LinkedIn can be a powerful networking tool, but so few people (including lawyers) take advantage of the power of LinkedIn or leverage it to build their networks and their businesses.
If you're just starting out or if you want to build your network quickly, take a look at my two-part post on LinkedIn co-written with Dennis Kennedy, Six Ways to Jumpstart Your LinkedIn Network - Part 1 and Part 2. But don't stop there! Here are 5 more ways to build a healthy, effective LinkedIn network:
1. Seek out experts and industry leaders to follow or connect with
With 500 million users, LinkedIn is a great place to find experts and industry leaders. Search by name or use LinkedIn's fresh perspectives page to identify leaders who could be good connections or whose content and perspectives you might be interested in. You might be surprised to find out how many leaders or industry superstars are actually in your network - and if they're a second level connection, you can send them an invitation to connect right away if you wish - even with a free LinkedIn account.
Not a second-level connection? Not to worry - click on the "More" button at the top of their Profile, and then click on +Follow. When they post an update, you'll see it in your feed.
By connecting with and following experts and industry leaders, you can expand your network and your visibility. Connecting directly gives you access to that industry leader's connections - simply click on the number of connections on their Profile, and you'll get a list of their connections - a great way to identify more people to follow or connect with. You'll also increase your visibility if your new industry leader connection comments, shares, or likes your posts or other activity on LinkedIn.
But even just following an industry leader can help you. Not only will you be able to see their posts in your feed - a potential source of ideas for your own content - but you can also interact with that industry leader by liking, commenting on or sharing their posts. These interactions can be seen by their network and followers - which may lead to more connections. And if that industry leader sees your engagement with their content, they may decide to reach out to connect with you directly or to engage with your content in return.
2. Search for companies in your niche on LinkedIn
Finding companies on Linkedin that are in your niche or in the industry that you serve (or in related industries) gives you the opportunity to follow those companies to find out what they're doing on LinkedIn. This can provide valuable insights into what their legal needs might be, how you can reach these companies or companies like them, how you might refer business to them or work with them to build your referral network. It can also provide you with ideas for your own content.
Looking at companies on LinkedIn also allows you to identify and view the LinkedIn Profiles of the individuals that work for that company. You can get information about who holds what positions within the company, and you can follow or connect with them, building out your network.
3. Engage with your target audience
Where else can you directly engage with your dream clients, referral sources, or thought leaders? And it doesn't have to be time-consuming. If you take the two tips above to heart, your LinkedIn feed should be filled with updates and activity from these three groups of people. Now all you have to do is engage: like or comment on their posts; share relevant posts that would provide value to your own network or in your LinkedIn Groups.
When you engage with other LinkedIn users, they'll be notified of your engagement. This is how you begin to build relationships and to increase your visibility. As noted above, when you engage with others' posts, their networks can also see that engagement. And the person who made the original post may increase their engagement with you as a result, too - maybe they'll take a closer look at your Profile, send you a message on LinkedIn, or share your content.
4. Create your own content
If all you're doing is consuming others' content on LinkedIn and not creating your own content, you're missing a huge opportunity. Creating content makes you more visible on LinkedIn because it gets you in front of your network in their feed. This drives engagement, which also drives connections and followers. After all, why would someone follow or engage with you on LinkedIn if you don't participate and there's nothing there to engage with?
Creating content for LinkedIn doesn't have to be a time or labor-intensive process. Re-purpose what you already have - take the first few paragraphs or a few key take-aways from an article you've written for your website or for another publication and post them as an article on LinkedIn (you can post a link to the full article at the end, driving traffic to your site); pull quotes from your articles and post text updates; share images from your firm's events; post links to articles written by others with your own commentary; share slides of your most recent presentation.
5. Join and leverage Groups
Want to get in front of even more referral sources, potential clients, master networkers and thought leaders? Don't ignore LinkedIn Groups. Join Groups on LinkedIn that you already belong to in real life - many offline groups have LinkedIn Groups associated with them. This might include your local bar association, alumni groups, networking groups, and more.
Look at your connections and those of thought leaders, experts or people in your target market to see what Groups they belong to (you can find this information under Interests on their Profile) - many of these Groups may well include more people like them - and more potential connections.
Once you've joined a Group, you have access to its members - you can post discussion to Groups or message Group members individually. Since many Groups on LinkedIn have more members than are in your own network, and include people you wouldn't have access to otherwise on LinkedIn, the potential to expand your visibility, your engagement, and your network by being active in the right Groups on LinkedIn could be huge.
(To learn more about using LinkedIn Groups, read this post).
Of course, you don't want to forget that a good Profile is the foundation of your LinkedIn presence, and it will help LinkedIn users get to know you and make an informed decision about whether to invite you to connect, accept your connection invitation, or engage with your content, so it's important to have an informative, compelling and complete LinkedIn Profile.
For some advice on improving your LinkedIn profile, check out these posts and articles:
Do Something! Power Up Your LinkedIn Headline
Four Ways to Give Clients What They Want on Your LinkedIn Profile
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