Can lawyers get business through Facebook?

I was asked that question in a comment to my post yesterday on social networking tools.

Business through Facebook? Not directly, but it can happen through relationships you build in Facebook.

I am not a big user of Facebook, but I can see how one could get work through it. Let’s say you meet someone with similar interests through a Facebook group. If you’re a lawyer, perhaps they’re a young in-house lawyer. You start following each other in Facebook – you share recent pictures of recreational activities with your families, you start playing scrabble in Twitter, etc. You are building out a network.

Will you get new business from the person tomorrow? Probably not. But you now know another business person whose company may need your services at some time or know of someone who may. It’s a lifetime of building relationships that leads to work.

‘Dig Your Well Before You Get Thirsty‘ is the title of a book Harvey McKay wrote years ago. His point was to build out a business network for professional success.

I’m not telling you to drop everything and jump into Facebook this weekend, just saying to be open to new things. Things that work for some folks and that don’t work for others.

If I said lawyers can get work by playing golf at a country club, that doesn’t mean you drop everything and start taking golf lessons and join the club for fear you would lose business if you didn’t.

Golf courses are very pretty on a beautiful day and the mental challenges and nuances of the sport are attractive. But I suck at golf and don’t have the patience. Probably why you’ll find me at LinkedIn.