Zen & The Art of Legal Networking : Lawyers & Attorneys in an International Legal Network for Relationships & Referrals

In today's world, people are getting most of their information not from newspapers, but from people they trust both offline and online.  Kevin suggested that lawyers need to be thinking "how do I become trusted as a source of information."  

He made the point that people don't join sites like LinkedIn and Facebook to have information pushed at them, so he cautioned the audience not to be a distribution source, which people would see as offensive and not valuable or helpful.  Instead, he said that they should be looking for what would be helpful to their audience instead of just talking about themselves.  

One of the main reasons to use social media is for professional growth.  Kevin said that if he asked the bloggers in the LexBlog network what the biggest surprises about blogging have been, they would say that it takes time and the growth that they've experienced and what they've learned.  They read more, the engage with more thought leaders and meet wonderful people in their area of the law.  

Kevin added that the best lawyers don't have a problem getting work - they don't have to market themselves.  But professional growth is as important, if not more so, than marketing and business development. The ability to network and meet more people than you could meet otherwise, to nurture relationships with existing clients are the great benefits of using the social networking medium for business development growth.  

Although there are many questions about tools, Kevin said that talking about them is irrelevant.  He likened it to telling lawyers which car to drive to networking events and said that principles are more important that tools.  He focused on the following key principles:

1. Engage: It's all about building relationships with people - this is how work comes in.  How do you engage through a blog post? Let your clients and prospective clients know that you're listening to them and that you're responding to the things that keep them up at night.  
   
   Also engage with influencers by referencing them and their stories in your blog posts.  Do that with reporters and other bloggers. This leads to building relationships with them, which leads to them seeing you as a trusted source and then using your name and information to help build your reputation as an information source.  Kevin pointed out that it's much more influential to see someone else's endorsement of trust and to get those, you have to engage the influencers.  
    
2. Networking: Kevin recommended networking in focused ways instead of trying to network with everyone.  One of the ways he recommended doing this is through an RSS reader.  He said 15% of people in the US use RSS readers because they're too busy to get information in other ways.  
   
   He doesn't believe that it's too complicated and said that if a lawyer can use LexisNexis, they can use an RSS reader. LexBlog can train lawyers to use them and find the right information, or they can Google "What is a Google reader?"  For busy people, an RSS reader is a time saving way of consuming content.  Kevin also suggested that lawyers monitor their own names.  
    
3. Relationships: As I have said before, it's all about relationships.  Kevin said that years ago, telephones used to be in the back of law offices and only young kids were the ones using them.  But the senior lawyers began to use them to build and maintain their relationships. Social media tools are no different.  
   
   He likened it to pool balls on a pool table - you don't know which ones will go in, but you have to knock them around until one does.  
    
4. Word of Mouth: Kevin said that there are good lawyers who use Twitter, and used the example of a lawyers in his sixties, who began using Twitter as a way to keep up on cycling.  He started to connect with cyclists and they turned into potential clients.  He built relationships with them and at the same time, built a word of mouth reputation.  
   
   Kevin pointed out that directories, email alerts and websites are not building relationships with people.  He said that when people are sitting around a conference table talking about their internet presence and business development, they never talk about engaging and listening better. They talk about web stats.  But word of mouth reputation is what's important. 
    
5. Strategy:  Building a word of mouth reputation this must be done with a strategy - if a lawyer is going to network, he or she needs to think about how to engage clients and potential clients, as well as influencers like bloggers, authors, and conference coordinators. For example, blogging about an event in your industry and sharing it with your readers in order to add value is blogging strategically.  
    
6. Social Media Equity: When using social media, Kevin said it's important to be thinking about how you build social media equity.  To earn this, he said you give of yourself and share the things you see. He said it's not about pushing blog posts out through Twitter. Automatically updating Facebook and LinkedIn through Twitter is the opposite of building social media equity.
   
   Instead, it's about sharing information.  People will then come to appreciate that you're a trusted resource on the information that you're sharing.  Then a blog post you write might be on Twitter because someone in your network shares it.  It's much better when someone else shares your content.  Once people trust you, it's a small step to being hired.  
    

Kevin again emphasized the importance of listening.  He said that blogging takes a lot less time when you listen. It's not an every day activity, and it's okay to get only two or three blog comments in a month.  The important thing is listening, building relationships and having other people share your content.  He said that sharing information is a great way to blog and shows that you stay up to speed on the issues that matter.

Sharing information also demonstrates to clients that you're thinking about them, when they think you're not.  It also gives them the ability to share your information.  Kevin emphasized that social networking is about having a conversation and that updates on the law alone don't provide value.  The goal isn't to become the definitive source on something; it's to engage, offer value, become known, develop a reputation and develop relationships.

To do this, you have to go to where the people are.  When you're invited somewhere, you don't say no, we don't go out.  You go.  

Kevin said that the great thing about social media is that no one knows what they're doing.  He said that he's just a guy thinking about how to use this for business and he measures his success by how many people he can help, not how many visitors he gets to his website.  

He told the audience not to be afraid of the tools and wait for the bar to pass regulations about them.  Just get out there and offer value. 

Kevin said that the the tools that they want to think about using are the ones that offer the most value.  His suggestions in order were:

• An RSS reader: It's your ears to what's going on.
   
• LinkedIn: He said that LinkedIn is way underutilized and attorneys should be joining groups, answering questions and using the search function to look people up by title and zip code.
   
• Blogging: The key to this is FLEE: Find (the right audience), Listen (to questions and influencers), Engage, Empower (them to share information)
   
• Twitter: Don't use this to share your own information, but share other people's information.  Kevin's been able to develop a network of 9,000 followers on Twitter because they trust him to share information.  

Kevin challenged the audience to be leaders and not followers.  In order to do this, you'll have to try some things out and just be a leader.

He added that LexBlog is able to do more detailed webinars for law firms if they're interested.

At the end of the webinar, there were a few questions from the audience.  The first two were whether Kevin would recommend that a firm have individual blogs, or law firm blogs and how lawyers can manage their work and do all of this social media work.  

To answer the first question, Kevin said that there isn't a right or wrong way to blog. There are some group blogs that law firms have that are very successful because individuals bring together the interests that they have.  He added that bloggers are cited individually most of the time and said that there are also very successful blogs written solely by one attorney.  

In terms of time management, Kevin said that it depends.  Social networking doesn't need to be an every day activity, but in the beginning, it takes more time.  He said that it worked the same way for him, figuring things out over time.  He said that bloggers can do amazing things in three to four hours a week or less.  About 40% of blogs are updated once a week, and using an RSS reader saves time in getting information.  

There was another question about whether firms should blog in multiple languages.  Kevin said that there are bloggers out there doing this, and that it makes sense in some cases.  

He wasn't advocating not having a website, but his point was valid - if people don't trust advertising, where's the value in investing a lot of marketing dollars into it and websites? People are much more likely to trust someone they know, and this could be extended to someone they only "know" online. So developing an online presence and empowering your online friends to be your word of mouth advertising is far more valuable than putting together a slick ad campaign or spending most of your marketing dollars on a website, particularly for smaller and mid-sized firms.

Okay, so with all my previous arguments and Kevin's enthusiasm for pursuing social media, I'm sure many of you are still wondering how to be successful and efficient (since as we know, lawyers are very busy people).  

Important Concepts for Internet Networking

Kevin talked about some important concepts, starting with my favorite:

• "Engage" - You've got your blog, you're writing posts and publishing them - think about who you're engaging with in your audience as you're writing.  
   
• "Networking" - think about what you're doing to network, specifically, what are you doing to increase the number of people you're networking with.
  
  An important caveat here, which Kevin mentioned as well, is that numbers aren't everything in social media. You'll see people contact you on Twitter offering to help you increase your followers and maybe it's an ego boost to have 50,000 people following what you say.  But that group might be made up almost entirely of spammers or people who don't share your interests, either personally or professionally.  Those aren't the people you want to be connecting with - focus on the quality of followers, not quantity. Read this article in the New York Times on "If you think social media marketing is worthless, you're doing it wrong" for some additional insight.
  
  Kevin added that networking on the internet (like networking in person) isn't just about finding someone who is related to the exact area of law that you practice. It's about connecting with people who share your interests. Maybe the twitter follower who is into fly fishing like you are turns into a client at some point. You never know where business can come from. 
   
• "Relationships" - That's the cornerstone of our Network, because when you build relationships with people, they trust you. And that trust leads to business.  

In this case, Kevin said that the outcome of engaging, networking and building relationships is developing a word of mouth reputation. 

He cautioned against getting into social media and thinking the legal work will immediately start to come in - it's similar to joining a network like ours. When you join a network or start out in social media, you need to begin engaging with people and developing relationships, and also looking how you can help them. In social media, that may be through sharing an article you found that might be of interest to your followers, passing on a link, or answering a question.

What's Your Strategy?

This is all part of having a strategy and Kevin suggests that that strategy focus on four groups of people:

1. Clients
2. Prospects
3. Referral sources
4. Influencers

For clients and prospects, write down who you want to represent and on what types of matters. To create relationships with influencers, you've got to show them that you're listening.  How can you do this? If you read an interesting article in the New York Times that you can offer some perspective on, write a blog on it and quote the author and the piece. Then send them an email and let them know you've mentioned them. You might ask, "why would they care?" Authors, conference organizers, and other influencers like their information to be shared on social media. 

Once you've gotten this initial contact, offer to connect with them on LinkedIn. Maybe send them an email the next time you're in their city so you can meet up - start to build a relationship with them. 

Kevin offered some important concepts to keep in mind while internet networking:

• Social media equity: This is about getting people to trust you. It's important because as we mentioned earlier, people trust information that comes from their friends more than they trust a Google search.  
   
• Trust: If you can be a trusted, reliable authority who shares valuable information, it's only a small step to being hired as a lawyer. Trust is built not just by sharing your own blog posts, but by sharing other information your network might see as valuable.  This shows you as someone who cares about helping others. 
   
• Listening: It's more important to listen than to just put out content. Kevin pointed out that people compliment good listeners, but they don't compliment people who talk a lot and interrupt others. He suggested thinking of the internet as a conversation. 

Kevin talked about the concerns he hears from firms whose attorneys are just beginning to blog, including both ethical issues and the issue that in the past, if someone made a mistake while out on the golf course, only a few people knew about it. But today, the internet offers a much wider audience. He agreed that these concerns are valid, but that they can be handled. His advice was "don't be an idiot." 

He also talked about the idea that social networking is "just for younger people," pointing out that Generation Y is not 14 years old. So it's not insignificant that 75% and more use social media to get their information and build relationships. Betsy Munnell agreed via Twitter, saying "Stop writing Y off." 

Another question he gets is "do I have to be perfect?" And the answer is no - no one knows what they're doing because it's all still new to everybody.  Kevin said "you're going to need to let your hair down a little bit," which he added can be tougher to do in larger firms. As Laura Gutierrez pointed out via Twitter, it can also be hard to do in smaller firms as well. 

Parting Advice to be Successful Internet Networkers

Kevin's parting advice was:

• Do the things that bring about ROI.
   
• Use an RSS reader.
   
• Use LinkedIn: Don't just sign up for it, but use it. When you meet someone and get their card, connect to them on LinkedIn.
   
• Use Twitter: it's valuable for engagement and professional development. 

Kevin said the key to blogging is FLEE - Find (the conversation), Listen, Engage, and Empower (your audience, by providing value).  He finished up by saying that demonstrating leadership both in your firm and in the legal profession in terms of social media is so important - it shows people that lawyers care and helps to make the law more accessible to them.