With all the talk about social networks, law firm marketers and attorneys are wondering, “Should I have a MySpace page?” Such was a flurry of activity on the Legal Marketing Association List-serv this past week where most legal marketers poo-pooed sites like Facebook and MySpace as they were mostly for ‘kids’, but opined that perhaps Linkedin might be useful as it has a more ‘business crowd.’ Currently, I’m not an active user of these systems (as blogging is my drug of choice), and I don’t expect that lawyers and law firms will start jumping in in droves, simply because as an industry they tend to be new-technology-adverse (see earlier post Lawyers Slow to Embrace Blogs ABA Survey Says).
However, and this is a huge however, I do believe that social networks can and will be an important part of internet life and business going forward and we should all become more familiar with them. Law students and young lawyers and marketers are already using them, so the train is coming. (Whether social networks remain distinct services or integrate themselves into our holistic web experience is another question to ponder.) Sure, there are the potential horror stories when folks sign up for and use technology that they don’t really fully understand.
Since law firm clients are just now starting to ask seriously about the benefits of blogging, I don’t predict a fast adoption of social networks by this same crowd. But if you want to be on the leading edge, now is the time to dip your toe into the social network waters and at least learn and evaluate. And if you see a way to use a new technology as a way to differentiate your brand, leverage your content, or improve and increase releationships and awareness — I say, go for it!
There has been plenty written on the subject of social networking including Kevin O’Keefe’s Social Networking Sites: Will they work for lawyers and other professionals?
Here are some others…
MySpace Helps Attorneys Find Clients
Linked in or Left Out: ‘Supercharge’ Your Interactions Through Social Networking
Online Social Networking for Lawyers — Online Networking for Fun and Profit
I’d love to hear others’ views and experiences on the topic. Please feel free to comment.
Agree wholeheartedly that ‘social networks can and will be an important part of internet life and business going forward and we should all become more familiar with them.’
It’s going to be a matter of comfort level for lawyers. Do you comfortable participating in a social networking site? Same as asking if you feel comfortable networking at a country club. If you do, more power to you.
I remember when email was exciting and a little strange to me in 1996. 12 years later, using email is as comfortable as using the phone, maybe more so. As times go by we’ll become comfortable with social networking online.
I find LinkedIn helpful network with folks I meet on the blogosphere and elsewhere. I’m registered at FaceBook where I’ll have other professionals ask to network with me – though I don’t know how to use it effectively. And just today I started using Twitter to network with non-legal professionals I learn from.
I agree that social networks are going to play a huge role in business development strategies moving forward. There are new technologies and marketing media already associated with these sites, especially facebook, that marketers are finding useful. I don’t think we can really fully grasp the scope of how these website communities will adapt in the future, but it is clear that the business world needs to pay attention to the trends. It is important not to get left behind when it comes to online marketing.
Lawyers are dipping theirs toes into social media. Run a search for a lawyer who is in LinkedIn. Their LinkedIn profile will generally come in just below (or even above) their law firm’s website.
A social network for lawyers has just come out. Legal OnRamp just launched a new version. My posts on it:
http://kmspace.blogspot.com/search/label/Legal%20OnRamp
Linked in is OK but to me it feels more like a bunch of resumes then anything else. There needs to be more interaction to give it the “MySpace of Business Throne” IMO.
I am suprised that there is not a “Lawyer MySpace” yet. I am in the real estate industry and there is a site called ActiveRain which has quickly became a popular Social Networking site for Real Estate professionals. There are others as well but I think that one is probably the most popular right now. It has a public side and a member side where one can easily bounce ideas off each other and have discussions about any real estate topic you could possibly want to talk about.
I am sure there will be sites like this for most industries before too long, but will they be useful and will they last?