Do you have your contact info on social network sites?

You ought to.

We’re not calling 411 any longer for phone numbers. We go to the net for phone numbers and emails. Many of us go to social networks expecting to find the information.

Yesterday, I wanted to call a regional publisher I had not talked to in a while. The first thing I did was go to LinkedIn. No email or phone number. I then Googled his name and found no contact info. I went back to LinkedIn, found the name of his company, Googled that, and navigated to a contact page. Big headache when I am on an iPhone, and when I eventually get to his company’s page, it’s not mobile optimized.

Shortly afterwards I wanted to call a Minneapolis law firm marketing director I want to catch up with when I am in the Twin Cities. I was on my way to another meeting so again on my iPhone. I go to LinkedIn, search her name, scroll to contact info, click on her phone number and 5 seconds later I here, “Hello Kevin O’Keefe, great to hear from you.” Serious on all accounts.

Which person made it easier? Who do I think is more tech savvy? Who do I think wants to make it easy for people to deal with them? Who do I think understands the social media world we are all moving into?

Expecting me to Google your name won’t cut it. That’ll take me to a list of your LinkedIn, Facebook, Avvo, Justia, and gosh knows what other profile pages, all without your contact info.

Expecting people to leave the sites we’re accustomed to using, to do a search for your law firm website (assuming we know your firm), and navigating to your personal page on the site for your contact info is a little crazy.

Heck, most of you don’t even have sites that enable someone on a smart phone to hit the phone number or email address on your law firm page to make a call or pen an email. Shows you are behind the time and don’t place client care and satisfaction at the top of the list.

You ought to get your email, phone, cell phone, and address on LinkedIn in the contact section. If you use Facebook, and you ought to, you should include the same contact info in the about section.

Facebook? Yes, more people, including clients, prospective clients, referral sources, and business associates are using Facebook than any other social network.

Facebook makes it a snap to call someone. I recently found the email address of the founder and CEO of one the largest web publishing software companies on Facebook – made it a snap to get a hold of him.

Smart lawyers who wanted clients to be able to reach them 24/7 included their name and home phone number in the white pages. It’s where people looked.

White pages are near extinction. Today, contact info for smart lawyers belongs in social network profiles.

Image courtesy of Flickr by Cathy Stanley-Erickson