1. Icebreaker
Contacting lapsed clients and referrers through LinkedIn as it is a great way to re-connect with them, without having to resort to a cold phone call that you'd probably feel uncomfortable making.
2. Intelligence
Connecting with prospects before you meet for a pitch is excellent for identifying mutual contacts. By having trustworthy people in common, you automatically help build mutual trust between you and your new contact. You can also find out a great deal about their business interests and helps you understand the personalities involved more than from just visiting their website.
3. A light touch
Often we are the subject of grand gestures from firms wanting to build a relationship with us, from seminars to in-house training to corporate entertainment. However, it's the people that are 'front of mind' who normally win the work. So a well-timed connection or offered opinion on LinkedIn might mean they pick up the phone to you instead of your competition.
4. Networking follow-up
Do you follow up with people you meet at events? Rather than send them a regular email with suggested dates to meet again, we'd recommend that you search for them, connect and send your message through LinkedIn. Then refer back to Point 2 (Intelligence) to help accelerate the relationship.
5. What are you up to?
LinkedIn has a 'status update' feature which allows you to share with your contacts what you are involved in at the moment or links to good reading material etc. This is a great way to subtly demonstrate your areas of expertise in which you are being instructed.
6. Do me a favour
Providing people you trust with a recommendation on LinkedIn will help them develop their own business. The basic reasoning is that if you do someone a good turn, human beings are 'hard wired' to return the favour. If you are interested in the psychology of influence then I recommend reading Robert Cialdini's book of the same title.
7. Build your own reputation
Treat your own network of connections like a party held at your home. Invite only people that you like and trust and don't let anyone in the door who you wouldn't leave near the family silver! Never forsake quality for quantity.
8. Free advertising
LinkedIn has a feature to promote your events for free. Make sure you include relevant keywords in the title and include content that people might be searching for.
9. Join groups
LinkedIn has thousands of groups that people and firms have created. View them like 'private members clubs'. Groups are formed for members to share knowledge, insight, and to help each other and build relationships. Look to see which groups your contacts have created or joined themselves, and ask to join those that interest you.
10. Thought-leader
Offer suggestions and signpost people in your groups to articles that you or your colleagues have written on topics that are up for debate. Also, don't be afraid to ask for advice from your fellow group members; that's what groups have been created for.
Creating your own specialist interest groups (your own ‘private clubs’, remember!) is definitely the way forward for creating effective environments to generate new online leads in the future. You heard it here first!
Courtney Borthwick
Associate Director, Size 10½ Boots
Courtney has over 15 years' experience helping UK law firms to protect and grow their client and referral relationships.
Courtney looks to challenge ‘the normal way of things’ and provides practical, results-driven advice and support to UK law firms. He specialises in business development strategy; marketing planning; lead generation; web-based strategies and independent client research for law firms. He is currently Associate Director for Size 10½ Boots.
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