Legal Marketing & PR

Getting New Business from Online Social Networks

By Larry Bodine, Esq.

Today's post on getting new business out of online social networking is part of a series coordinated by Martindale-Hubbell Connected.

So far we've heard from bloggers Bob Ambrogi of LawSites, Monica Bay of The Common Scold, Sean Doherty, Rees Morrison, and Kathleen Delaney. Despite the Twitter about it, we are not receiving payment or any other gratuity for participating in this series. Today it's my turn. 

Whenever I train or coach lawyers to become rainmakers, I remind them to polish their online profiles, invite every client and lawyer they know to connect with them, list their blogs, and use the app to answer "What are you working on now?"  59% of lawyers have joined an online social network and 48% of in-house counsel have also joined, according to Leader Networks.

I've been a fan of LinkedIn and have just started using M-H Connected. I don't bother with Naymz, Spoke, or Plaxo because they have too little traffic. I skip Myspace because it has 90,000 registered sex offenders on it. I don't use Facebook, but law firms like Curtis Mallet-Prevost have created nice recruiting and alumni sites there.

One trick to getting new business is to join groups. For example, I moderate the Chief Marketing Officers Forum on LinkedIn. It's a great way to meet new connections and comment on topics like legal fees, the recession and hot practice areas.  To be viewed as a thought-leader, however, a lawyer should start a discussion.

Another trick is to send questions to your connections.  Oddly enough, you must click on the Answers link to find the "Ask A Question" box. Then you pose your query and follow the pages until you get to selecting to whom to send your question.  Lawyers can distinguish themselves by the quality of their questions.  It also works as a nice promotional device, because there's no rule against sending a news alert or announcement to your own contacts.

Finally, lawyers need to weed out irrelevant connections they've made along the way. I'm not impressed with people who have 500+ connections, because they accept invitations from anyone. I'm over my limit with 293 connections, so I'll need to click on the Remove Connections and trim down my network.

Here's wishing you "happy hunting" in the quest for new business.  See tomorrow's post on the Martindale-Hubbell blog, 

Full post as published by Larry Bodine's LawMarketing Blog on April 06, 2009 (boomark / email).