By Marc W. Halpert and Colleen McKenna

Editor’s note: “Company Pages” may sound like something only for-profit businesses should care about. But those pages provide valuable visibility to nonprofits as well. On Wednesdays, we’ll be running a five-part guest series on how nonprofits can reap significant benefits from LinkedIn’s Company Pages.

Now, turn your nonprofit organization into a sales force!

Connecting, engaging and creating opportunities for others to engage with you, and building strong and compelling profiles and Company Page are essential strategies. The next step is to tell your organization’s unique story. Put yourself in the donor’s place. Business professionals will engage with your nonprofit if you fully portray and develop the need for your mission, the crisis, the imperative of WHY they should choose YOUR organization to receive their time and money.

First step: Get them to follow your progress.

If your Company Page is complete and “keyworded” properly, you will rank higher, and have strong credibility in search engines, such as Google. Optimize these keyword phases to displace other nonprofits competing for the same donor dollars.

Expand and analyze your reach. How? Rally your colleagues, teams, and associates to stay current on LinkedIn, and to build new content within their profiles. If a new section is added to LinkedIn, remind them to fill it in on their personal pages. A great new section is Volunteer Experience and Causes. [Go to edit profile and scroll down to Add Section, click there, and choose Volunteer Experience and Causes] Promote, promote, promote!

Building digital assets, such as your LinkedIn Company page, is vital in the B2B world. It’s how prospects and consumers learn about individuals and companies. These digital assets level the playing field between nonprofits and big companies! Use this opportunity intelligently and for the exact purposes intended.

Also, rather than taking up valuable website real estate with lengthy bios, link from your website to the appropriate LinkedIn profile. Remember to make the hyperlink open a new page so visitors don’t leave your own website while visiting LinkedIn. Drive people to View My LinkedIn Profile.

Another helpful hint: LinkedIn gives you a unique code for your Company Page. Add it to your site and display the “Follow us on LinkedIn” badge on your blog or website. Or add the LinkedIn logo alongside the social media logos.

There is no question that “followers” equates to visibility. Your employees should be followers of your page as well. [Click the arrow on Following and choose settings. See below.]

Every tab in your Company Page has its own URL. Promote these and remember to use the Analytics tab to check how each page is doing.

Summary and Take-aways

The Most Important LinkedIn Company Page To-Do’s for Nonprofits

1.  Create a Company Page.

2.  Set up proper administration rights.

3.  Build and develop your Overview Section with keyword phrases and value propositions.

4.  Add to your Products & Services tab with descriptions and banners that link to your website and to YouTube videos.

 5.  Ask your customers and connections for  recommendations to your Product/Services tab.

Again, your Company Page can carry the same weight as a website and more weight than a Facebook page … if it’s developed and properly managed.

Need help with the Company Page plan? Review For more information about Nonprofit Company Pages, read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3,and Part 4 of this series or let Intero Advisory and Connect2Collaborate know!

Need a refresher on parts 1-4?  Feel free to visit Intero Advisory’s Resource Page or Connect2Collaborate’s blog, and get more free tutorials on how to be the most successful nonprofit on LinkedIn.

Marc W. Halpert has started, and continues to operate three companies in the past 10 years; the most recent is called and Connect2Collaborate, in which he uses his skills in networking and his LinkedIn evangelism to train and coach others. He teaches LinkedIn to groups as well as coaches individuals, is a frequent speaker at national, regional, and local conferences, and has authored numerous articles.

Colleen McKenna, Principal, and Intero Advisory teaches people and organizations how to build their creative and competitive professional brand to ensure greater productivity and success.

We do this by creating a plan and implementing the appropriate tools. LinkedIn, the professional social network, is where we begin.