So I read this article on Law.com by Jessie Seyfer about LawLink - The Attorney Network. I was interested (mildly) in what a social network site of just lawyers would be like.
It was even more boring than I thought it would be.
I uploaded my picture. I added my bio. That was about all I could do. There is no way to find people that I already know who may be in LawLink. Facebook and LinkedIn both allow you to upload you contacts and see if any of them are in the system. I tried searching for my firm name, but I am the only one who came back.
It seems to be a similar feature set to LinkedIn, but limits its users to lawyers. So what does it offer than LinkedIn does not offer? Why should I use LawLink?
Doug's comments are well taken. But LawLink was just 3 weeks old when Doug joined. In 4 weeks, over 1,500 attorneys joined LawLink. True, this is a paltry number and clearly insufficient to support a national networking site, but give LawLink a chance to grow.
ReplyDeleteApproximately 100 attorneys are joining LawLink daily. New features aimed at attorneys will be added at least once a month for the foreseeable future. In 6 months, the LawLink experience will be entirely different.
In the world of ENORMOUS social networks like MySpace and Linkedin, is there room for a specialized online network exclusively for attorneys? The answer we believe is unequivocally yes.
What Doug and other new LawLink users can do right now:
1. Early Adopters Are Leaders: Doug, you’re a leader, not a follower. So of course there’s no one in your law firm who joined LawLink before you! Why not instead invite your law firm colleagues to join your network? In fact, like all other social networks, the point of joining LawLink is to build a large network of friends/colleagues centered around yourself. And you can only do that by inviting the attorneys you know and trust to join your network. I hope you give it a try and then judge the results.
2. Market Yourself: I’ve been an attorney for 23 years, but I’ve never heard of Doug’s blog. But now that I’ve seen the blog, I will surely come back. Doug, why don’t you promote your blog in the LawLink classifieds and forum and reach 1,500 attorneys and counting?
In fact, why not post your blog content on LawLink with a link to your blog to give LawLink members a taste of your blog? And give it a few months because our advertising and PR campaigns are just getting started.
3. Meet New Attorneys: Sure, 1,500 is a paltry number, and who wants to meet 1,500 attorneys anyway. But maybe there’s one or two attorneys you would find interesting. There are quite a number of bloggers that have joined LawLink, and they all seem quite interesting to me.
Thanks! Steven Choi, co-founder LawLink
I am all for early adopters, but there needs to be some reason to go to the site. It does not offer anything new. It looks like an elevator pitch: "Let's do LinkedIn just for lawyers!" But does not have any substance.
ReplyDelete"Why not ask my colleagues to join?" I can't say that I was able to get anything back from the time I spent on the site. I can't ask someone to do something and not get some value out of it.