From the category archives:

networking

Growing Your Social Networks Organically

Jonathon Fields has written a great post for social media “newbies” and one of the unwritten rules he lists is “Grow Organically”. This provoked a great deal of thought for me and I wondered what you all thought. We’ve all been on Twitter or Facebook and seen people who appear to be collectors of “friends”. They follow or add people for what seems like the sole purpose of increasing their numbers. They generally have far fewer followers than they are following…thus not increasing their exposure or business at all. Facebook will actually cut you off if they feel like you are adding people willy-nilly!

Jonathon recommends taking your time to build your online social network and I couldn’t agree more. To be authentic, you need to be following or adding people who’s values, business, writing or ideas really inspire you! Take some time to see who your friends (the ones you genuinely respect and follow for that reason) are reading and following. If you want to add to your network, get to know some of those folks first. Read their blogs and/or their books.

Once you add new people, for social networking to be effective, you need to interact with them! Comment on their blogs, respond directly to their Tweets, post questions on their Facebook wall, and email them directly if you want to start a real conversation. Pam Slim recently “tweeted” that she hates when people contact her the first time simply to promote their business! This isn’t effective networking and can cause the exact opposite effect of what you are seeking.

First build relationships, then allow the process of building relationships to strengthen your brand.

If you are trying to grow your practice, seek new clients or attorneys, build your knowledge base or are considering a new venture, we all know that online social networking is important. But just because you are enthusiastic about getting involved, be careful that you don’t take on more than you can actually manage.

Again, build relationships, then allow the process of building relationships to strengthen your brand.

Social media has become so enormous and complex that there are actually people you can hire to manage your networks for you! Joining sites and then being inactive doesn’t serve you or your potential clients. Pick key sites first, like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn and really build a reputation and network on those first.

Once again … the most powerful aspect of social media is the ability to begin to develop relationships.   Relationships are the key to the door of accelerated business success.   If you are not focused on relationship building strategies in addition to building brand awareness, you are pretty much wasting your time.

If you need help developing a social media strategy, let me know!

I’d also love to know how you manage your networks and which ones you are most active on.

Take GREAT Care!

Coach T.C.

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Martindale Goes Social

Social Media and Social Networking has finally penetrated the core of the legal profession. A brand new social networking site, backed by the muscle of Martindale-Hubbell/Lexis Nexis, promises to be THE place to network with other attorneys.

Following the LinkedIn model, this new community allows lawyers to contact other lawyers you already know and get introduced to their connections.

Open to lawyers only, this on-line community will provide both networking and educational opportunities. The interface is extremely easy to navigate and lets you watch the activity of your connections, get legal news and updates, make offers to add other attorneys you might know to your personal network of connections and allows you to post questions to your groups.

The legal community can certainly use a thoughtful niche community for lawyers like this community is poised to be.  I’m checking it out and will certainly let you know what I think.

Expect the Best!

Coach T.C.

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Build Your Own Social Network

Today’s Feature Social Network: Ning

Ning, a social media site, is quietly changing the face of social networking. While it has been around since 2004, Fast Company recently featured Ning co-founder and CEO Gina Bianchini on their cover and in April of this year there was speculation that Ning’s value was then approximately half a billion dollars (not that this is unusual in the world of a $1 billion YouTube purchase). Ning sites are extremely easy to navigate and they look and function very much like a lot of social networking sites that are open to the general public. There are existing Ning groups for every conceivable interest and Ning is continuing to build momentum.

You may be asking, “Why is a discussion about creating a “personal” social network important or even relevant to lawyers or lawyerpreneurs?” Well … creating or joining a Ning community around a topic that is of interest to your industry or that relates to your subject matter expertise is simply another great way that social networks can be used to build community, your professional brand and showcase your expertise … all resulting in increased business opportunities.

Ning is a powerful tool because it allows you to develop a network (Ning supplies all that you need … except the contacts) instead of just hooking into more “general” communities like Facebook and LinkedIn.

Ning is also extremely easy to use! For example, if you want to create a special network for colleagues, leaders in your industry or maybe people who are interested in your areas of specality, you would first reserve the name for your community (which will be hosted on the Ning service for F*REE), select the networking tools you want to be available to members (forum, photos, music, events, text, etc) and then select a template design.

This entire process takes less than 5 minutes and allows you to create a really professional interface for your social networking community.   Once you’ve created your community, you are free to invite colleagues, friends and clients to your new “professional” community, start discussions, schedule events and even further customize the look and feel of the website (ifyou so desire) by updating the template with HTML.   It’s just that simple!   If you like the idea of creating your own social community, but have no desire to do the formation legwork (regardless of how easy it is) just let me know in the comment section and I’m happy to make a recommendation.

UpwardAction® SuccessWork:

I have five questions for your consideration.

1.  Do you know where your “ideal clients” spend their time - both online and in-person?’

2.  If yes, are you making valuable contributions in those places?

3.   If you don’t know the answer to question one, how can you find out?

4.   What needs to happen for you to show up in the places that are most powerful for your business development and that supports your authentic-self?

5.   What else needs to happen?

Always - Expect the Best!

Coach T.C.


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