Unbreakable Links: An Expert Guide to Leveraging LinkedIn

By Noah Bolmer 

VOE founder Vicky Oyomba is an expert in advertising and social media. With over 15 years of experience, she has helped propel a variety of clients ranging from Fortune 500 members, to boutiques. According to Ms. Oyomba, for expert witnesses, “The main platform is LinkedIn. It is the world’s largest professional network, and it makes a lot of sense to use it.” In our interview, she suggested best practices for experts using LinkedIn, and social media in general.  

Filling the Buckets 

When you think about your profile, you should make that first impression really count. You wouldn’t show up to an interview half-dressed. –Vicky Oyomba 

About half of LinkedIn profiles are incomplete, according to a LinkedIn Pulse article. A complete profile is key, not only because it provides necessary information for recruiters, but because LinkedIn’s algorithm favors them. While most people include their education, job experience, and certifications; there is a lot of value in some of the less-often completed sections. Ms. Oyomba refers to each of these profile sections as a ‘bucket’, noting: 

I think the first thing everybody should do when they’re on LinkedIn is look at their profile and understand “is it complete?” Have you filled out all the different pieces? A complete profile is important because it increases your discoverability. Typically, on LinkedIn, your profile will rank higher in search results and even in Google search results, if it’s fully complete. It is also great for people who are looking for more opportunities because members with complete profiles will often get forty times more opportunities. I think it’s important to make sure that you [have] filled out all the different buckets on your profile.  

Bucket 1: Photos 

On LinkedIn, your profile creates a vital first impression, and a high-quality, in-focus headshot portrays professionalism. Ms. Oyomba says, “capture something that is in focus so that people can see who you are.” Aim for a friendly, approachable expression that reflects your personality. Blurry selfies or photos with distracting backgrounds are fine for sharing with your family and friends, but a professional headshot can significantly influence how potential employers and connections perceive you.  

Additionally, consider updating your headline photo (the header image behind your profile picture). Choose a high-resolution image that aligns with your expertise and personal brand.  For instance, a technology expert might feature a shot of them confidently writing code, while an audio expert may use an attractive image of recording equipment. Keep it professional yet approachable, ensuring the image quickly communicates your field of expertise.  

Bucket 2: Headline and Summary 

While you may find talking about yourself difficult, your headline is the text equivalent of your profile picture; it is your first impression. Ms. Oyomba likens your headline to a brief pitch: 

One of the most important things, especially for your headline is making sure that you are presenting an elevator pitch of who you are—making something short, sweet, and memorable so that people understand exactly what you do or exactly what you offer. This is especially important because it’s one of the first things people see on your profile. It shows up next to your name and your LinkedIn search results. This is very important because it’s a quick connection for people who don’t know you to understand what you do and what you can offer them. 

The summary is a more in-depth (though still brief) description of your accomplishments. Keep it to-the-point and focus on your first and last sentences, she advises:   

I do think folks should try to cut [the summary] down to one paragraph, maybe two. It’s important for people to think about a couple of different things: The first is who your target audience is. For example, if you’re an expert witness [. . .] and you’re hunting for new opportunities, you want to speak to lawyers—so target your summary to lawyers. The first thing is to speak to the target audience that you want to reach, making that first sentence count. People don’t read, so include one key takeaway you want them to know if they didn’t read anything else in that first sentence. Then the last [sentence] would include a story or an anecdote that is memorable so that when they’ve read your profile, they have one or two things to take away. It’s like a key story of how you were able to transform something or change and had an impact on the case, I think that’s important. 

Bucket 3: Featured Content 

Ms. Oyomba recommends, “One of the best things to do is the featured content bucket. Here, you can highlight [any] projects you’ve worked on, articles you’ve authored, and white papers you have done.” Featured content is prime real estate near the top of your profile, sitting prominently above your experience and skills. It is a curated portfolio, so limit it to your best, most impactful, or eye-catching work. Fortunately, LinkedIn allows for a broad range of media types for this section, so you are able to link documents, videos, or images here. Newer posts will not push featured content lower in your profile, so always make sure your best work is on display.  

Bucket 4: Accomplishments 

Filling out the Accomplishments section is not about bragging; it paints a picture of your value proposition to attorneys. Concrete achievements will make your profile stand out.  By showcasing your results, you’re not just telling them what you did, you’re showing them the tangible difference you can make. Even experts with minimal expertise can shine here, according to Ms. Oyomba:  

I know when folks are studying, or they’ve had some internship experience or even very little work experience, they have been able to accomplish certain things. I would argue [the Accomplishments section] would be a great place to put those items [. . .] the most helpful way for people who haven’t had as much work experience is [adding] just one or two lines highlighting the impact you’ve had [. . .] Less about responsibilities included, and more about “led a campaign that resulted in ‘x’ percent.” I think talking about your experience in tangible ways that show growth and success is helpful and could be bulleted so you can keep it short and sweet. 

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

An oft overlooked, but important consideration in designing your LinkedIn presence is SEO. Large companies employ entire teams to best optimize their social media presence for search engines, but experts too can leverage SEO to prioritize profiles. Ms. Oyomba explains: 

SEO is “search engine optimization”. Many social media profiles pop up in Google searches, and it’s similar to how social media platforms like LinkedIn provide search results to their users. It’s keywords that indicate [. . .] specific categories you might fall into. For example, if I’m on LinkedIn and I’m searching for best practices on body language because I’m an expert witness, and that’s important to how I show in the courtroom, people whose profiles are specifically talking about body language and the different elements of that will pop up along with body language experts or things of that nature. It’s important in terms of how people search on the Internet and the way expert witnesses can include this in their profiles or in their content. It is understanding what keywords speak to topics that they want to talk about or what keywords align with what they want to be known for. 

There is an art to injecting keywords in a natural way. It is important to sprinkle them into each section, without seeming robotic, or forced. She continues:  

On your profile—or especially in your summary—you can have a specialty section at the end, and you can use that to add some keywords that tie back to your expertise. Also, when you are writing your headline—if you can get a couple of keywords in there, that’s really key. Then, in your work experience, you have so many opportunities to include [keywords], whether you’re doing bullet points or paragraphs for each role that you’ve held; I think that’s another great opportunity to try to work some of those in. 

How Active Should I Be?  

Experts that post more are seen more. The LinkedIn algorithm prioritizes active users, so activity and consistency are important. Ms. Oyomba explains: 

Activity is extremely important. On LinkedIn, for example, how active you are helping the algorithm understand whether it should be showing your profile content to people. The more active you are, whether you’re liking content, commenting on content, sharing content, the more likely LinkedIn is to show your profile to other people and content to other people. It makes you more visible on the platform. 

That doesn’t mean you should post for the sake of posting; quality plays the primary role. She continues: 

I think it’s the substance of the content. At the end of the day, that substance is what’s going to be driving LinkedIn’s algorithm to promote your profile or promote your content. [. . .] I will say that it is important to think about different content formats. For example, if somebody is more comfortable with text or they can communicate what they want to communicate with text most effectively, then they should stick to that. I don’t think there’s any harm in exploring other content formats. LinkedIn, like a lot of the other social media networks, is prioritizing visuals and video, so I think it’s important to understand how you can present the information that you want to present in those popular content formats. I think it’s very important. I don’t think you need to shift your entire strategy if you’re finding that text-heavy content is working for you. I always preach to people that social media is not a one-size-fits-all, so your audience might prefer text. Continue with the text and then explore other formats to understand how your audiences are consuming that content and whether it’s resonating with them. 

Tone  

Just as in court, it is important to consider your demeanor on LinkedIn. While it is a professional network, there is some latitude for a casual tone depending on your industry. Ms. Oyomba explains, “I do recommend that folks try to be professional and then sprinkle in their personality as they go along. I think that’s the best strategy because you never know if you’re meeting somebody who is a bit more conservative. It’s best to err on the side of caution.” 

Being yourself while remaining professional is a fine line, and ultimately, it is up to you to decide how much of yourself you want to reveal in your work life. Consider not only the style of your posts, but also that of what you ‘like’ and repost. Ms. Oyomba notes, “It is important to be intentional about what content you are interacting and engaging with on LinkedIn because LinkedIn will show your post to other people, whether it’s a comment or a like.” Your tone and demeanor on LinkedIn is influenced by the totality of your profile; the manner in which you write, the content you like and share, and the photos and media you post.  

Network Size 

It may be tempting to find as many followers as possible on social media, but experts should prioritize relevant, quality contacts rather than raw numbers. Ms. Oyomba recommends vetting your connections, and organic, intentional network growth:  

I think it’s important to have a quality network, so quality over quantity. Then the other piece I would stress is that it depends on your goals. For example, if I am a sales executive and my goal is to really connect with a ton of people because I want to shout from the rooftops all the amazing things about my business, a large network makes a lot of sense. If I’m somebody who doesn’t need a large network where I’m trying to build my credibility and my authority in certain areas. I think the types of people you connect with are more important and building slowly over time would work best. [. . .] In terms of building your network, I think it’s important to be intentional with how you are building your network. I think that it’s easy to connect with every Tom, Dick, and Harry out there. I think it’s harder to take a step back and understand who my target audience is. Who makes the most sense for me to connect with? Should they be Fortune 500 companies? Should they be Fortune 100 companies? I would try to target boutique shops and then understand from there how you can connect more with those people. LinkedIn is fantastic for this. Their LinkedIn sales navigator search functionality is top tier. You can get detailed with those search criteria, and so it helps you find and make the right connections. 

When a new contact wishes to connect, consider how you know them, and whether it makes sense to connect to them professionally. When you reach out, customize your note to make your connection clear and personalized. She continues:  

I think it’s important to take some time to understand exactly who you want to connect with and any potential connection pieces they might have. You can look at their profile and see, “Oh, we went to the same college” or “Oh, we know some of the same people. I’ve worked with a few of them.” So, I think it’s important to personalize your note. It makes it more likely that your connection request will be accepted, and also, I think people do like to receive more personalized messages. It’s a win-win across the board. 

Auditing your Socials 

Once you’ve been on any social network (including LinkedIn) long enough, it behooves you to go back and audit your earlier posts. You may have made posts that you no longer agree with, or are unprofessional. There may be public posts that were meant only for your family or close friends. Because everything is catalogued by search engines, best practices are to go back, review, and if necessary, remove older posts. Ms. Oyomba recommends:  

It’s actually something I recommend everybody does at least once a year, regardless of whether they’re an expert on social media. It’s important to go back and understand what is aligning with the personal and professional brand I want to portray and what no longer fits with that. Making sure you’re able to edit those things out. Everybody evolves. We all know this. It is an important exercise, I think especially for experts who are looking to strengthen their presence on social media, on LinkedIn. It only makes sense to show up and put your best foot forward, and I think that’s definitely part of it. 

Privacy Considerations 

There is a balancing act between privacy and visibility. LinkedIn has granular privacy settings that you can use to tailor who can see what on your account. Ms. Oyomba notes:  

[Y]our privacy settings should depend on your goals. Again, going back to the sales executive example: if my goal is to connect with a lot of different types of people and gain visibility for my business and my offerings, it makes a lot of [sense] to set your LinkedIn profile to public so that it’s the most discoverable. It will pop up in search results and it will pop up in Google search results. This is the most beneficial for people looking to be more visible, but if you aren’t looking to be more visible, there are different things you can set your profile to. For example, make profile edits. If that is something that you don’t want announced to your audience, you can definitely toggle that off in the [privacy settings]. You can also notify connections if you’re in the news. If you are looking to build that trust, credibility, and authority, that’s something that you obviously want toggled on, right? And when other people mention you, you obviously want that publicity if you’re looking. If you’re not, you can go in the backend and turn that off so members can’t mention you if you don’t want it. I think LinkedIn does offer some privacy settings that not a lot of people pay attention to, but it is there for folks who are interested in understanding how their privacy settings will affect their LinkedIn experience and how they show up on the platform. 

Fill out your profile completely, grow a quality network, and audit your past posts for the most productive LinkedIn experience. Tweak your privacy settings and manage your SEO so that hiring attorneys can easily find and vet you for expert witness success! 

If you are interested in being considered for expert witnessing, consider signing up with Round Table Group. For nearly 30 years, we have helped litigators locate, evaluate, and employ the best and most qualified expert witnesses. Contact us at 202-908-4500 for more information or sign up now!