Listening internationally : Social media opens opportunities for lawyers

I started getting feeds from the Irish Independent, Ireland’s largest newspaper, a couple months ago.

My interest in Ireland comes from my first job as lawyer, 30 years ago, being in Ireland and now the IDA (Irish Development Authority) having visited me this year about the benefits of doing business in Ireland.

I don’t get the entire Independent in my feeds, just the business section. It’s a nice way to stay in touch with Irish business. I am also able to engage the Independent’s reporters as well as the people who are the subject of stories.

I was able to give a kudos to an IDA business development person located in the Silicon Valley for the IDA’s landing a US business who will be expanding in a tech park South of Dublin.

Last week I exchanged tweets and agreed to stay in touch with a director of WPP, one of the largest advertising agencies in the world, after blogging about a story about him in the Independent. Though he is in Asia now, he is from Ireland and got his current position through social media.

‘Listening’ to stories and ‘conversations’ in the Independent enables me to grow my network and stay abreast of business that interests me as well as prospective clients and strategic partners.

What are your clients, prospective clients, strategic partners reading? Where are they doing business? Where would you like to expand your business? Who would you like to engage and add to your business network? Does it feel silly not to stay abreast of the news your clients and prospective clients are following?

Do you have an office over seas where you serve local clients? Do you read their local publications? Most all have English versions. Most all have RSS feeds by section that could be fed to your iPad for easy reading.

Technology has changed everything. One can network with and end engage people around the world.

If you are not, you’re falling further behind. Not knowing how to use technology is not a good excuse.