LinkedIn /ˌlɪŋkt.ˈɪn/ is a business-oriented social networking service. It was founded in December 2002 and launched on May 5 2003, it is mainly used for professional networking. In 2006, LinkedIn increased to 20 million members. As of March 2015, LinkedIn reports more than 364 million acquired users in more than 200 countries and territories. As of 2 July 2013, Quantcast reports LinkedIn has 65.6 million monthly unique U.S. visitors and 178.4 million globally,[13] a number that as of 29 October 2013 has increased to 184 million.[14] In June 2011, LinkedIn had 33.9 million unique visitors.

NGO’s can use LinkedIn to make their work more visible to the community specially the business one, and also it can be very useful for recruiting potential volunteers and qualified workers. It can also help them connecting with other organisations and individuals with same or similar interests.

If you are planing to open an account in Linkedin you should first know that: If you want a profesional (company or association) account in LinkedIn first you need to have a personal one, which will be already active for at least 7 days. You also need an email from a domain. It does not accept Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo… Be patience, their confirmation e-mail might take some time to arrive. Make sure that your personal profile looks profesional, including your contact details (do not use strange or funny names or write too much information). You can open it from the section Companies or using this link: linkedin.com/company/add/show

There are some analytical tools called “Analytics tab” which will provide your association or company with metrics and trends about their Page. Company Page administrators can view rich data about their Company Page divided into specific sections: Updates, Followers, and Visitors. Updates section Followers section Visitors section