Building Your Brand with LinkedIn Marketing

Since the network launched in 2003, LinkedIn has proven to be an incredibly valuable professional tool. While the social platform began as a means to build work-related connections and search for employment and hiring opportunities, it has grown into something much more: a marketing tool.

Professionals and businesses are now experiencing more opportunities to build their brands on LinkedIn. What does this mean for your law firm? When done correctly, your law firm’s LinkedIn Page can generate tremendous exposure, build relationships with potential clients and referral sources, and even drive abundant traffic to the firm’s website. With the right strategy and approach, your firm can begin capitalizing on LinkedIn’s benefits in no time. Follow our simple steps below to start building your law firm’s brand on LinkedIn.

Start with a Strategy

As with any marketing venture, the first step to building your law firm brand on LinkedIn is to strategize. To do this, define specific goals for LinkedIn marketing, identify your target audience, and build your content around those key factors. Examples of goals to set for building your brand include:

• Increasing reach and exposure
• Building professional connections
• Driving traffic to your website

Remember that the key to success in any marketing strategy, especially when it comes to social media, is understanding who your audience is and coming up with a tactical plan to answer their questions, address their pain points, and to otherwise give them what they need and want.

Optimize

Now that your goals are established, make sure your law firm’s Company Page is optimized and ready for the attention that will be coming its way. Your LinkedIn Page is one of a law firm’s most important digital assets and should portray a level of professionalism that is in line with your company brand and values. Confirm all facets of the profile are complete and accurate. Follow this checklist to guarantee your Page is primed and ready to go:

• Page overview is complete with a brief but informative description that uses valuable keywords
• Profile and banner image are uploaded, look professional, and are properly sized
• Contact information, including the firm’s website, phone number, and email address is accurate and up-to-date
• You are following hashtags relevant to the firm’s practice areas
• Inform employees once the firm’s Page is live so they can add it (and thus link to it) in their Individual Profiles under “Experience”

Create

Once you’ve determined your goals, defined your target audience, and optimized your Page, it is time to start creating and sharing content. The foundation for content published on your Page will of course be the law firm’s website and blog; however, before sharing updates, consider:

• What will resonate with your target audience (think about what questions clients frequently ask or what updates your followers should be informed of)
• What topics are current and relevant to your practice areas
• What will be useful to your audience

Create a content calendar based around these questions with the idea that the number one rule for content is to give the people what they want. Focus on sharing high-quality content each week and sticking to a consistent schedule. As with anything your business produces and disseminates, the quality of the work you share will greatly impact the impression you leave on the public. Be sure it is well researched and delivered in a medium that you know your audience will love. Content doesn’t just mean text – videos, long-form posts, and/or infographics, among other forms of media are also valuable social media content worth creating and sharing. We’ll explain how to know what your audience is enjoying under the “analyze” section below.

Participate

Being active on LinkedIn means more than posting great content every week. It is important to engage on the network with followers and colleagues. Being an active participant on other Pages as well as your own can lead to more views on and engagement with your Company Page and even more traffic to your website.

If you receive comments on your updates, be sure to respond in a timely manner. Be “social” on this social media channel by joining groups that pertain to your law firm, such as Personal Injury Attorneys of Texas, for example. Go the extra mile and also participate in group discussions to build your credibility and develop relationships.

Analyze

Two more critical steps in a marketing strategy are analyzing the competition and evaluating your own work. It is not enough to post high quality updates on your Page, you must also measure how it performs using LinkedIn Analytics.

Learn how your content is performing under the “updates” section of analytics. Here you will find data such as impressions, social actions, click-through rates, and more. Make note of what is performing well and what isn’t in order to determine what your audience is actually consuming and appreciating so that you can adjust your strategy moving forward accordingly.

Under the “Companies to track” feature, you can get an idea of what law firms the network perceives to be your competition. Find out whether or not these law firms are posting the same types of articles or blogs; and, if so how can you set your law firm apart. If their content is tanking, how will you do it better? Taking a step back to assess not only your own work but the work of other law firms will help you refine future content calendars and overall strategy, while also giving your firm the edge it needs to stand out.

Get Help with LinkedIn Marketing

When it comes to building your law firm’s brand, LinkedIn stands out from other social media networks by giving businesses the opportunity to establish authority in a more structured, professional setting. The network has grown into a beneficial marketing tool, when used appropriately, because it has the power to highlight your expertise while building brand awareness for your law firm.

LinkedIn marketing must be done right in order to be worthwhile. If you wish to create a Page and/or be more present on your law firm’s existing Page but are not sure where to start, we can help. Contact the social media marketing experts at Stacey E. Burke P.C. today to learn what we can do for you.