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Linkedin Tips to Impact Your Business

LinkedIn can be a powerful networking tool, yet many lawyers use only a tiny fraction of its features and obtain a tiny

portion of its potential benefits. But, as these simple tips illustrate, it does not take much time or effort to enhance

the value of your LinkedIn account. Networking is more important today than ever before and you do not want to

neglect one of the most powerful (and free) social media tools available.

1. Change Your Public Profile Link

If you try a Google search on your own name, you’ll probably see how high your public LinkedIn Profile ranks in the

results. The default URL for your LinkedIn Profile contains a long set of alphanumeric characters. If you sign in to

your LinkedIn account and click on the “Edit” button in the view profile screen next to your Profile tab, you can change

the URL and substitute your name, your firm’s name or other branding you use. It’s a simple way to make it easier to

find your Profile, show that you are LinkedIn savvy, and reinforce your “brand.”

2. Customize Website Links

In your LinkedIn Profile, you can (and should) provide three links for your website, blog, or other pages on the

Internet. However, LinkedIn defaults to names like “Company Website” for the links on your Profile. Click on the “Edit”

button and customize those links to reflect the destination site; instead of “Company Website,” name it

“[Yourfirmname] Law Firm Site.” Don’t forget to use all three links—you can link one to your site’s main page, one to

your bio (name it “[Yourname] bio”), and one to another profile of you on the web or your blog or other account, or

direct people to your practice area pages.

3. Change Your Professional Headline to Include Descriptive Keywords

Your professional headline is a one-line description that often accompanies your name when you interact on LinkedIn.

For many people, this headline will be the first thing they see about you. The professional headline field defaults to

your current title (i.e., VP, Partner, Owner, etc.), but you can change that by clicking the “Edit” button next to your

name and adding descriptive keywords to your professional headline that will quickly tell a reader something useful

about you.

4. Take Advantage of the Summary Portion of Your Profile

Many professionals give the Profile Summary short shrift. But this two-part section of your Profile is important,

especially because it appears at the top of the Profile. “Professional Experience and Goals” gives you 2,000 characters

of description—approximately 300 words. Describe what you do. Make it interesting. Don’t use an existing bland

internal bio. Consider it a chance to give your “elevator pitch.”

5. Add Skills to Your Profile

The Skills section is a relatively new Profile section added by LinkedIn to make it easier to search for professionals

with particular skills or expertise. Adding Skills, such as specific types of work, litigation expertise, public speaking,

foreign languages, and more to your Profile may help you appear in more search results.

6. Resequence Your Profile

LinkedIn uses a default order in your Profile. That might work well for you, but if it does not, you can drag and drop

section headings so that the most important items appear higher up on your Profile. To do so, grab the “handles” that

appear when you roll your mouse over the section heading.

Utilizing loads of experience and functional expertise, our work delivers your business. 701 S. Olive Avenue Suite 1212 West Palm Beach, FL 33401 (772) 370.2889

7. Don’t Use LinkedIn’s Default Message

The default message LinkedIn sends with an invitation to connect doesn’t provide the recipient with any information

about you or much context about what your relationship might be. Don’t count on your invitees clicking over to

LinkedIn to view your Profile or to searching for you online when they get your invitation. Give them enough

information to identify who you are and why connecting with you makes sense for them.

8. Use LinkedIn to Further “Real Life” Relationships

It often takes seven to nine “touches” before someone will do business with you. Why not accelerate your offline

relationships by connecting online, too? LinkedIn makes it easy for you to stay in touch and find out what clients,

colleagues, and strategic partners in the real world are doing, and to discover commonalities or challenges that might

lead to additional business.

9. Update Regularly to Stay “Top of Mind” With Your Network

In LinkedIn, you can post short, informative updates on a regular basis. If you post helpful material or information

showing subject-matter expertise, your connections will tend to remember you the next time they have issue on those

areas than if they haven’t heard from you in ages.

10. Join Relevant Groups and Participate in the Discussion

LinkedIn Groups can be excellent places to learn about topics of interest and often see what thought leaders are

talking about in these areas. You can also join the discussion in a group. LinkedIn lets you search for groups that

might interest you. Use these Groups as places to seek or give advice and discuss issues of interest. You can

demonstrate your expertise through Group discussions and even get to know the leaders in your field.

Email dbwienke@gmail.com for 10 More Tips

Get your Linkedin Profile optimized – call our office for a quote at 772.370.2889

Get your Profile optimized and Company Page optimized-- call our office

Ms. Wienke is the managing partner of Wineman Wienke & Associates, working as an

invited consultant, key note speaker and social media trainer for professional services:

Legal, Medical and Financial Services. Ms. Wienke’s career spans twenty-five years as a

classically-trained marketing and business executive who became an early adopter of

digital marketing in the 1990’s within the corporate world. With a deep understanding of

the conservative underpinnings of professional services, Ms. Wienke has created dynamic marketing solutions

in locating incremental revenue streams within customer segments, whether business-to-business or business-to-

consumer.

Ms. Wienke holds an MBA from Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management with a dual

concentration in Management Strategy and Marketing, 1992. Her Bachelor of Arts in Economics was obtained

at Denison University. She has earned numerous communication awards at the national, regional and local

level.