The ten-minute LinkedIn upgrade every female lawyer needs
“The most difficult thing is the decision to act; the rest is merely tenacity.”
We ran a masterclass recently with Mike Roberts, founder of Making Digital Real, who helps professionals use tools like LinkedIn, video and AI to build visibility online. I'd already been to one of his sessions back in April and picked up plenty then, but somehow there was still more to learn.
LinkedIn is a wonderful tool for female lawyers. With a few small upgrades to your profile that you can make in minutes, you can help your ideal clients find you more easily, without even leaving the house. That's a huge win for very little effort.
To help you, here are some of the top takeaways from the session - quick wins you can put into practice today.
Treat your banner like a billboard
The banner is the large image behind your profile picture, and most of us have never touched it. Some firms prescribe a set banner, so this one won't be within everyone's control. But if yours is, Mike's advice is simple: include your branding, a photo or graphic, and one hard-hitting line about what you do and who it's for. That's it. If someone looks at your banner and doesn't know what you do within two seconds, it's not working. I’m off to change mine now…!
Stop putting your job title in your headline
Many lawyers get this wrong. Your headline, the bit under your name, gets scraped by Google, ChatGPT and every other tool that goes looking for you online. "Partner at X LLP" tells a search engine nothing useful. Fill it with the words your ideal client would actually search for instead.
Rewrite your About section around client stories
Most of us write our About section entirely about ourselves: what we do, what we offer, why we're great. Mike's advice is to speak to the reader first, then tell two or three short, anonymised stories about clients you've actually helped. It's a small change that makes a page about you feel like it's actually for them.
The Featured section is a business development tool you've probably never used
Did you know that you can pin reviews, a newsletter, your best posts, anything you want a first-time visitor to see, permanently, at the top of your profile? Simply click "Add section" then "Featured" then choose what you want to add. Mike's featured section alone has driven nearly 2,000 people to subscribe to his LinkedIn newsletter, which gets delivered to both LinkedIn and email inboxes at the same time. For free.
We also touched on video messaging, voice testimonials and private podcasts, which is a conversation for another day.
Mike was generous with his time and full of practical advice, and we all left the session with a list of changes to make to our own profiles straight away.
There was so much valuable material in this session that I've put together a free guide for members, walking through exactly how to put these tips into practice. It's just one of the things you get access to inside FLC, along with everything else we share with members. If that sounds like something you'd like, you can join here.
Enjoy the rest of your week.
Rachel