Some Ideas Can’t Wait

I’ve been meeting with our Web developers, the professionals at CRT-tanaka Interactive, and we have alot to talk about. Our firm’s shiny new Web site continues to need wax applied to keep it all sparklely. Meanwhile, one of our main advertising channels, martindale.com, has paired with social network Linked In to offer users with a Linked In profile to opportunity to invite Martindale-listed attorneys to be connected to them.

The spread of social networking on the Web used to be a curiosity to me. I was all for joining when sent an invitation from someone in Linked in, or Naymz, or Plaxo. I kinda filled out the profile and sort of looked about for connections, but…”ah, what’s the use?” was my attitude. After all, I already had personal and business Web sites.

I guess my eyes were opened recently as I started getting requests for recommendations, primarily through Linked In, but also on Naymz, which has an interesting twist on the whole reputational marketing with its Reputation Points, that you earn in various ways like putting more complete information in your profile and answering user questions in your areas of skill. Reputation activity is summed up in the Naymz “RepScore” which edges up to 10 as you earn points through the various participatory features of the network.

Requests for me to recommend others always carried the opportunity for me to ask for them to recommend me, so I typed in my opinion and favorable comments and asked for the same back. As these accumulated, I started reaching out for people I knew in Linked In to recommend me by posting a recommendation for their profile first. I can see how this might be like crack cocaine, where I just have to get another recommendation because the craving won’t stop. Is there rehab for this problem?

Long story short, this is an idea that finally makes sense to me. If connections can put up their recommendations for our attorneys, I need the attorneys to get to work on their profiles and push out their own recommendations to their network and clients. The profiles would be more personal than their professional bios on our Web site. A link from their Web bio to their profile will also invite those who browse the page to join in the social network as a connection.

Starting a conversation with a client is not that hard. Social networking will never substitute for a face-to-face relationship. But in a world where connections are ever more difficult to maintain, having the convenience of the automatic handshake and online goodwill may someday tip the balance on whether a relationship is of high enough importance to be entrusted with new work. Kah-ching.