LinkedIn has grown to over one billion members from 200 countries worldwide. Launched in 2003, nearly half of that growth has occurred over the last five years. LinkedIn is an ideal platform for nonprofit professionals to grow their personal brand and curate an online profile for current and future employers, funders, and sponsors.
Certifications are a key feature of LinkedIn Profiles and below is a tutorial on how to add certificates offered by Nonprofit Tech for Good to your LinkedIn Profile. There are few tricks to maximizing how certificates appear on your profile and in the LinkedIn Home feed.
1) Add your certificate to your LinkedIn Profile.
To begin, go to your profile > Add profile section > Recommended > Add licenses & certifications:
Enter the name of your certificate and then follow Nonprofit Tech for Good on LinkedIn to ensure that Nonprofit Tech for Good can be found in the “Issuing organization” field.
The issue date can be found on your certificate and know that certificates issued by Nonprofit Tech for Good do not expire, so you can leave the expiration date field blank.
Your Credential ID is also found on your certificate and the Credential URL (see example) was provided when you completed the certificate program and your claimed your certificate.
Next, add “Skills” relevant to the certificate program (Social Media Marketing, Fundraising, Nonprofit Technology, Digital Strategy, and Content Strategy, etc.) and then “Save.”
Your certificate then appears on your profile with a direct link to your certificate hosted on Nonprofit Tech for Good.
It’s worth noting that you can also add a thumbnail to your certificate under the “Media” option [after Skills], but due to image dimension constrictions, your certificate thumbnail will be cropped. Upload your certificate in image format [right-click to download from your Credential URL] and decide whether you like your certificate listed on LinkedIn with or without the thumbnail.
Finally, if you have taken both certificate programs offered by Nonprofit Tech for Good, you can add both to your LinkedIn Profile.
2) Share your certificate with your network on LinkedIn.
After you “Save” your certification to your profile, LinkedIn prompts you to share your new certification with your network. Nonprofit Tech for Good recommends that you “Skip” this option and instead share your new certification directly from the home feed. The default sharing option prompted by LinkedIn only allows you to share your certificate as a “Celebration” which does not allow you to upload your certificate in image format. When you post directly from the home feed, however, you can upload your certificate in image format which tends to receive more engagement than celebration posts and graphics.
It’s worth noting that you can also post your new certificate as a “Celebration” from the home feed, but when you upload your certificate in image format to the celebration image field, it is cropped when shared. To avoid cropping, simply upload and post your certificate as an image post.
Our Certificate in Social Media Marketing & Fundraising program covers the fundamentals of social media marketing and fundraising for your nonprofit. Participants will learn how to create a social media strategy, how to craft a content marketing plan, and current best practices for using social media for community engagement and fundraising.
The program requires the completion of three webinars and costs a total of $100 USD. You can attend the webinars live or view the recordings. Learn more & register!
