LinkedIn is now offering a new feature on a rolling basis to its users – photo tagging (or mentions as some call it).

I noticed that I had the ability to do it today for the very first time and it was very exciting, making me a true LinkedIn geek.

Tagging people in LinkedIn photos (on both an individual and company level) encourages more engagement with your images and content. It also is the norm on other social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. It helps to to make your content more powerful because posts with images do better than those without and by tagging key individuals in those posts, you’ll have higher engagement on those posts.

When you tag someone in a photo on LinkedIn (to do it, just use the @ sign and type in their name – you can see an example of a completed post on the right), they will receive a notification (in the notification section and/or via email depending on their settings) that you added them and this tagged photo becomes linked with the associated user’s LinkedIn profile. Viewers can click on the connection’s name to navigate to their profile. You can tag up to 30 people per photo (wow!).

Some helpful facts about photo tagging on LinkedIn:

  1. A LinkedIn member doesn’t need to be connected with you as a first degree connection in order tag you or to be photo tagged by you.
  2. As the author, you can remove tags at any time after you create a post.
  3. You can remove tags of yourself on any post at any point.

It’s not always easy to develop a steady stream of strong content to engage with your clients, prospects and other target audiences, especially when there’s so much competition out there from other firms that are content powerhouses and so little time to capture the attention of your audience.

You also don’t want to be the firm that posts content just for the sake of posting content – you always want your articles and posts to be meaningful, targeted and client-focused – remember, always think quality over quantity. You can also use what you do have more efficiently to give you much more bang for your buck.

Your professional biography is one of the most important pieces of copy you’ll ever write about yourself. It’s your opportunity to showcase your work, capabilities, areas of expertise and what makes you stand out from your competitors.

Many in-house counsel cite lawyer bios as one of the most important sources of information regarding researching outside lawyers (yes, everyone is Googling you and your bio is usually the number one search result of your name). In addition, lawyer bios are among the most trafficked pages on law firm web sites.

Your bio can serve as an important business development tool if it is well-crafted. Yet within the legal industry, so many bios are still lackluster, outdated, not client-focused or just plain poorly written.

Given the power of bios, it has always baffled me that many lawyers do not update theirs at least several times a year or write them with a client focus. Any down time you have or right before a pitch or a speaking engagement are all great reasons to take a fresh look at your bio and them more engaging and client-focused. Now let’s get to work! 

I’m often asked how to develop a successful social media strategy. Firms of all sizes and budgets can do it if they are resourceful and creative.

Here are some ideas

In this article, I provide 16 easy ideas to incorporate into your social media, business development and branding efforts for professionals at all levels because it’s never too late or early to shake up your marketing efforts, and the new year is a great opportunity to start fresh and add new activities to our business development and marketing mix.

A word to the wise for young professionals – you should build your network before you think you’ll ever need it. Your peers will be tomorrow’s business leaders. And a word to the wise for seasoned lawyers who don’t think they need to spend the time on business development – today it’s not enough to just be a great lawyer.

You need to market yourself as well as churn out exceptional legal work. One day your steady stream of work could dry up or something unexpected could happen where you need to rebuild your practice.

Also, you never know who can turn out to be a client, referral or future employer. I always tell the lawyers with whom I work to never underestimate the importance of every person and connection. Be friendly and kind to everyone. Because you never know. Read the full article for the 16 tips

Mark your calendars for March 7 for a Legal Marketing Association webinar titled, “How to Build Your Personal Brand Using Social Media Tools Before, During and After #LMA19” with me, and good industry friends Roy Sexton and Andrew Laver on how to use the upcoming #LMA19 conference in Atlanta on April 8-10 to build and enhance YOUR personal brand using social media! We’ll provide actionable takeaways and ideas for marketers of all levels, including how to build your network before, during and after the conference, how to master the art of the “humblebrag,” how to become a thought leader and published author (even if you’re not a great writer) and how to use free online tools to add eye-catching visuals to your social posts (like the one I created in this blog post, which I used to promote the program on social media as well). Join us!