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Nine of ten executives use LinkedIn often

20130511-134311.jpg If I use LinkedIn, what’ll it do for me? That was a ‘Why should I?’ question thrown at a marketing director by a principal in a New York City law firm this week.

I was asked by the marketing director to help them respond. There are ought to be special place in heaven for marketing folks working in firms.

I initially said to ask the lawyer if they ever listed their firm and its lawyers in Martindale-Hubbell. Why did they? It was only three books written on parchment-like paper that grew to 12 volumes that cost the firm about $100,000 a year.

The answer would have been that to be considered a ‘real lawyer’ you needed to be listed in Martindale. If you weren’t listed and rated AV, you didn’t exist and wouldn’t get referrals from lawyers across the country whom you had never met.

Like Martindale years ago, you use LinkedIn because it’s what your clients are using, Jack. It’s just common sense.

Media Post reports nine out of ten (88%) use LinkedIn ‘often’ or ‘very often.’ 73% said LinkedIn said LinkedIn is their favorite network social networking, leaving Facebook and Twitter behind.

If I were still practicing law, I am making it easier for my clients to nurture relationships with me, let alone me them. I want to make it easy to be found when people look for me by name and for my contact info – people are using LinkedIn for this. Clients don’t like be hassled with clumsy websites on mobile to find an email or cell number. I want my referral sources to know that people they refer to me can look me up and be impressed. They’re all using LinkedIn.

Most importantly, I want to go where my clients, business associates, referral sources, and prospective clients are hanging out – where they’re are networking. A good chunk of that is taking place at LinkedIn today.

At some point, professionals advising lawyers need to take the gloves off. The value of LinkedIn is not open for debate. To challenge LinkedIn’s value is childish.

If a lawyer chooses not to use LinkedIn, that’s fine, they’ll just not be quite as effective in their business development and gradually become irrelevant to the many business people who network online, in addition to offline.

They’ll also be competing against all the other skeptical lawyers asking ‘What will LinkedIn do for me?’ As opposed to competing against a smaller pool of lawyers who have learned to use the net for business development.

Image courtesy of Flickr by Carbon Arc.

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