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How Legal Professionals Can Use the New LinkedIn Events for Networking

by Good2bSocial • November 30th, 2018 • Social Media | Blog

linkedin eventsAs a legal professional, there are numerous ways to use LinkedIn to your advantage, including as a way to network and promote your events. Even without a direct feature on LinkedIn for events, there are plenty of strategies for promoting activities off the platform, but LinkedIn is taking this to the next level. The professional-oriented social media platform is launching a new feature for events. This update is designed to make it possible to organize meetups offline, including integration with Meetup and other platforms. The potential applications for law firms are extensive, including networking.

Why LinkedIn Added Events

For most people who use LinkedIn, the lack of an events function was somewhat surprising. Since LinkedIn describes itself as the biggest professional network, it was odd that there was no native event feature. Instead, users had to rely on group messaging or outside links. LinkedIn realized that people were getting creative when using the platform to organize meetups and networking events, so it decided that a change was in order.

How the Feature Works

The overall process for creating and using LinkedIn events is very similar to the steps you would follow on Facebook. If you want to create an event, you click the relevant button and then fill in event information such as where, when, and a description. You also get to include an event hashtag and industry. Then, you can share the event in your feed and invite people you are connected with on the platform. If you get an event invitation, you will receive a notification in the same area as your requests for new connections. The events’ main page also includes a feature that allows those who are attending to chat with each other.

Just Starting Out

So far, the events feature on LinkedIn is relatively limited. You still cannot create private events, and LinkedIn still does not have a discovery feature that lets you look for events that may interest you. Additionally, this feature is initially available in just San Francisco and New York as the pilot program. In the coming months, LinkedIn plans to extend the availability of the events feature to other areas and add those previously mentioned functions like private events and the ability to browse or search for events.

How to Use LinkedIn Events

As people get used to the new events feature on LinkedIn, you can take advantage by organizing meetups and networking events in your area if your law firm is in one of the pilot locations. If you are not in New York or San Francisco, then you will have a few more months to plan how to best use the events feature. As the pilot program gets more users and accessibility and features are expanded, there should be more resources available. In the meantime, you can keep using the previous methods of promoting networking events and meetups on LinkedIn, such as creating an event on another website and sharing the link via a status update, via LinkedIn Groups, or direct messages.

Takeaway

For legal professionals LinkedIn has been the favored social network for publishing and promoting content, finding and sharing business opportunities, and creating a meaningful community of like-minded professionals. Now, LinkedIn is taking the leap to combine online networking with real life networking events. This tool will further allow lawyers and others in the legal industry to take advantage of new opportunities and expand their network. If you’re interested in learning more about how to use LinkedIn for networking or content marketing, contact us for a consultation.  

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