The right (and wrong) way to stand out on LinkedIn and win work and find new opportunities

Many lawyers, accountants and consultants are being forced to re-evaluate their business development plans to include LinkedIn. The key question every professional I meet wants to know is how to stand out on LinkedIn. After all, there are many hundreds of thousands of people who do what you do on LinkedIn. How do you rise above the noise to get noticed by potential clients, introducers and dare I say it…. a new employer?

LinkedIn: How to stand out (is there a right way or a wrong way?)

Should you add to your LinkedIn headline “open to new opportunities”…. or is that career suicide? I’ve heard recruitment consultants say never publicly say you are currently unemployed. But on the flip side, I’ve also personally taken notice of people looking for a role and quietly passed their profile onto someone who could employ them.

The golden rules of LinkedIn

There are some simple rules to making sure LinkedIn works for you. Rather than letting it become a massive waste of your time.

  • Before you spend lots of time on LinkedIn think about WHO you want to attract to you. And, therefore, WHAT you need to write on your LinkedIn profile to help them want to connect and get in touch with you.
  • When you post on LinkedIn’s newsfeed remember to be human first, professional second. People don’t buy what you sell on a whim. They need to get to know you before they get in contact. This means you can’t just be all professional every single posting.
  • Turn up consistently, and ideally daily.
  • Proactively look for people to connect with you on LinkedIn.
  • Comment on other people’s posts and network… remember you are not there to sell.

Take a step forwards to working on your own career development and sign up to my weekly tips here and you’ll find out what you need to be working on in your career development (and how to make the time for your career development) to progress your career in your firm.

My Progress to Partner Academy  has a great Game Plan called “…I’m a good technician but don’t have a client portfolio” to help you get started on your networking and business development journey.

Standing out on LinkedIn is such a hot topic that I did a Facebook Live on just that. How to use LinkedIn to get noticed. Here is a snippet: