affiliated with your organization to link to your Company Page.

The more people connected to your company page, the better chance people in their networks have of finding their way to your company page. 

There are two areas of the personal profile where your supporters can add your nonprofit: employees can add your organization to their Experience section, and volunteers and board members can add your organization to their Volunteer Experience & Causes section.  

Be sure they add your organization by choosing it from the dropdown menu that appears after they begin typing your company name. That way, their profile displays your logo and links directly to your company page.

2) Showcase products and services…plus premium content and monthly events.

The Products & Services section of your Company Page can be extremely valuable. The first thing to understand about this section is that you’re not limited to promoting just products and services. You can also promote premium content (ebooks, whitepapers, etc.), regularly scheduled events (monthly luncheons, weekly networking meetups, etc.), programs (such as business development classes) and fundraisers.

Here are some examples of nonprofits making great use of LinkedIn Products & Services:

Here are two other things to keep in mind when creating your Products & Services section:

• For each product/service, include a high quality image, a link to a landing page on your website, up to three people to contact, and a video (if available).
• Don’t be afraid to ask for recommendations. Every time someone recommends your product/service, the activity is broadcasted to that person’s network, providing a link to your page! To acquire recommendations, click into one of your product/service pages, and you’ll see a button that says Request recommendations. You can also add the LinkedIn Recommend button to your website.

3) Use the rotating banner module to showcase three calls to action.

This feature will appear at the top of your Products/Services page, with arrow buttons that allow users to scroll through your images. Create three banner images, sized 646x222 pixels, to showcase three of your most important offerings. These banners should include a high resolution graphic or photo and some sort of call to action, such as “Click to learn more.” Each image can be linked to a landing page on your website.  

4) Optimize your Overview with keywords.

When you write your Company Description, be sure to choose keywords that your customers would search to find your company, rather than keywords that make you sound sophisticated. You should also include keywords in the Company Specialties section.

5) Engage.

Building out your LinkedIn Company Page isn’t enough to truly optimize it—you also have to post updates and communicate with your followers. LinkedIn is a social network, after all.

Here are some best practices for engaging with your LinkedIn Company Page followers:

• Post updates once a day, or once every other day. Your goal should be to maintain a presence without overcrowding your followers’ newsfeeds.
• Post updates that provide value to your followers—particularly, blog articles that are relevant to your audience’s business goals. Avoid bragging about your organization.
• Reach out to your followers, individually. They made the first move by following your page on LinkedIn and showing interest in your organization—now it’s your turn to take follow-up action. Refer to last week’s post for tips on using your personal LinkedIn profile to reach out to potential prospects.
• Extend the reach of your updates by encouraging employees to like and share your organization’s updates. This will broadcast your message to their networks. 
• Add a LinkedIn Follow button to your website to make it easy for visitors to find you on LinkedIn. 

Up Next: Intro to LinkedIn Groups

Come back next week for the first of three posts on LinkedIn Groups! Next week's post will introduce you to the ways in which you can use Groups to prospect for potential new members, staff, donors and volunteers. I'll also provide tips for deciding which Groups you should join in order to accomplish your business goals. Don't miss out!

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