How Can Attorneys Stand Out On LinkedIn?

Every attorney and law firm out there wants to learn the best marketing metrics that will get them seen and heard by their target audience. At least we hope you're thinking like that because how else will you reach your audience if you don't invest in your marketing? Well, we're here to tell you why you should take full advantage of LinkedIn.

Why LinkedIn?

In general, social media presents so many great opportunities for attorneys. It grants you the opportunity to grow your business, the opportunity to build a relationship and bond with your audience, the opportunity to share your unique vision, voice, and valuable assets… The list of benefits goes on and on! Also, it's where your competitors are, especially LinkedIn. The legal industry is super competitive so if you're wanting to stay ahead of the game you need to up your social media game and it starts with LinkedIn.

With LinkedIn having over 750 million members, it's a smart move to take advantage of it. But just being on LinkedIn isn't enough (sorry, not that easy!). Having an active presence and a good profile on LinkedIn is what it takes to truly succeed.

However, we do understand that as an attorney you have quite a busy schedule and limited time. That's why we've put together 3 quick tips on how you can utilize LinkedIn to your advantage.

Optimize Your LinkedIn Profiles

For starters, your LinkedIn profiles need to be optimized. Notice we said profiles, not profile. As an attorney, you will need to provide valuable information to your own LinkedIn profile as well as your firm's LinkedIn profile. Both profiles go hand in hand.

For Your Personal Profile:

Profile Photo. It's going to be imperative you have a professional yet welcoming profile picture. Make sure it's not blurry or too small.

Banner. Premium and free accounts can add a header image. Premium accounts have the option to choose from a list of standard header images, they just aren't personalized. Our best tip is to be original and create your own to stand out from the rest.

Headline. Your headline should be straight to the point and highlight your expertise.

Contact Information. You will want to provide your contact information within a couple of areas of your profile - within your contact info section and again in your bio. Strictly letting people know how to reach you will omit confusion.

About Section. Here is where you will provide the meat. Focus on answering these key questions:

• Who are you?
• Where are you?
• What services do you offer?
• What are your specialties?
• What are your values?
• How can people get in touch with you?

Featured. This is where you should add any posts, articles, links, or media that you've created, and think would be beneficial for your audience to see.

For Your Firm's Profile:

Profile Photo. Just like your personal profile, make a good impression with a good profile picture. Take your logo and resize it to fit the dimensions of LinkedIn's profile image.

About Us. Write a captivating summary that includes appropriate keywords. Don't get too wordy here but try to keep it under 1500 characters. Just like for your personal LinkedIn profile, focus on answering those 6 key questions.

Industry. Be sure to select the legal industry for your page so people can find it.

Custom Button. Create a "Visit Website" button so people can know right away how to get there.

Banner. Just like for your personal LinkedIn profile, create a customized banner that will catch the eye and will get people interested in learning more.

A generalized profile isn't going to send your audience the right message. You will just blend in with the million other attorneys out there. Be sure to add detail and clearly explain to them why you're different and why they should choose to work with you over anyone else.

Post Consistently

After you have fully optimized your personal LinkedIn profile and company profile simultaneously, our next tip is to start posting consistently. Come up with a content calendar that will hold you accountable for staying on a consistent posting schedule.

If you're stuck on what it is that you should be posting, here are a few of our best options:

• Relevant articles, videos
• Custom branding
• News within your industry
• Local news within in the community you reside
• Company events
• Volunteering
• Company culture

Set Realistic Goals

When you first begin to build out your LinkedIn strategy, remember to not set high unrealistic goals right off the bat. Sure, create long-term goals but make some short-term ones as well. Don't fall victim to believing that just because you have an informative profile and start posting means you're going to get a ton of leads right away. This is the worst thing you can do as you will only set yourself up for disappointment and frustration. And you don't want that.

Although many attorneys are on LinkedIn, they typically have different goals in place. To name a few, some attorneys make it their goal to connect with possible referral sources, while others choose to focus on illustrating their expertise and experience, and then others work on gaining more leads that they can turn into clients. Of course, as an attorney, you'd like to achieve all of those goals and more but it's important to start small and work your way up. Take the time to decide on which goal(s) you'd like to work toward achieving, create a plan, and go for it.

In Conclusion...

Don't make the mistake of pushing your competitors ahead by not investing in LinkedIn or even social media in general. We understand you lead a very busy lifestyle that may cause you to not have the time to fully commit to your marketing strategy, so that's why we're here to help you out. Whether you are in need of a LinkedIn profile optimization or creating a marketing strategy, we've got you covered. We take the time to get to know you as a person, as an attorney, as well as learn all about your firm and its purpose, so we can create a winning strategy that will help your business take flight.