LinkedInWhile the impact of social media on commercial and NFP organisations grows by the day, there is a strong division between the different social media platforms. Perhaps you will be interested to know that, while Facebook and Twitter are great for popularizing your posts and spreading the word, the underestimated LinkedIn has many benefits of its own.

Some people see LinkedIn as a kind of “business card holder”. However, if used properly, the social network can provide many benefits.  Did you know that Linked sends 4 times the amount of traffic to your website than you could possible get from Facebook?  Therefore, you should consider building a solid presence on LinkedIn and here are some tips that will help you with the task.

If you don’t already have a presence, you need to set up a company page. A company page allows you to easily post status updates, share news, find volunteers, grow your community, and stay in touch with your followers. Include a clear description of what you do and why you do it.  Add your logo so that the page is instantly recognisable.  Take a look at Charity: Water. It has the logo at the top, a clear header image which shows the results of their work, and a short but concise bio beneath it.

Next comes the matter of posting. Make sure you post regularly on LinkedIn. The statistics show that 20 posts per month will get you close to the threshold of 60% engagement – the maximum guaranteed engagement you can get. If you are able to post more than 20 posts per month, go for it, but also monitor the results so that you can decide whether the efforts are worth making.

It is important to know which is the best time to post.  According to LinkedIn, the users of the social media are more active in working hours and especially morning and midday in work days. This is to say, avoid publishing in the evenings and late afternoon hours and if you are not available earlier, schedule your posts with Buffer or other tools of this sort.

In our next post we will discuss how to effectively develop your presence on LinkedIn even further