How I Would Effectively And Ethically Use Social Media And Other Internet Marketingtools

Developing the Next Generation of Rainmakers How I Would Effectively and Ethically Use Social Media and Other Internet MarketingTools I recently wrote about the Strength of Weak Ties. In that post I mentioned that in 1983, Congress enacted a provision in a Federal Highway funding statute that complicated matters for highway construction contractors. I wrote about the change and spoke at conferences across the country. At the time I was a 12-year lawyer and didn’t have the Internet to help with research or to connect me with weak ties. What would I do now, if I were a 12-year lawyer? How would I use social media and other Internet tools? My main strategy would be to use the Internet to find things going on that will create legal issues or opportunities for transportation construction contractors. I would also use the Social Media tools to become more visible and credible to my target market and to build relationships. Some senior lawyers do not see the value of social media. Others believe there are ethical problems with lawyers using social media for marketing. Kevin O’Keefe of LexBlog has written about both points. I urge skeptical senior lawyers to read Kevin’s posts. In his November 8 post  Kevin writes how social media has raised the bar for client development and in his December 30 post, Kevin includes a list of things to avoid doing that would raise ethical considerations. Lawyers are increasingly using social media to market. It can be done efficiently, effectively and ethically. How are you using social media? How is your firm using it? How can you take some of my ideas above and use them for your practice?   I practiced law for 37 years developing a national construction law practice representing some of the top highway and transportation construction contractors in the US.