501derful.org
So this our non-profit tech question of the week. How is your non-profit using LinkedIN? Do you use if for posting jobs? Headhunting new talent? Groups? Fundraising? Let us know in the comments below. Here are some facts about LinkedIN from a recent Ad Age article:
What makes people join LinkedIN?
21% looking for jobs
28% senior execs vanity searching
30% Savvy Networkers. Just love networking
22% Late adopters guilted in
One last stat 16% of the site members are “Decision Makers” those are the people that have the responsibility of purchasing equipment. So how are you using LinkedIN? The first 5 commenters win a non-profit rockstar prize!
I’ve actually found LinkedIN most useful in keeping in touch with former business associates (co-workers, clients etc). It’s also been useful for prospecting new business from those contacts I made at previous jobs.
That and it’s an easy way for them to contact me if they require my services. I have been approached by and gotten work from a few people I had worked with previously. Usually it is because they’ve moved on to other companies or to start their own business, and remembered what I did but had no way to get in touch with my otherwise.
I have also tried using LinkedIn for posting job listings, but found it didn’t work well for me.
Hmm, I was going to respond, but…I work for ACS in Austin at the NCIC as the Curriculum Designer. So I’m thinking you know how our ACS group on Linked In works. I wonder, though, how the NCIC might benefit from social networking; we have many young people who fill positions for us – they are Linked In, MySpaced, Twittered and Facebooked.
Our nonprofit has a LinkedIn group (well, actually I think we have a couple) and a pretty good amount of members have joined, but I haven’t seen much discussion within the groups so I think it’s basically “just another group to join because I’m already on LinkedIN, so why not.” This year I’m going to be working with our marketing, communications, and technology groups to come up with a unified strategy for using all of these social tools more effectively (or not at all).
We created a LinkedIn group for Policy Researchers, because it didn’t exist! IssueLab is a publishing forum for nonprofit research, and we consistently find that policy professionals really lack a venue for the exchange of knowledge and ideas across disciplines. So, even though the group is not ABOUT IssueLab, we created it as a service to some of our key constituents and hope it generates more interest in the research found in our collection online.
Our nonprofit is a membership organization of other nonprofit human service providers and we do a lot to help develop our members workforce and train our members. We’ve used LinkedIn to…
1) Connect emerging nonprofit leaders with current leaders to share ideas and create an online mentoring opportunity
2) Developed a LinkedIn webinar to introduce nonprofit executives to the services so that they can put a positive image out to potential members, donors, sponsors, partners, employees, etc.
3) Building a personal brand that connects me to people interested in the work that we’re doing
Next step: creating a nonprofit profile page that includes a fundraising button.
Glad I saw this post in time for my nonprofit rockstar prize 😛
Thank you for sharing those stats; they are very informative.
Best,
Kevin