LinkedIn FAQ
LinkedIn is a powerful social network. It can be very useful for connecting with colleagues, finding and posting jobs, participating in group discussions, staying top of mind with referrals and potential clients, maintaining a profile for yourself and for your firm/organization, and for news/information. There are some features of LinkedIn that you may have questions about. Should I get verified? Should I pay for premium? What does it mean when someone follows me? See the answers below.
Verification
LinkedIn has started to verify accounts. What does that mean? A verification badge on your profile indicates that you were able to confirm information about your account, such as your identity, workplace, and education. The goal is to provide authentication to signal to others that you “are who you say you are”. With hacked accounts and deepfakes and identity theft this may seem like a good idea. However, for most lawyers verification is unnecessary. To get identity verification you will submit a valid government issued ID and personal phone number and/or submit a selfie to a “trusted partner”. To get a verified workplace requires several elements that are “available for select companies) such as a Microsoft Entra Verified ID, a LinkedIn Learning License, a work email, or an active LinkedIn recruiter license. The educational institution verification verifies that you work for an educational institution, not that you are verifying your education.
LinkedIn verification is free and optional. Despite LinkedIn suggesting that verification is helpful in getting your profile noticed, it is unlikely to be of much use to most attorneys and in fact may have some privacy implications. Skip this for now and focus on building out your profile, posting information, reacting to your connection’s posts and building your brand. If you want to make sure your profile and account are secured on LinkedIn, be sure to use a strong, long and unique password and turn on multi-factor authentication.
Premium
LinkedIn has a premium plan, which costs $45 per month (billed annually). There is a constant enticement to try premium for free for a month. What do you get for this steep price? The platform claims you will get an average of 6x more profile views. You can also get 15 InMails per month (send direct messages to those you are not connected to), see who has viewed your profile for the last year (unless they have set their profile to anonymous or limited), unlimited people browsing/search and an open profile (anyone inside or outside your network can message you). If you are in the job market you will get job, company, and resume insights. Additionally, you will get access to 21,000+ LinkedIn Learning courses (from 22,000+ courses) and Interview Preparation tools.
If you are looking for a job, tracking leads and prospects, or really leveraging LinkedIn in such a way that you can track the ROI this might be a good investment. Access to the LinkedIn Learning courses may be appealing but you can purchase a monthly pass for $40 or buy individual courses. For instance, the “Excel: Creating Business Budgets” course includes 25 videos, certification of completion and lifetime access with any future updates for $40. It depends on how many courses you want to take as to which type of subscription works best for you.
Of note, if you are really looking for lead generation and using LinkedIn to get business you may consider Sales Navigator, which features competitors, advanced searches, CRM integrations, customer insights and more. Sales Navigator has different plans and pricing starts at $80 per month.
Following versus Connecting
You may occasionally get a notification that someone is following you, versus sending you a connection request. What is the difference? A connection is a two-way relationship. You can see each other’s posts and send messages on the platform. A follower is a one-way relationship. If you follow someone (or something) you can see their posts (or they can see yours) but without connecting.
For the most part you will want to go ahead and connect with people. However, if you just want to see posts from influencers or companies you can follow them instead. When you see people have followed you, consider if you want to go ahead and send a connection request if you want to have more ways to communicate. If you want to see who you are following and who is following you go to LinkedIn, click on the My Network icon and the click “Following & Followers” from the side navigation menu. In many cases you may also be connected to your followers, but it is worth making sure that you are also following them to be sure to see their activity in your feed.
Conclusion
LinkedIn has become even more popular due to factors including the decline of Twitter and the pandemic. It can be a very good way to boost your professional goals, promote your firm, attract talent, connect with communities, and find jobs.
Interested in learning more? Here are some previous posts about how lawyers and law firms can leverage LinkedIn:
Ten Tips To Leverage LinkedIn – North Carolina Bar Association
Getting the Most from Your LinkedIn Profile – North Carolina Bar Association
LinkedIn Company Page for Law Firms – North Carolina Bar Association
New and Need to Know in LinkedIn – North Carolina Bar Association
Trying Out LinkedIn Newsletters – North Carolina Bar Association
Do You Own Your Firm’s Web Presence? – North Carolina Bar Association
Measure Twice, Cut Once – North Carolina Bar Association