Organizations’ Use of LinkedIn: An Analysis of Nonprofits, Large Corporations and Small Businesses

Social media and concomitant professional networking are important marketing tools for large and small businesses and nonprofits. The study by [@R3] has shown that nonprofit organizations are more active than for-profits in their use of social media tools such as blogs, Twitter, podcasts, video, etc. This study looks at the professional social media tool LinkedIn. Contrary to the findings of [@R3], this in-depth study of 200 large, 200 small, and 200 nonprofits firms, finds some opposing results: small businesses appear to have greater adoption and usage rates of the professional networking site LinkedIn. The research studied which of each of these businesses had a company page at LinkedIn, whether or not a LinkedIn logo was displayed at the firm’s website and if the organization’s most senior leader maintained a personal page on LinkedIn. Results demonstrate usage trends by type of firm, and discover social marketing needs for types of firms.