How to develop your personal brand on LinkedIn

What your brand can help you achieve

Whether it’s finding more leads for yourself or your firm, helping you stand out from the crowd, finding new partners or establishing yourself as a true thought leader in your field.

However you’re using LinkedIn, the most important thing is that you are using it. Not everyone gets to sit down and chat with you over a cup of coffee to learn about who you are. This is your chance to showcase what you do to a huge audience.

I’ve outlined five key ways you can use the platform to help you succeed.

1. Have a target persona in mind

To focus your efforts, think about who you want to win over with your LinkedIn profile.

If you’re a freelance solicitor operating in commercial law, it might be primarily to find clients. If you’re a senior member of a law firm that’s looking to expand, it might be to find partnership opportunities.

Keeping a ‘type’ of person in mind as your audience when you draft your post can be a good way of guiding your actions. This will help keep your profile and output consistent and targeted. If you’re trying to speak to everyone, you may end up speaking to no one

2. Make a good first impression

Not everyone will take the time to look at your profile, so you need to make sure it grabs their attention straight away.

Your headline, the section under your name, should show what makes you different from everyone else. Rather than just saying ‘lawyer’, it could be ‘senior environmental lawyer with 20+ years of board-level experience’. This communicates your unique selling point instantly.

Your profile picture should also look professional – a clear, focused image with good lighting and smart attire works best. Many businesses provide headshot services, but phone cameras are powerful enough to take good images, if you want to keep it simple.

Your location can also help. In professional services, people often want to work with someone in their area. Research shows that a local office is a key factor for 68% of people looking for legal assistance, so make sure your area is accurate on your profile.

As an example, here’s my LinkedIn profile where you can see all those elements together.

3. Post quality content weekly

One easy way to establish yourself is to share content other people have created. By using the repost feature, you can share your take on a post that you like which was created by someone else. This helps you show your opinion or expertise without needing to create content yourself.

Original content is still the best way to truly stand out though. You can either post directly on LinkedIn, or on other platforms such as Medium or legal blogs that accept guest posts. Audio and visual content also performs well on LinkedIn, and these can lead to more exposure, connections, opportunities and leads to help your business grow.

Your posts could answer questions about your field, share your opinion on the latest news – or anything else that shows you’re knowledgeable and active.

4. Don’t be afraid of personal posts

Posts about law will help establish you as a legal thought leader, but posts about your personal life will help establish you as a real person.

Whether it’s sharing a family holiday photo or a personal achievement like running a marathon, these posts can build trust alongside your legal credibility. Personal authenticity resonates strongly in today’s social media landscape.

5. Interact with others daily

LinkedIn’s algorithm rewards activity, such as comments left or posts liked. This means that the more you use LinkedIn, the more your account will be seen by others.

Your comments may even appear as notifications to other people – the equivalent of a free boost to reach your audience. Even congratulating someone on a promotion or commenting on news of a judicial review could get your account seen by hundreds or thousands of people

Over time, consistent interaction can have a massive impact on your visibility and profile statistics. It could lead to a potential new client or message from a podcast host looking for a new guest.

These tips can help you stand out in a crowded LinkedIn landscape. By sharing quality content and building meaningful relationships, the site can quickly become an important part of your daily routine and help you reach your end goal.