Category: Small Business

Support Nonprofits on #GivingTuesday

Support Nonprofits on #GivingTuesday

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Nonprofits, like the Great Careers Group & BENG, have been hit during COVID, and your generosity is needed for support.

Email campaigns and social media posts can reach potential donors to highlight the missions of the nonprofits. 

Websites, YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and other platforms can all be used to share stories of impact for #GivingTuesday which is on December 1, 2020. 

What is Giving Tuesday? Started in 2012, it’s a global movement for generosity that reminds individuals and organizations to do good and support their communities through giving.

As noted in LinkedIn for Nonprofits, “Members of the Board of Directors, volunteers, donors, potential donors, or friends of the organization can share any of the organization’s post(s) by clicking on the three dots at the top right of the post and then clicking on “copy link to post.” People can add their own commentary and hashtags to that URL.

As the Executive Director of the Philadelphia Area Great Careers Group, there may be some other small nonprofits who may need some ideas for posts and resources, so I am sharing a few ideas below.

  • On the homepage of our website, a short video explains how one can shop on smile.amazon.com instead of the regular Amazon to support a 501(c)3 charitable organization on Black Friday or any day. We also request more YouTube subscribers so we can customize our channel.
  • On our website, we publish Success Stories. where people share how our organization has impacted them. 
  • On our LinkedIn company page, you will see a post for Amazon Smile and Black Friday, and one will come for #GivingTuesday. Don’t have a company page? Here are instructions on how to create one.
  • On our Instagram, you will see images that will also be used on Twitter and Facebook, and these images were created using Canva for Nonprofits. When you are a small nonprofit of volunteers, you may have to reuse the same images on multiple platforms. 
  • Create your own branded hashtag for your posts and look up other hashtags applicable to your post’s topic . Our branded hashtag is #greatcareersphl 
  • Create blogs and check your writing with Grammarly for Nonprofits.
  • Verify that the charitable nonprofit is a 501(c)3 on Guidestar. After you are verified, you can register on AmazonSmile, and get discounted software and hardware for TechSoup, and get Google for Nonprofits.

Need to join a nonprofit networking group? We meet every third Thursday of the month from 9-11 AM, and we look forward to welcoming Mark McCurdy of Jobs in Nonprofits to our December 17th meeting. 

Are you seeking to be on a nonprofit Board of Directors? We have open positions noted on our website homepage, so apply.

Seeking a place to volunteer? We always welcome volunteers and have lots of projects to be done, so apply. 

As any nonprofit would attest, thank you for giving your time, talent, and treasure, or work, wisdom, and wealth, especially in these challenging times.

AUTHOR BIO

Lynne Williams is the Executive Director of the Philadelphia Area Great Careers Group, a 501(c)3 nonprofit, that provides career education and networking. Lynne also writes for vista.today, montco.today, and delco.today.

How Do You Enable the Open for Business Feature on LinkedIn?

How Do You Enable the Open for Business Feature on LinkedIn?

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Did you know as a business owner, you can enable “Open for Business” feature on your LinkedIn profile? 

Providing info about your business will push you out in a search.

When people are looking for the specific services you offer, you will “show up” and can receive messages if you have enabled the “Open Profile” setting.

If you visit my profile in the section right below my picture, you can see how it looks. I have chosen ten items for the “United States” “in person or remote” via “free messages.”

LinkedIn does not offer writing or optimizing LinkedIn profiles, so I made my best choice from what was available. I can clarify more details and keywords in my headline and elsewhere in my profile. 

Although this is still being rolled out to all LinkedIn users, if you do have it available, here are the steps to turn it on:

  • Click on your round ME on the menu bar at the top of your page
  • Click view profile
  • Click add services from the showcase services section 
  • Follow the instructions
  • Click add to profile
  • You can also highlight your services by adding a section to your profile

What services can you add for your business, and how many? You can add up to ten services, and these are the current choices of the overall categories. There are submenus you do not want to miss to further detail what you offer:

  • Accounting
  • Financial Advisory
  • Bookkeeping
  • Financial Accounting
  • Mortgage Lending
  • Tax Preparation
  • Personal Tax Planning
  • Small Business Tax
  • Coaching & Mentoring
  • Consulting
  • Design
  • Events
  • Finance
  • Home Improvement
  • Information Technology
  • Insurance
  • Law
  • Marketing
  • Operations
  • Photography
  • Real Estate 
  • Software Development
  • Writing

Don’t miss taking advantage of this advertising opportunity on LinkedIn.

AUTHOR BIO

Lynne Williams is the Executive Director of the Philadelphia Area Great Careers Group, a 501(c)3 nonprofit, that provides career education and networking. Lynne also writes for vista.today, montco.today, and delco.today.

Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile to Boost Your Business

Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile to Boost Your Business

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Entrepreneur? Small business owner? Growing business? Startup? Side-gigger? Side hustler? Franchise owner? Solopreneur? Thinking about starting a business?

Have you optimized your LinkedIn profile to boost your business? Does your headline only say CEO of Blah Blah Blah Business? Or does it also state what your business is about utilizing all of the character spaces available with keywords? Do you come up in a Boolean search?

What does logic tell you when you go to Google? Do you type in CEO of Blah Blah Blah Business to find something you are seeking? What if you don’t know any business names, which is why you are searching on Google in the first place?  

Maybe, just maybe, you search for something on Google by keywords. Wouldn’t you think that you might do the same on LinkedIn? 

If you don’t know the answers to these questions, you might want to participate in some of the upcoming workshops listed at the end of this article. The tips presented might help you boost your business, and it may not cost you one dime!

Do you know the other locations in a LinkedIn profile where you can leverage keywords?

Have you customized your LinkedIn URL?

Have you created a custom banner on LinkedIn?

Are you building your brand on LinkedIn? 

Have you created your own hashtag for LinkedIn as well as other social media?

Are you building relationships on LinkedIn? Do you have over 500 connections? Do you even know why you need over 500 connections?

Are you publishing high-quality content?

Are you tagging others when you post?

Is Your LinkedIn profile part of your email signature?

Are you targeting connections? 

Are you participating in relevant groups?

Are you growing your email marketing list with your LinkedIn connections?

Are you using sponsored updates?

Do you have a LinkedIn company page? Are you populating it by educating, empowering, entertaining, enriching, engaging, or inspiring? Getting likes, shares, or comments? Gaining followers? Analyzing the metrics? Engaging your employees with your content? Do you know how to drive traffic to your company page?

If you don’t have a company page, here are the steps to create one.:

  • Click on the Work icon with the nine square at the top right of the menu bar
  • Click on Create a Company Page
  • Choose Small Business
  • Enter details
  • Click verification
  • Click Create Page
  • Upload your logo image of 300 x 300 px
  • Upload your cover image of 1192 x 220 px minimum with 1128 x 191 px recommended
  • Populate with details about your business, including your website.
  • Further details are here.

AUTHOR BIO

Lynne Williams is the Executive Director of the Philadelphia Area Great Careers Group, a 501(c)3 nonprofit with over 6300 members and alumni providing career education and networking. Lynne also writes for vista.today, montco.today, and delco.today.