Christina Lee* Does your law firm have a LinkedIn profile? If not, have you thought about the advantages? A professional LinkedIn page can showcase your firm and its services, and drive interest and clients to your business.
LinkedIn gives your law firm a chance to connect with potential clients looking for a lawyer, increase your visibility in the wider legal industry, and provide a space to engage with potential employees. Plus, when people look at the profiles of your staff members, their profiles will link back to your company profile, and if someone mentions you on LinkedIn, you’ll get a notification and you can then, like, share or comment, increasing your engagement with all the right people. Your LinkedIn page also provides a link to your website.
James Bell, a business writer at Academized review and State of writing says “A LinkedIn profile is invaluable. You can come up with a basic one quite easily, but spend the time taking care and attention to use all the features it offers to enhance a sense of trust in your firm, and cement you in the online arena as a law firm that means business!’
Let’s take a look at how to set up and optimise your LinkedIn page:
- Register, or if you already have a personal page, select ‘Create a Company Page’ from the ‘Work’ menu, top right. Think carefully about your URL – search engines and LinkedIn members who do a search for you need to be able to find you easily, and you may also want to use it on email sign offs, business cards etc. Once you have chosen it and set up your URL, you cannot change it.
- Next, choose a profile photograph, a headshot or logo – don’t stick with the generic LinkedIn ones if you want to stand out. You’ll also need a background photo for the header, to make it look attractive and professional. Then, you’ll need to add your address, a summary of your law firm, the size of the firm and the year it was founded. Here, you also provide a link to your firm’s website.
- The description of your firm – be consistent with how you have described yourself on your website and other social media platforms. You have up to 2000 words, so make each one count. Think about SEO and keywords – which will link back to your website and vice versa – and about what your potential clients might search for. What makes you stand out/different? What is your mission?
- Groups – you can link to three that relate to your firm. Think about context and what information would be useful to your clients. Type a few words in the search box and a list of suggested groups will appear. Adding them is not the same as joining, but if you want to comment and engage, then join the groups.
- Showcase Pages. Via ‘Admin Tools’, you can add extra pages to extend your profile if you practice diverse types of law e.g., you could have separate Family Law and Wills and Estates showcase pages where LinkedIn members can read about your services in more detail. If your firm is not diverse, simply keep everything to your main page.
- Blog posts – these can be a great boon for your business. If LinkedIn browsers see you actively engaging, once a week, or even every day, by posting interesting posts relevant to your own practice, or the wider world of law, they’ll view you as proactive and approachable, and they will see the person behind the company, too. Frederick De Silva, a marketing writer at Academ Advisor and Essay Roo, says, “Can you answer questions your clients have? Can you address common struggles or problems you are consulted on? What do your clients want to learn? There are boundless topics for blog posts.” You can either post on the site, or link to blog posts on your website.
- Post career opportunities and news. LinkedIn is a great place to advertise for new employees as a browser can see the profiles of your existing employees and get a feeling for your firm.
- Regularly maintain the LinkedIn page for your firm. If you update your website, update your LinkedIn page. Cross reference with your Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Have you recently won any awards or attended a conference? Include these details on your page and keep things current.
Take the time to set up your LinkedIn page and you’ll find it is an invaluable tool to give you that professional edge in the legal marketplace. Include your blog posts, to keep things interesting, and continually consider how your page looks to potential clients and LinkedIn members. In your armoury of online showcases, LinkedIn is a great one to help you stand out in the competitive legal world.
Christina Lee is a writer at Best essay writing services and other sites, who primarily focuses on marketing news and related technologies. In addition, she is a project manager at Dissertation writing service and Top Canadian writers.
