Did you know that organisation-wide engagement on platforms such as LinkedIn is not only critical to elevating your firm’s visibility and reputation but vital to building morale, attracting top talent and bringing in new clients?
When your employees get behind creating or sharing content related to their work and your company’s successes, it generates a powerful ripple effect, significantly amplifying the reach of your organisation’s message.
Basically, this collective effort ensures your company’s story reaches a much bigger audience than ordinarily would be the case.
But how do bosses from more traditional settings such as law firms (where staff may be resistant because of confidentiality concerns or time constraints) encourage their people to get involved?
The answer is simple: lead by example.
Show your team that you’re prepared to roll up your sleeves and get active.
Your participation on LinkedIn will set the tone and signal the importance of the platform to the entire firm – that it is not just a passing fad but a valuable networking tool and a wonderful opportunity to showcase both the individual and the collective expertise of your organisation.
Strategies for leading by example
So, how should CEOs, managing partners and directors at law firms go about setting a powerful example for others to follow?
- Share thought leadership. Publish in-depth articles or shorter insights that demonstrate your expertise, that discuss industry trends or unpack complex and difficult-to-understand legal concepts. Your posts could also include your take on high-profile legal cases, making your expertise accessible while at the same time showcasing your firm’s deep knowledge.
- Highlight your firm’s culture and achievements. When posting talk about your team’s accomplishments, such as case wins, new hires, or awards. Celebrating these milestones is not only good for building a positive narrative around your firm but helps build morale. Let’s face it, we all love a pat on the pack for a job well done! We also like the fact that we’re working for an organisation that is kicking goals!
- Build a strong personal and firm brand: Ensure your personal LinkedIn profile is professional, with a high-quality headshot and a banner image which is strongly aligned with your firm’s branding. Also ensure your personal LinkedIn profile speaks powerfully to your deep expertise as well as to your role as the leader.
- Humanize your brand: Share stories about community involvement, pro bono work, or personal leadership experiences. Occasionally post about personal milestones. This not only presents you as more approachable but makes your engagement that more authentic.
- Engage with others on LinkedIn. Participate in industry discussions by commenting on relevant posts. Also interact with clients, partners, and industry leaders by liking and sharing their content. All this helps build community.
- Post regularly and consistently. Aim to be active on the LinkedIn at least weekly. Even simple actions like reposting content from your company’s LinkedIn page will help keep you top of mind.
- Encourage and recognize staff engagement: Motivate your team to participate on LinkedIn and more importantly, acknowledge their efforts when they do.
Remember that your active involvement on LinkedIn will not only spur your staff into action but will set the standard for how LinkedIn can be used to effectively enhance your firm’s reputation, attract new clients, and develop your business.
Essentially it will provide your people with the blueprint for how it should be done!
Which Aussie legal bosses are setting a great example on LinkedIn?
Here are some of the stand-out managing partners, directors and CEOs who are paving the way for their team to follow on LinkedIn.
Bill Doogue – Director and Criminal Law Specialist at Doogue + George
In addition to having a professional and well optimised personal LinkedIn profile, Bill engages regularly on LinkedIn – whether that be talking about high profile cases his firm has been involved in (the inquest into the death of Kumanjayi Walker), passing intelligent commentary on cases in the public domain (the Alec Baldwin involuntary manslaughter case) or discussing training initiatives his firm is involved in.
What I also like about Bill’s engagement is that it is authentic and occasionally includes snippets of information of a personal nature – that his sister Jan has been sworn in as a High Court Judge in New Zealand.
Virginia Briggs – CEO and Managing Partner, Minter Ellison
She has fabulous personal LinkedIn profile which not only talks about her leadership style and her goals as CEO but discusses her expertise in complex, large-scale infrastructure and real estate transactions.
Virginia also posts and reposts content regularly whether that be thought leadership content (lessons from failed M&A deals), fostering a culture of innovation at MinterEllison, winning a major court case (the historic agreement between Qantas and Perth Airport) or her firm’s sponsorship of vital research.
Jacob Varghese – Chief Executive Officer at Maurice Blackburn Lawyers
Like Virginia, Jacob also uses his personal LinkedIn profile to speak powerfully to his role as CEO of Maurice Blackburn as well as his deep expertise and experience in class actions.
His engagement also covers the broad gamut of content types – a thought leadership piece on why ‘lawyers are not doing enough to open the legal system to more Australians’, stories about his firm’s history and its close ties with the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre as well as content that showcases his firm’s culture and achievements.
Emma Covacevich – Chief Executive Partner, Clayton Utz
While Emma has a solid profile which clearly spells out her specialisation in energy and corporate matters, it is with her engagement on LinkedIn where she truly holds her own.
Her content varies from providing commentary on issues impacting the legal sector, discussing the fact that her firm was the first to adopt Lexis+AI, to reflecting on her own journey as a lawyer – even sharing a piece about being a boarder at St Margaret Anglican School in the early ’90s.
This personal touch adds a genuine layer of authenticity to her engagement.
All sound a bit daunting?
At Parker Public Relations we work with lawyers and law firms, teaching them how to manage what they do best while we step in and take care of the rest.
We will:
- Develop lawyers’ personal LinkedIn profiles.
- Develop the company LinkedIn profile.
- Teach lawyers how to engage on LinkedIn. This can be managed via group workshops or one-to-one coaching.
- Develop articles and content for the firm’s Company as well as lawyers’ LinkedIn pages.
- Teach lawyers how to create their own original content specific to their individual expertise or practice area.
- Provide the firm and individual lawyers with ongoing assistance and support.
Get in touch: 0422 694 503 wendy@www.parkerpublicrelations.com.au