How to Manage your Association’s LinkedIn in 15 Minutes or Less

LinkedIn is a social media platform known for its business-savvy users and networking opportunities- and there’s a reason why professionals flock to it. With over 500 million users, LinkedIn is a hub for anyone looking to build up professional appearances, communicate with others in their field of work, and engage with companies/organizations they find interest in- and one of those could be your association.

‍That's right, in case you didn’t already know, LinkedIn is a goldmine for audience engagement and member recruitment opportunities. There’s no reason your association shouldn’t have a LinkedIn Company page of its own to attract a brand new audience and keep up with your current members. However, managing your association’s LinkedIn page can seem like a hassle. There’s only so much time within your day, and chances are it’s full of many other important tasks like member management, event planning, and everything else you need to get done.

‍But what if we told you your association’s LinkedIn page could be managed in just 15 minutes a day? That’s right, 15 minutes. That’s less time than most of us take to eat breakfast. If you’re looking to a faster way to reach audiences and engage members on LinkedIn, we’ve got you covered. We’re going to break down exactly how to take advantage of each minute and get your LinkedIn managing done before you even walk out the door in the morning. Let’s get started.

3 minutes: Scheduling

For a lot of us looking to manage our social media pages, the very first step seems like the hardest. It’s like staring at a mountain and not knowing which direction to step in first. But all you have to do is start walking, and with LinkedIn- just start by looking at your schedule. Scheduling content is a must for any association looking to save time while still producing amazing, valuable pieces of content for audiences. If you can save up a reasonable bank of content, you’ll have much more time throughout your day to focus on other things.

‍So, your first 1-3 minutes should be spent checking up on your LinkedIn content schedule. What posts do you have going up today? What about this week? Are you low on scheduled content, or should you be spreading more out? Take time to fill out your content schedule for the day (or the week- depending on the frequency you publish and repost content). You can fill in your schedule on whatever scheduling app or calendar you use. However, there are also apps like Hootsuite and Buffer that allow you to sync up with your LinkedIn account (as well as other social media accounts) to schedule and post content. The best part about these tools? They auto-post for you. That’s right, you can set content up on your schedule and sit back while it posts on its own. Quick and easy! Start your time on LinkedIn by getting your schedule organized, and you can same time in the long run when posting content.

1 minute: Checking notifications

Once you’re done monitoring your content for the week and setting up any posts that need scheduling, it’s time to scan through any notifications you might have. So, why is it important to keep up with your notifications? Often times, they can seem like a nuisance, full of meaningless interactions. But that’s where you’d be wrong. For your members and audience, your notifications are a way to interact and engage with your association.

‍By liking, sharing, and commenting on your LinkedIn content, members have a way to share their opinions and further get to know your association. Plus, your notifications can tell you a lot about your content’s performance. By checking your notifications, you can see how many people are actually engaging with your content, what posts they’re loving, which posts aren’t crowd favorites, when the best time to post on LinkedIn for your association is, and so much more. Think of your notifications as a report on how to better reach your target audience.

‍So, don’t ignore your association’s LinkedIn notifications. Take a minute each day to see exactly who is engaging with your content, what they have to say, and when they’re engaging.

5 minutes: Interacting with audiences

After scanning through your notifications and sifting out the relevant content from the bunch, take about 5 minutes to respond and interact with anything audiences are sending your way. As we said before, notifications are your audience’s way to reach out. But they don’t just want to be ignored- if you miss out on the chance to properly communicate with members, you may see less and less engagement with your content in the future.

Taking a few minutes out of your day to respond to comments on your content helps your audience connect better to your association. Your members and content consumers put time into sharing their opinion or comment on your piece with you. By responding, you’re showing them you hear what they have to say, validating their engagement and encouraging them to share more in the future. With 9 minutes down already, you’ve taken care of half of the battle that comes with managing your association’s LinkedIn page.

4 minutes: Maintenance

You’ve gotten the importance of reaching out to your members out of the way. Now, it’s time to check in on your company page and do some maintenance. Take these three minutes to catch up on any updates and upgrades you’ve been meaning to perform on your association’s LinkedIn page. Have a new banner or cover photo you want to update? Need to add a few new employees to your list? The time is now. By setting aside just a few minutes each day to perform some routine maintenance, you can reduce the overwhelming feeling to get it done all at once.

‍Why tackle one massive project when it can be broken down into bite-size, manageable sections? You can even set a specific task for each day of the week. For example, you can dedicate Monday’s to going through your employee list and adding/removing people when the time comes. Then, Tuesday’s can be for going through posts and checking for spelling/grammar errors. Wednesday’s for switching out logos and images, and so on and so forth. Break down your harrowing maintenance routine into a few minutes each day, and you can reduce the stress of keeping up with a well-managed LinkedIn company page.

2 minutes: Brainstorming

And finally, the last two minutes of your daily LinkedIn time should be spent brainstorming. Brainstorming what exactly? You should always be looking for new ways to bring LinkedIn-specific content and ideas that will wow your followers, engage members, and even bring in some new ones. After all, you can’t keep producing the same content. Look at your own LinkedIn feed as well as the feeds of your connections. See what’s trending on LinkedIn, what people around you are interacting with, and what your members like about your association’s LinkedIn company page.

‍Then, take those ideas and write them down (or keep them where you keep your other content plans).This gives you a clear, dedicated time to brainstorm only LinkedIn content- unless you spark an idea for bigger and better content!15 minutes, broken down into one easy to follow plan to take your association’s LinkedIn company page to the next level.

Try out our 15 minute plan the next time you sit down to manage your company page. See how it can save you serious time, and make having a LinkedIn page a pleasure.