Coordinated a multi-contributor LinkedIn channel from 216 to 6,230 followers, with branding documentation and training.
How I approach it
When I started at ACNL, they had just launched LinkedIn a couple weeks prior and the organization’s social media presence was mostly a bunch of decentralized Facebook pages and/or groups. The statewide association had a page, some of the chapters had a page or a group, some didn’t. Some of the folks listed as admins weren’t even members anymore.
One of the first things I did in the role was to survey the membership to find out what networks they used, which ones they preferred to hear from us on, and what sort of content they wanted. The results were what I expected. Professionals want to hear from their professional association on LinkedIn, so that’s where I put the effort. I wrote the posting policies, hosted training sessions, and onboarded board members, committee members, and chapter leaders so they could post as ACNL without creating brand risk. I also produced about half the original content myself: copy, graphics, photo selection, and tagging. Facebook I kept consolidated and steady (+69% over the same stretch). I argued against Instagram for many years, as the channel didn’t make a lot of sense for a business-oriented professional association, but I ended up working with leadership anyway to launch it in 2024 with the right strategy and infrastructure in place.
Over my tenure, our LinkedIn channel grew from 216 followers to 6,230. For honest context, the starting base was small, and a couple of prolific contributors did real volume alongside me. But our comparison organizations didn’t come anywhere close to our growth. Northwest ONL has about 450 followers, Arizona ONL has about 100. Even after you adjust for California being a bigger state, ACNL’s growth was remarkable.
Samples
Eight representative posts across LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook. Click any post to see it up close; the graphic and the post copy open as a slideshow.
The 48th Annual Conference announcement on LinkedIn. Same synthwave campaign as the email samples, but the copy is rebuilt for the platform: full names, full credentials, and speaker organizations spelled out, because nurse leaders take credentials seriously.A party promo from the same campaign. Looser copy for a looser subject — photos from a prior year's party, a "tag a colleague" prompt to bait comments, and a CTA geared around FOMO.A Member Spotlight carousel — click to read all six slides. The member spotlights used a fixed Q&A template, so each version was quick to put together and easy for a volunteer to use while maintaining design consistency. This one features the ACNL president.A Board Spotlight on Instagram. The same template logic applied to the board spotlight series: introduce the person, let them speak in their own words, keep the layout consistent so the series is recognizable at a glance in the feed.Recognition content. ACNL's Health Policy Committee won the 2024 HealthImpact DAISY Team Award for its legislation-tracking tool. Celebrating volunteers publicly does a few things. It thanks the people doing the work, it shows prospective members the kind of network they'll be getting, and it shows the public the great work the organization is doing.A chapter event promo. Chapters ran a lot of events and needed the statewide organization to amplify them. This was part of a suite of collateral I produced for the North Central ACNL chapter's symposium.A webinar promo on Facebook. The same discipline as the email program carries over: learning objectives spelled out in the copy, so a nurse can make the reimbursement case to a manager without leaving the post.A Circles of Giving testimonial. When I started, donors often didn't know what ACNL was doing with fundraising dollars. I worked on gathering testimonials because philanthropy content works best when the recipient does the talking. A scholarship winner explains exactly what the funds bought, and the ask lands on proof: every dollar goes to scholarships, no administrative fees.
