The venerable Martindale-Hubbell directory of lawyers and law firms has teamed up with LinkedIn to provide a social networking function to the listings in LinkedIn.
When I go to the listing for Debevoise & Plimpton LLP in Martindale-Hubbell, I see the blue LinkedIn icon next to the name of the firm. If you click on the icon, it asks you to logon to LinkedIn to see who you know at the firm. After logging on I get a pop up that shows my two first level LinkedIn connections (Mary Abraham and Patrick DiDomenico) and a total of 131 connections through the second and third level.
Assuming clients are still using Martindale-Hubbell to find law firms and lawyers, this make the directory much more powerful. (Of course that is assuming that clients still use Martindale-Hubbell.) The interface is a bit kludgy, but the information is great. The LinkedIn connection also appears when you look at the listing for some individual lawyers.
As Kevin O'Keefe says, If you can't beat'em, join them.
If you have not joined LinkedIn or have not figured out what it is all about, there is a new video out from the CommonCraft gang on what LinkedIn is all about:
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Doug -
ReplyDeleteClearly we can run but we can't hide any longer!
- Mary
I love Common Craft's video's, and this one did not disappoint. However, it didn't totally make sense. In the example they provide, a business person is looking for an ad agency and uses LinkedIn to reach out to her contacts. Nowhere is it explained HOW she uses LinkedIn to reach out to them.) And the video does not explain why she couldn't just send a mass email to everyone she knew. (I realize that might be bad b/c it wastes so many other ppl's time, but that's not really her concern.) She likely has more ppl in her email contact book than she does direct connections in LinkedIn. (The example about searching for investors is more appropriate, but again, it begs the question: why not just send out a mass email, as that form of communication is likely to be seen by more ppl?)
ReplyDelete@anonymous - Visually, this is one of the better commoncraft videos, but the story is not as good. The do say on their blog that they were contracted by LinkedIn to do the video.
ReplyDeletehttp://commoncraft.com/linkedin-video
@Mary - You can hide. But now you risk being ignored. It is getting so much easier to find people with the expertise you need. Your personal brand will become as important as the firm's brand.
ReplyDelete