This episode is especially for those of you who manage communications or marketing for a nonprofit, foundation, or other type of social impact organization. The reality is, yes of course we know we should quote unquote be on LinkedIn. But why, especially when time is limited? When we decide to do something, we’re effectively deciding not to do something else, so we’ve got to make a strategic case for it. Also, what should we DO when we get on LinkedIn to amplify our mission? In this episode, I’m sharing 10 specific ways you can use LinkedIn as a social impact communicator. Enjoy!

Highlights from the podcast episode: 

Social Impact Strategy #1: Find new board members and volunteers

First, we can find the right board members and volunteers to drive our organizations forward. LinkedIn is a goldmine for connecting with passionate individuals who are willing to lend their skills and expertise. 

That’s because it has a 9 million+ person network of SEARCHABLE professionals, spanning industries, locations, and passions. With LinkedIn’s robust search and filtering capabilities, you can zero in on people with the specific backgrounds, experience, and values that align with your organization’s mission and goals. 

For example, my nonprofit career was spent in the addiction treatment space, and we happened to serve a lot of pilots. And we wanted to connect with influential people in that industry – movers and shakers – who could help us do things like speak at aligned conferences and events for pilots, connect us with the case managers at FAA, help us build a relationship and eventually get a contract with American Airlines, for example, to serve their impaired professionals, and the list goes on. And we used LinkedIn to find some of these connectors to further our mission.  

You can even filter down your search results not just by location, or where people went to school, or where they work, but you can filter it down to people who have actually self-selected and said, Yes, I want to provide pro bono support. Yes, I want to join a nonprofit board. That’s a filter option under LinkedIn search. And I’m talking about the search bar at the very top header of LinkedIn – it’s like a gateway to this flexible, searchable rolodex.  

Social Impact Strategy #2: Communicate with existing donors

Similarly, a lot of us probably think of LinkedIn as a place to communicate one to many, like we’re using a megaphone to yell into the crowd. In some cases, yea, sure, but I want you to remember that just as helpful – and maybe even more helpful – it gives us a tool to individually direct message people – corporate donors, supporters, partners, reporters, thought leaders, etc. 

Sometimes, reaching out to power brokers and decision-makers—when I say that I mean individuals who hold the keys to major opportunities and partnerships—can feel like trying to get through Fort Knox. Just getting past gatekeepers can feel impossible. 

On LinkedIn, you can send a direct message to someone you’re connected with. Or you can invest in Premium to send what’s called an InMail to people you’re not yet connected to. And yes, I know that might sound strange, like XYZ person was just on the news, am I really going to get in their DMs?  

I say, yes, you should. Because while an executive assistant might take care of someone’s email, decision makers often manage their own LinkedIn profiles and engage directly with their network.  And vice versa – it’s a way for YOU to hear from people you’ve positively affected, even in years gone by. 

Having our business identity be attached to our profiles creates legitimacy – instead of getting a message from BSBGirl1997,  you’re hearing from someone, with their name, with their headshot, with their company and its logo. It’s professional, it’s factual, it’s verifiable. 

Social Impact Strategy #3: Research individuals of interest, such as major donors or grantee partners

Social Impact Strategy #4: Get on grantmakers’ and partners’ radars

Social Impact Strategy #5: Build corporate partnerships and secure sponsorships

I looped these all together. I’d summarize these three things into – being seen and seeing others. 

Yes, there are many databases and online resources available we can use. 

But LinkedIn offers a vast repository of personal and professional data that can help us paint a more complete picture of the people we’re building relationship with. We can find out more about our individual’s interests, connections, philanthropic affiliations, career and education history, where they’re speaking and attending conferences, and all of this can support our relationship cultivation. It helps us more fulsomely get to know the individuals we’re entering into partnerships with.  What they’re proud of. Who THEY’RE partnering with, and who THEY trust. It has info that helps us build that connective tissue and stronger relationship more readily.

For nonprofits or folks seeking funding, standing out and getting noticed by funders can be daunting. But LinkedIn offers an opportunity to connect with grantmakers and philanthropic companies, and build relationships that could lead to potential opportunities. Because many funders – like board members, program officers, living donors and benefactors, CSR representatives – they do maintain active profiles on LinkedIn. No, they probably aren’t logging on every day or sharing their own content, but that doesn’t mean they’re not periodically logging on and reachable. Also, if you’re collaborating with like-missioned organizations – which I know you are – sharing content about these collaborations and their impact can put you in front of your colleagues’ funders. And that’s a good thing for everyone.

Grantmakers – it’s just the other side of the same coin. We live in an era where brand identity is important and who you are matters. Your “why” matters. For grantmakers/ foundations – this is a way to highlight grantees, introduce grantees to each other just by virtue of making a post shouting out of one your partners work and telling their story, to share about the good work you’re doing.  

Social Impact Strategy #6: Amplify your executives as trusted thought leaders

Earlier this year, the Communications Network, which is a membership organization for social impact communicators, they put out a survey. We saw that, by a huge margin, LinkedIn is thought of as the top social media platform in our sector. 74% of social impact communicators are using LinkedIn to amplify their mission. So it’s also a great platform to raise the profile of your people by amplifying your executives as trusted thought leaders, or go-to voices and key figures who shape the narrative, who are ahead of the curve, who have their finger on the pulse, who are on top of the trends in your field.  Twitter or “X” was an important place to do this but as we have all seen, it has changed.

We all know theoretically everyone in your organization is a communicator but this puts that into practice in a very real way. On LinkedIn, your colleagues tell the story of your organization better than your comms shop ever can or will. Because their voices travel further than your organizational page.  According to LinkedIn, the average medium size nonprofit has roughly 3,000 followers on their organizational LinkedIn page. However, if your team of 50 people, each have 500 followers on their individual LinkedIn profile, that’s 25,000 people in that sphere of influence. So even if 6 or 7 of that team of 50 actively share their perspectives and stories about your mission and the work you’re doing … you’re collectively reaching the same number of people but there’s naturally  more trust there – because it’s shared through a personal, human to human, relationship. It’s just far more effective than shouting from the organizational page. 

Social Impact Strategy #7: Build team camaraderie and culture

And that segues into —  when your people consistently show up on LinkedIn, it builds team camaraderie and culture. When I say people or team I mean employees but also your board, right? Your volunteers. Your close partners. It’s a platform to publicly repost or share achievements and milestones and what’s new for your mission, which boosts morale and creates team pride. It’s a way to learn more about your colleagues and their “why” as they share what’s important to them beyond the confines of just their job titles.

Instead of something that might have gone into an internal newsletter, that piece of news can now go on LinkedIn and that builds bonds, internal team culture, and it’s just wonderful thing to be acknowledged by colleagues who aren’t just within the four walls of your organization but the larger ecosystem as well.

When your leadership is courageous, visible, reflective, and sharing from the point of their humanity on LinkedIn, it’s going to make good talent want to work for you. It’s going to make your existing team want to stay. 

Social Impact Strategy #8: Break down stigma about a misunderstood issue

Storytelling is an evidence-based strategy to combat stigma. As social impact professionals, we work on stigmatized and misunderstood topics. As I’ve mentioned, I used to work in addiction treatment and specifically with moms, and pregnant and parenting women.  So, changing perceptions could feel like an uphill battle for sure. But sharing stories of those in the trenches – or partnering with business owners and key influencers in our community who were also in long term recovery to share their experience, strength, and hope through LinkedIn content helped not only bring awareness to our org’s mission but the larger, overarching vision of recovery. For example, we invited a local well known, respected, beloved business owner – a restauranteur – to share her mental health and addiction recovery story with our patients. She also was very active on LinkedIn. She ended up inviting our patients to her restaurant before it opened, served them an afternoon tea, and it was a really lovely event. With permission (obviously) we shared about it on LinkedIn and that showed up for her many followers, naturally changing the ways they maybe thought about recovery in a place they wouldn’t maybe expect to see it. 

Social Impact Strategy #9: Attract inbound organic PR and media opportunities

Social Impact Strategy #10: Amplify your events and happenings

I’m gonna talk about these last two together. When it comes down to attracting inbound opportunities, organic PR, and media placements, what I want to say is that for many of us, our missions are well known. We have some level of brand loyalty and recognition. But there is so much NOISE. Showing up consistently on LinkedIn not only helps you stay top of mind with the media but also peers who could refer you to opportunities for non-traditional types of media like podcast invitations and influencers sharing content about your work.  In fact, I once shared a story about the therapy dog who lived on site, Lola. A colleague of mine, who I hadn’t actually talked to in months, we’d see each other once a year at the big national membership association conference, but she saw the post and hooked us up with a podcast host – who did a whole story about our program, which was a big deal.  It’s just another channel to get in front of decision makers and show up as a go-to voice for your specific issue. 

Finally, you all have events and happenings all the time. Convenings, launches, 50^th anniversary celebrations, ribbon cuttings, etc. Yes you can share about them on LinkedIn, and you should, but you can also use LinkedIn to create events and invite people. Say you’re having a launch of your fill-in-the-blank. Create a LinkedIn Event to coincide with it. Invite people. As they accept, it gets the event on their calendar and also spreads the word onto other people’s feeds. Use it as an add-on to your marketing strategy for these happenings and get the people outside of your immediate list intrigued. 

As we start thinking ahead to 2025 planning, I want to remember LinkedIn can amplify what you’re already doing. Can’t wait to see you there as you continue your work in the world.

Other Campfire Circle podcast episodes I recommend:

Episode 65: Social Impact Storytelling: why, when, and where

Episode 53: 10 Copy Coaching Tips for Engaging LinkedIn Content

Podcast Episode 38: How to Be Lazy on LinkedIn: Build Clarity, Content & Community

Connect with Tania Bhattacharyya:

LinkedIn: Tania Bhattacharyya