For lawyers and other business professionals, LinkedIn is THE social media network in which you should invest your time and effort.
If you’ve never believed in the value of LinkedIn before you should. We will be using it as a core networking and branding method for a long time to come.
Here are some specific things you can do on LinkedIn starting right now to enhance your presence – why wait? Start today.
- Update your web and LinkedIn bio (use keywords to improve your SEO results) – that’s search engine optimization for those of you unfamiliar with the term and it greatly helps how you appear in Google searches – the right keywords can really help you
- Fill out all of the sections – this helps you achieve All-Star status (if you have intermediate or advanced status on your profile, you can easily get to All-Star status!
- Add links to articles you’ve written in the publications section (but don’t add too many)
- Create an amazing headline (this is one of the most important lines of your profile because it gets pulled into Google searches about you showing prominently)
- Make sure your contact info is updated and that you have included a URL link to your website biography
- Use the featured section to pin certain past posts on your profile so people in your network can easily find them
- Like, comment and share posts of key people in your network (remember that a comment and a share is more powerful within LinkedIn’s algorithm)
- If you do nothing else, start liking other people’s posts at least a few times a week. That will help you get comfortable with the platform
- Add connections by using the People You May Know tool and make a list of former colleagues/classmates with whom you’ve lost touch and connect with them
- Remember that you just can’t accept connections on LinkedIn for it to really work for you. You need to actively send connection requests as well as to receive and accept them in order for LinkedIn to work effectively
- Use the notifications section to find reasons to proactively reach out to your connections and reignite relationships
- Reach out to me if you need help or don’t have the time to do this. Sometimes outsourcing this is the most strategic thing you can do to maximize your time.
Remember that your network is your netWORTH, so cultivate it starting today!