Most of the LinkedIn advice online is written for people in Sydney or Melbourne trying to reach thousands of strangers. That’s not your situation. If you’re an accountant in Ballina, a family lawyer in Lismore or a physio in Byron, your work mostly comes from referrals: other professionals, past clients, and people who already know someone who knows you.
In that world, LinkedIn’s job is narrow and useful. It keeps you visible to the 200 or 300 people in your region who are in a position to send work your way, and it gives them something to point at when they do.
Personal profile or company page?
Both, but they’re not equal, and most firms put their effort into the wrong one.
Your personal profile does most of the work. People connect with people. Posts from an individual usually reach more of their network than posts from a company page, and when a bank manager or GP is deciding who to refer to, they’re thinking of a person, not a logo.
The company page is the shop front. It confirms you’re a real firm, lists your services and location, and gives your team somewhere to link their profiles. Keep it accurate and tidy, post occasionally, and don’t worry if it’s quiet.
For a small firm, a sensible split is: the principal or each partner posts from their personal profile, and the company page reshares the best of those plus any firm news.
Fix the profile before you post anything
People will look at your profile after you comment on something, after you’re mentioned in a meeting, or after someone says “you should talk to Mark”. Make that visit count.
- Photo. A recent, well-lit headshot where you look like you do when clients meet you. Not a wedding crop, not a 15-year-old photo, not sunglasses. We go into why in website photos: stock, professional or your phone?, and the same logic applies here. A proper headshot session for the whole team keeps everyone consistent across LinkedIn, your website and your email signatures.
- Headline. Say what you do and where. “Family lawyer, Northern Rivers. Separation, parenting arrangements, property settlements” beats “Passionate legal professional | Helping people thrive”.
- About section. Three or four short paragraphs: who you help, with what, where, and how to get in touch. Write it in first person.
- Location. Set it to your actual town. People search by place.
- Experience. Current role filled in properly, with your firm’s company page linked so the logo shows.
- Service page. LinkedIn lets individuals and small businesses set up a Service Page listing what they offer, which shows on your profile. LinkedIn’s help article explains how to create a Service Page.
What to post
The goal is to remind people what you do and show how you think, without sounding like you’re selling. One to two posts a week from your personal profile is plenty. Five post types suit professional services well.
A plain-English explanation of something you see often.
Three times this month I’ve had clients surprised that their super doesn’t automatically go to their partner. Here’s the short version of how binding nominations work and when to review yours.
A local observation.
A few years on from the 2022 floods, we’re still seeing businesses in Lismore working through insurance and recovery grants. A few things we’ve learned about the paperwork side.
A behind-the-scenes or team post.
Welcome to Priya, who joins us as a graduate after finishing her degree at Southern Cross. She’s already found three errors in my spreadsheets.
A shout-out to a referral partner or local business. Genuine, specific and not transactional.
Big thanks to the team at [local business] for hosting last week’s breakfast. Good room, better coffee.
An answer to a question you were asked this week. Keep it general and anonymous. Clients should never recognise themselves.
What to avoid: inspirational quotes, reposted news with no comment, humblebrags about awards dressed up as gratitude, and anything that would breach your profession’s rules. Health practitioners in particular should check what AHPRA allows before posting anything that looks like a testimonial; we cover that in Google reviews for health practitioners.
Comment more than you post
In a regional network, thoughtful comments on other people’s posts often do more than your own posts do. When the local bank manager shares a team milestone or a referral partner writes about a change in their industry, a useful comment from you shows up in front of their network as well as yours.
Spend ten minutes a couple of times a week reading your feed and adding something worth reading. “Congrats!” is fine for a friend’s new job. For anything else, add a sentence that shows you read it.
How referrals happen
This plays out regularly in regional professional networks. A mortgage broker is asked by a client who should do their tax return. They don’t search. They think of who they’ve seen around: at a business breakfast, on LinkedIn, in a comment thread last week. Then they look you up to check, and send the link.
To be in that moment:
- Connect with everyone you meet professionally, within a day or two, with a short note. “Good to meet you at the chamber breakfast this morning.”
- Keep a list of your top 20 referrers and make sure you see and engage with what they post.
- Make it easy to refer you. A clear headline, a Service Page, and a profile link they can copy into a text.
- Thank people publicly where it’s appropriate, and privately always.
- Refer back. The fastest way to get referrals is to give them.
A realistic weekly plan
- Monday: one post from your personal profile (20 minutes to write)
- Tuesday and Thursday: ten minutes reading and commenting
- After any event or meeting: connection requests the same week
- Monthly: one company page post or reshare, and a quick check that your profile and headline still make sense
That’s under an hour a week. It won’t make you LinkedIn famous, and it doesn’t need to. It just needs to make you the obvious name when someone in your region asks.
For businesses that also deal with the public, LinkedIn is only one channel. Your Google profile is often the first place locals check, which we cover in Google Business Profile updates vs social posts. Firms that know what to say but never find the Monday 20 minutes can hand the plan and the drafting over; that’s part of our social media management work.