Of all the social media platforms out there, I’d venture to say that LinkedIn is the one that lawyers are most comfortable using. It has a reputation for being the most professional, and as a result, it’s had the widest adoption within the industry. In recent years, LinkedIn has really expanded their offerings, and provided a robust, deep platform that allows us to engage in new ways, all which make it an even more valuable platform than it was at the beginning.

Like any social platform (or any tool, really), LinkedIn is what you make of it – you can treat it as a place to broadcast from, and as long as you have something valuable to say, you may find that many people are listening to you. But if you want to use it as a business development tool, then you need to get serious about the steps that you take to leverage its features. I read a great article today over on Inc which talked about three ways to use LinkedIn to attract your ideal customer. Since “sales” is a dirty word for lawyers, we’re instead going to talk about using LinkedIn for business/relationship development (which, by the way, is really the same thing, but said in a more palatable way).

Since it’s our Two for Tuesday day, we’ll just presume that you already have a robust LinkedIn profile. I promise that at some point this year, I will update my LinkedIn for Lawyers book, which is a step-by-step process for setting up a profile, but for the moment, let’s set aside that tip and focus on the other two that Inc author, Bill Carmody, suggests.

Tip One: Find The Right People via More Intelligent Search

LinkedIn, as you may or may not know, is a fantastic research tool, and I highly recommend it – whether you’re meeting with someone you already know, or you’re searching for someone in particular, it can offer you incredible data that you may not have access to otherwise. For example, let’s say you’re meeting with a potential client. You may already have a pile of information sitting on your desk about the company that you’re meeting with, the principals involved, the latest news and items of interest, etc. Take a few minutes to look each of the individuals attending the meeting up on LinkedIn (keep in mind that depending on your privacy settings, and theirs, they may be able to see that you’ve looked at their profile, even if you’re not connected). Depending on how robust their profiles are, you’ll get to see a photo of them, where they went to college, some of their interests and activities, any volunteer work they share, boards that they serve on, the responsibilities they list as being part of their jobs, other positions that they’ve held, etc. You may learn that you have more in common with each of the people in the meeting than you realized, and that will give you common ground to build on.

Read more: http://www.zenlegalnetworking.com/2016/03/two-ways-to-use-linkedin-to-attract-your-ideal-client/