10 TIPS TO LEVEL UP YOUR LINKEDIN
LinkedIn is the biggest social media platform for professionals and is a key way of tapping into a broader network of professionals.
It links us to people and ideas related to our career interests, alerts us to potential job opportunities and advances our careers through building our professional presence. It is a great forum to reach out to individuals you have worked with, studied with as well as forge new connections and conversations.
LinkedIn is used by a number of legal firms and specialist law recruiters to search for legal candidates and find out more about their applicants. It is also a way of ensuring you are aware of what is happening in the profession through following organisations, changes in legal practice and joining discussion groups.
Keeping in mind that legal practice is ultimately a relationship based profession, maintaining relationships is key for lawyers. It is important to reflect your personality and ensure your profile is authentic and engaging.
Sharing online allows you to craft an online persona that reflects your personal values and professional skills. Even if you only use it from time to time, the content you create, share or react to, feeds into this public narrative. How you conduct yourself online is just as important as your behaviour offline.
Assume you may be googled and your facebook and LI profile checked out and remember your brand is what people say about you, when you’re not in the room. Don’t assume that your good work alone will speak for itself. Your reputation is your greatest asset so it is important to cultivate your brand to stay relevant and contemporary in a changing landscape.
Start with who is your imagined target audience and tailor your profile to suit your current goals. These most likely will change over time and will need to be revised and updated.
Start small, get your profile up first, connect with others thoughtfully, share articles and then expand your use of the platform.
Reflect your personality and humanize your profile – remember legal practice is a relationship based profession.
By completing key information and using key words reflective of your audience, you maximise your chances of being found.
Spend time customising your headline and having a concise summary that makes people look further and click on your full profile.
• Your headline describes you in a few words and is your banner, a powerful advertisement that gets an instant message across. Make sure it is tailored and multi faceted otherwise it will default to your current/most recent position.
• Your career summary is your elevator pitch and gives an overview of your professional expertise, what you can do for people, and why they would want to engage with you. It is a keyword rich summary that talks to your skills and experience. It uses keywords relevant to your targeted field but avoids buzzwords. It should connect to your values and future career goals.
When completing your work experience, highlight your impact and results and future potential. Your experience demonstrates future potential and that’s what future employers focus on. It connects the dots between your overall vision and your achievements in that role. It describes your major projects as well as the value you brought to the team. Write about your accomplishments and your results rather than listing day to day duties. Be mindful of including sensitive information about an organisation and embellishing achievements. Don’t go back too far. You can include a few position titles for one company to show progress.
When connecting with a new contact, it is best to write a brief and personalised connection request that links to some aspect of the individual rather than a quick flick and send. Explain why you want to connect and try to find a commonality.
List Your Key Skills – avoid a shopping list of key skills that are not reflective of who you are and what you do. Select skills that you are not only good at, but that you enjoy using. Check in and do an audit on a regular basis to ensure they are current. LinkedIn now allows you to add up to 5 skills in each experience section, which makes your skills stand out.
Optimise skill endorsements and recommendations as these are critical for how you are ranked in search results. If you are missing skills listed in a job ad, you could be screened out of job applications.
Remember LI should be about 80% sharing information and creating a community of collaboration with only 20% about self promotion. Do the former and the later will come in time. Posting is a useful tool to build your profile and showcase your expertise. Comments and shares are better than just likes.
With these 10 tips, you will be well on your way to having an engaging and professional LinkedIn profile.