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82% of small professional services businesses love LinkedIn. Have it all over law firm website bios.

October 26, 2011

LinkedIn for LawyersA recent study by iContact that found small businesses feel overwhelmed by social media found that 82% of small professional services love LinkedIn.

    Overall, 63 percent of respondents approved of LinkedIn, with especially high approval rates from businesses with fewer than 50 employees.

A lawyer sitting next to me at a firm retreat I was speaking at a few weeks ago asked why she should care about her LinkedIn profile. She thought the emphasis of any work on her bio should placed on the firm’s website.

I explained I didn’t think so:

  • A LinkedIn bio is more apt to be trusted than her law firm bio. The law firm bio was likely written and vetted by marketing professionals. A summary of yourself and your career on LinkedIn is written by you personally and as such is viewed with greater trust.
  • LinkedIn is a networking site that other local and niche business people and professionals (her clients, prospective clients, and business associates) are already using. They are used to looking up professionals such as a lawyer on LinkedIn, either directly by her name on LinkedIn, or indirectly by her name on Google and linking to her LinkedIn profile. In addition, people are looking up lawyers by area of law and location in advanced search in LinkedIn. As such, her LinkedIn profile, not the law firm profile, has become her ‘profile of record.’
  • LinkedIn, unlike her firm website is a powerful networking tool. Groups, connecting with others, asking and answer questions, and sharing news and information with your connections and in groups is all available in LinkedIn. None of the that is available on your firm’s website.
  • With any use or changes of your LinkedIn bio, when someone searches your name on Google, your LinkedIn profile is going to be the near, or at the top of the search results. Likely far above your law firm bio in the search results. LinkedIn is going to be looked at first. And what does your bio say about you?

Nothing against your law firm website and your lawyer bio on the website, it remains important. Your firm website is a relevant brochure with lawyer and law firm background.

But more and more, your website, no matter what you do to dress it up with content is still an advertisement. An advertisement that in this day and age of social networking does not establish the trust and networking opportunities that LinkedIn does.

And look at this study alone, 82% of small businesses, your clients, prospective clients, and business associates love LinkedIn. I don’t recall any findings like that for law firm website bios.

For LexBlog Network Members, I’m doing a webinar on “How LinkedIn Can be Used for Business Development” at noon Eastern (9 a.m. Pacific) tomorrow, Thursday, October 26.

Join us to learn to more about LinkedIn and the powers of using it for business development.