6 LinkedIn Strategies for Legal Professionals – What to Do & What Not to Do | The legal profession is a bit crowded for comfort these days. Even the most accomplished lawyers struggle to stand out from the crowd at times.
The solution isn’t to self-promote at every turn, as easy as that might come to some. It’s targeted, thoughtful, mutually beneficial collaboration that, what do you know, makes everyone involved look better by association.
These days, nowhere is better for this sort of collaboration — call it co-promotion only if you must — than LinkedIn, the most popular business networking site by far for U.S.-based professionals. Here are six things lawyers, specifically, can do to leverage LinkedIn’s strengths and make the impression they deserve.
- Follow Organizations Relevant to Your Specialty or Practice Area
You’ll never get a significant share of your new client inquiries from LinkedIn. But you’re likely to get a great deal of something even more valuable here: exposure to peers and mentors you’d never meet otherwise.
Come to think of it, you might never need to meet them in person.
- List Notable Prior Roles, Even Those Not Directly Related to Your Current Function
If nothing else, LinkedIn is a highly visible place to post the longform version of your CV. And that makes it an ideal venue to highlight notable past roles that aren’t directly related to your current work.
The LinkedIn profile for Alex Brown, an attorney in Maryland who now works in private practice, is a good example. Brown served two stints in the Maryland insurance commissioner’s office — prominent positions that remain relevant because Brown still practices insurance law.
- Join or Request Membership in Relevant LinkedIn Groups
This isn’t quite a one-off, but it’s not going to take much of your time. You might already know which groups you need to join; set aside a few minutes to put in those requests at your earliest convenience.
- Publish at Least One Piece of Relevant Content Each Week
It’s understandable that busy attorneys sleep on LinkedIn’s potential as a self-publishing platform. They’ve got more important things to worry about.
Still, the value proposition here is pretty compelling. LinkedIn has a solid array of publishing tools to rival any out-of-the-box blog. And it’s far more visible online than your practice’s website, no offense.
- Initiate at Least 10 Interactions With Thought Leaders in Your Niche Each Month (But Don’t Make an Ask)
This is a little icky for lawyers who prefer to let others do the talking. The nice thing about it is that it doesn’t require any talking in the literal sense of the term. A thoughtful, hey-by-the-way bit of digital outreach is all that’s needed.
- Create a Separate Company Page for Your Practice (If It Doesn’t Already Exist)
This one is for all the solo practitioners out there — the hired guns without the time or budget to put together a real practice website. If you work for a larger firm, chances are you’ve got this covered already, though there’s always room for improvement.
Make Your Mark on LinkedIn
These LinkedIn strategies aren’t inordinately time-consuming. They’re broadly applicable to just about any lawyer seeking a higher profile online. They’re easy to implement without any special expertise.
And perhaps most importantly, they’re not overly self-promotional. You’re not going to lose any friends or push away any colleagues just because you’re more active on LinkedIn these days.
It’s time to make your mark.
