Lawyers can network too

The internet has totally changed the way many of us live our lives. We buy shopping online and we use the net to peruse potential holiday destinations, cars, houses and jobs before making pretty much every major purchase or life decision. We may use Facebook to keep in touch with friends, Twitter to find out what our favourite personalities have been doing, and so on. Most of us have busy online lives.

I know many lawyers who use the net for research, storing documents and many other elements of their professional work. But how many are using the opportunities now afforded to them for demonstrating their expertise, making new contacts and winning work?

From the Harvard Review to the McKinsey Quarterly, all the reputable commentators have been talking about the openings available to professionals from using the business-focused networking sites like Xing, Naymz and LinkedIn.

Exponential growth

The popularity of these sites is phenomenal. Social networking sites make it easy for people to create a profile about themselves and use it to build a virtual network of their offline professional contacts and to make new ones online.

According to online statistics company Compete Inc, in September this year LinkedIn had 15,051,069 unique visitors compared to around 8,000,000 per month at the same time last year. This growth is explosive.

Marketing on these sites can be tricky because online communities hate blatant commercial messages. However, there are plenty of ways in which lawyers can and do benefit.

So why is it useful? According to one lawyer I know, Julian Johnstone, head of litigation at Druces LLP in London: “Well, for research for one – as a lawyer my job is selling legal services and from LinkedIn I can easily find the identities of the purchasers of legal services by joining groups and carrying out searches. I have information from such profiles that I would not otherwise have.

“Secondly, it’s a good way of cementing an approach or following up and then maintaining contact thereafter, used in conjunction with more traditional methods.”

Opening doors

Julian also cites LinkedIn as an excellent way of creating contacts amongst potential referrers, and has even formed a LinkedIn group for sociable lawyers to connect with each other, the purpose being to encourage “meet-ups” when one is in another’s area on business. This group was set up in September and already has over 100 members, so there is plenty of participation.

He is not the only lawyer putting these tools to good use. I know of lawyers who have hired people to their teams, appointed new suppliers and won new clients through their LinkedIn activities.

The use of these tools demonstrates a firm’s or individual’s technical “savvy”, which potentially suggests the client experience will be slick. There is a certain novelty to some of these applications, and many will become fads. However, in our experience, their usage induces a sense of curiosity in prospective clients. One large firm I know in Birmingham had tried every method possible to entice a significant local plc into acknowledging them, without success. When one of their partners connected with the CFO directly on LinkedIn, however, the beginnings of a relationship had formed and a subsequent “coffee” was arranged.

All good sense

Here are a few of the key things you need to consider if you are to trial or embed social networking into your marketing efforts:

• Create a compelling profile – include examples of benefits you’ve afforded your clients. Prospects are then much more likely to find you when they are searching for a specialist.
• Target a specific audience – there is no point in connecting with people and joining communities which are not going to be of any relevance to you.
• Add lots of links – to your firm’s website home page, to relevant pages about your specialist area and any press comment about you or your teams.
• Get involved – there are some excellent groups out there. If you’re an employment specialist, for example, join and contribute to groups where HR professionals get together to discuss their community’s issues.
• Be a thought leader – create content that expresses your informed, expert views and connect your contacts with these. Don’t tell your contacts that you’re the best banking lawyer in town – prove it by starting and controlling the conversation.
• Make contacting you easy – I know decision-makers who have contacted one lawyer over another simply because their mobile phone number was to hand. Ensure your profile readily offers your direct dial, mobile number and email address.

And finally, it’s worth remembering that there are no experts and no rules for the use of online professional networks. Their use in professional services is too new. So the best advice on taking advantage of the new opportunities the internet is presenting lawyers in winning work is, do what feels right and use your common sense.

Adam Gordon is Director of business development consultancy Gordon BDM Ltd, Glasgow. www.winningwork.co.uk

[Editor’s note: This article came about after I responded to an invitation to join Adam Gordon’s LinkedIn group]