According to their website, LinkedIn has over 300 million members from over 200 countries making it the world’s largest professional network. Yet those who make the most of LinkedIn see it as more than just a professional profile or online business card, they use it as a business tool.
A key part of this approach is monitoring and making use of your own and other users’ Activity Feed.
Sadly this crucial selling point for LinkedIn was removed at the end of 2013, however it has just been brought back into action (as of 22-May-2014) and thus if you want to get the most out of LinkedIn you need to learn how to make use of this re-introduced feature on your profile.
What is the LinkedIn Activity Feed?
The Activity Feed allows you and any contact or client viewing your profile to see all recent activity on your profile. For law firms’ fee earners in particular, if used correctly the Activity Feed can be used to prove their expertise. This is important because in the modern, connected world it is expected that people should have an online professional footprint, and it is customary for clients, referrers or the other side in a matter, to check you out online through a simple Google search. Therefore it is crucial to make good use of your LinkedIn profile to enhance your online professional persona.
Connecting to people on LinkedIn allows you to build up a network and receive recommendations that will no doubt influence future visitors of your profile in deciding whether or not the service you offer is of a high quality.
How should a law firm employee use the LinkedIn Activity Feed
The first thing to do is to post something into the Share an update box on your LinkedIn home page. I try and do this at least three times per week, more often if I have time. Sometimes it will be a direct link to our website, other times it will be sharing information I’ve found on other people’s sites.
The Activity Feed shows all the people you’ve recently connected with, as well as recent recommendations/endorsements and it is this human connection element of a professional social network is perhaps the most important aspect to be cultivated, because if you have been recommended and verified by a host of other users, a new client or contact is likely to take your expertise more seriously.
Other than connections and recommendations, status updates and profile changes appear on the Activity Feed as well, although you can control what appears using the of the Turn on/off your activity broadcasts setting in the Privacy Settings area.
However, the most important part of your profile for proving your expertise is undoubtedly joining and engaging in groups on LinkedIn, as all this comes up on your activity feed for other users to see as well. Take the time to join groups related to your clients’ more than your legal discipline. Then, become active in these groups by involving yourself in discussions, in turn you will become a recognised expert within those circles if you invest enough time updating your profile and contributing to the community. This won’t be wasted effort at all, because in the long run you’ll reap the benefits when users feel that your expertise has been verified solely based on your LinkedIn presence.
The power of LinkedIn lies in harnessing the social connections that are a part of day-to-day business but on a much larger scale online and the best way to do this is by updating your profile to maximise the newly reintegrated Activity Feed.