If you want to grow your firm and create truly engaging and effective immigration law content on LinkedIn, you have to create content that shows you are good at what you do and your uniqueness in order to attract clients to your immigration law practice.
A LinkedIn survey found that not only do people use LinkedIn to find a lawyer, but they are using LinkedIn to check attorney recommendations they receive.
Plus, 68% of people with a LinkedIn account were likely to use LinkedIn to find a lawyer if they needed one next week and 94% of people with a LinkedIn account were likely to use LinkedIn to research a referral for a lawyer that was given by someone they know. This means there is a lot of people already on LinkedIn who are looking for your expertise!
So clearly having a LinkedIn account is a great way of finding new clients and establishing yourself as an expert in immigration law, but how do you stand. But how do you stand out?
First let’s talk about how not to stand out, and then get to how to create unique, memorable content that’s also informative and builds thought leadership and expertise.
First, some examples of immigration law content that doesn’t work well
I see immigration professionals posting time and time again on LinkedIn with no success. What is the problem with their posts? Before we can create content for LinkedIn, let’s go over the posts from immigration lawyers that seem like they should do well on their face, but are actually missing the mark from a LinkedIn perspective.
If you find yourself posting fairly generic immigration law content content with questions such as “What’s an H1-B visa?” or “Do you know what OPT is?” you are probably not going to see the engagement (or the clicks) that you want to see for three reasons:
- These posts don’t provide any unique perspective. When you’re sharing immigration law content on LinkedIn, where content is tied to a human profile, connect your content to something specific about you as a person and professional. Do you have particular knowledge about a type of H-1B candidate? Or a nuanced point about visa interviews for individuals from a certain country? Unless there’s something unique here, most people will simply keep scrolling. This leads us to our second point…
- If your content is something that can be easily Googled or otherwise found online, it likely won’t do well! It may sound counterintuitive, but if the information is that easy to find, your target demographic has probably already searched for that information online. When they’re on LinkedIn, they’re seeking unique professional perspectives, not a copy/paste from Wikipedia or the USCIS website. You are not positioning yourself as a thought leader or an expert if you are simply copying or repurposing information that can be found very easily on the web.
- What about your post will make them trust your law firm and/or personal brand over another brand, especially a larger brand that is perhaps more established and therefore “trustworthy” in the field? Being generic doesn’t help.
This is the immigration law content you should create for LinkedIn instead
Instead of posting the content that everyone else is making, you need to stand out by posting unique content! This seems like common sense but a lot of professionals are afraid to post content that differentiates themselves.
Don’t be afraid to be yourself
Don’t be afraid to show your personality online! Create content for LinkedIn by being your full self. Even content that has nothing to do with your job as an immigration professional can help set you apart. For example, if you are a former opera singer, you have unique content automatically. Post a video of you singing, talk about how you work with O-1 visa candidates, including other singers and performing artists, and watch your engagement skyrocket.
If you have an interesting hobby or passion, people love to see these in action. Post a video or a photo of you practicing your hobby or a cute video of your dog, while tying that in with your specialization, and people will pay attention, get entertained, learn from you, start associating you with your field of practice more strongly.
Show your expertise in something niche
Another great way to start getting attention on LinkedIn is to start showing your expertise in the narrow client segments and create content for LinkedIn based on the work that you do. Let’s say you’re doing H1-B visa work for eSport athletes or working on O-1 visas for theatre actors. These topics are LinkedIn gold! Writing about these niche topics will help build your reputation not only as an immigration thought leader, but a trustworthy source for legal immigration information.
Stand out in a sea of lawyers by peacocking with your immigration law content!
If you’re feeling inspired and ready to start showcasing your talents and create content for LinkedIn, do BOTH. Let people know about your interests and passions outside of your legal work and showcase your expertise by writing content about unique legal situations. It’s time to start peacocking and the LinkedIn attention will come!
(Here’s a photo of me with an actual parrot on my head – I posted this on LinkedIn when writing about peacocking with content, and I think people liked the double entendre!)
