Some Quick LinkedIn Tips Every Lawyer Needs to Know
“Everyone should build their network before they need it.”
Last week in Female Lawyers’ Club, the amazing Sarah Ouis delivered a masterclass for our members on “How to best use LinkedIn to advance your legal career”.
Sarah is a former lawyer who now has her own business (lawbuthow.co) helping lawyers to boost their profile and gain work from LinkedIn. She has over 26,000 followers so she must be doing something right.
I’ve set out some takeaways from Sarah’s excellent session which you can implement today.
Sarah pointed out that many lawyers don’t realise how powerful LinkedIn can be for their practice. It’s not a case of “beating the algorithm”, but more about learning how to speak to your ideal client. Think of it less as a social media platform, and more as a platform that gives you leverage in your career. To illustrate this, Sarah asked us when was the last time we spoke to hundreds (if not thousands) of people. We can do this every day on LinkedIn!
It's not just about gaining connections. It's about gaining more high-quality clients.
There are two main ways we can use the power of LinkedIn to boost our careers:
Career development – to help us build our profile internally and externally.
Business development – to help us grow a pipeline of work, promote events and services and to become top of mind for clients in our area of expertise.
The first thing to do is to fix your profile. You should see your profile as the asset that it is - it follows you around the platform and will show up on Google if people look you up - so make sure it's good.
To this end, you need to make it very clear how you can help people. Don't just say "solicitor". Say exactly what you specialise in and what type of clients you work for. For example: “UK employment lawyer helping small businesses resolve their workplace disputes”.
Use keywords to help people to find you - think about what key words your ideal client would use when looking for someone to provide the services you deliver.
The banner is your digital billboard. Make it very easy for people to see what you do. For example, Sarah’s banner says “Legal professionals hire me to stop winging it on LinkedIn”, with her website (lawbuthow.co) clearly signposted. Your law firm may insist that you use a certain banner but, if they don’t, make use of this space to help you stand out.
Use social proof in your “About Me” section if you can e.g. client testimonials. Try and update them every 6 months to keep them fresh.
Use the greatly underrated "featured" section - see this as a wall where you can use eye-catching images to draw people's attention to your profile. You can use attractive visuals here to link to your website or a service you offer, such as a free discovery call.
Sarah pointed out that making these small tweaks to your profile will take an hour at most and yet will reap career benefits for you for years.
Once you’ve uplevelled your profile, the next part is to grow your audience. This is where you can focus on gaining connections with the right people, in the right area. Think about how you can engage with your ideal clients – you can start by commenting and/or liking their posts.
Create content that is highly targeted to your ideal client: what are their most common questions and pain points? What top tips can you give them? Think about why your clients really need your help – will it save or make them money? Save or make them more time? Give them peace of mind? Make sure you clearly communicate this in your posts.
You’ll need to be consistent in order to build the “know, like and trust” factor – this takes time.
Try to vary your posts in nature so that, over time, you cover the following:
Growth: promote your services and gain more connections.
Authority: show why clients can trust you; that you know your stuff.
Storytelling: about you, your journey, your life lessons, so people get to know you.
Be clear on what your objective is before you start your post.
The best content is targeted towards a niche group of clients, is generous in that you give away valuable information and shows you to be personable (ie not written by AI!).
I asked about how to get over our fear of being visible on LinkedIn. Sarah observed that it was only ever her female clients who worried about this – her male clients simply didn’t care. Given that research shows that women are held to a higher standard than men in public, being more likely to be subjected to criticism and derogatory comments, this is hardly surprising. To get over our fears, Sarah encouraged us to do an “accountability post” – where you announce you’re going to post every day for 30 days – she assured us this would get us over our fears!
I think LinkedIn is a great tool to help female lawyers grow their network and their list of clients. It’s online and so does not require you to attend before or after work events, which can be more difficult for those with children. I hope these tips will help you.
To get the full replay of the session and to attend future events live, you’re welcome to join us in the Female Lawyers’ Club membership.
Enjoy the rest of your week!
Rachel