Comments on: Square Peg? Round Hole? Lawyers, In-House Counsel and Social Networks. http://virtualmarketingofficer.com/2009/06/square-peg-round-hole-lawyers-and-social-networks/ Marketing and Business Development for Law Firms Thu, 02 Feb 2012 13:19:30 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Social Media | Lawyers | General Counsel | 2012 Research http://virtualmarketingofficer.com/2009/06/square-peg-round-hole-lawyers-and-social-networks/#comment-1821 Social Media | Lawyers | General Counsel | 2012 Research Mon, 30 Jan 2012 21:09:32 +0000 http://virtualmarketingofficer.com/?p=571#comment-1821 [...] tracks close enough with the North American population in general. The last available (free) social media engagement data reported in 2008 showed that 48% of online U.S. adults were spectators and only 18% creators, 25% joiners and 44% [...] [...] tracks close enough with the North American population in general. The last available (free) social media engagement data reported in 2008 showed that 48% of online U.S. adults were spectators and only 18% creators, 25% joiners and 44% [...]

]]> By: virtualmarketingofficer http://virtualmarketingofficer.com/2009/06/square-peg-round-hole-lawyers-and-social-networks/#comment-25 virtualmarketingofficer Tue, 02 Jun 2009 17:03:03 +0000 http://virtualmarketingofficer.com/?p=571#comment-25 John, From your description of Martindale Connected and the integration and automation you are building into it, you obviously know your audience. Those are time savers with benefits. This is great stuff. Thanks for sharing. I hope that your members get real value from the service now and in the years to come as it evolves. It's fun to think of what the future holds. John,
From your description of Martindale Connected and the integration and automation you are building into it, you obviously know your audience. Those are time savers with benefits. This is great stuff. Thanks for sharing. I hope that your members get real value from the service now and in the years to come as it evolves. It’s fun to think of what the future holds.

]]> By: John Lipsey http://virtualmarketingofficer.com/2009/06/square-peg-round-hole-lawyers-and-social-networks/#comment-24 John Lipsey Tue, 02 Jun 2009 16:09:17 +0000 http://virtualmarketingofficer.com/?p=571#comment-24 I couldn't agree more with the comments in this post. As a member of team responsible for Martindale Connected (www.martindale.com/connected), I get that we're still in the early stages of Web 2.0, where most of the fanfare still centers around the promise and novelty of the technology itself, and not the business value it brings to lawyers. It is only when professional networking evolves to bring this latter value, that its true merit will be appreciated by busy lawyers, and uptake will be more substantial. Some sites get this, others don't. At Connected, we've started building some of these integrated business tools into the site already, and many more are in the works. For instance, we've integrated Connected with the Martindale database of 1,000,000+ lawyers, as well as the LexisNexis database of lawyers, to solve one of the early-adopter problems of legal professional networks: "How do I grow my network of trusted referrals"? So for instance, even while our network is small (but growing) at 7500+ lawyers, we are plugged into more than 50 million relationships between lawyers around the world. We bring those relationships to bear in Connected by: 1) suggesting connections to new members -- lawyers they've worked with in the past, lawyers they've graduated law school with; lawyers who appear on published case opinions; etc.; 2) Those relationships are integrated with the Martindale.com directory. Meaning, when a Connected member does a lawyer search, search results will be stack ranked based on connections -- how is the user connected to the lawyer in the search result. The result combines the power of a ubiquitous, global directory with the Web 2.0 platform to create applications that weren't possible before. And they solve real world needs (ie how do I find a trusted referral? Who do I know that knows the judge I'm arguing before, etc. etc.) Other examples of Web 2.0 applications that provide business value to lawyers are coming -- at least on Connected. Think preferred provider management; Client Review; integration with traditional legal content and research to provide 360 degree views of legal topics -- both from formalized research to user-genereated content. But the point is that Web 2.0 sites, without more, holds value to a portion of lawyers who are more sophisticated about their networking and collaboration. It will hold universal appeal only when professional networking sites start leveraging the incredible power of these platforms to build tools and business applications that solve problems, reduce costs, and create efficiencies -- helping lawyers do their jobs better. I couldn’t agree more with the comments in this post. As a member of team responsible for Martindale Connected (www.martindale.com/connected), I get that we’re still in the early stages of Web 2.0, where most of the fanfare still centers around the promise and novelty of the technology itself, and not the business value it brings to lawyers. It is only when professional networking evolves to bring this latter value, that its true merit will be appreciated by busy lawyers, and uptake will be more substantial.

Some sites get this, others don’t. At Connected, we’ve started building some of these integrated business tools into the site already, and many more are in the works. For instance, we’ve integrated Connected with the Martindale database of 1,000,000+ lawyers, as well as the LexisNexis database of lawyers, to solve one of the early-adopter problems of legal professional networks: “How do I grow my network of trusted referrals”?

So for instance, even while our network is small (but growing) at 7500+ lawyers, we are plugged into more than 50 million relationships between lawyers around the world. We bring those relationships to bear in Connected by: 1) suggesting connections to new members — lawyers they’ve worked with in the past, lawyers they’ve graduated law school with; lawyers who appear on published case opinions; etc.; 2) Those relationships are integrated with the Martindale.com directory. Meaning, when a Connected member does a lawyer search, search results will be stack ranked based on connections — how is the user connected to the lawyer in the search result. The result combines the power of a ubiquitous, global directory with the Web 2.0 platform to create applications that weren’t possible before. And they solve real world needs (ie how do I find a trusted referral? Who do I know that knows the judge I’m arguing before, etc. etc.)

Other examples of Web 2.0 applications that provide business value to lawyers are coming — at least on Connected. Think preferred provider management; Client Review; integration with traditional legal content and research to provide 360 degree views of legal topics — both from formalized research to user-genereated content.

But the point is that Web 2.0 sites, without more, holds value to a portion of lawyers who are more sophisticated about their networking and collaboration. It will hold universal appeal only when professional networking sites start leveraging the incredible power of these platforms to build tools and business applications that solve problems, reduce costs, and create efficiencies — helping lawyers do their jobs better.

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