Legal networking is moving to the palm of your hand (or wrist)
If you don’t think business development can be done in the palm of your hand, you weren’t watching the extravaganza hosted by Apple today at the Flint Center for the Performing Arts in Cupertino, California.
Apple introduced not only an iPhone 6, but also an elegant smart watch which will have its own apps and be compatible with your iPhone.
The iPhone 6 is an upgrade in size and storage. It also offers an improved camera, retinal display, improved connection speeds, and will replace your wallet when it comes to credit cards.
Apple calls its watch the most personal device it’s created and says the watch will redefine what people expect from a watch and wearable technology.
No question the “iWatch” will redefine our behavior with its texting, social networking apps, and notifications for phone calls, voicemails, and emails. Let alone all the other apps related to health, sports, fitness, and diet.
What’s the impact on lawyers and business development?
Content consumption, content sharing, and social networking online on mobile devices is taken to new heights. Mobile devices more elegant and user friendly than laptop and desktop computers.
Business development is all about relationships and word of mouth, both achieved in large part by networking online. Networking online is now mobile first, desktop second.
Mobile devices, such as the iPhone 6 and “iWatch”, enable us to network with clients, prospective clients, and the influencers of those two (bloggers, reporters, association leaders) with a finger or two thumbs.
While development of applications on computers is stagnant, mobile applications for networking are improved by the day. Without opening a laptop we produce content (text, images, and video), consume content, share content, and network via social media sites, all via mobile apps.
Lawyers who know how to use mobile devices to develop an intimate relationship of trust with their target audience will be far ahead of those lawyers who look at the iPhone 6 and “iWatch” as expensive toys.
Smart lawyers will invest in those things they enjoy using for business development. Reading and sharing articles because you enjoy consuming content on a larger iPhone works wonders for networking. After all, content is the currency of relationship building.
Your kids, you and your spouse/partner on vacation, and coaching soccer is the stuff life is made of. Taking and sharing pictures of all three, and more, on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram endears us to friends and business associates.
The “iWatch,” arguably serving up distractions at first will make for faster responses to texts, phone calls, and emails. You may even have some fun sending some “emotion messages” which it allows.
No question many lawyers will look at those of us buying the latest and greatest from Apple as techies or flakes. But like the iPad before these two, the opportunities the iPhone 6 and “iWatch” serve up for networking online make the thousand dollar investment worth it.