Linked In Marketing For Lawyers
Brad Post Create the Movement: The way that we do business is, you know, we don’t hold any of our clients to long term contracts. We’re very responsive. I’m very customer-service driven. In doing that, and then also being effective online, has really helped grow our company.
Today, we’re going to be talking about LinkedIn. Raise your hands if you are on LinkedIn? Perfect. Raise your hands if you’re paying for a premium LinkedIn. Okay. That’s totally fine. Raise your hands if you’re on Snapchat? Ohhh!
BP: All right. Well we’re just kind of go through some of the basics. So, some of this stuff might be a little too basic for you guys since you’re already on LinkedIn. But I’m going to go through 10 important tips to help you to get the most out of your LinkedIn profile.
So, LinkedIn can help you rekindle old relationships. Strengthen current relationships. Build new relationships. Increase your visibility. And enhance your brand, your company’s brand, and even, also you could have a personal brand, as well. And then keep your ear to the ground in certain segments. And then, you know, it helps lead to new inquiries, in-person meetings, and then new business.
So, number one is just signing up and completing a profile. You guys already have done that. So, I’m not going to go through what step one is. If that’s okay with you guys. One thing that’s very important is to make sure you use a photo. You don’t want to be the faceless persona out there. If you have anyone that ever wants to connect with you that doesn’t have a photo, do you accept it? Maybe, maybe not. If you know them personally you might. But make sure you load a photo. On that, it shows the basic parameters of what your photo should be.
But, so, don’t be that faceless persona. I just kind of took a quick screenshot. The next page show, just don’t that person. If you’re on Twitter. Don’t be that egg. And I encourage you to, and I don’t know who those other two people. You guys might. Hope you don’t. That’s just a screenshot I took from my local people. But just make sure, yeah, it’s, you know, professional.
The way I looked at LinkedIn, the way I’ve always looked at LinkedIn, to me, like Facebook, I do a little bit of business, a little bit of personal. I’ll post pictures of my family and my kids – that kind of stuff. LinkedIn is professional. You’ve got your resume on there. You’ve got your accolades – that type of stuff. So, you want to try to mirror that profile picture with a professional photo.
So, the next thing is just making sure that you edit your headline. It’s a description that directly below your name on your profile page. So, when you first start an account you’re asked for your title and position. When LinkedIn creates your profile page, it uses the headline. So, for many attorneys, their headline is ‘Partner at X, Y, Z Law Firm’, or ‘Shareholder’, of ‘Director.’ Just make sure that you’re being very descriptive, and it’s somewhat compelling. So, that way when people see you it’s, they know exactly what you do.
So, the next page, just kind of took a screenshot – who’s that good-looking guy right there? Sorry. [Laughter] So, I just took a screenshot of mine. I didn’t want to pick on anyone I didn’t know. So, you can see I put ‘President and CEO of Create the Movement.’ And then I put what Create the Movement is. Some people are like, “What’s Create the Movement?” So, I just put, ‘It’s an innovative online marketing company.’
But, yeah, for you guys you might put, you know, your status, and what company you work for, and then, I don’t know if you guys have a tag line, or something like that? Okay. They’re going to revamp and technically challenged. No, I’m just kidding. I’m giving them a hard time. But
But that’s kind of what your headline is. Next thing is another power tip on number four – is sharing an update. This is really where the social power of LinkedIn kicks in. Because, just giving an update, or sharing something menial, whether it’s something that you read and you want to share. Or, you have an opinion on a specific article. I try to be motivational. So, I try to find business quotes. And I quote Steve Jobs, or Jim Stovall, or Zig Zigler. Just trying to, just really, I’m probably that annoying person on LinkedIn. I’m not annoying. I maybe post once a day sometimes if I’m able to. But I’m not that person that is always posting five or six times a day.
But, what that does too, is I’ll kind of share a success story, is it kind of keeps you at the top of mind, from your network. I had a friend that I was connected with on LinkedIn. And he was, you know, he’d pulled up his feed and they can see I updated. And he’ll like it, or whatnot. And the next post down was another one in his network that was looking for a website to build. And they’re like, “Hey, do you guys know any local Tulsa companies that build websites?” And so, my friend Carl said, “Connect with @bradpost.” Well, it came up as a notification. He was a second-degree connection. Meaning I was connected to Carl, which was a first, we accepted. Carl was connected to Devin, was his name. And so, he was a second connection. So, I saw that, I connected with Devin. I inboxed him, “Hey, let me know if I can (I wasn’t the typical salesman. I’m not a snake-oil salesman.) I was just like, hey, let me know if you want to connect. I’d love to help you out.” And literally, probably within 15 minutes, he gives me a call. And he’s like, “Hey, can you come in and meet with us?”
And it was just really just sharing updates. I kind of came to the top. Carl knows what I do. He saw right below him, you know? Well, that client, actually turned into another client. Because, come to find the person that owns this business owns seven other businesses. Some other totally different kinds of businesses. So, I went and took care of them. Not me, but our team took care of them. Built them an amazing-looking website. And then, come to find out, two months later, another one of their companies wanted to update. Well, guess who they called? They called us. And we presented to them. And then, another one of their companies.
So, there’s kind of just a success story in sharing updates and connecting with people. You know? Having the right approach. But it keeps people at the top of your mind. And that’s really the reason I do it. I don’t do it to annoy my connections. However, sometimes they might get annoyed. With you guys, and your business, of course being professional on LinkedIn’s really important. I think people can share their opinions on, or funny jokes and whatnot, on Twitter and maybe Facebook and Snapchat. And selfies. But on LinkedIn I see that it’s pretty much most professional updates.
I just going to kind of open this up. Raise your hands if you open up LinkedIn at least once a day. Once a week? Okay. Once a month? Okay. No, I mean you guys are busy people. Right? So you don’t really, I don’t know, but I guess you guys probably open it up only once a month just to see who’s connected with you, or what not. Or, see if you need to accept. What about you guys who use it a week? Kind of the same thing? Or,
Audience member: When you get a notification.
BP: You have it hooked up to an email that’s not your work email, right? So that you don’t get all the spam stuff. So, do you ever look at updates at all? Do you ever scroll through it? Probably don’t have time to.
Audience member: Actually, I’m connected to the American Bar Association, and the American Health Lawyers Association.
BP: Okay.
Audience member: So, they post their articles up there.
BP: Does that pop up on the notification for you? And you can see that? Yeah. Absolutely. There’s other ways that you can use it.
The next screen is just basically showing how to share an update. You know? You just pulled your main screen. Click on the status button. And the cool thing about LinkedIn is if you do have a Twitter, you can connect it up to Twitter as well, and just post on LinkedIn. And it will automatically go to Twitter as well. As long as you have them connected.
But another good thing to do is edit your website links. Just making sure that you have your company website on there. Because that links it back to the company website. And that way people, if they’re like, “Hey, I wonder what so-and-so is up to? I wonder what Meredith is up to?” They can go and look. “Okay, she’s an attorney. I’m going through a divorce. Should I call Meredith?” You know? And they look, and they see
Audience member: Please don’t! [laughter]
BP: She’s not a divorce attorney.
Audience member: I’m not a divorce attorney.
BP: You’re a litigation attorney, right?
Audience member: I can refer you out.
BP: Right. Exactly.
Audience member: I don’t do criminal law either.
BP: Right. But it also, you know, that might also be, you know, something you put in your headline, is what kind of areas of practice that you focus on. I’m assuming that you guys focus on different areas of practice, or does it just depend?
Audience member: It just, the way we’re structured is the associates in the frim work for all the partners.
BP: Okay.
Audience member: You could find yourself working for one partner that does mainly medical malpractice. You could find yourself working for somebody else who does auto negligence. We also, we have a research department. And they the ‘brains.’ Yes.
BP: Cool. Okay.
Audience member: [Inaudible] the brains of everything.
BP: When you’re putting your site links, you can also put it to, let’s say you have a bio on the website. Do most of them have bios? Not yet? Okay.
Audience member: We don’t’ have bios on the website.
Audience member: Yeah we do.
Audience member: I’m the only one who doesn’t.
Audience: [Audience chatter]
BP: You went to OSU and the TU, right?
But you can put a link to your actual website. You know, the hn-law.com. Or, you also put, you know, to your personal bio hn-law.com/Meredith, or whatever that link is. You’d have to go to your bio and see what the link is, and copy and paste that within the LinkedIn. You guys follow me? Okay. Cool.
Let’s go on to the next one. You can also, I didn’t know if you knew this, but you can also have a specific LinkedIn. One thing too, I was going to mention this. On your website bio, there’s a lot of like different tags that you can get to where they can connect with you on LinkedIn. I don’t know what your firm thinks about that. But that might be a good idea if they want to know more you, or whatnot. They can go to your LinkedIn.
Audience member: What’s that mean?
BP: Meaning if they go to hn, your website, your profile, on your website bio.
Audience member: Did it have a tab, a hyperlink to the LinkedIn?
BP: Right. Yes. And then they can go to your LinkedIn bio. If they want to connect with you.
Audience member: Which then links you back to your page bio?
BP: Yes! It just a circle that you just keep going in. [laughter]
Audience member: Except if you like me and you went to JC Penny’s and had your LinkedIn picture taken because you didn’t like your firm picture. Then you could make sure people know what you really look like.
BP: But you can actually have a specific LinkedIn url. So they give you, it automatically defaults. You can see here on this page, number six, power tip. My first one was a linkedin.com/bub-brad-post and all these weird numbers. But you can actually customize your url to it being your specific name. Has anyone done that? Okay.
Let’s turn to the next page and I’ll show you kind of really how to do that. On your actual profile page. If you go to your profile page. You see that little ‘Settings’ button? It’s a little gear item. Right there. You click on that. This is on your actual profile. So, you’d have to go to your profile. Click on that button. It takes you to the next page – ‘Pubic Profile.’ And then, see over to the right, it says your ‘Public Profile,’ and it says ‘Create Your Own Custom Profile.’ You click on that button. Go to the next thing, and it’ll would automatically have your old, or what it is right now. You can change that. Here where it says the ‘Brad Post CTM.’ That’s where you can change yours. The only thing is, if your name is like somebody else on LinkedIn, or if your name is already been taken. ‘Brad Post’ had already been taken. There’s an attorney out in California that’s taken my name. Yeah. It’s terrible. And so, I had to go with Brad Post CTM. CTM – Create the Movement. Couldn’t think of anything more creative than that. Right.
But you could try to put your name in there. Or, if not, you can, you know, put your name, or add something to it, or whatnot. You can actually have your own specific URL. And why I encourage you to do that, even if you log in once a month, is that way somebody wont take it. You know, if they do have a similar name, or the same name. It’s really the same name. You can go ahead and grab you own url. Make sense?
Like when Twitter first came out. Everyone was getting on there so they could reserve their name. So, luckily I got on at an early time and I was able to grab Brad Post. Before the attorney out in California took it.
Okay. Number seven is just really making connections. I’ve talked a little bit about first and second, and then there’s third. So, basically, one thing you want to make sure that you can do is just connect with people. My goal was to just get over 500 connections. Because then it will just say 500+ connections on your profile. So, I started, when I first opened up, I just started connecting with anyone. If they, you know, if they had a picture, and somewhat might be in realm of business I would go and connect. Well, apparently LinkedIn actually gives you a limit of how many people you can connect. So, I couldn’t, I tried to connect to too many people that it wouldn’t allow me to connect with other people. And there’s probably somebody reporting me, “I don’t know this guy, he’s trying to connect with me.” But, you know, I just wanted get over 500. I just wanted to connect with like-minded people. But one thing that’s helped me, is just I don’t get on it, you know, multiple times a day. I get on maybe once a day. But it’s really just to connect.
The bad thing about LinkedIn, and you guys, and this is probably going to sound bad, but like I’ve gotten to where I don’t accept insurance people. You guys have probably gotten to where you don’t accept marketing companies. Right? But, because sometimes what I’ve noticed, and I say insurance, I say insurance sales people. Because immediately when I connect with they’ll inbox me and it’s a templated thing about how they can help me. And, you know, the financial advisors kind of do the same thing. Right?
Audience member: I’ve been getting a lot of process servers. Legal investigators.
BP: Oh, are you. Okay.
Audience member: Private investigators. I get a lot of that.
BP: Right! I’ve seen that a lot of lately. As far as private. Do you guys get those at all? Have you ever connected with someone and then sent you one of those templated inbox messages? Okay. You will. I’m usually, you know, I’m pretty professional. I’ll usually just inbox him and say, “Hey, thanks for connecting with me.” You know? Just a personal message. I don’t ever try to sell anyone at the first point of connection just because I realize it doesn’t work. But it is really good to connect with other like-minded people. And you guys are, assuming all kind of not young in your career, but you guys are somewhat young in your career. Right? So, it’s always good to connect. I don’t mean to say so you can go and join a firm, or anything like that. But it’s always good to connect, like you said, somebody comes to you that needs a divorce. “Well, I know a divorce attorney that I can refer you to.” Or whatnot. But it’s always good to connect with other like-minded people. Just don’t connect with over a certain amount, and have LinkedIn shut you do to where you can’t.
You can add connections in three simple steps. Number one, from your homepage, or your profile page, you’ll see in that top-right hand corner, there’s a person with a ‘+.’ And then you’ll see it’ll drop down and you can click that ‘See All’ button. And then it’ll show you people that you may know. And hopefully you guys don’t know any of these people. But, and then there’s that blue button down at the bottom that you can hit ‘Connect.’ And then, it will take you to ‘How do you know this person?’ and then select one of those. And if you’re connecting with someone, you know, it’s always good that you can a personal note, “Hey, my name is Brad Post. Wanted to add you to my network.” That way, especially if you don’t know them. You know? A small, brief introduction. I would not write, you know, anything other than two or three sentences. Because, if you’re like me, you don’t read it at all. You almost think it’s some dude that’s going spam inbox you. But you can add a personal note by doing that.
Let’s talk real quickly about recommendations. There’s two ways in Facebook, I’m sorry, in LinkedIn, that you can recommend someone. When you first sign up they give you a certain amount of skills that you might have. Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, I don’t know why they always put those in there. But you can actually recommend someone by hitting the ‘+’ button. People get, after you over 99 in a certain area then it won’t show who recommend you. So, there’re ways to do that. But you want to be careful with that because it can become weird and creepy if you’re going to somebody you don’t know. And you start clicking every single one of theirs. Had it happened to me.
Audience: [Chatter]
But yeah, so. But then, you know, what I always do too, and then there’s a way that people can recommend you as far, you know, your previous jobs or existing jobs. I always ask, “Hey, would you give me a recommendation? If you do, I’ll write you a recommendation as well.” Especially if I respect them and like them. But what this does, is by using LinkedIn, and by adding your, you know, accolades, if you, when you pass the Bar, or when you do pass the Bar. Because you you’ve got to pass it. Right? When you do pass the Bar add that, update your profile to any accolades that you have. And then, make sure that you get recommendations as well. From, you know, teachers, or professors, or co-workers is always good too. Because I know that when you’re looking at getting jobs. Or, if you’re looking at, you know, whenever I’m hiring someone, I’ll look them up on Facebook. I’ll look them up on LinkedIn. I’m sure you guys probably do the same thing. Right? If you were to hire someone, you’d check them out.
We were looking at hiring someone, and the person wasn’t on Facebook, wasn’t on LinkedIn, wasn’t on Twitter, and he was kind of a younger guy. Younger, I say, you know, 30. I’m 40, so I see 30 as younger. But nothing. And so I pulled up an OSCN record on him. Wow. I can see why he wasn’t like – just a long history of spousal abuse, and stalking, and restraining orders. And I really like the guy. And, you know, just him not being on social media, go to OSCN. Not going to hire him, but if somebody was to go to his LinkedIn. Had recommendations, had people, I probably would have never checked the OSCN record.
Audience member: [Inaudible] to his OSCN search.
BP: Yeah, exactly. [Laughter] In his headline. ‘Stalker.’ But, more and more, as companies look at, they’ll start looking at. And as you grow in the firm you never know new insurance companies that might be looking at hiring you. They, you know, they’ll look at your LinkedIn. We worked with one of the largest firms in Louisiana, and they would have to put together these long, just, I think there’re called proposals to work with companies. And they had to have big bios. And, I mean they were all over their LinkedIn to make sure everything was updated and professional. And I say this just to be careful, you just don’t want the firm to potentially lose a client because there might be something on your LinkedIn, or social media, that you might not want. Hopefully, that’s okay to say.
Number nine power tip is to explore, join, and become active in groups. You said that you were part of a few groups. Right? Basically, you can, I’m a part of a few networking, like marketing networking groups. I’m actually, for a while I was part of some attorney groups. Just because that was kind of the business we were looking at getting. And I was just kind of following up with, or following trends that were going on in that group. But it’s always good to join active groups that you’re interested in.
And then, last, but not least, is publishing articles or posts. Does anybody in here write at all? Meaning like you write a blog, or you
Audience member: The researchers are constantly writing.
BP: They are? Okay.
Audience member: But they can’t publish what they’re writing.
BP: But you’re writing for a case, a specific case? Okay. But, what we’ve done is, you know, a few attorneys that we’ve worked with, they’ve prepared something and then they could, later on, after, you know it’s over, they could publish it as an article on linked. Or, publish it as a blog on their website. Or, something like that. If they did it in LinkedIn, they’d get a specific link and they could put that link on their bio on their webpage. And creates that circle. But, the more articles that you have that the better.
You can also add an image as you publish the content. So, and that’s always good as well. And, then last page is just my contact information. If you guys have any – I’ve got my business cards. And you can see my Snapchat is not on there. That’s all my contact information.
