10 Easy Tips to Help Lawyers Improve Their LinkedIn Profile

How can Lawyers improve their LinkedIn profile?

Any lawyer who hopes to attract new clients, be known as a thought leader in their area of practice or benefit from their professional network need to learn how to improve their LinkedIn profile and insure that their profile is the best it can be. The $18 billion social network reigns supreme for business to business networking. Success for a lawyer depends on conveying to prospects and clients that you’re at the top of the practice area and LinkedIn can help you do that. The first and most important step is to insure that your profile is optimized and filled out completely. Lawyers with complete profiles are forty times more likely to be noticed through LinkedIn than a lawyer with an incomplete profile. Complete profiles rank higher in LinkedIn’s search results. LinkedIn wants to make sure its results are accurate so they promote profiles that are filled out before they display incomplete profiles. Taking the time to complete your profile shows LinkedIn that your profile deserves to rank higher. One way to insure that your profile is complete is to look at the profile strength meter on the right side of your profile. The more information you add, the more powerful, robust and complete your profile is. Here are some tips to help lawyers improve their LinkedIn profile and reach All-Star status;

1. Update your photo. It should be recent, professional and represent you or your firm.
2. The Headline a.k.a. the most crucial 120 characters on your profile should standout, include important key words that are specific to your practice area and make people want to read more about you.
3. Write your summary in a tone you would use to address clients over coffee. Your description should make them want to hire you.
4. Make sure your background and work experience is relevant to your current practice. The most important information should be at the top. Don’t just regurgitate your resume and take advantage of the chance to expand on topics that don’t fit on an 8.5 x 11 inch piece of paper.
5. Provide specific instructions for potential clients to learn more about you and your firm. Share specific links or documents that will help them contact you.
6. Join groups. There are so many groups related to law on LinkedIn for you to choose from. These give you the chance to increase your relevancy, find new people and send direct messages to thousands of people who aren’t in your network. Definitely get involved in a group where your clients are likely to be and contribute the discussions.
7. Connect with all of your clients. They are your best source of referrals, so reach out and thank them!
8. Share a status update every day. This is an easy opportunity to share relevant information, demonstrate your experience in your field and stay prominent in your network.
9. Use the alumni search feature to expand your network. You can connect with your colleagues from law school, roommates from college and make new connections.
10. Use the new publishing feature on LinkedIn. This is especially useful if you or your firm doesn’t currently have a blog because it will enable you to demonstrate your knowledge and analysis on substantive issue of law that pertain to your practice.

Experiment and take advantage of all of the features on LinkedIn. You can share a portfolio, publications you’ve written for and even mention your volunteer experience. Your coworkers and potential clients notice these things and that could make all the difference.

How are you optimizing your profile on LinkedIn? Do you have any tips or suggestions you would like to share? Please share by adding your comments.