21. The Network Effect I have a real estate matter in Seattle. Who can do the work? Who do I know that can serve as a referral? Professional networking success means making connections And using them well
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Editor's Notes
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Networking is increasingly critical to the legal industry. A recent study called \"Networks for Counsel,\" conducted by Leader Networks, in partnership with LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell, revealed some interesting data, such as the increasing difficulty of in-person networking efforts.Meanwhile, social media adoption among legal professionals in on the rise -- especially Corporate Counsel -- for very specific business reasons:Access to specialized infoEasier information exchangeFaster decision resolutionThe Networks for Counsel study can be downloaded at http://www.leadernetworks.com or http://www.leadernetworks.com/networks_study_form.shtml<number><number>
There is a great deal of innovation going on around social media. New tools and opportunities are created almost daily for every imaginable connection platform. Streaming video, photo upload, micro blogging, virtual worlds are everywhere. For the digitally curious, expert social media users or experimenters, there is great variety online. We have showcased this variety here. BUT, for professional users of social media, the landscape need not be so overwhelming. The next slide offers a overview of the social media \"Landscape for Lawyers\" – a more selective and targeted look at the online professional networking tools and opportunities available for you to advance the business and practice of law. <number>12
Just what are the key online professional networking activities for lawyers? Listening, collaborating and promoting. These may sound easy, but the order is important. Contributing or promoting yourself without listening first is like talking loudly during a concert. It creates a bad first impression. Just as the first impression you make in person can have lasting consequences, your first forays into social networking online can have a long-term impact. Google never forgets what you've posted, commented on or discussed.The first phase of social media engagement is listening. Observe what others say and their tone; monitor your reputation and the reputations of people important to you; follow trends and watch for opportunities to participate and contribute. This step is crucial -- the need to monitor and observe your own activities never ceases -- and includes:Creating Google or private community alertsSubscribing to newsfeeds and blog readersScanning social media – Blogpulse, tweetscan, community searchesPhase two is Collaboration -- taking actions to engage with other and become visible. You might:Join an online community or professional networkCreate a basic profileConnect with peers, help others make connections and begin to leverage those connections to expand your networkContribute to ratings, rankings and surveysAdd your comments to a blogParticipate in discussions and groupsAsk good questions and offer useful advice and answersEach profile detail, connection, rating or survey response, blog comment or discussion post adds depth and detail to your online persona, and helps create trust and respect inside and outside your specific community.Phase three is Promoting, which takes collaboration a step further to create an active marketing stream of your online activities. Think of this as a program for creating and expanding your personal brand online, developing a professional reputation based on thought leadership contributions and support of your firm and other practitioners. Both Corporate Counsel and Private Practice attorneys benefit from actively promoting their POV online – be it to get more business, find a new position or stay connected to industry trends and developments. Engaging in each of these three phases – listening, collaborating and promoting -- enhances the impact of the other phases. The result is greater trust, greater visibility and stronger connections within the professional network. In turn, you will be able to utilize Online Legal Business Tools such as preferred provider lists, integrated search and client ratings more effectively. This will advance your legal practice in new ways -- more quickly, more thoroughly and, in most cases, at less cost than through traditional off-line methods.12<number>
As the CareerBuilder study suggests, the business rationale for creating and maintaining a positive, effective online persona is very persuasive. Your social media profile -- not just your actual profile but all the elements that make up your online reputation -- is your calling card in the digital age. Before any meeting or event, people will search online for you, so it's to your benefit to control and shape what they learn about your professional life. <number><number>
Understanding how you or your firm is perceived in the online world is a competitive necessity. By regularly conducting searches on yourself, your organization and industry, you gain valuable insights into what information is available to others. This is especially important for legal practitioners who have a public face through speaking engagements, specific expertise or cases. Tracking your reputation online will give you a better sense of how you, your firm or your area of practice are perceived.It's also a fast and free way to identify emerging legal issues or up-and-coming practitioners. Monitor the changes in search results on these topics or people over time. Watch where you or the legal topics you follow appear in search results -- and pay attention to the sources. If you track them over time while building your social media participation, you will likely notice an improvement in your search rankings due to your increased visibility online. You can also spot wrong information in your background or bio and take action to change or remove it.Unless you are already active online or especially well-known, you won’t find too many search results that you didn’t know about: a talk you gave, a case you were involved with. If you do discover unexpected mentions, take advantage of the opportunity to get involved. You can’t stop people from talking about you, but once you know it is happening, you can choose to participate in the conversation. For example, if you write an article for a legal publication, bloggers and online commentators may mention it. Use their mentions to respond or leave a comment online. If someone disagrees with your ideas, seize the chance to expand your thesis and discuss your thinking process. All of these participation activities on social media will raise your visibility and help people who may be searching for or about you online.<number><number>
In addition to blogs, there are lots of other places to find information, people and watch trends. Content-sharing sites such as SlideShare and YouTube can quickly and engagingly signal the sentiments of many people in relationship to an issue or topic.<number>
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There are 4 major categories of digital channels that are especially useful for lawyers.The first is blogs and online news. The Web is awash with millions of blogs, but there is a select group that are dedicated to law-related commentary or showcase legal ideas, issues and trends. Companies and individuals may publish blogs on their company web sites, using blog tools such as blogger or WordPress, or belong to a blog network that aggregates topical or industry blogs into a single place online. Both blog strategies are useful and their success -- as measured by traffic and comments -- depends upon their visibility. Many bloggers take multiple approaches, publishing their blogs independently, submitting them to blog networks and linking to them on professional networks to receive the widest exposure. Reputation Aggregators is the second channel. Reputation channels allow an attorney to watch, follow and amend information about their own professional identity, as well as locate and track information about the backgrounds and affiliations of other lawyers. Google is, of course, the mother of all reputation engines and will surface much of the information that is publicly available. Naymz and Spoke are sites where public information is displayed about a person but one can also augment or enhance that data by soliciting endorsements and references online or adding information that is not public, such as awards or positions. Jigsaw is a different kind of reputation engine. It is a contact directory where a user can purchase contact information for professionals on a one-by-one basis.Blogpulse offers a scan for a URL, name or word -- such as a legal term -- to measure how many bloggers have mentioned or linked to the word or URL.The third channel is Communities. There are many professional networks and communities open to the legal profession or used by lawyers to share information and collaborate with peers. Private legal-only online communities such as Martindale Hubbell Connected offer a safe and protected place for legal professionals to connect online and share information about themselves and their practice. Other communities include JDSupra which focuses more on document sharing and collaboration; Legal OnRamp and LegallyMinded.com are also examples of online legal communities.Finally, Social Networks are places where the primary goal of participation is to connect with others. LinkedIn is the most widely used business-oriented social network online. Thousands of lawyers have profiles and bios posted on LinkedIn as a way to be seen and share information in public about themselves. The majority of social networks are public, so any information posted on them is accessible by Google and other search engines. Plaxo is another example of a network that is open to all but is largely used by professionals to maintain up-to-date contact information about themselves and others. <number>
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Using two examples of leading social media sites -- Martindale-Hubbell Connected and LinkedIn -- we will explore how these sites can be used, and we can discuss several scenarios so the benefits and practical applications can be better understood ...<number><number>
In this example, we are using a profile from Martindale-Hubbell Connected. [Go through key points ...]Additional commentary: Her profile indicates she has completed a client review which demonstrates her involvement in and commitment to the legal profession. We are left with the experience of feeling this is a professional that is someone we want to or should know.An effective profile conveys far more than simply a picture and a bio. The details enhance the individual's credibility, accessibility and substance, just as a real-life encounter might. The profile encourages someone to make contact and establish a professional connection.<number>21
Let's bring the power of a social media profile to life and see how far-reaching a good social media profile can be.By conducting an online search, an attorney can find someone -- for example, a legal or subject matter expert -- and discover how he might connect to that expert through mutual connections, even if the connection is indirect through one or more intermediaries. Instead of just “blindly” contacting or connecting to someone, he can now use his relationship channel to reach 2nd or even 3rd degree connections with greater reliability and confidence.21<number>
Both Martindale Connected and LinkedIn offer groups as part of the professional network experience. Joining a select number of groups is a preferred way to narrow and deepen your connections and collaborations with other professionals via shared affiliations and interests.There are different kinds of groups available on professional networks – private groups which require a group owner to approve your participation- public groups that anyone can joinIdeally, you may want to join two to five groups per network, being mindful of the commitment this entails. Smaller groups typically require more engagement and participation. The expectations for small group collaboration will be higher than for a larger network where there are thousands or million of users. Often times, when you join a group, your membership profile will display a badge or indication that you are part of the group. This is a great way to signal your specialization and expertise to the world. In some cases, you may not want that badge to appear and you can amend your privacy settings so that the group is not displayed on your public profile. <number>