There has probably never been a more important time to get the most from your LinkedIn profile.
As the opportunity to actually arrange to see clients and contacts (let alone bump into them in person) is virtually nil at the moment, social media and LinkedIn in particular has understandably grown in popularity. It affords lawyers, accountants, patent attorneys and barristers a cost-effective, time-efficient and easy way to stay in front of our professional networks.
However, just being on LinkedIn won’t generate new conversations or new opportunities. There are certain things you’ll need to do if you are going to get the most from your LinkedIn profile and, for us, there are:
Be less British
LinkedIn is a networking platform. It is there to help you grow, develop, maintain and leverage your professional. This means asking someone to connect or responding to a post is neither an imposition nor overly forward.
Be connected
Connect with everyone you know. They may be colleagues, ex-colleagues, friends, friends from University or school, clients, ex clients, people you’ve met at events/seminars/conferences.
Try to connect with people you don’t know. They may be connections of your connections, the author of a post or article you’ve enjoyed, a fellow member of a professional organisation, another attendee at an event you’ve just attended or simply someone you’ve come across while scanning LinkedIn.
As long as there is a connection, they can become a connection!
Whether you know them or not, when you do connect the golden rule is to personalise your invite so people know who you are and why you want to connect.
Be active
Your profile will only be noticed by the widest possible audience if it’s active. Like and share your connections’ (and your connections’ connections’) activity and regularly share your firm/chambers’ content and headlines and links form the relevant trade press as updates.
Be consistent
Your profile won’t have the impact you want if you are just dipping in and out. You need to be consistently active so that the underlying algorithms know you’re the real deal and promote you accordingly.
But don’t worry, this doesn’t mean spending hours and hours each day responding to everything. Done properly, 5 minutes a day is more than enough to like and share a few things and post a couple of updates.
Although admittedly this could increase to 7 minutes once you start receiving and replying to more invitations and direct messages.
Be creative
As LinkedIn usage has increased massively since the first lockdown, if you want to really get the most from your LinkedIn profile you will eventually have to experiment with more creative content if you’re serious about standing out from your competitors.
This could involve infographics, video, podcasts, animations or a host of other more visual and interactive options. These are all easier to do than you probably think, and we’d be happy to discuss any in more detail if you’d like?
If you’d like any more free LinkedIn tips please help yourself to our top tips or you can find even more at HowtodoBDfromhome. If you’d like to discuss LinkedIn training (or any other aspect of marketing or BD), please email us today and we can find a convenient time to chat.