I’m not against sharing personal content. It can be a powerful way to connect and help people understand who you are beyond your credentials. But LinkedIn is still a professional platform, and not everything personal belongs there. To find the right balance, share with purpose.

Why personal content works

When it’s done well, personal content helps people see who you are, not just what you do. It gives them a sense of your values, your perspective and how you think. That matters because people don’t hire based on credentials alone. They hire people they know, like and trust, and personal stories make you more relatable and likeable.

It also makes your content more memorable. Advice is easy to scroll past. Stories stick. In industries where everyone sounds similar, that can make a real difference.

Where it can become a problem

The issue isn’t personal content itself. It’s the lack of intention behind it. A lot of posts feel unfiltered, shared in the moment or posted simply because they’re likely to get attention. But attention shouldn’t be the goal. Without a clear purpose, personal content can blur professional boundaries, distract from your expertise and business goals or shape how people see you in ways you didn’t intend.

Practical tips for sharing personal content

If you’re going to share something personal, the key is to be thoughtful about both what you share and how you share it. These guidelines can help:

1. Keep it personal, not private. You don’t need to share every detail to be relatable. Tell stories that highlight your values and the lessons you’ve learned from your experiences. (Note that what may feel “too personal” can also vary depending on your profession and target audience.)
2. Don’t just tell a story, share the takeaway. The story draws people in, but the insight is what matters. Be clear on what you want people to get from it.
3. Connect it back to your work. You don’t need a forced or direct link to your business, but it should tie back. What does this say about how you think, what you value or how you work with clients? Otherwise, you’ll get attention, but it won’t do much for your business.
4. Don’t post in the moment. Give yourself time to reflect. Share thoughtfully, not reactively, especially with more personal topics.
5. Consider your motive. If you’re sharing something primarily because you think it will get engagement, it usually shows. Focus on saying something meaningful instead.
6. Stay true to who you are. If sharing personal stories with acquaintances or clients doesn’t feel natural to you, don’t force it. People can tell the difference.

Remember that everything you post reflects your brand. Your personal stories aren’t separate from your professional identity; they are part of it. What you share contributes to how people perceive you and whether they see you as someone they want to work with.

When you share with the right purpose, you build the kind of trust that leads to relationships and clients.

If you need help with your LinkedIn, contact us for a consultation.

So, why aren’t you actively using social media to build your business?

Social media is a powerful tool that complements and amplifies everything you do, so you get the best results possible when promoting your practice. Here are a few social media musts to get you started:

1. Develop a social media marketing plan. Identify your target audience, goals, and message and commit sufficient resources to implementing the plan.

2. Choose the right platforms: Focus on platforms where your target audience is most active. Start with one platform; then add more when you’re seeing results.

3. Optimize your profile. Create a compelling and informative profile, especially on LinkedIn.

4. Share content. Regularly provide valuable and relevant information, including your articles, blog posts, videos and personal anecdotes as well as useful third-party content.

5. Interact. Like, comment on and repost other people’s content. Respond to comments to your posts and participate in discussions. The goal is to foster meaningful connections.

6. Test and evaluate results. Experiment with different strategies and review your analytics to identify areas for improvement.

For more tips, see my article in Law Practice Magazine, “Using Social Media to Build Your Practice.”

P.S. The article focuses on law firms but the advice is applicable to any professional service firm.

1. Optimize your profile. What do you want people to know about you? You should have a complete and engaging profile page that highlights your experience, skills and aspirations to encourage others to connect with you. Also, add relevant keywords in your description to make your profile easy to find.

2. Define your goals. What are you looking to accomplish on LinkedIn? Maybe you’re looking for a job, trying to expand your referral base or position yourself as an expert. Having clear objectives will aid you in identifying and connecting with the right people.

3. Compare your email contacts and LinkedIn connections. Do you have contacts in one place but not the other? Reviewing both lists ensures that you are reaching your contacts by both email and social media. You can sync your email contacts and LinkedIn but you may not want to for privacy reasons, which means doing some manual work.

4. Send a LinkedIn invitation to people you meet in person or by phone. Did you meet a new person you want to stay in touch with? Connecting on LinkedIn provides another avenue of communication and enables you to discover new information that you can use in subsequent interactions.

5. Personalize connection requests. Have you given someone a reason to accept your invitation? Never send an invitation without a personal note. Mention how you know the person or heard of them and why you want to connect.

6. Search for new connections. Who do you want to know? You can run searches on LinkedIn based on various criteria, join relevant groups and look at the connections of your connections to find new people you may want to contact. If you do reach out, send a personalized request.

7. Connect strategically. Are you connecting with too many people? You want to be open to expanding your network but be selective. Consider the relevance of the connection in the context of your LinkedIn goals but don’t just reject individuals who cannot provide direct benefits to you.

8. Engage with your network’s content. Are you interacting with others? Like, comment and share posts by your connections. Send personal messages for birthdays and work anniversaries. Mention individuals in your posts where relevant. By engaging with others, you strengthen your relationships and stay top of mind with your network.

9. Participate in LinkedIn groups. Have you explored specialized groups? Join LinkedIn groups relevant to your industry or interests to reach people who are outside your network. Engage in discussions, share insights and connect with group members.

10. Share valuable content. What information can you offer that would be useful or interesting to your connections? Regularly post original or third-party content that positions you as a knowledgeable and useful resource.

11. Give and receive assistance. Can you and your connections help each other? It’s better to give than receive so be proactive in offering assistance. Ask if they want introductions to others in your network, provide a recommendation, share insights on a challenge they have or answer questions. You can also request their assistance. People enjoy reciprocating.

12. Attend LinkedIn events and webinars. Have you networked at virtual events? LinkedIn events can provide opportunities to connect with professionals in your industry or with similar interests and engage in discussions that help grow your network.

To build an effective LinkedIn network you have to understand who you want to know and what you want to accomplish and then actively engage on LinkedIn in a way that strengthens those relationships.

If you need help with LinkedIn, contact us for a consultation.

1. Optimize your LinkedIn profile. First, your profile should be complete and up-to-date, including an updated photo, a compelling headline that accurately describes your niche, a summary that highlights your experience and expertise, and recommendations from people you have worked with. Also add relevant skills, certifications, publications or projects related to your niche. Finally, use relevant keywords in your description to make your profile easy to find.

2. Build and engage with your LinkedIn network. Connect with other professionals relevant to your niche. Go through your email contacts to make sure you are connected on Linkedin, send invitations to new people you meet networking and search for individuals online that may be good contacts. Use LinkedIn’s advanced search feature and join LinkedIn groups to find other professionals in your niche or complementary to your business. Once you’re connected, regularly engage with them by liking, commenting, or sharing their posts; congratulating them on their achievements or milestones; and offering assistance or suggested resources.

3. Share relevant content. You should share helpful high-quality content on LinkedIn that demonstrates your knowledge and experience in your niche, such as articles, blog posts, videos, presentations and other content you create. You can also provide curated content from third parties. Offering valuable information helps build credibility and trust and establishes you as an authority in your niche.

4. Participate in LinkedIn groups. Joining a group relevant to your niche is a way to connect and build relationships with other professionals who are interested in the same audience you are targeting. Initiate conversations, ask and answer questions from other group members and share helpful content without pitching your services to position yourself as a trusted resource.

5. Use LinkedIn ads. Advertising on LinkedIn can be expensive but it does offer numerous opportunities to target your ads to specific audiences based on their job title, industry and other demographics. While advertising can help you build your brand in your niche, often it’s more effective and less expensive to focus on a very specific goal. For example, you can advertise a webinar that will generate leads for your firm as well as promote your expertise.

6. Create and promote LinkedIn events. Use LinkedIn to promote your events and encourage people to register. This helps expand your visibility as an expert and bring in new leads.

If you have a niche, you need to use multiple strategies to promote it effectively. But make sure you take advantage of Linkedin most of all because it offers one of the best returns on investment you can get in marketing.

Need help with your marketing, contact us for a free consultation.

1. Create an Event on LinkedIn. On your home page where you have the box to ‘Start a Post,’ there is an option that says Event. Click it and follow the instructions. You will also find Events on the left sidebar of your homepage. Just click on the + sign next to Events. Once you create an event, you can invite your connections, share your event as a post in your feed, send a message to people you think would be interested and easily share it on Facebook and Twitter. Importantly, you can create an event from your individual profile and/or your company page if you have admin access.

Note that not all LinkedIn users are eligible to broadcast live content on LinkedIn Live or LinkedIn Audio Events.

2. Share your event on your personal LinkedIn page and company page. As noted above, if you created the event on LinkedIn, on your event page there are options to share your event as a post. However, if you didn’t create a LinkedIn event, you can still create a post from your homepage.

3. Create multiple posts about your event beforehand. For example:

– Post related content that highlights why this topic is important to your audience and what they need to know. This information can be your original content or third-party content that would be of interest to your audience.

– Develop a survey that you can promote on LinkedIn and provide the results at the program. This can increase interest in your event and help inform your presentation with audience feedback. There are many simple and inexpensive survey tools like SurveyMonkey or you can just create a series of polls in your LinkedIn posts. To create a poll, click on the text box to Start a Post on your home page. You will see … at the bottom of the box. Click the dots to see the option to Create a poll and follow the instructions.

– Ask people to submit questions in advance. They can include them as comments to your post or send you a direct message.

– Feature the organization hosting the event, sponsors or your co-presenters. Create a post and mention them by name by typing “@theirname”. LinkedIn will give you a dropdown with possible matches to the name you typed. Pick the right one and LinkedIn will create a hyperlink to the page of the person/organization and notify them that you mentioned them in a post. Hopefully, they will like or comment on your post which means that their contacts now may see your post, thus expanding your reach.

– Share marketing materials and posts created by the event organizers, sponsors and co-presenters. Make sure you mention them when you share it so they are aware.

4. After the event, create multiple posts.

– Write a LinkedIn post with a recap of the event with the main takeaways.

– Provide the PowerPoint or selected slides from the program.

– Share photos from the program.

– Repurpose the program into related content (e.g., articles, eBooks, white papers, blog posts, infographics, etc.)

– If the program was recorded, provide instructions on how to access the recording or create short video clips with key points. Get it transcribed to make it easier to repurpose the content into written material.

5. Use relevant hashtags to expand your reach. Research hashtags that relate to your topic and/or audience and include them in all of your LinkedIn posts. Generally, you want to use 3-5 hashtags in your posts and look for ones with 2000 to 10,000 followers so you are hitting a sizeable audience but aren’t lost in a sea of other posts. Hashtags make your event more discoverable because those interested in a topic will follow the hashtags.

6. Encourage your employees to share the event and your posts on their LinkedIn pages. The more people promoting the program, the better.

7. Post information about the event to relevant LinkedIn groups. Check the group’s rules to determine if you are allowed to share a post about your webinar/seminar. In many cases, it will be allowed provided it is educational.

8. Consider using LinkedIn Ads to promote your event to a wider audience. LinkedIn Ads allow you to target people based on job title, industry, location, and other criteria, but it can be costly, so consider the ROI.

LinkedIn is an excellent platform to promote your public speaking but not the only tactic you should use. For the best results, market your program using multiple channels. For more tips, check out these related posts:

Top Strategies for Marketing Your Speaking Event

8 Ways to Promote Your Virtual Event

10 Do’s and Don’ts for Creating a Great Presentation

If you need help with your marketing, contact us for a consultation.

Step 1

Your marketing plan doesn’t have to be complicated. It can be as simple as a few written pages that outline specifically what you are going to do to market yourself. Before you get to that part, however, you first have to answer a few key questions:

(a) What’s your personal brand? Your brand is your reputation– what you are known for and what people expect from you personally and professionally. You should be able to succinctly state what you do, who you help and how you add value to relationships. Focus on what differentiates you from your competition.

(b) Who do you want to target with your marketing? You have to develop a profile of the person you are trying to reach, including their demographics, industry, geography, etc. Then identify their interests and concerns and the best places to find them (ex. industry organizations, publications they read, etc.). This will help you develop a strong marketing message and promote it in the right places.

(c) What are your priorities and goals? Where do you want to focus your efforts? For example, is your objective to get new accounts, retain or upsell existing clients, get a promotion/new job or attract media attention? Once you know what you want, then set a concrete target, such as a certain number of accounts, amount of revenue generated, positive reviews from clients and so on.

(d) How much time and money are you willing to devote to marketing? If your firm is supporting you, then you may not need to outlay money. However, the firm will have a budget. If you aren’t getting assistance, set your own budget. Regardless of whether you are getting money, you still need to devote your time to marketing. How many hours a week will you set aside?

Step 2

Next, you have to outline what specific marketing activities you will undertake and set goals for yourself. For example:

(a) Outreach to referral sources or prospects. Who will you meet with? How many people will you contact every month?

(b) Speaking engagements. How many per year? What types of organizations?

(c) Articles. How many per year? What types of publications?

(d) Networking. How many and which groups will you join? How often will you attend meetings?

(e) Marketing to past and current clients. What materials will you send and how often?

(f) Social media. How often will you post? What types of content will you post? How often will you interact with your contacts online?

(g) Website. What content will you create for the firm’s site (blogs, videos, eBook, etc.) and how often?

(h) Publicity. Will you submit your name for awards, reach out to reporters or podcasters, send out press releases, etc. and how often?

Step 3

Finally, you need to determine whether and how your firm will assist you. Can they create appropriate marketing materials, provide social media and business development training, research and pitch organizations and publications on your behalf and/or provide client data, prospect lists and competitive intelligence?

This may seem overwhelming but once you answer the first few questions, the second part is basically a spreadsheet listing your activities and goals. Importantly, you don’t have to do it all from the start. Pick one or two things to focus on and be diligent and consistent in your activities. Then expand from there.

If you need help with your personal marketing plan, contact us for a consultation.

1. Update your contact list. People change jobs regularly or information is entered incorrectly and we never notice. If your data is wrong, it’s useless because your marketing won’t reach those individuals. Interns can take care of tasks like researching bounced emails and gaps in your data. They can also compare your social media and email contacts to find individuals that are missing from either list.

2. Create and send an email newsletter. A great way to stay top of mind with contacts is to send out an email newsletter every month. An intern may be able to help with creating an email template if you don’t have one, gathering materials that could be included in the newsletter, formatting the newsletter, and/or sending the finished product to your contacts and then reporting the results to you.

3. Post to social media. An intern shouldn’t decide what should be posted on your behalf but may offer suggestions. In addition, they can assist with the mechanics of scheduling posts, finding accompanying images, recording video, designing ads and monitoring and reporting on the results of your social media marketing.

4. Send social media invitations. If you’re not good about sending invitations to new connections, an intern may help. Further, an intern can assist with inviting your personal contacts to follow your business page on social media. In most cases, you want to have a separate presence for your business, but it means making an extra effort to get people to follow your business rather than your personal page.

5. Identify speaking and writing opportunities. It’s time-consuming to pitch yourself as a speaker or get an article published. An intern can research organizations and publications where you may want to appear; find out the requirements; and prepare, send and follow up on your proposals.

6. Write/proofread marketing copy. It can be useful to have a fresh perspective on the promotional materials you prepare. If your intern is a good writer, have them draft copy, provide feedback on your materials or proofread.

7. Get reviews from happy clients and referral sources. Reviews carry a lot of weight. Even when prospects have been referred to you, they will still google you and check reviews. If you don’t regularly ask for reviews, have an intern help send out requests for a review on Google and/or your social media pages.

8. Run marketing reports. Marketing involves significant trial and error. An intern can run social media, email, phone, google website and advertising reports to help determine what activities and campaigns are working better than others so you can make adjustments.

9. Design marketing materials. If you are fortunate to have an intern with graphic art and design abilities, make effective use of it. They can help spruce up your ads, flyers, invitations, PowerPoint presentations, social media posts, blog posts, website and other materials.

10. Update your website. It’s easy to forget to update your website, but it looks bad when a prospect visits the site and sees that all the “News” and activities are a few years old. Interns can review the site and add information on anything that has occurred in the intervening period, such as articles, speaking engagements, press, awards, community involvement, etc. In addition, the copyright information on the site should be updated.

This is not a complete list but provides suggestions for how you can leverage your marketing intern to promote your firm. Remember to give your intern adequate training and supervision so you both get substantial value out of this experience.

If you need assistance with your marketing, including training interns or other staff, contact us. We offer social media and email marketing training as well as writing and consulting services.

Problem #1. Relying on a generic marketing message. Many firms use the same overused language to describe what they do, who they help and how they’re “different.” The problem isn’t lack of creativity; it’s being afraid of standing out. Many professionals feel more comfortable saying the same things as their peers; they just want to claim to do it better. However, they offer no proof that they are actually better so it’s just the same old marketing copy.

If you want to improve your results, you have to focus on marketing your differentiators. Identify exactly why someone should hire or refer you over your competitors, what unique value you bring to the relationship and how you help. Be specific and make sure you have proof, such as positive reviews, success stories, case studies, activities like writing and speaking, media quotes, awards, relevant group memberships and other evidence that you are who and what you say you are.

Problem #2. Too much selling and not enough helping. Yes, promote your differentiators, but rather than telling people how great you are, prove it with helpful content. I believe in the 80-20 rule – 20% of the time you can be self-promotional but 80% of the time provide useful information that helps people with their problems. This will demonstrate your expertise and build trust and credibility with your audience. It will help you both attract new attention and stay top of mind with the people you already know. However, in developing content, focus on what your audience cares about – their interests and concerns. Also, remember to repurpose your content so you get the maximum return on your investment. For more on repurposing, see No Time For Content Marketing? 7 Tips For Successfully Repurposing Your Content Part 1 and Part 2.

Problem #3. Neglecting your total online presence. There is more to your online presence than your website or your social media pages. Prospects and referral sources will google you even if they got referred to you and they will compare you to others. First, google yourself and your firm to find out what people will see. Then google some of your competitors. Once you determine where you are lacking, focus on making improvements like adding useful content to your website, becoming more active on social media, stepping up your writing and speaking for third parties, getting more online reviews, increasing backlinks to your website, claiming your Google business listing and employing tactics to improve your search engine ranking.

Problem #4. Having a narrow view of social media. You want to take full advantage of social media especially since it is more cost-effective than many other forms of marketing. It’s a great way to stay top of mind with contacts and get found by new people. So, post a few times a week. Also, interact with others by responding to comments to your posts; liking, commenting on and sharing other people’s posts; sending personal messages to your contacts; and leaving a good review for your contacts on their social media pages. Also, use social media for market intelligence. Look at what your competitors, clients, industry are doing and saying. This can help you better target your message and where you promote it.

Problem #5. Overlooking your follow-up process. The best marketing in the world means nothing if you don’t follow up properly. Document your process for follow-up and track your activities and results to determine if you could be doing better. Explore technology that may help. For example, a CRM (customer relationship management) system may be useful especially if you have multiple employees involved in business development and account management. It provides a more robust database for tracking and managing your contacts and can interface with other programs. Email marketing automation can also help you nurture leads more effectively and with less manual work.

Finally, pay attention to everyone a prospect or referral source may come into contact with on the phone or in person. Poor interactions can easily lose you business, while good ones can help seal the deal. Customer service or sales training may be a good investment for you or your employees to give everyone the people skills they need.

Problem #6. Failing to have a written marketing plan. Before you leap into any significant marketing, create a written marketing plan. This is your roadmap for achieving your goals and putting it all in writing keeps you focused and accountable over the long term so you aren’t distracted and you prioritize your efforts where they count. The worst thing you can do is engage in random acts of marketing where you do a little of this and that without a strategy or thinking about whether it is the best use of your time and money. For more information, read How to Create an Effective Marketing Plan.

Want help with your own marketing, contact us for consultation.

 1. Define your goals. There are many options, including increasing your online visibility, driving traffic to your website, generating leads for a specific area of practice or other objective. Be specific because the content you share and the tactics you use will vary depending on your goals.

2. Identify and research your target audience. Decide who to prioritize. Then identify their demographics – age, income, gender, education, location, etc. Finally, determine their interests and pain points. You want to focus your messaging on your key audience.

3. Select the best social media platforms. Determine where your audience is most active and likely to look for answers to the type of problems you solve. Also, look at the demographics of each platform to ensure it matches your target audience. You should focus on the top platform first. Once you are reliably posting, building a following and engaging on that platform, add the second-best platform. It’s better to do a great job on one platform than do an okay job on two platforms.

4. Check out your competitors. Look at what platforms they are using, how active they are and what types of content they are posting. You shouldn’t necessarily copy them but it is important to evaluate your competitors and look for where you can improve on what they are doing or offer something different.

5. Create a library of content. First, evaluate your existing content to determine whether you can repurpose it for social media. That includes blog posts, articles, presentations, videos, pictures, charts and infographics. Next brainstorm topics of interest to your audience and ones that speak to their pain points. Focus on developing ‘evergreen’ content that doesn’t go out of date and can be reused multiple times. Topical content can be added into the mix as needed.

6. Engage with your audience. Social media should help build relationships. That means it can’t just be about you posting. You must interact with others. Like, comment, and share other people’s posts; follow relevant influencers and companies; join groups; send personal messages; and take other steps to strengthen your existing connections and develop new ones.

7. Post consistently. Commit to a schedule for sharing content regularly. Be realistic. If you have rarely posted in the past, it is hard to suddenly start posting daily. It is fine to start simple. Post once a week. After a few weeks, try twice a week. Most professionals are fine posting three times a week on a reliable basis. If you have interesting things to share more often, then do so. The key is to have it on your calendar or use a scheduling tool so you don’t forget to do it.

8. Establish metrics and evaluate results. All social media platforms provide analytics. What metrics are important depends on your goals. For example, if you want to increase your visibility and reach, you will want to look at the growth in followers and visits to your website. If you want more engagement with your audience, you can track likes, comments and shares of your posts.

9. Promote your social media channels. Add your social media links to your email newsletter, email signature, website, business cards and any digital marketing. You can also cross-promote between social sites. Remember to invite existing contacts to follow or connect with you and when you meet new people, make sure to send them an invitation as well.

10. Integrate it into your other marketing. All of your marketing should work together. You should be consistent in your messaging and branding and repurpose content across platforms. This is more cost-effective as well as likely to give you the best results because clients are more likely to remember your marketing if they see it regularly in multiple places.

Social media marketing like all types of marketing works best when you are strategic about your efforts. If you need assistance with your social media marketing, contact us for consultation.

The key to effective marketing for any type of professional is to establish and maintain strong relationships. As an introvert, it can be more difficult to get to know new people. Once you do, you need to nurture the relationship to build trust and credibility and stay top of mind, which can also present challenges. How do you do that as an introvert? Here are a few tips that can help:

Networking:

1. Focus on small groups. Introverts often prefer smaller groups of people, so join a professional association or charitable organization and volunteer on a committee. Or get involved in a business referral networking group.
2. Take a breather at large events. If you go to a big event, try to talk to a few people, then if needed, take a break from the crowd by walking outside or sitting in a lounge area. Cellphones make it easy to look busy when you really just need to get away.
3. Follow up for one-on-ones. Reach out to schedule a call or one-on-one meeting. This should be your focus whether you are an introvert or extrovert.
4. Be helpful. It’s better to give than receive in any relationship. Make introductions and referrals and ask contacts about other ways you can help them.

Social media:

5. Connect to contacts. Once you’ve met someone, connect on social media. It is an easy stress-free way to stay in touch and learn more about the person.
6. Share your thoughts. On social media, you can plan what you want to say, write it down, and think about it before anyone sees it. This is an ideal situation for many introverts. Take advantage of social media to post thoughtful content and comment on other people’s posts.

Research:

7. Read, listen and learn. Introverts like to be prepared. Use Google and social media to research your contacts and prospects before a phone call or meeting. The more you know about their interests and activities, the easier it is to interact in a meaningful way.

Writing:

8. Start a blog. If you like to write, blogging is a flexible platform that you control, so you can write what you want, when you want. Make the information helpful and share it with your contacts to keep you in their minds.
9. Write for other publications. Have a staff member or hire someone to look for writing opportunities. This is great to help you demonstrate your expertise and build credibility.

Video/Public speaking:

10. Consider video vs live presentations. An introvert may not feel comfortable presenting live, but be okay with video because you can keep re-recording yourself or have someone edit the video so you look and sound professional. I personally don’t enjoy either one, but I realize the tremendous value of verbal communication, so I tend to do live presentations over video. (At least I don’t have to watch myself if it’s live.)

Email:

11. Maximize email marketing. Emails are a great supplement to networking. One-on-one emails help you stay in touch and have the benefit of allowing you to respond on your schedule as with social media. Email newsletters to all your contacts serve as a tool to highlight your expertise and stay top of mind with your network.

If you are an introvert, you can be an effective marketer and you may even end up a better marketer than many extroverts. While you may have to stray outside your comfort zone at times, there is still room to adapt tactics to best suit your personality.

For help with your marketing, contact us for a consultation.