Using LinkedIn for Lawyers Can Be a real customer acquisition lever.
However, the initial training of lawyers is very little oriented towards content marketing or the animation of social networks.
We offer 5 key points to develop your audience and boost your practice.
1- Publish content regularly
One of the fundamental principles of content marketing is the recurrence of publications. The more content you publish, the more LinkedIn will highlight your profile and your publications. Furthermore, as with TV programs, your community gets to know you and develops habits. So, impose yourself a rigor as to the day and time of publications. If you have recurring content (newsletter, articles, videos), have a real publication schedule (for example, Tuesday at 10 a.m.). This approach will create a waiting effect on your content; your community will connect at a fixed time in order to read it.
Obviously, you can free yourself from these time constraints for exceptional publications (participation in an event, professional announcement, etc.)
2- Publish during peak hours
As with RATP, LinkedIn is also subject to peak hours, i.e. time slots where traffic is particularly high. So that a publication has the best chance of being seen and relayed, it is always preferable to post it within these slots.
Concretely, favor a publication on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, i.e. before 8 a.m. or between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. As this is a professional network, it is mainly consulted during office hours, whether as part of a ritual before starting the day or at the end of the morning. Conversely, it is not recommended to publish at night, on weekends and on public holidays.
The difficulty is significant when your content is published on several networks (notably Facebook and YouTube) which are subject to different schedules. One solution may be to schedule publications in advance in order to benefit from the maximum audience in each network. However, this rule is not absolute and may differ depending on the nature of the publication (video, infographic, article, announcement). It is possible that lighter content or content with very high added value will create the “buzz” on a Sunday afternoon.
3- Play collectively and encourage sharing
Although LinkedIn is a less interactive social network than Facebook, Snapchat or Instagram, the network has been evolving for several years and users are beginning to understand the importance of collaboration and synergies.
So, get closer to colleagues with the same interests as you (a legal matter, new technologies, a defended cause, etc.) and highlight each other in the different publications. Concretely, this involves tagging each other on each of your publications and sharing the content. This technique allows you to appear on the news feed of your respective communities and thus be more visible. In addition, the LinkedIn algorithm is particularly sensitive to the number of shares of a post, especially in the first minutes of the post. Encourage your community to share the publication or comment on it, via prompts or questions that will promote your SEO.
A symbiotic approach therefore allows you to increase your community, your visibility and the reach of your various publications.
4- Choose catchy titles and visual content
LinkedIn does not stand in the way of the well-known “click whore” law. Even if you have well-founded and relevant content, your community must want to click on your article, read it and share it. So, take time to work on the titles of your articles and publications so that they are catchy. A title catchy it's a title that is simple, engages your readers and arouses curiosity.
Likewise, promote visual and attractive content. Video formats and infographics are emerging on LinkedIn and attracting great user support. Don’t hesitate to think outside the box, experiment with new formats and more familiar wording. In a “policed” and “hushed” social network, visual content will help you stand out from the crowd.
Law can also be “fun” if it is done well. Today, access to the law is sometimes tedious because it is provided by professionals in an overly complex manner. Using engaging infographics or videos allows you to convey your message more clearly.
5- Work on your profile and story telling
This professional social network is above all a way to make yourself known and increase the visibility of your profile. It is therefore important to take the time to work on the quality of your profile. Detail all your experiences, your associative projects and do not neglect the way in which the title of your profile is written. Work on the design by adding a personalized banner or asking your colleagues to use your company banner. The use of pictograms in your title (in moderation) can also help capture users' attention.
Otherwise, master the art of story telling in your publications. The objective is to develop your personal branding by presenting yourself in the different stages of your professional life (speaking at conferences, courses at universities, new functions). Such an approach will show your community that you are active and will give meaning to your various actions.
The visibility gained on your person will be reflected in your exercise structure.
