How to grow an audience on LinkedIn as a legal professional? Should you even bother?

Hey legal friends! This week, I'll make it shorter. Because I am not inspired.

This is something I find at times with content creation: the creative blocks. If you're getting started or want to get started with growing your influence on LinkedIn, just know this is part of the game and something to just accept!

To quote Daniel Priestley "prolific beats perfect".

Your first piece of content will probably not be as good as your 100th. Yet you need that first kick in the ball to strike one day. But if you let a year pass between your first and second piece of content, nothing will happen either.

The constant practice of average content will win 100 times over the pursuit of that perfect post that never gets out.

Lean in into being authentically average and, to quote Gary Vaynerchuk "document don't create"

?? I've made it to the LinkedIn Top Voice for Social Media.

To all of you who seem to have found my posts insightful, it seems that it earned me a recognition from LinkedIn so thank you so much every single one of you!

What you may have missed.

My post on how to get started in LinkedIn . As some of you know I've been an early adopter of content creation on LinkedIn (2018). Part of being an early adopter is to make all the possible mistakes that you do want to avoid if you're getting started in 2023. So check it out if you want to see how to up your game!

It always baffles me that people in the legal industry still debate as to whether they should be active or not. As if this was a life threatening decision.

This is not just a net positive game, there is an opportunity cost to being inactive.

For example an opportunity to reach out to 50K people in 14 days and 6 posts as you can see below.

I also posted about how you can visualise legal content and make it more engaging , even more so when the topic can be boring as hell! This is a mini masterclass so take it away! Oh and DM me if you'd like a free quick training on creating your first visual LinkedIn post!

Should you build a profile if you're just employed?

I finally ran a workshop for the Association of Corporate Counsel for how in-house counsels can start building their influence on LinkedIn. I received incredible feedback from the organisers so it seems to have resonated!

A regular question I get is whether people who are employed should bother with building a profile.

I have an entire post on this you can check. But my take is this

1. Unless you're working for free, you are trading time for money.
2. You do not own your job. You rent your job title and earn a fixed fee in exchange of a set of skills.
3. You do not build assets beyond the experience and network

So when a recession, a restructure, a change in leadership kicks in and 'they let you go' , you go back to the job market where people who've done similar things to you are. And because there is no big differentiator between profiles, you're told that the package is 'market standard'.

That is because your CV looks and sounds like everyone else. When two products are similar, they compete on price.

On the other hand, you'll never see Hermès competing with handbags from the local store.

Because they do not have to. They built that category of one.

Building a profile reverses the narrative.

1. You attract people who want to do business with you and share your values
2. You're being reached out to for opportunities that would have otherwise not existed
3. You become a category of one and do not have to compete with 'market standards'

It has never been easier to start building up your profile and future-proof your career.

It does not matter how things go at Law But How? , I am pretty confident that I will be able to continue my career path regardless because of all the goodwill I put out!

I'll let that sink in.. !

?? Your to-do.

?? 10 people have so far confirmed their interest for an online course on how to start growing an audience on LinkedIn with Visual Legal Content. If this something you're interested in, you can register your interest here .

?? Over 100 people have signed up to my private list to receive exclusive content from me. You can be part of that too by clicking here .

Until next time!

Sarah