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Networking through the Internet : It’s back to the future for good lawyers and law firms

Law firm networkingI was speaking to a reporter from Montreal on Friday afternoon. He wanted to know why social media, including blogging, was becoming so popular for lawyers.

I fell back on what’s becoming increasingly more clear to me. I explained the best lawyers have always gotten their best work by word of mouth. To generate a word of mouth buzz about what you do as a lawyer (and that you do a nice job of it), you have to network with your target audience of clients, prospective clients, referral sources, and those people who influence those three groups.

I continued by explaining that with the Internet driving all commerce today, networking is done online as opposed to offline.

Good lawyers who have gotten their work by word of mouth need to move their networking online. Otherwise their word of mouth reputation is going to dry up. May take some time to lose their hard earned reputation being spread by word of mouth, but it’ll happen.

Knowing these things, I explained lawyers and law firms who are still growing their reputations and their business are looking to network through the Internet. The concept of networking remains the same. It’s just where that networking takes place has moved – from offline to online.

Blogging, Twitter, and popular social networking sites such as LinkedIn and Facebook are just a means of networking – a way to locate your audience, listen to them, and engage with that audience. The result being a word of mouth reputation which brings in new clients and keeps the clients you have. An added kicker is the fact that online networking is like networking on steroids compared to offline networking.

When your partners and law firm management question the use of blogs and social media, take them back to the future. Ask them if they’ve always gotten their best work by word of mouth. Ask them if that word of mouth reputation was earned by networking. See if they agree that the Internet is driving commerce today – or at least increasingly doing so.

Then advise, rather than sticking your collective heads in the sand and hoping that the Internet will pass, that your law firm must take the safe and prudent route to protect what you have. That’s to continue networking to maintain that word of mouth of reputation. The only difference will be networking online.

Sure, there will be some learning along the way. Blogs, Twitter, social media, and social networking are foreign concepts to most law firms. But the concept of networking to grow that word of mouth reputation to grow business remains the same.

  • http://www.chinalawblog.com Dan

    Whoa, whoa, whoa. You know I’ve always agreed w/ you on the importance of online networking but I do not think it is going to replace offline networking; it is just going to supplement it, as it is doing already.

  • http://kevin.lexblog.com Kevin OKeefe

    Thanks for clarifying that Dan. Networking offline remains alive and compliments your online networking. I was thinking of that just after posting the above.
    Even though online networking is what I lead with, I network offline in all sorts of ways. I’d advise lawyers to do the same.
    Lawyers networking online will also find that a world of offline networking opportunties open up for them. They’ll meet more people and invited places like never before. I expect you’ve found that with your China Blog.

  • http://marketingfromtheheart.wordpress.com Tom St. Louis

    Online and offline connections are indeed both vital to firms and so is the relationship between print media and the Internet, I think. I agree that online networking would open to bigger doors on connections, specifically of clients, but it would also be good for lawyers to invest in some print media, not all.

  • http://kevin.lexblog.com Kevin OKeefe

    Thanks for the comment Tom. Print media may have its role, but in the case of law firms already using print the key will be in reductions there and movement to the Internet. In addition there is little, if anything, in the form of networking that is done via print.

  • http://www.publishandpractice.com Diane

    Kevin,
    I agree with the points you’re making here. I would add that writing has always been a strong arrow in the lawyer’s marketing quiver. Online opportunities for writing and publishing are more significant than ever before.
    What this means for law practice networking and individual networking is that your articles and other writing can reach a much broader audience. It also doesn’t matter what you write, as long as you write it well and get it to the right audience. Both of these efforts are significantly enhanced through online networking.
    Diane

  • http://kevin.lexblog.com Kevin OKeefe

    Agree that writing as always an arrow in the lawyer’s quiver. Though I am not sure I agree that it ‘doesn’t matter what you write.’ ;)

  • http://wrongfuldeath.lawyersection.com Jayson

    Agreed – the internet will replace offline marketing in time. It’s already happening at an incredibly fast rate (fueled by the recession).
    Sure, there may always be 1 or 2 things that reach a few clients offline, but as a general rule, offline marketing is gone in a few years…it’s too expensive and hard to track. The only hope print platforms have is to drastically reduce cost, but that’s not feasible.

  • http://www.lawyerlocate.ca Mark C. Robins

    In Canada we are finding that the move to Internet Marketing whether it be Blogs, Social networks or referral and resource sites like ours have been slow to come around.
    There is still a large percentage of the legal community in Canada that are living in the Yellow Page Age!
    Any suggestions on how to drag them into the New Electronic marketing world?