As LinkedIn’s networking power for those in the legal sector and beyond grows, it’s important that as a law firm your page isn’t just present but it’s performing.
Time and time again I see law firms who might have even gone as far as to make their page look great. I’m talking logos, branding, and even a catchy bio but they fail at doing three simple things which can have a catastrophic effect on their LinkedIn performance.
No matter what your strategy is for LinkedIn, whether that’s to establish your law firm as a thought leader, generate more leads, hire more qualified candidates, or even all three, it’s vital to avoid these three big mistakes.
Mistake #1: Using LinkedIn as a firehose
The problem is many law firms apply a firehose method to LinkedIn, posting on the hour, every hour, without really saying anything. Posting like this, without generating likes, comments and interactions becomes background noise to anyone who follows your page and the LinkedIn algorithms will start to work against you.
You see, LinkedIn’s algorithm is built to provide users with a broad range of content from different creators in their newsfeed, so if you are seen as ‘spamming’ the social media site with hourly posts, it’s likely that you’ll do more harm than good.
Instead, post two to five times a week; the time of day that you post will depend on your strategy. Wednesday at 12pm is the most popular day and time to post, followed closely by Tuesday and Wednesday between 8 am and 10 am. You can even use your own analytics to guide you into posting at the best time for your law firm.
Mistake #2: Forgetting to be social
Of course, there’s a level of professionalism that needs to be kept on LinkedIn. But there are so many times when a law firm will use LinkedIn to just purely post and talk about their business and services.
By being social, and commenting on posts that align with its values, a law firm not only increases its presence on LinkedIn, but it’s a great way to build or strengthen relationships. and network with others.
However, there is one (small) problem… Company Pages by default can only comment on the posts they’re already tagged in and their own posts.
But don’t fear, there are several options for you to resolve this…
Option one
As per Jennifer Sargeant’s video below – it involves a little bit of jiggery pokery.
In short, you need to have:
- the post you want to comment on open;
- your Company Page open – or at least you need to have the digits that identify your company in its LinkedIn url; and
- finally, you need to have a blank tab open so that you can join these two elements together like this:
Option two
Alternatively, you can install one of a few Chrome extensions which allow you to then choose which account you are responding from when you reply in LinkedIn. These are a workaround and they might get taken down quite quickly. Here’s an example of one that can help you like and comment. Whilst it may seem like a little bit of extra effort to claim comment and liking rights for your Company Page, it’s 100% worth it. Your engagement to the post will show up on other people’s pages and news feeds, so not only does it strengthen your relationship with the direct poster but it opens your firm up to connecting with a wider audience. People will start to become attracted to your page because you have something to say.
It also encourages other people to engage with your law firm’s content, meaning you can say goodbye to tumbleweed comment sections.
Mistake #3: Making basic mistakes on how to post
I frequently see firms post on LinkedIn who have posted without considering how they are trying to engage their audience.
Often, they are posting with a dull, or CV-like post, lacking any sort of engagement or audience awareness.
The best way to avoid doing this is to:
- Ask questions that start a conversation with your audience
- Create content that answers questions or solves problems
- Share stories about your culture that show off your firm’s values
The bottom line is attention spans are slow, and they’re even slower on social media, you have around eight seconds to engage someone before they’ve scrolled on by, so it’s vital that you keep your content engaging and easy to read.
You don’t have to go crazy, but by appearing more human, checking your tone and spelling your law firm will stand out from others and attract networking opportunities.
Sounds good doesn’t it?
