Supporting Surrey: Raising Your Online Profile – Networking & Business Development in a Virtual World

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Raising Your Online Profile – Networking & Business Development in a Virtual World

In 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 Hanna

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.

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:

■ 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:

■ Visibility = Leads (e.g., prospect clients)

■ Leads = Conversations

■ Conversations = Revenue

■ Consistent Visibility = Long Term Relationships & Trust (e.g., loyal community)

You should update your profiles to ensure you are continually selling yourself and the solutions you offer. Having outdated profiles is like sending a draft contract with the wrong names and dates on and we all know this leaves a bad first impression. There is a simple formula for profile headlines on social media profiles which is:

I help X to solve Y through doing Z.

The more you embrace and contribute to platforms, the larger your network grows and in turn your brand will grow globally! The best way to do this is by sharing valuable content. Some simple ways to get started are by sharing weekly newsletters & insights, starting a blog, storytelling and producing podcasts. You can also engage with other people’s content and posts online through showing your expertise. This will help you get noticed and bring other people’s followers and supporters into your community.

Whilst building your community you must remember to keep in line with your “Topic of Influence”. A Topic of Influence is the 1 - 2 words that people will be searching for online as they have a particular “pain” and wish to head to a “solution”.

For example, my Topic of Influence is “Legal Careers”. Hence, I am writing this article as many of the readers will at some point have a “pain” related to this topic. By offering value to my community, increasing my visibility I will (hopefully) be top of mind for when people search for a “solution” related to their Legal Career.

As the great expression goes, if you want to go fast go alone if you want to go far go together. So, another great way to raise your profile online is through collaboration. Collaborating with key people who have loyal followings within your target markets will help your brand grow. Some initial ways to do this could be featuring on relevant podcasts, writing a featured article, offering mentoring services, joining societies, co-hosting online events. Remember to always keep in mind that the activities you do online always link back to your Topic of Influence.

In summary be YOU. Having a brand is no longer a luxury but an essential – especially due to the role social media plays in our daily lives. Your network is your networth. Bring people into your community and continuously develop it over time. Be the human not just the lawyer. If people cannot see or hear about or get to know you, regardless of whether you are the best (future) legal professional in the world, this will not help you get more clients or build up your brand. The best community builders engage and add value to their followers. GOOD LUCK!

#BuildYourCommunity. ■

Robert Hanna

Founder and CEO KC & Partners