International business development for lawyers : LinkedIn is golden opportunity

LinkedIn filed its prospectus for an initial public offering on Thursday. As reported by the New York Times DealBook, LinkedIn is looking to raise additional capital in part to cement its reputation as the next Amazon.com or Google.

Lawyers and law firms ought to make note of the below LinkedIn achievements disclosed in the offering, especially the last one regarding its international growth.

• Had more than 90 million registered users by the end of last year.
• Draws about 65 million unique users to its site each month.
• Membership numbers grew on average around 76 percent annually over the last three years.
• $161.4 million in net revenue for the first nine months of 2010.
• More than half of its members were based outside the United States.

I am regular user of LinkedIn. I run my LinkedIn legal blogging group, connect on LinkedIn with people I meet through the net and personally, and pay a premium subscription fee for features that allow for more effective networking.

Over the last year, I am connecting with more people Internationally. These connections have lead to email exchanges, phone conversations, speaking engagements, media interviews, and guest articles and blog posts. The result is new international law firms and lawyers joining The LexBlog Network.

There is no way I would have made these overseas connections without LinkedIn. I see similar opportunities for lawyers and law firms looking to grow internationally.

It’s not just the physical act of connecting with folks on LinkedIn that’ll turn the spigot on. You need to offer value and network just as you do in any offline or online business development effort.

It also helps tremendously to be using social media in other ways. That way folks are more apt to want to connect with you on LinkedIn. They’ll even seek you out on LinkedIn asking to connect with you — in order to learn from you and as part of their own business development efforts.

Blogging will set you apart from your competition as a thought leader. Twitter, used properly, will allow you to establish yourself as a trusted source for niche news to a worldwide audience.

Like anything, you need to work at it. Build social media equity. Always share and always give. Don’t be pushing your own content or agenda. Look for ways you can help those you connect with.

You can feel comfortable knowing your time is well spent using LinkedIn.

LinkedIn is the number one professional network in the world. With an anticipated fund raising opportunity of close to $200 Million from an IPO, their position seems likely to be solidified.