LinkedIn. *sigh* It’s a dull place of people “delighted to announce” things you don’t really care about, like their latest deal and their new role, isn’t it?
Well yes, if you only follow fellow lawyers who post vapid updates.
But it can be so much more than that. If you’re looking for a few ideas to get out of the ‘delighted to announce rut’, I’ve given you a few alternatives in LinkedIn for lawyers: posts to replace the clichés.
According to B2B House, 80% of business-to-business leads come from LinkedIn. You can use it to attract new clients, bring in the more interesting work, and keep lucrative matters flowing your way.
The overriding objective
The secret to using LinkedIn successfully is: add value.
Write posts that solve your reader’s problems, and gives them helpful guidance for their business. Dish out knowledge titbits that your reader thinks “I can’t believe I’m getting this for free”. That’s what people want to read.
But of course this is not an altruistic exercise. In turn, you set yourself out as an expert and show that you know your stuff. You amass followers who want to instruct you at some point.
Tell us how to remove a director in a small business. Or explain the risks of using AI in a business. Or when you can appeal a judgment. People are interested in that stuff!
The Critical Posting Rule
You want to share an update. After all – it’s good for your profile to let people know that you’ve been promoted. But you don’t want to sound like a tool. You hate being all self-congratulatory.
So what’s the fix?
Before you post, imagine you’re walking into a room of real people. Would you word it that way? Would you open the conversation with “I’m delighted to announce my new promotion”?
If it’s not, then tweak it to sound like you’ve just joined an ‘open circle’ at a networking event. How would you introduce yourself? I’ll give you a few ‘post-replacement’ ideas in my next blog.
Make it sound like you
When you write like yourself, you remove the cringe factor of posting. It should just be like talking to your pals.
If you’re a rottweiler litigator, be confident to write in a direct tone of voice. Or if you’re an understanding divorce lawyer, you’ll naturally speak in a softer, more conciliatory tone.
By speaking like yourself, you’ll attract the clients that want to instruct you. They’ve chosen you because they find you credible, likeable, and they want to work with you.
When you write with a dash of personality, your reader begins to feel like they know you before they even instruct you. It removes that barrier of unfamiliarity in the first call because by the time they pick up the phone, they’re already talking to a familiar face.
Follow your target audience
Lots of lawyers follow other lawyers. Sure, we’re all interested in whether our law school chums have made it to partnership yet. Or which law firm or in-house role they’re in now. But our general curiosity on LinkedIn won’t help us win clients.
Instead, start following the people you’d like to instruct you. It’s much easier than booking a weekly meeting with them. Just post interesting content and you appear on their news feed as somebody relatable, credible and somebody they’ll think of instructing when they need you.
Don’t just ‘like’. Comment
Posting consistently is hard work. It takes time and brain-space that you probably don’t have while you’re a busy lawyer.
But you can remain visible on LinkedIn by liking posts, and even better, by commenting on posts. Liking is fine. Your name will pop up on someone’s feed. But it’s static. It doesn’t tell us anything more about yourself.
If you comment, you show a bit of personality. We get to know you. Even if it’s just “love this!” That tells us something about what you’re enthusiastic about and how you tend to speak.
The best type of comment is an insightful comment about the content of the post. That tells us what issues you’re an expert in, and demonstrates how you think critically.
If you’d like any help getting started on Linked In, I’m happy to create a strategy and posts for you. Let’s have a chat and we can go from there.