How To Use LinkedIn to Land a Board of Director’s Seat
by Kathy Bernard
Want to be considered for a paid or nonprofit board-member position? Use LinkedIn to make it happen by following these steps:
- Add wording like “Open to Board Membership Opportunities” to your profile headline, or list current board memberships.
- Feature a paragraph in your About summary to indicate the types of board opportunities that you want. Include your industry and field specialties to impress recruiters looking for capable candidates. Add your phone number or email address to your summary to make it easy for them to contact you. (You may need to click “Add profile section” to add this section to your profile.)
- Add skills like Board of Directors, Leadership, P&L Management, Healthcare, and Finance to your LinkedIn Skills section and have your connections endorse you for them.
- Include your paid board memberships in your Experience section. Feature your nonprofit board stints in your Organizations and/or Volunteering sections. (You may need to click “Add profile section” to add these sections.)
- Click the Jobs tab and then type “Board member” to find and apply for opportunities.
- Click the “Follow” button to follow companies of interest. Comment on their posts and news entries on your homepage news feed and invite the people who post to connect to become known to key leaders at the company.
- Type “board recruiter” into the Search box to find and invite recruiters who are filling board positions to connect.
By taking these actions, you can use LinkedIn to lead you toward fulfilling, well-paying board opportunities.
Kathy Bernard (kathy@wiseru.com), CEO of WiserU.com, can train you or your team to maximize LinkedIn for sales, marketing, or fundraising. She also optimizes clients’ LinkedIn profiles and company pages on their behalf. Invite her to connect at linkedin.com/in/kathybernard.