LinkedIn For Lawyers — The Last Organic Social Network?

Sites like Facebook and Instagram have turned social media success into a pay-for-play situation. Although Instagram marketing can boost your firm’s visibility and brand awareness, the current economic climate means most attorneys are keeping an eye on their ad spend. Is LinkedIn the last platform where organic reach and content trump cold hard cash?

Frank Ramos Jr. thinks so, and he should know! Through daily posts over the past 4 years, Frank’s amassed over 50,000 followers on LinkedIn. His insights have brought him countless new leads, expanded his network, and developed his unique voice as a thought leader in the legal landscape. If you’ve written off LinkedIn, it might be time to reevaluate. Here are some of the top drivers to do so:

Why Attorneys Should Still Care About LinkedIn

Is This Organic?

There has been plenty of changes to the LinkedIn algorithm over the years, but it has always championed user-created content. Although LinkedIn does now features ads, regular content continues to have organic reach. So what kind of content should an attorney post on LinkedIn?

Well, copy is still king, and articles with images still garner plenty of impressions. In 2019, video content was touted as the ultimate social media engagement tool. However, LinkedIn has reportedly clamped down on the reach of video due to an abundance of poorly made content.

In his interview on The Rankings Podcast, Frank Ramos stressed that his success on the platform was due to the quality of his posts. He’s explored myriad formats and topics. Some do well, others less so – but because LinkedIn still favors organic reach, there’s plenty of room for experimentation.

Your Network Is Your Net Worth

“Courage starts with showing up and letting ourselves be seen.”

— Brené Brown, five times New York Times best-selling author

It’s no wonder that so many lawyers used LinkedIn for networking. The platform has over 675 million users from more than 200 countries, and a great big wedge of them are attorneys! LinkedIn is the business social network of choice, and it’s pretty acceptable to reach out to a total stranger and e-network… just make sure you do it in the right way.

• Do send personalized messages – you need to do your homework on your connection. At the very least, read someone’s profile and name-drop that conference you both went to!
• Don’t bait and switch – you can use LinkedIn and other social platforms to get leads, but don’t connect with someone under the pretense of networking and then try to get them into your sales funnel.

The Pen Is Mightier Than The Sword

LinkedIn imposes a brutal 1300 character limit on status updates for individuals. That shrinks to a mere 700 characters for businesses. Sounds like a waste of time, right? Wrong! Pros like Frank Ramos use the character limit as a training tool to brush up on their writing prowess.

If you need thousands of characters to get your point across then you’re probably writing a thesis. Most of the time, we over-write and over-complicate because being succinct is tough. When you get the red flag that your content is too long, it forces you to cut the flack and focus on the meat of your argument. Learning to write in a simple but not simplistic way is an important and transferable skill. Plus, once you’ve got it down, firing off statuses will be a breeze. Thought leadership, here you come!

Become A Better Attorney

“You never really know something until you teach it to someone else.”

— John C. Maxwell, author of The 360 Degree Leader: Developing Your Influence from Anywhere in the Organization

Try to start writing about something that you’re not 100% clear on. You’ll soon discover the limits of your own knowledge!

Regular writing on a platform like LinkedIn will force you to brush up on your skills. Of course, your niche is your choice. Challenge yourself to write about something you need to research a little on. You’ll not only be educating your rapt audience, but you’ll also be learning and reinforcing your talents as a lawyer.

Inspire And Educate Others

“Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.”

—Benjamin Franklin

According to Frank Ramos, the problem with law firms these days is the bottom line. He says there’s too much focus on billable hours, and not enough mentorship going on. Whatever stage of your career you’re in, there is always something who could use your expertise. It helps a lawyer in need, it positions you as an influencer, and it could come back to you tenfold in the future. Your LinkedIn mentorship via posts and comments is public, so you never know which potential future associate is watching!