The Attorney’s Guide to Crushing It on LinkedIn
Senior year of college, in the middle of her advertising internship, Jamie Sternberg realized she wanted to be a lawyer.
She was interning for Monster.com, when she found herself in a conversation with the in-house counsel about another job search site that was stealing from their database.
Jamie realized she would much rather shadow the in-house counsel than go back to her marketing group and work on the PR side of things.
So she decided to go to law school and specialize in intellectual property law, particularly in trademarks and copyright.
After law school, Jamie started out working at a general practice firm in Concord, New Hampshire, before accepting her dream position as a trademark and copyright associate at the largest law firm in Vermont.
Even though she loved the substance of what she did and the people she worked with, Jamie couldn’t help feeling stuck inside the four walls of her office.
Years later, when she made partner at another firm, Jamie got to go out in the community for the first time. She realized there was a whole world out there. She started going to local chambers of commerce. She became more active in the International Trademark Association organization. She started meeting people and attending events.
Until she attended one pivotal event that changed everything for her career.
Until that point, Jamie had never heard of a business coach, but she had often talked to her husband about feeling stuck and not knowing where to go for support.
But for the first time at this event, Jamie heard a business coach speak, and eventually decided to hire her. Her coach encouraged Jamie to join networks and get more active on LinkedIn.
Jamie took the encouragement and ran with it.
LinkedIn became Jamie’s platform, to the point that her business coach started asking her for advice.
So I had to ask Jamie, “Why is being on LinkedIn so important, especially for attorneys, and what can we do to take advantage of it?”
Here was her response…
LinkedIn for Attorneys
LinkedIn is where attorneys and other professionals hang out. While they might also be on Instagram and Facebook, those platforms aren’t typically used for business purposes. LinkedIn, on the other hand, is a respectful and polite environment where referral partners, business owners, and potential clients are all waiting to connect with you.
Jamie highlighted 5 strategies for making the most of LinkedIn.
- Create (or Update) Your Profile - Make sure you have a picture, cover photo, and updated contact information.
- Get a Feel for the Platform - Start scrolling through the feed and seeing what other people are posting.
- Start commenting - Start by leaving short comments, then set a goal of commenting more substantively on 3 posts every day. You can also give yourself a time-specific goal, like 15 minutes a day.
- Connect with People - Set a goal of connecting with 5-10 people per week. These connections might come from co-workers, former co-workers, or anyone in your network.
- Write Posts - Start by writing posts about things you feel comfortable with. You probably already have more content than you realize. Think about articles you’ve written, presentations you’ve built, or other material you can repurpose.
The key is to make this as easy as possible. Give yourself permission to start small. As you build your confidence, you can jump in with both feet.
As attorneys, we like everything to be hard, but this doesn’t have to be hard!
You have a permission slip to write really short posts. You can become a thought leader in people’s eyes just by doing a little bit.
In terms of consistency, do whatever works for you. Ideally, you want to post three times a week, but if you can only do it twice or once a week, then do that. Just stay consistent.
Where to find Jamie:
LinkedIn: Jamie Sternberg
Website: drumlinstrategies.com
