What a great way to end the year – in addition to being included on JD Supra’s list of top 10 business development articles of 2018, I learned my same article “Build a Stronger Professional Network Today with These LinkedIn To-Do’s” made JD Supra’s list of top marketing articles for the year, taking the number 3 place! I’m honored and thankful that my articles seem to be helpful to some of you. I promise to keep writing in 2019 so please keep reading them!
Use LinkedIn today. Not tomorrow. It is THE most important networking tool for professionals and will help you quickly build and grow relationships, strengthen your brand and stay top of mind with key individuals in your professional network.
Today, networking online is just as important as making in-person connections. And in the professional world, LinkedIn continues to be the most important social media channel for business development.
Don’t forget that your LinkedIn profile is often the first or second Google search result when someone searches for you online. LinkedIn is powerful, period.
Speaking at a conference has many benefits – it helps you build your brand, establish yourself as a subject-matter expert, increase your professional network and open doors that can lead to new connections, jobs, referrals and so much more. Kara McKenna and I recently had the good fortune of serving as co-programming chairs of the 2018 #LMATech Midwest Conference, which was a great way for us to get to know each other better and also learn what makes a good and bad speaking submission.
We learned about innovations taking place within our industry and those legal marketers who are leading them. We also picked up some helpful skills on what makes a compelling speaking submission and the reverse of that – what does not.
After reading through more submissions than we can count at this point, we feel like we are in a position to give advice on how potential speakers can make themselves stand out from the pack. We put some tips together in an article for JD Supra “Want to Be Selected as a Conference Speaker? Here’s How to Increase Your Chances.”
I recently had the opportunity to participate in a podcast with Good2bSocial where I discussed the unique challenges faced by small and mid-size law firms. I noted how they can take more risks on creative marketing strategies, but staffing and budget resources are more limited, which can lead to opportunities to utilize outside business partners in areas like writing, design or SEO. Big law can lead to legal marketers being stretched thin, whereas small law can allow marketers to dive deep into content marketing.
I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to speak at the 2016 LMA Southeastern Chapter Conference last week. It was my first time attending this conference, and it was well worth the trip to Orlando as it was the perfect size to facilitate networking, collaboration and learning.
A talented group of industry speakers provided attendees with actionable and innovative ideas to inspire under the conference’s theme of “grow, innovate and succeed.” Some highlights included: