Blog / The lawyer's guide to using LinkedIn as a marketing tool

The premier online professional networking and employment-oriented website, LinkedIn has more than 467 million accounts, 106 million of which are active. With those kinds of stats, there are many reasons why lawyers should use LinkedIn as a marketing tool, yet many lawyers we have spoken with are unsure about how they can promote their practice on LinkedIn. So we have put together this guide to help you to maximise your LinkedIn presence, build awareness for your law practice and connect with new clients.

Know your audience

LinkedIn is an effective way to build your client base, so both your individual profile and your law practice's company page must resonate with the business professionals and in-house counsel you want to attract. Take the time to identify your target audience and think about their wants and needs and how you can help address them, the kinds of content that interests them and the types of people they want to connect with.

Build your content-rich profile

With your purpose and audience identified, you can focus on building a better profile. Use the keywords your audience uses to search for information - just as you would on your website - in the descriptions of your different positions under the "Experience" section. Think of a specific person who fits your audience profile or ideal client and write your profile summary as if you are speaking directly to them. Use LinkedIn's multimedia tool to upload or link to marketing content, including slide presentations, PDF documents or video that speaks to the needs and interests of current and potential clients. If you have produced webinars on specific legal topics, this is an excellent way to share the recordings with a larger audience. Also, include the URL to your blog within your profile or your firm's company page.

You can add a "Publications" section to your profile to showcase books and articles you've written. For example, if you have published articles pertaining to your practice area and jurisdiction, such as legal content you have written for Lexology Navigator, be sure to share these links so that you can immediately demonstrate expertise and thought leadership.

Participate and stay connected

LinkedIn groups are a great way to gain exposure among potential clients as well as your peers and industry influencers. By participating on a regular basis though group discussions, posting updates, sharing, liking and commenting on others' posts and updates, or sending individual messages to your connections, you can build brand awareness, thought leadership and a great resource for referrals.

The easiest way to begin with LinkedIn groups is to search for groups that correspond to groups you belong to in the real world - your college and alumni groups, the American Bar Association Law Practice Division, your local bar association and so on. Don't stop there; look for regional and business and trade groups to which potential clients may belong. Not sure where to begin? Search for the profiles of your best clients and scroll down to see which groups they belong to. Chances are that those groups include other people just like them. You can find out who the members of groups are by clicking on the "Members" tab on the group's page.

Once you join a group that includes your target audience, the next step is to get involved by posting articles or links, commenting on discussion topics and sharing valuable information. Or simply use the group discussions as a listening tool to learn more about what your potential clients, referral sources and the rest of your target audience think is important.

Updates

Updates are short messages that you share with your network, like Facebook status updates or Twitter tweets. Share updates with your network from your LinkedIn home page using the update box. Some updates should be about you and your practice, including links to recent blog posts, a video or website download. Others can focus more on your audience, such as links to articles or other resources. (Experts say that 20% of your social networking posts should be about you and 80% should focus on your audience and what information would be useful to them.)

LinkedIn Pulse

LinkedIn Pulse not only is a great source of professional news tailored to you, but also allows you to share news with others. LinkedIn has a high search quality rating, so you know that Google will index your content and it will show up in search results, driving visitors to your website and backlinks to your content.

If you don't have a blog for your practice, LinkedIn Pulse can be a good substitute. If you do have a blog, you can use LinkedIn to expand the reach of your content, establish and strengthen thought leadership, and drive more traffic to your website. Content that you publish on LinkedIn will be seen by fellow attorneys as well as people working in positions related to your practice area. Articles are sorted by topic and theme, so you know your readers are looking for what you've written.

You could easily boost your career and the success of your firm using these LinkedIn marketing tactics. Focus a little time each day to stay plugged in and in the spotlight.