Authority advises social networking and blogging for starting solo law practice
Carolyn Elefant, author and leading authority on solo law practice, recently advised a current federal court clerk to turn down a $50,000 large law bonus and follow their dream of starting their own law practice.
And among some other great law practice management tips, here's Carolyn's advise on marketing.
Get yourself registered or claim your profile at sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, Avvo and other networking sites and start educating yourself on blogs and websites so that you can get one up and running when you open for business (as an aside, while you're still clerking, I would refrain from blogging unless you clear it with your judge). And while you're at it, take yourself over to a Sears or JC Penney and for $60, get a professional looking digital photo that you can start uploading to these sites and use at your website.Â
Carolyn's advise to turn down the 50k was of course unique to this lawyer's situation. But I found it telling that Carolyn, who pours her heart out to help lawyers looking to hang out their shingle, advised social networking for bringing in new work.
I've been following recent discussion on a small law firm marketing listserv. One after another, lawyers lined upped to diss social networking as an effective means of marketing a law practice.
Fact is blogging and the adjunct use of social networking sites may just be the most cost effective and most powerful way to market your new law practice. What used to take a decade, that being to establish yourself as an authority in a niche, a young lawyer can do in two or three years by effectively using the Internet.
Kevin,
Thanks for the link. To me, social networking sites a pretty much a no-brainer way to get a presence on the Internet if only because they are free. To be honest, many of these sites haven't directly resulted in work in my unique practice area, but they look nice, they take no time and they're a good way to always let people know what you're up to and increase online visibility. Also, because the reader is a law clerk, he is a bit constrained in what he can do now (in my view) to get a practice going but social networking seems to be a low key way to get started. Two other sites that I didn't mention in this context are JD Supra and docstoc, where you can upload documents.
I'm advising lawyers that though these social networking sites may not bring in work directly, there's no doubt they have an effect on how you are seen.
Networking by its very nature gets you seen by more people who then learn what you do. Whether you meet someome online or offline that's another source of work or reference for you.
In addition, when it comes to a site like LinkedIn, a sinificant number of people will look at a lawyer's profile on LinkedIn during the lawyer selection process. An incomplete profile speaks volumes.
And when it comes to blogging, social networking sites have been a boon to me. By sharing information and points of dicussion with folks via social networking, my blog content gets seen by more people, a large number of whom are also bloggers who then cite my content for their audience.