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Raising Your Online Profile – Networking & Business Development in a Virtual World
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n the Winter issue, we reported on our ‘Supporting Surrey: Careers’ initiative, which the Surrey Law Society ran in collaboration with Surrey Junior Lawyers Division. The project comprised a series of guidance, clinics, and webinars, all designed to support members of both organisations with their career progression. Having reported on the first 2 webinars in the last edition, we are now delighted to share the content from Robert Hanna’s fantastic session on raising your online profile. Robert is the Founder and CEO of legal recruitment firm KC & Partners. He is also the host of the world leading ‘Legally Speaking’ podcast, which airs in over 1,300 cities and sits in the Top 3% of all podcasts globally. Robert Hanna Why is it important as an aspiring and current practising legal professional to have a personal brand online? I get asked this question a lot as legal recruiter and content creator. The simple answer is by being YOU. Everyone has a story to share, and this is good for business. There is only one of you on this planet, by showing your authenticity gives you a point of difference. You are a complete and total original, you do not need to invent anything new to start sharing your personal brand and there is absolutely no competition to being you. Why is this important as you move through your legal journey? Well, imagine you wish to switch legal jobs or decide to launch a law firm or even a legal tech start up one day. You will never start from zero as you can always leverage your personal brand. A personal brand stays with you throughout your career, it becomes its own entity, so it is best to start sharing your story early on. The key to raising an online profile is to build a loyal community. Having an online brand helps drive discussions, knowledge sharing, offers thought leadership, encourages networking with likeminded people and in time this will lead to new business opportunities for you. Like it or loath it, we live in a content fuelled virtual world. This gives an increased importance to the concept of the O-Shaped Lawyer. Future and modern-day legal professionals should choose to embrace this concept which stands for the following:
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■ OPEN ■ OPPORTUNISTIC ■ ORIGINAL ■ OWNERSHIP How does being an O-Shaped Lawyer relate to raising your profile? Well, the more traditionally recognised T-Shaped Lawyer only has deep legal expertise (represented by the vertical bar of the T) and a solid grounding in another subject (represented by the horizontal bar of the T). However, this concept with “both breadth & depth” has been around for years and misses the "human” aspects, which make for a more rounded individual as well as a good legal mind. Skills like empathy, influencing, networking, communication, and collaboration do not have prominence in that crossbar. O-Shaped Lawyers must be humans first then lawyers after. ‘Acronym to help you raise your online profile’ I would recommend remembering this when raising an online profile: Authentic Brave Consistent (ABC) ■ Authentic – the importance of being you. Sharing your emotions, and all your highs and lows helps demonstrate your authenticity and builds trust within your community. This will help with business development down the line as people tend to do business with those whom they like and trust. ■ Brave – dare to be different to stand out. Embrace getting comfortable being uncomfortable and avoid the naysayers. If you are anxious about posting or sharing something online, then most of the time that is you being your true self so you should share that in some capacity with your community. ■ Consistency – Rome was not built in a day and nor is a brand online. The key is just starting! Through continually pouring value into your online networks, these will grow over time. This will result in you becoming at the top of mind leading for when people require legal services through the strong reputation you have formed. Social media has been part of our everyday working and professional lives for many years now. So, I would encourage future and current practising legal professionals to take advantage of the many FREE resources available to you. Platforms such as Clubhouse, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube can help supercharge your personal brand and increase your visibility. Why is visibility important? Well, visibility begets visibility. This is a key factor to success when it comes to business development and networking and will benefit your legal career right from the start. There is a simple formula to remember:
