Twelve Tips for Effective In-Person Networking in the Post-Pandemic World

I recently got on my first flight since the pandemic. I had been avoiding travel and conferences for many reasons, but it’s time to stop hiding at home and behind my computer screen.

Over the next few weeks I am speaking at several lawyer retreats and industry conferences – I’m excited but nervous.

I feel like a fish out of water (I accidentally let my TSA pre-check expire as well as my passport during Covid). It’s also the first time I’m leaving my pandemic puppies (I think it’s more traumatic for me than them).

I’m looking forward to seeing familiar faces and meeting new ones, and getting to know my clients in a setting other than Zoom because human connections are important and powerful.

In-person networking is essential – it is the secret sauce to building long-term and meaningful relationships. Those relationships can lead to opportunities of all kinds.

Even as an extroverted extrovert, I’m a bit rusty on networking.

I have been doing countless presentations to a computer screen since March 2020 and so being able to see and interact with real people is a much welcome change. A return to “normalcy.”

But after years of being an “expert” network, I’m not actually sure what to do when I actually see people again in a profesional group setting.

Do I hug? (I’m Italian, we like to hug) Shake hands? Fist bump? Just smile and nod? So glad we aren’t bathing in hand sanitizer anymore or cloroxing everything with which we come in touch.

Many of us are in the same position after the past few years, and we don’t feel like the same person we used to be. But that’s okay. Let’s collectively give ourselves a break (and some grace). We are all in the same boat – together.

Here are 12 tips for effective in-person networking I plan to use:

  1. Ask people about themselves more then I talk about myself.
  2. Practice active listening.
  3. Say their names a few times when talking to them – it helps me remember them and makes people like you more.
  4. Write notes after each meaningful conversation.
  5. Exit conversations gracefully.
  6. Follow up and connect on LinkedIn with new and renewed contacts.
  7. Put my LinkedIn QR code on my iPhone home screen to facilitate easy networking. Here’s how.
  8. Add new contacts to my CRM.
  9. Immerse myself in the programming. I am not going to check my email every second or do unnecessary work.
  10. Write a key takeaways blog and LinkedIn post from the sessions I enjoyed and tag the speakers.
  11. Create an email OOO message that supports my brand and business (see example from Paula Edgar).
  12. Have an intimate dinner with my clients/colleagues to get to know them better.

Do you have any tips for in-person networking in the post-pandemic environment?

Copyright © 2022, Stefanie M. Marrone. All Rights Reserved.

Three Ways to Use LinkedIn’s Notifications Tab to Build Your Network and Business

Here’s an easy and effective way to leverage LinkedIn for business development and networking – use information and updates about your connections from the Notifications tab to build stronger relationships.

LinkedIn gives you many reasons to reach out to people in your professional network through the Notifications tab

These reasons range from new business, networking, jobs, referrals and branding opportunities.

Prompts from the LinkedIn Notifications tab about your connections’ birthdays, work anniversaries and new jobs can serve as powerful catalysts to get back in touch with your connections.

I have seen these prompts lead to new business and reignited relationships many times.

I call these notifications “low hanging fruit” because they require very little effort on your part and they’re easy to do, and can yield major benefits.

Marketing strategies don’t have to be complicated to be successful. We often overlook them when it’s so basic.

So how do you leverage them?

  1. For a work anniversary notification, you could say, “Hey Jim, I can’t believe it’s been X years since you joined your company! Time sure flies. How are you?” Then take it a step further, suggest an off-line conversation either in person, over the phone or via zoom.

  2. For a new job announcement try, “Congratulations on the new role – how is it going so far?” again offer to take the conversation off-line and have a separate conversation either in-person or virtually.  (Many people don’t send an email when they get a new job anymore – it’s up to us to do the due diligence to find out where they landed and then take the initiative to congratulate them on their job move).

  3. Wish your connections a happy birthday.  Just saying a simple “Happy birthday – I hope you’re having a great day – would love to take you for lunch or a drink to celebrate” is a great way to make someone’s day. Adding your birthday into LinkedIn works – I had about 200 LinkedIn birthday well wishes and one of them actually led to a new client.

Sometimes the basic actions that take just minutes are the most impactful.

Having reasons to reach out to your connections is powerful versus the dreaded “just checking in” email.

LinkedIn has made it even easier now to stay updated on others’ notifications by enabling us to follow certain individuals by clicking the bell on their profile.

No one knows who you are following, so use it strategically and follow your clients, referrals, VIP connections and even your competitors. You should also follow content creators whose information you find useful.

I’d love to hear how the Notifications section has worked for you.

Copyright © 2022, Stefanie M. Marrone. All Rights Reserved.

How Businesses Can Use LinkedIn Company Newsletters in Their Marketing Efforts

LinkedIn has added what I think is the most helpful tool in a long time for businesses to engage with and bring value to their followers – the ability for LinkedIn Company Pages to publish email newsletters right through LinkedIn.

This underscores the importance of having a company page and how it can be used as a content hub for marketing and recruiting your business.

Linked Company Page newsletters are available to businesses with more than 150 followers that actively maintain their LinkedIn presences.

You can create a LinkedIn Company Page newsletter in three simple steps:

  1. Create: Start writing an article on and select “Create a Newsletter.” Give it a title, add a header image (it prompts you with the dimensions) and cut and paste your text. You can add hyperlinks and images for each article too.
  2. Publish: When you publish your newsletter it will post to your feed and LinkedIn will notify your followers. They can opt in to receive email and in-platform notifications when you publish new content.
  3. Review performance: View the analytics of each newsletter sent out and see the number of subscribers. The number increases pretty quickly which is awesome. And it’s opt in so you don’t have to worry about GDPR rules.

There’s a lot of opportunity here because it is a new feature (for companies – it’s been available to individuals for a short time) and most companies don’t know about it yet (and certainly aren’t using it yet), so being an early adopter is to your benefit.

Even if you send out an email newsletter, you should still utilize the LinkedIn platform to send out a newsletter because you will reach a different audience and cast a wider net for your content.

In addition, people are opting into this newsletter, so it’s not building an audience from scratch, and if you haven’t ever sent out an email newsletter, this is a great way to start. If email marketing programs and CRM management tools overwhelm you, this is a great way to test out the waters.

It’s also really easy to repurpose content you already have. I would include hyperlinks to your website or blog with the full text (in order to keep the newsletter short and to drive traffic to your site).

You can embed links from YouTube into the newsletter to play. Check out my LinkedIn newsletter to see how it looks.

Here are some content ideas for what you can include in your LinkedIn Company Page Newsletter:

  • Article snippets with links to your latest blog posts or client alerts
  • Links to past webinars (provide a synopsis too)
  • Links to recent podcasts and videos (with shownotes)
  • Recent case studies
  • Q&As with your employees
  • Highlights of your community service/pro bono work
  • Announcements of your recent hires
  • Recent press coverage (this would be the only place where I would recommend including self-promotional items in the newsletter – the rest of it should be client-focused)
  • Upcoming events/webinars – this is a great way to promote them
  • Open jobs – why not promote them through this newsletter? It’s a competitive job market
  • News about your diversity and women’s initiatives programs – clients care a lot about this

Check out this new feature and let me know what you think of it. With nearly 800 million people on LinkedIn and the fact that your competitors are very likely not using it yet, it’s at least worth trying out.

Copyright © 2022, Stefanie M. Marrone. All Rights Reserved.

Top 10 Questions Lawyers Ask About LinkedIn

Most lawyers know that LinkedIn is the most-popular social media site for business networking and meaningful interactions with people relevant to their practices. While LinkedIn has emerged as the primary business social media site, the do’s and don’ts of how to interact on the platform can be a bit of a mystery. Over the last several years, I have worked with attorneys across the country on how to use LinkedIn. The list here covers the most-commonly asked questions from attorneys about how to set up and manage a LinkedIn presence.

Q: If I’m not going to post anything on LinkedIn, why do I need a profile?

Even if you don’t plan on interacting and sharing information on LinkedIn, you should still create a profile. Think of LinkedIn as a free, high-quality directory listing that you control. When people search for your name online, LinkedIn profiles typically place high in search results. Therefore, having a well-optimized LinkedIn profile gives you strong online visibility.

Additionally, LinkedIn has more than 180 million members in North America and 645 million members worldwide. Members use the platform as a search engine to find people in specific job positions in areas around the globe. Not having a presence means missing out on becoming part of the most-inclusive business network available online.

The basic elements of a complete LinkedIn profile include:

  • A well-optimized headline — Use your title, but also include your generic position as well (lawyer or attorney) to help improve your visibility in LinkedIn searches.
  • A professional photo — No kids or pets, please.
  • Your location, industry and contact information.
  • Your experience — Tag your current employer in your experience section so your profile appears on the “Employees” list of your firm’s LinkedIn page.
  • Your education.

Q: Do I connect with everyone who asks?

No. While you don’t have to actually know everyone you connect with on LinkedIn, you do want to vet requests to make sure you share some level of business interest — you work in the same industry, have shared connections, live in the same region, etc. If a connection request comes from someone completely unrelated to your business world, you do not have to accept it.

Q: Should I personalize my connection requests?

When you’re asked to connect with someone, LinkedIn gives you the option to send the person a customized message. Including a note to a connection request gives an added layer of personalization and may initiate a back-and-forth conversation. Don’t overthink your message, though. Sometimes just a “It was great to meet you at the conference yesterday”-type message is adequate.

Q: Should I look at other people’s profiles in private or “full profile” mode?

LinkedIn allows you to control whether people see that you viewed their profile. Before you scope people out, think about your desired visibility. Do you want the person to know you viewed their profile or would you rather remain anonymous? Sometimes profile-viewing is the first step in connecting, so when appropriate, I usually recommend that people view in full-profile mode. Obviously, in certain circumstances, you may benefit from using private mode, but be aware that when you switch, LinkedIn disables the “Who Viewed Your Profile” feature and erases your viewer history.

Q: How often should I post?

Posting frequency on LinkedIn should be managed with thoughtful intent. Too many posts may clutter your connections’ feeds, leading them to block you, but posting only occasionally is a lost opportunity to stay top of mind with your network. I generally recommend that attorneys post no more than once a day unless there’s something really important that has to be shared, in which case it is often better to “like” or “share” someone else’s post. When you “like” a post, the original post shows up framed in your feed. This approach achieves the goal of sharing the content without seeming overly self-promotional and sets up the possibility of a reciprocated “like” in the future. Whether you share twice a week or seven times a week, remember that quality is much more important than quantity.

Q: Should I only post content from my firm’s website?

Mix it up a bit. Keep in mind the rule that “you are what you share” when determining what to post on LinkedIn. Just posting content from the firm’s website will come across as overly self-promotional, and doesn’t position you as a well-rounded thought leader who enhances their knowledge base from multiple sources. Good sources to consider include your firm’s resource information, mainstream media outlets, trade and business publications, local outlets, and any other reliable online publishers.

Q: Do I have to use an image with my posts?

Always try to accompany your post with a related image. Stock photos are fully acceptable on LinkedIn as long as there’s a connection between the text and the graphic. Original photos are ideal but not always possible. Some firms create an image template where they can swap out an attorney’s headshot and change the headline text. These enforce a strong brand presence — but shouldn’t be overused because they can lead to a dull uniformity in your post feed.

LinkedIn also allows you to embed videos in your posts, as long as they are under 10 minutes in length. Consider posting original video content in your feed, and become your own broadcast channel!

Q: Should I use hashtags in LinkedIn posts?

LinkedIn posts can include hashtags, but keep in mind that popular hashtags on one social media platform are not the same on another platform. For instance, you would almost never use Instagram hashtags on LinkedIn. When you compose a post, LinkedIn suggests related hashtags that you can choose from, or you can do your own hashtag research using the “#” symbol in the search field and seeing how many people follow a given hashtag. Find hashtags that are relevant to your post and have enough search volume to make them worthwhile.

Q: Should I use LinkedIn’s publishing section?

Yes! Whenever you publish an original blog or article on your firm’s website, you should always replicate it on LinkedIn’s publishing platform. Even third-party publications will often let you republish bylined articles on your LinkedIn account with attribution. After all, it gives them added visibility.

Q: Is it worth paying for a premium account?

If you are looking for basic visibility, networking and engagement functionality, a premium account is not necessary. For attorneys looking to deepen their prospecting capabilities and sales funnel features, upgrading to premium is definitely worth the cost. If you’re not sure, try out the free 30-day trial that LinkedIn offers.

If you still have questions about LinkedIn, the LinkedIn help center publishes a well-organized library of information about managing profiles and engaging on their platform. Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn to recommend additions to my top 10 list.


© Copyright 2008-2019, Jaffe Associates

ARTICLE BY Melanie Trudeau of Jaffe.
For more on social media for lawyers, see the National Law Review Law Office Management page.

LinkedIn Petitions Circuit Court for En Banc Review of hiQ Scraping Decision

On October 11, 2019, LinkedIn Corp. (“LinkedIn”) filed a petition for rehearing en banc of the Ninth Circuit’s blockbuster decision in hiQ Labs, Inc. v. LinkedIn Corp., No. 17-16783 (9th Cir. Sept. 9, 2019). The crucial question before the original panel concerned the scope of Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) liability to unwanted web scraping of publicly available social media profile data and whether once hiQ Labs, Inc. (“hiQ”), a data analytics firm, received LinkedIn’s cease-and-desist letter demanding it stop scraping public profiles, any further scraping of such data was “without authorization” within the meaning of the CFAA. The appeals court affirmed the lower court’s order granting a preliminary injunction barring LinkedIn from blocking hiQ from accessing and scraping publicly available LinkedIn member profiles to create competing business analytic products. Most notably, the Ninth Circuit held that hiQ had shown a likelihood of success on the merits in its claim that when a computer network generally permits public access to its data, a user’s accessing that publicly available data will not constitute access “without authorization” under the CFAA.

In its petition for en banc rehearing, LinkedIn advanced several arguments, including:

  • The hiQ decision conflicts with the Ninth Circuit Power Ventures precedent, where the appeals court held that a commercial entity that accesses a website after permission has been explicitly revoked can, under certain circumstances, be civilly liable under the CFAA. Power Ventures involved Facebook user data protected by password (that users initially allowed a data aggregator permission to access). LinkedIn argued that the hiQ court’s logic in distinguishing Power Ventures was flawed and that the manner in which a user classifies his or her profile data should have no bearing on a website owner’s right to protect its physical servers from trespass.

“Power Ventures thus holds that computer owners can deny authorization to access their physical servers within the meaning of the CFAA, even when users have authorized access to data stored on the owner’s servers. […] Nothing about a data owner’s decision to place her data on a website changes LinkedIn’s independent right to regulate who can access its website servers.”

  • The language of the CFAA should not be read to allow for “authorization” to be assumed (and unable to be revoked) for publicly available website data, either under Ninth Circuit precedent or under the CFAA-related case law of other circuits.

“Nothing in the CFAA’s text or the definition of ‘authorization’ that the panel employed—“[o]fficial permission to do something; sanction or warrant,” suggests that enabling websites to be publicly viewable is not ‘authorization’ that can be revoked.”

  • The privacy interests enunciated by LinkedIn on behalf of its users is “of exceptional importance,” and the court discounted the fact that hiQ is “unaccountable” and has no contractual relationship with LinkedIn users, such that hiQ could conceivably share the scraped data or aggregate it with other data.

“Instead of recognizing that LinkedIn members share their information on LinkedIn with the expectation that it will be viewed by a particular audience (human beings) in a particular way (by visiting their pages)—and that it will be subject to LinkedIn’s sophisticated technical measures designed to block automated requests—the panel assumed that LinkedIn members expect that their data will be ‘accessed by others, including for commercial purposes,’ even purposes antithetical to their privacy setting selections. That conclusion is fundamentally wrong.

Both website operators and open internet advocates will be watching closely to see if the full Ninth Circuit decides to rehear the appeal, given the importance of the CFAA issue and the prevalence of data scraping of publicly available website content. We will keep a close watch on developments.


© 2019 Proskauer Rose LLP.

LinkedIn: A Lawyer’s New Best Friend

Linkedin LawyersWhile there are plenty of books written about social media, I’ve found that most attorneys have little time to invest in such trivial pursuits. I’m sure you’ve rolled your eyes a few times when perusing Facebook or Twitter and reading some of the material on those sites. Many of these negative opinions stem from reality, whereas others come from a disappointing lack of knowledge as to the sites’ benefits.

In order to effectively utilize social media, it’s important to recognize what you want social media to do for you. Are you looking to grow originations, develop a cult-like following, or brand yourself to get speaking engagements? By answering this question first, you can focus on investing your time in the most effective social media forums.

There are literally hundreds of social media channels to choose from. Being selective and focused on the right one will help you get results more quickly. For most attorneys, developing your brand in the business community is most important. In addition, you’re most likely to get results from a social media channel that allows you to be proactive in developing new contacts and ultimately new business. In my experience, the best and fastest way to get results using social media is through LinkedIn.

Over the past 10 years, LinkedIn has become the number one resource for helping brand and generate new business for service-based professionals. In many ways it’s better than Google because it’s a business networking platform rather than a general search platform. The ability to search and target people and organizations is unlimited.

LinkedIn is a fantastic brand-building tool that allows you to literally post your resume online. LinkedIn also helps you leverage your best contacts to make inside connections. Done properly, this can create a massive universe of followers, possible connections, and, most importantly, a cast of personal advocates willing to make quality introductions on your behalf.

Imagine being able to look at your client’s list of friends, vendors and associates prior to asking for a referral. You can search through LinkedIn’s 50 million users to find the best inside connections for you.

While there are hundreds of different tools on LinkedIn, I want to give you the top three keys to effectively using LinkedIn. As with anything that’s worthwhile, it’s imperative that you try to have an open mind and invest a few hours exploring the site to see where the value is for you.

The first key to effectively using LinkedIn is to create a complete profile that best represents your expertise and experience in your field of practice. The second key is to develop your LinkedIn universe by adding the right contacts. The third key is to leverage those contacts and turn them into quality introductions. These three keys should initially take only a few hours to implement, and then as little as an hour a week to start producing results.

The First Key: Writing a LinkedIn Profile That Represents You Beautifully

In order to be effective on LinkedIn, you must have a professionally written and completed profile. Think of your LinkedIn page as your online resume and personal website. If the information online is incorrect, incomplete or poorly written, it might stop someone from reaching out to you.

Imagine you’re looking online for a remodeler for your home. The first site that comes up on Google looks fantastic. You click through to see some of the remodeling work the company has done, and the site says, “Sorry, cannot open this page.” So you try another one. The same message comes up. If you’re like me, you’re done at that point. You just move on to the next search result. This is exactly what happens on LinkedIn without a skillfully written and finished profile.

Here are three tips to ensure your LinkedIn profile makes you look your best to potential clients and strategic partners:

Tip #1: Use a recent professional photograph on your LinkedIn page.

Most people are visual and want to see whom they’re going to be speaking with. As important as content is on a website, you’ve never seen an exceptional one without images to back it up. Use the photo from your website if it’s good, or get a headshot taken right away. It’s not hard to do and it can make all the difference when someone is checking out your profile. This may seem obvious, but don’t post a cutesy picture with your kids, pet, or Halloween costume.

Tip #2: Have a professionally written background/summary.

Since your LinkedIn profile will be someone’s first impression of you, failure to capture the reader’s attention can move the reader quickly away. Personally, I like to see a summary written in the third person. It has the appearance of someone else boasting about your successes and best qualities without seeming egotistical.

If possible, keep your profile to three solid paragraphs. I enjoy reading profiles that read a little like a story. The first paragraph pulls you in. The second gets you familiar with the character. The third wraps things up and motivates you to take action. It might make sense to look up some other attorneys in your practice area to see what they’ve written. This will help you identify the best profile style for you.

Tip #3: Develop a strong list of skills that best represents your expertise.

If you take a few minutes and search some of your colleagues and competitors, you can quickly begin to formulate such a list. For example, an estate planning attorney would want to have the words “wills,” “trusts” and “estate planning” listed among his or her skills, thus enabling people searching for an estate planner to more easily find the attorney.

Once your skills are posted, people in your network will then have the ability to endorse you. Essentially, when you have a skill that someone agrees with, they’ll endorse you for that skill. While this might seem like “fluff,” it’s an important factor that people use to determine who are experts and who are not. For example, if you had to choose between two referred doctors, one who has hundreds of positive endorsements on LinkedIn and one who has none, which would you choose? While this might seem insignificant, in the competitive legal environment everything counts.

Read Part 2 here: LinkedIn for Lawyers – Strengthening Your Circle by Establishing the Very Best Connections Part 2

Read Part 3 here: Effectively Using LinkedIn for Lawyers: Going Beyond Connecting and Turning LinkedIn Relationships into Better Introductions Part 3

Copyright @ 2016 Sales Results, Inc.

Microsoft Acquiring LinkedIn as Move into Enterprise Social Media

Linkedin MicrosoftMicrosoft has announced that it is buying LinkedIn for $26.2 billion, one of the largest tech acquisitions in history, and that it intends to use the business social media giant to put Microsoft at the center of our work lives.

Currently, LinkedIn has 433 million members in 200 countries. Microsoft has 1.28 billion Office users worldwide. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in an interview with Bloomberg:

“This is about the coming together of the leading professional cloud and the leading professional network. This is the logical next step to take. We believe we can accelerate that by making LinkedIn the social fabric for all of Office.”

Nadella said that Microsoft’s vision is to place your LinkedIn profile at the center of your online work life, connecting it with Windows, Outlook, Skype, PowerPoint and other Microsoft products.

For example, Cortana (Microsoft’s digital assistant) could provide users with information on other participants in an upcoming meeting by pulling data from LinkedIn profiles. Members working on a project could pull up LinkedIn articles concerning their project or use LinkedIn profiles to search for an “expert” to help with the project.

Microsoft also sees LinkedIn playing a major role in developing a new customer relationship management (CRM) tool for sales organizations. LinkedIn analytics could be integrated with Microsoft’s Dynamics tool, which competes with Salesforce.com, to assist companies with managing their customers.

Here’s a CNBC interview with Nadella and LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner explaining the opportunities.

© The Rainmaker Institute, All Rights Reserved

Three Steps to Leverage LinkedIn for Your Law Firm

I have yet to find an attorney who could not benefit from having their profile on LinkedIn. It’s the number one online network for white-collar professionals.

Whether you want to connect with non-competing attorneys, non-legal professionals, or potential clients, the demographics on LinkedIn speak for themselves:

  • The average age range of a LinkedIn user is 30 to 49

  • 44% of LinkedIn users report an annual income of more than $100,000

  • 50% of members have a college degree

  • 28% have a graduate degree

LinkedIn members are highly educated and affluent. Is this a demographic you would like to reach? For most attorneys, the answer is obvious.

The first step to using LinkedIn is to create a comprehensive profile. Use your entire bio in your profile and be sure to include your keywords in it. In other words, use the exact keywords that you believe prospects or potential referral sources would use to find an attorney with your skill sets.

For example, if you are a business attorney in Omaha it might sound like this:

“John Doe is a Omaha business attorney who works with small business owners and CEOs of mid-sized companies to create comprehensive operating agreements, buy-sell agreements and employment agreements. His Omaha business clients appreciate the fact that John is an attorney who has a strong business background, having owned and operated two different companies, including a high tech company with 25 employees.”

Next, go to the See Who You Already Know on LinkedIn page and import your email contact list. This makes it super simple to connect with people you already know who are also on LinkedIn. In addition, based on your contacts, LinkedIn will suggest relevant contacts for you to connect with on the site.

Then search LinkedIn Groups and join those where your clients and prospects are. Create content — blog posts, free reports, articles, etc. — that will attract their attention. You can also start your own group and invite contacts to join.

The key to utilizing LinkedIn effectively is to be involved and be consistent. You need to commit to investing at least 30-45 minutes every week to log in, post an update or a link to your blog, reach out to your contacts, answer any questions that are sent to you, and make yourself visible. Simply setting up a profile on LinkedIn will not lead to more referrals any more than a having a business card will automatically get you new business.

© The Rainmaker Institute, All Rights Reserved

LinkedIn For Lawyers: The Publishing Tool

Jaffe

There is no question that LinkedIn is a powerful networking tool that can potentially turn online connections into real-world clients. That won’t happen overnight, however, and those efforts will only thrive with proper care, maintenance and pruning.

Writing Your LinkedIn Profile

Most likely you already have a basic profile, but one of the biggest obstacles lawyers face is distinguishing themselves online. Bios sound the same from one attorney to the next, and, while they might showcase a long list of achievements, they often don’t say much about the person and how he or she is a problem solver. It’s important to remember that your profile is your front door to the world. Spruce it up, and lay out the welcome mat.

Need some tips when writing your LinkedIn profile? To reach influencers, gain a following and develop a reputation as someone “in the know,” use actionable language, and try to be more lively and specific. Identifying clearly how you provide a solution will make it infinitely easier for potential clients to understand what you do and why you are the perfect fit for their job. If you think revising your online profile will easily drop to the bottom of your “to do” list, schedule it on your calendar.

Blogging on LinkedIn

With a progressive profile in place, you’re now ready to harness the power of LinkedIn. In addition to providing opportunities for connecting with colleagues, friends, and potential prospects; joining groups; and posting, LinkedIn has recently unveiled a new publishing platform. It was designed to provide users with a sophisticated, yet easy-to-use, blogging tool. For those who work at law firms that do not have blogging resources, or if you want to prove the viability of a blog before adding it to your law firm website, using LinkedIn publishing is a good option.

To help you use the blogging platform, LinkedIn provides a built-in template that comes up when you click on the orange “Publish a post” icon at your home screen. From there, it is easy to add a photo, draft an engaging headline, drop in the text and click Publish.

Blog posting through LinkedIn allows you to share quality content on a regular basis with a built-in audience and group of followers. You can share posts with specific groups or individual connections. Another bonus of the LinkedIn blogging tool is that the pages encourage two-way conversation and discussion. Each post is equipped with social-sharing buttons, so it’s easy for other users to share, like, repost and retweet across all social networking platforms. Unlike cumbersome email campaigns or formal alerts, you can easily point and click your way to becoming a thought-leader on specific topic. And, the tool catalogs all your posts in one area for easy reference.

LinkedIn Blogging Best Practices

Successful bloggers publish at least twice a month, and more frequently to accommodate new developments or interesting news. Content should be relevant, entertaining, engaging and brief. It should include a call to action. If at all possible, it should tell a story. But most importantly, you should write about topics that affect your clients and help to position you as a valuable resource.

In fact, according to Bloomberg’s Big Law Business Report, there seems to be a sea change among in-house counsel about how to handle client development. Fancy dinners and tickets to sporting events might be nice, but it’s also important to show that you have your finger on the pulse of the market and are watching (and can report on) trends. Blogging ticks this box.

It is also important to note that, as lawyers become more and more proficient on LinkedIn, they also need to be aware of the various state bar rules. While the ABA has not yet published comprehensive guidelines on social media usage, some state bars have, including New York.

In fact, in March 2015, the New York County Lawyers Association Professional Ethics Committee released an opinion recommending that attorneys in New York with LinkedIn profiles that include information about their practice areas, skills, endorsements or recommendations – essentially, anything more than the straightforward biographical information in their profiles – should now include attorney advertising statements at the end of the “Summary” section of their LinkedIn profiles, similar to “Attorney Advertising – Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.”

While this doesn’t mean that LinkedIn should be abandoned as a powerful networking tool, it just will require that attorneys periodically monitor and review the content of their LinkedIn profiles for accuracy and compliance with bar guidelines.

The Confluence of Content and Social Media

Lawyers and legal marketers seem to have an ever-growing number of marketing tools and tactics at their disposal. Technology has provided us with a number of new avenues to reach our desired audiences, but just using these channels is not enough. They have to be leveraged strategically.

Lawyers should take the time to populate their LinkedIn profiles with quality information that positively reflects their personal brands. They should also make it a habit to continually update their profiles to capture recent successes, promotions, organizational affiliations, pro bono activities and published articles. Finally, with the LinkedIn publishing tool, lawyers can maximize the benefits of the social network by crafting and distributing relevant thought leadership materials to a targeted audience of engaged professionals.

ARTICLE BY

LinkedIn, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, and the Real-World Implications of Online Activity

With the ever-increasing amount of information available on social media, employers should remember to exercise caution when utilizing social media as a part of their Human Resources/ Recruitment related activities. We live in a digital-age, and how people choose to define themselves is often readily showcased on social networking sites. Whether – and how – employers choose to interact with the online presence of their workforce will continue to develop as the relevant legal standards try to catch up.

A recent federal court filing in the Northern District of California against LinkedIn Corp. provides yet another example of the growing interaction between online personas and real-world employment law implications. There, in Sweet, et al v. LinkedIn Corp., the plaintiffs sought to expand the application of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (“FCRA”) by alleging that LinkedIn’s practice of providing “reference reports” to members that subscribe to LinkedIn’s program for a fee, brought LinkedIn within the coverage of the FCRA as a Credit Reporting Agency (“CRA”). Briefly, the FCRA (and relevant state statutes like it) imposes specific requirements on an employer when working with “any person which, for monetary fees, dues, or on a cooperative nonprofit basis, regularly engages in whole or in part in the practice of assembling or evaluating consumer credit information or other information on consumers for the purpose of furnishing consumer reports to third parties, and which uses any means or facility of interstate commerce for the purpose of preparing or furnishing consumer reports.” In other words, there are rules – such as providing requisite disclosures and obtaining prior authorization – that apply when an employer engages a CRA to perform background checks, reference checks and related inquiries.

In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs alleged that LinkedIn was a CRA – and that these various rules should apply – because LinkedIn collected and distributed consumer information to third parties and the resulting reference reports “bear on a consumer’s character, general reputation, mode of living, or personal characteristics, and/or other factors listed in 15 U.S.C. § 1681a(d).” Further, according to the complaint, LinkedIn violated the FCRA because it should have provided FCRA compliant disclosure and followed the reporting obligations applicable to CRAs.

LinkedIn, which is touted as the “world’s largest professional network,” does not portray itself as a CRA and moved to dismiss the complaint. LinkedIn argued that the plaintiffs’ interpretation of the statute was too broad and, moreover, was inconsistent with the facts. A federal judge agreed and dismissed the complaint (although the plaintiffs have the opportunity to file another complaint). The Court ruled that these reference searches could not be considered “consumer reports” under the law – and LinkedIn was not acting as a CRA – because, in part, the plaintiffs had voluntarily provided their information to LinkedIn with the intention of it being published online. (The FCRA excludes from the definition of a consumer report a report that contains “information solely as to transactions or experiences between the consumer and the person making the report.”) The Court also noted that the allegations suggested that LinkedIn “gathers the information about the employment histories of the subjects of the Reference Searches not to make consumer reports but to ‘carry out consumers’ information-sharing objectives.’”

The LinkedIn case should still serve as a reminder of several important and interrelated trends. First, as it concerns the FCRA, the statute is broadly worded to cover “any written, oral or other communication of any information by a consumer reporting agency . . .” and the equally expansive definition of a CRA can apply in numerous situations that extend beyond the traditional notion of a consumer reporting agency. If applicable, the requirements of the FCRA must be followed. Second, employers need to continue to be mindful of the fact that their online activity can have real-world employment law implications. Third, as the law governing traditional employment law continues to evolve in response to online developments, the challenges to that activity will evolve as well.

Authored by: Ian Gabriel Nanos and Maxine Adams of Epstein Becker & Green, P.C.

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