LinkedIn Etiquette for Law Students

Be nice to newcomers on LinkedIn™. We all were new once.

When I started, I didn’t even know how to “tag” someone. In fact, I didn’t even know it was called a “tag.”

I recall asking someone who seemed non judgmental,

“How do you make it so a person’s name lights up in blue bold so they get a notification that I mentioned them?”

Here were just a few of the myriad other questions I had:

▪️ What was “the Algorithm” I kept hearing people talk about? If I posted, didn’t all my first-degree connections just see my post in their feeds automatically? No? What??

▪️ And what was the difference between a “connection” and a “follower”?

▪️ What did it mean to “share with comment” as opposed to “repost”? Which should I do and why?

▪️ What were the guidelines for commenting on someone else’s post?

▪️ What was the etiquette for connecting with people? Should I include an invitation? 

▪️ What was the recommendation on accepting connection requests? What if I didn’t know the person? What if they were in a foreign country?

▪️ Once I was connected, what if I didn’t want to be? Can I “disconnect,” or will they find out, making things awkward?

▪️ What about following people instead of connecting?  Which option should I do when?

▪️ What was the protocol for “tagging” people? And what about if I got tagged?

▪️ How can I search for all people who have a certain descriptor or keyword in their tagline?  Oh, and what is a “tagline”? What should mine say?

▪️ What should I put in my “About” section? Should it be in first person or third person? How long should it be?

▪️ Should I include every job I’ve ever had, or just the recent ones?  How much of a description for what I did should I include?

▪️ Do I need a customized “banner” (actually, start with, “what is a ‘banner’”?)

And none of those questions even begins to scratch the surface of how to post, what to say, or the strategy for formatting, emojis, structure, etc. and why those types of things matter.

The list of things to learn is endless.

⬇️

I am aiming to prepare guidance on all the above questions for law students this summer.

🗳️ What other Q&A should I include to be helpful?

Let’s make this a warm, inviting community for newcomers just starting out!

Fondly,

💌 Amanda

P.S.  My husband, Matt, is a managing partner at a law firm and he didn’t know answers to any of the above questions, either (—and probably still does not know most).  So I promise you that NO question is too dumb!!!

🗳️ What other questions do you have?

(DM me if you don’t want to ask below.)

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🔖 Here’s the answer about how to “tag”:

—Type the “@“ character and start typing the person’s first name first, which will cause a drop down of matching names from which you select to insert.

—Also, if you want to include the first name only, you should backspace only ONCE to delete only the tagged part of the last name.

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▪️ How do you get a specific link to one of your posts to give to someone else?

“How do I create a customized URL?”

“How do I turn off and on recommendations and endorsements?”

“How do I view profiles in anonymous mode?”

“Why would I want or need to turn anonymous mode off and on?”

“What are hashtags and do they even matter anymore?”