Law Technology Today From the ABA Legal Technology Resource Center
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LinkedIn’s Company Pages feature is a tool law firms can use to promote the firm and its lawyers, attract qualified prospects for job openings within the firm or to engage with clients, potential clients and referral sources.
When the firm creates a Company Page, all employees of the firm who have Profiles on LinkedIn will automatically be attached to the firm’s Company Page, giving those Profiles additional exposure. Having a Page for your firm on LinkedIn provides a vehicle to provide firm-wide information, not specific to any individual, as a supplement to or an extension of your firm’s or organization’s website.
Elements of the Company Page
Company Pages are comprised of four sections: Home, Products and Services, Career, and Insights.
The Home page includes a cover photo and firm description, recent Updates posted by the Page, the people on LinkedIn who are connected to your firm, and any featured Groups. Visitors may choose to follow your Company page from here; they can also “like,” comment on, or share your Company’s Updates.
The Careers section is only available with a paid subscription. Here, your firm can list jobs, include employee testimonials, and add multimedia elements to attract potential candidates to work at your firm. Visitors can apply for jobs at your firm directly through LinkedIn.
Visitors to your Company page can click on the Insights tab to see former employees they may know, as well as a list of other Company pages viewed by those who also viewed your firm’s Page.
The Products & Services section of your Company page provides a place to describe your practice areas and services in more detail and give individual links directly to specific pages on your website for more information. If you have created YouTube videos about your practice or what you do for clients, you can link to those videos directly from Products & Services. You can also add logos and images to each product or service to make your descriptions more interesting.
Individuals can write Recommendations for your services which can be displayed on your Page as well, but check your jurisdiction’s ethical rules before posting Recommendations. Sharing is also enabled for Products & Services, allowing others to share information about your services with their network.
For each service, you can identify a firm contact, which will allow you to let the individual practice group leader within your firm be contacted. You can also change the title of this section to simply Services, if you prefer.
A key feature not to be overlooked by lawyers is that you can even add a disclaimer in a designated section if you determine that you need one.
Updates
The firm can post Updates on the Company Page. Updates can be a great way to point people to items on your website or in your firm newsletter. Company Updates can be up to 600 characters long (including spaces). Shared link titles and descriptions can be up to 250 characters each, which is plenty of room to provide summary information, links, and details about upcoming events.
LinkedIn also now allows you to post Targeted Updates. When you create an Update from your Company page, you’ll see a Share With box pop up. That box provides two options: either All followers or Targeted audience. If you click on Targeted audience, LinkedIn will provide you with several criteria to choose from under Company size, Industry, Function, Seniority, and Geography. After selecting your criteria, you may choose to send your Update to employees and nonemployees or to nonemployees only. Your firm must have at least one hundred followers within the selected target group to post a Targeted Update.
LinkedIn members can comment on, “like,” or share a Company Update, the same way they would with an individual Update from a Connection. But now LinkedIn Company page administrators can also comment on or “like” Updates as the Company page, rather than just as individuals.
Tips for Company Pages
The keys to making Company pages work for you are to get creative about what you post and to actively engage on a consistent basis. You can benefit from increased interaction with other lawyers, strategic alliances, referral sources, and prospective clients.
As more and more businesses begin using Company pages on LinkedIn, users will begin following these pages, just as they do on Facebook, Twitter, or other platforms. Given that LinkedIn is known as the professional network, however, followers of the Updates on your Company page are likely to be those interested in your practice or your professional associations. LinkedIn provides a tool to create a Follow button that you can add to your website.
Post Updates regularly and promote your law firm Company Page by adding a Follow button to the firm’s website or blog. Feature the Company Page in e-mails, firm newsletters, and other marketing materials to encourage all of your audience to make it part of their LinkedIn experience.
For more about how lawyers can use LinkedIn, see the recently released book, LinkedIn in One Hour for Lawyers, Second Edition.
