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Take your law blog on the road to LinkedIn

January 15, 2014

20140115-155120.jpg If you’re like me, you are seeing much more engagement of your blog posts on other social networks than on your blog itself. Rather than your network commenting on your blog ‘on your blog’ they’re commenting on your blog posts elsewhere.

First off, law blogs have always gotten few, if any, comments for a number of reasons. Unlike fast car, sports, and celebrity watching blogs, people just don’t hang out on law blogs. People are as afraid as lawyers about confidences – who is going to see what I say and what if people find out it’s me commenting. Finally, lawyers tend to be selfish – they don’t want to give content to others by commenting on their blogs, they’ll just blog on their own.

My blog has always gotten a few comments here and there. In the case of some posts which turned out to be controversial, I got a lot of comments. But today LinkedIn generates much more interaction than the interaction on my blog. It’s not usual that one of my posts on LinkedIn will have a dozen likes and five or six comments.

I get that interaction by posting my blog post into LinkedIn directly from my RSS reader, Mr. Reader, on my iPad. I don’t auto post my blog post to LinkedIn and other social networks at the same time. I craft a question or short provocative phrase which becomes the headline on LinkedIn.

My post is then ‘distributed’ by LinkedIn to the LinkedIn public (my followers and others with relevant interests). My post is displayed on LinkedIn user’s home pages, in LinkedIn Today, and on my LinkedIn profile page. I say ‘distributed’ as I have never felt LinkedIn was pushing content at me in offensive ways. LinkedIn user content seems to just present itself in an appropriate context.

Regular readers know that I use large images. Those images are displayed on LinkedIn with the provocative phrase or question as well as my LinkedIn profile picture. Other than my picture, what’s presented is pretty attractive.

When I enter LinkedIn I then see a flag at the top of my page colored red with a number on it which signifies how many people have liked or commented on my post. I quickly scroll via finger touch on my iPad across the pictures of the people who liked my post, clicking on their pictures to view their profiles. I then respond to comments to continue the dialogue.

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I don’t have a problem carrying this dialogue out on LinkedIn versus my blog. I see advantages.

  • Blogging is about networking through the Internet, not about traffic and attention. LinkedIn delivers a networking opportunity — so long as I have the blog behind me to tee it up.
  • Everyone has a profile on LinkedIn. I can find out plenty about someone in 30 seconds. If I wish, I can look at their company profile.
  • Content is an engagement vehicle. It’s not unusual that a ‘like’ or comment leads to discussion off of LinkedIn and sometimes a face to face meeting. I often see the same people ask to connect on LinkedIn and start to follow me on Twitter – that’s a good clue they might be interested in talking at some point.
  • LinkedIn puts my mug in front of people all day long suggesting that they may want to connect with me. By me sharing my posts, LinkedIn is learning what I am interested in and will suggest that others with similar interests connect with me. LinkedIn is promoting me and my profile to people I would be happy to be ‘connected to.’

Three big prerequisites to making this all work for you. One is an iPad. The LinkedIn iPad app provides a seamless experience to reading content that is shared by others and viewing/engaging the people who have liked or commented on your posts. I am sure you can use a desktop, but it’ll take more time and not be as much fun. Fun is important when it comes to something becoming a habit.

Second, you need to build a LinkedIn network. Connect with the people you meet – on line and offline. Take the time to review the offers to connect, liberally accepting connections from people with relevant business interests. In both cases, use personally crafted notes (not the stock LinkedIn message) to connect or in thanking for connecting.

Third, your engagement must be real and authentic. Auto posting, posting by someone else, never personally engaging others’ posts on LinkedIn, and not engaging those who like and comment on your posts is for the clowns on the Internet. Like a Rotary meeting, you kind of have to go to be seen as real, to build a reputation, and nurture relationships.

With LinkedIn’s constant improvements for the mobile user I see engagement on LinkedIn as only increasing. LinkedIn, like Facebook, understands that authentic engagement and the ensuing relationships can only be built through content.

Try it, I think you’ll enjoy LinkedIn as a social network.

Image courtesy of Flickr by ‘A Name Like Shields

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