Thought Leadership and Sharing with Colleagues and Clients via LinkedIn Today

22
Jun
2011

Natalie Huha

Social media is becoming the main stream for networking, connecting with like-minded colleagues, strategic planning and business development.

Many law firms are now starting to put social media on the radar and are including it in succession planning for firm growth.  One of the social media that is on the top of attorney and law firm lists for immediate inclusion and presence is LinkedIn.  According to LinkedIn, it’s the number one professional social networking site with over 100 million members and almost 1.5 million lawyers.

While there are many features and strategies for using LinkedIn in legal, one of newer often over looked feature’s is the News section on LinkedIn, called LinkedIn Today.

Recently, LinkedIn added the new feature called LinkedIn Today which is a customizable online “newspaper” listing articles that you follow from top sources for your interests. For example, you can choose to follow top sources such as Bloomberg.com, HBR.org, Wall Street Journal, CNN Money as well as Legal specific sources like ABAJournal.com, Lawyerist.com, Law.com and of course, JDSupra.com.

So why is this a great thought leadership and sharing tool for lawyers? LinkedIn Today allows you to share the articles with your connections (clients and colleagues) while creating your own knowledge bank of ‘saved’ resources.  When you share with your connections, you show up in their activity stream possibly prompting a phone call or an email which may lead to new business.  This allows you to share timely relevant information, which in turn adds visibility and value for your connections. You can also post directly to the Groups that you manage or are a member of reaching even more prospective clients and showcasing thought leadership.  AND for those of you using Outlook 2010 LinkedIn Social Connector, your LinkedIn activity of articles you have shared displays in the People Pane (adding yet another layer of visibility and value).

By sharing what interests you, to your colleagues and clients, it demonstrates that you are staying on top of what’s current and helps to build the trust in your online relationships.  When you share an article, be sure to add comments to it. By doing so, you could also link to a blog post or a speaking engagement where you share even more information about the particular topic.

So, that being said, go to the News | LinkedIn Today section and start reading what interests you and share with your connections!  Below is a quick video how to set it up. For maximum viewing, view it in full screen mode via YouTube!

Added Productivity Workflow Tip

Add LinkedIn.com to your start up websites when you launch your internet browser.  This way you can view, read and share content more easily!