Whether you are a law student, a law firm associate, have your own legal practice, or are doing something else entirely with your legal education or law degree, personal branding is important. You never know when a new job opportunity might present itself or when you may unexpectedly need to seek out a new opportunity. Rather than scrambling to clean up your social media presence and create a personal brand on the spot, start developing it now so that it is ready when you need it.
LinkedIn is the perfect place for those in the legal community to start developing a personal brand because it was specifically built for professionals to connect with each other. If you don’t currently have a LinkedIn profile, are under-utilizing the one you do have, or you have let your profile become a bit of a mess, then implement these tips ASAP to maximize your LinkedIn experience.
1. Get the lay of the land
How LexisNexis CourtLink And Lexis Snapshot Deliver Business Wins
These tools demonstrate that information is power.
LinkedIn isn’t your typical social media site. It isn’t the place to share cat memes or go on political rants, however entertaining both of those things may be. According to LinkedIn’s website, “The mission of LinkedIn is simple: connect the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful.” You should filter your posts through this lens. Also, before you start curating and sharing content on LinkedIn, take a look around to see what other people in your industry are sharing. This will give some guiding principles to start with, and as you become more comfortable posting, you can create your own rules and find ways to stand out.
2. Look the part
Before you get out there and start connecting, you should have a few essential parts of your profile in tip-top shape. First, choose your profile picture wisely. It should be professional, but that doesn’t necessarily mean stuffy or corporate looking. Since LinkedIn is where you are connecting with people to grow your professional network, your profile picture should reflect how you would show up at work or a networking event. If your look, or personal brand, is more funky and fun, don’t be afraid to let that shine through in your profile picture.
Next, update your cover photo. If you’re a business owner, this a great place to showcase your company’s tagline, mission statement, or promote an upcoming event. If you are employed somewhere, you can use you cover photo to highlight your practice areas, contact info, or recent publications.
How You Can Take Control Of Your Firm’s Financial Future
Roadblocks to data-driven business management are falling, and a better bottom line awaits.
Finally, now that you’ve got the visual part of your profile up to par, it is important to make the rest of your profile look complete. At a minimum, fill out the summary, experience, education, and recommendations sections of your profile. To take your profile to the next level, add articles, awards, and interests.
3. Create content
Now that your profile looks great, it is time to start creating and posting content. Before you actually start posting, it is a good idea to create a game plan. Decide what you want to be known for on LinkedIn. What are the one or two things that you want to be the “go-to” person for? Then start brainstorming different ideas for articles and posts that relate to those topics.
There are two ways to share your content. This first is as an article. Articles are longform posts that live in the articles section of your profile. This can be a low key thing, and you don’t have to spend hours and hours writing a law review-style article. Instead, think of it as a blog post. Write about a recent conference you attended or a reaction to a recent event or article relevant to your field.
The second way to share your content is through a post. Posts are what show up in other people’s feeds and are more temporary in nature than articles. This is a great way to share short posts, pictures, or videos. Keep your posts relevant, interesting, and up to date.
4. Engage with others
It is not enough to merely create your own content on LinkedIn. It is just as important to interact with others by liking and commenting on their posts and articles. Engage on posts that are relevant to your field of interest. Also, be sure to respond to people who comment on your articles and posts. A word of caution: be careful what you like and comment on because it is visible to anyone who views your profile. Make sure that any posts you interact with are subjects you are comfortable sharing with your LinkedIn connections. If you wouldn’t talk about it at work, don’t post or comment about it on LinkedIn.
5. Always be connecting
The whole point of LinkedIn is to grow your professional network. So, don’t just build a beautiful profile filled with awesome posts that nobody will see! Make sure you get connected to others. Start with your friends and colleagues, add in your professors and supervisors, and once you are ready, start connecting with potential mentors, employers, and clients. Don’t be afraid to reach out and start conversations.
I have personally used LinkedIn so much to grow and scale my business in the last few years and am excited for you to implement these changes to do the same!
Kerriann Stout is a millennial law school professor and founder of Vinco (a bar exam coaching company) who is generationally trapped between her students and colleagues. Kerriann has helped hundreds of students survive law school and the bar exam with less stress and more confidence. She lives, works, and writes in the northeast. You can reach her by email at [email protected].