By Steve Fretzin
When I started using LinkedIn back in 2007, I knew it would become the huge success story that everyone now knows it is today. Within a few years, I was heavily involved in teaching LinkedIn as a tool for business development for lawyers. My anecdote in a room with 50 lawyers was to ask them to hold up their smart phones. Once they were all up in the air, I had them imagine dropping them into a toilet. The looks on their faces were hilarious. I would then mention that they should go back to always being tied to a chorded phone on a desk. They didn’t look happy about this idea in the least. The point of this silly exercise was to share how valuable our smart phones have become to us. I closed by explaining that LinkedIn was just as important as a smart phone, in relation to personal branding and client development.
One of the greatest challenge lawyers have in using LinkedIn is either getting started with posting content or being consistent once they have. My goal of this article is to show you how easy posting can be when you are educated on various types of posts to use. Here are my top five go-to posting plays for you to use.
Posting Play #1. Share others’ content that is useful to your audience.
This means that you are NOT creating the content but rather finding others’ content and adding your commentary. For example, let’s say you are an estate planning attorney and the new tax laws have come out. You’d simply share the article or link you found and explain what this means to your audience. You can either search Google or set up RSS feeds on subjects that you want to post on. Being first to get new news and ideas out in front of LinkedIn viewers is a terrific way to get noticed. This is a simple, easy and effective way to demonstrate expertise without sharing that you are the expert.
Posting Play #2. Tell a personal story and relate it to your business or industry.
People LOVE to hear personal things about people they know. For example, occasionally on LinkedIn I talk about fishing with my son. Now this might seem more Facebook worthy, BUT I always have a twist that brings it back to business. I’ll share that we had an amazing day on the water and then I’ll connect the dots to show how, for attorneys, fishing is just like business development. We need to try different lures or tactics to find new fish or clients. This posting play is a huge winner because people can enjoy your creative angles while also getting to know you as a real person.
One of my clients wrote about how worthless the use of Latin was in the legal system and he received over 10,000 views and over 100 comments. While this may seem like a risky post, it really wasn’t because the lawyers who disagreed with him simply added value to the conversation with their varying opinions.
Posting Play #3. Run a LinkedIn Poll to gain insights and engage others.
Right underneath the main posting box on LinkedIn is a plus sign. Click this and you’ll open a few options, including the ability to create a poll. Go ahead and create an interesting question that’s either related to your industry, profession or general business — and simply ask it. Recently I asked, “How effective are you at using LinkedIn to build your brand or drive in actual business?” Pretty on the nose for this article, right? Once you’ve written the question and its multiple-choice answers, complete the post with some context and you’re done. For my post on LinkedIn, the votes and comments started pouring in right away. Think about how many polls you’ve clicked on and it’s easy to see why this is a great option for posting. Another hidden secret here is that I use the poll data to create a custom graphic relating the results of the poll. All-in-all, it’s an easy way to get a weekly post out to your audiences.
Posting Play #4. Create videos to educate your LinkedIn audience.
I know that video isn’t for everyone but hear me out. Just look at the success of Instagram and TikTok and tell me video isn’t useful to get one’s message out. The issue most attorneys have is in the creation of the video. Let’s make this simple. You can either use a Zoom or your smart phone to get decent video created. The easiest way to start is to list five to 10 legal questions that you get asked most frequently. Then, simply answer those questions while recording. You can probably answer all 10 questions in under 30 minutes, which means you now have 10 (count ‘em — 10) posts over the next 10 weeks if you so choose. You always have the option of retaining a video production company or editor to help ensure they look “good enough.”
One idea is to find someone else in your practice area and watch when they are producing. If you like it, you can emulate it with your own personality and style. There are even some easy-to-use editing apps you can use to assist you.
Posting Play #5. Repost others’ content to build relationships and your brand.
So, you’re scrolling through LinkedIn anyway, you might as well be proactive. Find someone’s post that you really like or feel connected with — and repost it with your own thoughts. This accomplishes two major goals. First, you are using others’ content to create unique posts of your own (be sure to name and thank them in the post). Second, behind the scenes you are developing a deeper relationship with the post’s author. As it turns out, people have egos and enjoy when their posts are liked, commented on and shared. The best part is that you don’t have to “find” the article to post, but rather can just create something complimentary around someone else’s impressive content.
You may want to create a hit-list of potential clients and strategic partners to concentrate on. When you look at people’s profiles, there’s a little white bell in the right-hand corner of their profile. Once you click it, you will then be notified when they post. This makes it easier to comment and share their “stuff” so you can build a subtle relationship with them. Over time, you may even be able to ask for a meeting to get to know them better and perhaps open up business opportunities in the process.
Since you’re reading this, I know how important growing your law practice must be to you. My greatest hope is that you get value from this piece and others that I’ve been writing about for years. It’s all about taking what you can and using it to get that book of business built. For more information about how I help attorneys every day, just go to my website at www.fretzin.com or you can email me at steve@fretzin.com for a more direct conversation.