Are Lawyers and Law Firms On Twitter? Yes They Are!

Several months ago I joined Twitter.com with one question in mind - "Are Lawyers On Twitter?"

For a short time, I felt as if I were "Tweeting" in the dark (posts to Twitter.com are called "Tweets"), looking for lawyers that shared an interest in social media sites for the purpose of networking and sharing their insights into the legal field seemed daunting. How do I find them? How does this Twitter thing work? How can we converse with only 140 characters? But, I kept going in dogged determination always asking "Do Lawyers Tweet?"

The answer is - Yes They Do!

Lawyers, law firms, paralegals, and legal professionals in various legal industries are on Twitter and they are networking, talking, and sharing. These "tweets" are vibrant, informative, and interesting as people share insight into their worlds. My deepest thanks goes out to @Rex27 on Twitter for sharing the link to this blog posting called - Top 100 Twitter Feeds For Law School Students. This link lists lawyers on Twitter and more.

If you are on Twitter and wondering where to start - here you go!

Give me your feedback once you see the list. I would love to hear from you!

LinkedIn Experiment Part 7: Conclusion

Several months ago I started "The LinkedIn Experiment" to help people learn how to utilize LinkedIn to expand their network to help them find a job. It has been an interesting journey and I hope that you have found these tips useful.

In conclusion to The LinkedIn Experiment here are my final recommendations:

LinkedIn Is Not a Substitute For Face to Face Interaction: If you view LinkedIn as another medium to utilize in your networking arsenal then you are on the right track. LinkedIn is a great tool to discover new friends, business associates, learn new things to help you on your job, share great findings, and keep your finger on the "pulse" of an industry. Keep this perspective and don't throw "all of your eggs" in one basket to ensure job search success.

Join Groups: Join groups in your industry and if you find people that you are not connected to, but would like to connect to, then join their group to establish a connection.

Utilize the Job Boards: Hiring managers and recruiters do list opportunities there. Since a job searcher can't afford to "leave one stone unturned" it is important to utilize every tool available.

Create A Marketable Profile/Brand Yourself: Customize your profile based off of the job that you are looking for (brand yourself). Every piece of information should reflect your experience or interaction with some element of the job that you would like to work in someday. This means irrelevant information shouldn't be listed anywhere in your profile. If you must post unrelated information or seek an audience for information that is not relevant to your search, create a separate profile instead.

Utilize the Recommendation Feature: As the old saying goes, "People buy from people they know." A few targeted recommendations that speak on the areas that you want to be known for speaks volumes in comparison to general recommendations that flatter but offer little "back up" for the areas that you want to be known as an expert in. When you include your LinkedIn profile on your resume, it also serves as a great portfolio tool to help you find a job.

Follow Up: If you promise to contact someone that you met on LinkedIn, make sure to follow up. This also applies to people that you promised to send a LinkedIn invitation to as well.

Hope you have enjoyed this journey as much as I have enjoyed writing about it! Scroll through this blog to read more about "The Linked In Experiment." Feel free to contact me with additional questions by posting your comments below.

LinkedIn Experiment Part 6: Your Past Employers

Like the ghost of Christmas past, where you have worked before will always "haunt" you. It will "haunt" you when filling out job applications, interviews, and even when filling out your LinkedIn profile.

When setting up a LinkedIn profile, pay special attention to the "Experience" section. This section is so important that you may want to take a few days - or a week - to correctly complete this section. Because it reflects - you - and communicates how well you could "do the job" if a hiring manager were considering contacting you for an open position.

First - Think of Yourself As A Company - "You, Inc."

Think of yourself as a company - "You Inc."

Think of the "Experience" section as the equivalent of a company website's "Products & Services" and/or "About Us" section. If you were to visit a company's website and read these two sections, it would give you a good idea of the following:

• What the company has to offer/What does the company do



• What the company can "do for you" - also known as the - "why you should care factor"

Depending on how well these sections are worded, readers may get an "extra bonus" because the company will share their accomplishments and awards in their field to establish credibility. Which leads us to...

What Does Your Company - "You, Inc." Stand For?

What do you want to be known for? If you are searching for a job, you want to create a clear and consistent message of who you are and when hiring managers should think of you.

For example, if you are seeking a paralegal/legal assistant career in family law then you want hiring managers to think of you as the person that can solve their problems by performing the job of paralegal/legal assistant well. Maybe you even have a track record in certain areas that a paralegal/legal assistant performs or encounters every day. Perhaps you even have a certain characteristic that "crosses over" into this industry very well - like demonstrating a professional attitude under highly stressful situations. Remember, hiring managers are human beings first. When a hiring manager has a problem they don't think of the solution to the problem in job titles - "Hmm, I'm really swamped and I have 10 more child custody clients to see today which means I will not leave the office until 11:00 pm tonight" **sigh** "Last week our clients got into a shouting match and it took a long time to calm everyone down and get back on track." **another sigh** "Would have been great if I had some help to handle these high stress situations so our office could stay on schedule...."

See, in this situation, the hiring manager doesn't think "Would have been great if I had a paralegal." The hiring manger thinks, "Would have been great if I had some help to handle these high stress situations so our office could stay on schedule...."

What Does This Have To Do With The "Experience" Section of LinkedIn?

A whole lot...

If you have experience in handling high stress situations - no matter where you worked in the past - and a bullet point under a company that you worked for in the "Experience" section - it would look like this:

ABC Employer

Job Title

• "Demonstrated ability to address high stress situations resulting in improving operations and increasing client satisfaction to consistently meet deadline"

Then this will increase the chances of a hiring manager that comes across your LinkedIn profile wanting to know more about you (because you have experience in an area they need help in) which leads to an interview and possibly - a job.

Contact Your Last Employer

Remember last week's article on using the recommendation feature in LinkedIn? This is when you would utilize this approach. If possible - try contacting your last employer (it can be your boss, co-worker, or subordinate) and ask for a recommendation in the area that you want you/"You, Inc." to be known for. This way, when a hiring manager reviews your profile, the recommendation "backs up" your statements of "being able to do the job" thus giving you more credibility.

If you can't reach your last employer, then start with your current employer by securing recommendations that provide greater insight into the area you want to be known for.

Over time, taking this approach will help you find a job because you will have customized an Experience section based off of what hiring managers are looking for instead of just tossing a "laundry list" of past job duties that may or may not relate to the the job you are looking for - resulting in a more effective and targeted job search.

Give it a try!

LinkedIn Experiment Part 5: The Recommendation Feature

How do you feel when you are recommended for something? Good? "Warm and Fuzzy" Inside?

How do you feel when you are searching for something important such as a doctor, dentist, or a babysitter? Frustrated? Hopefull?

Imagine this scenario:
You are walking down the street and a complete stranger walks up to you and says, "Hi, I'm a doctor, if you need me give me a call"

Now imagine this scenario:
You are chatting with a co-worker and you tell them that you need to find a doctor. One week later, you co-worker drops a sheet of paper on your desk with the number to a doctor and recommends you give them a call.

Which doctor would you call? Doctor "A" off of the street or doctor "B" referred by your co-worker?

Most would pick doctor "B".

What Does This Have To Do With LinkedIn?
Everything... Or at least a whole lot. LinkedIn has a feature built in that allows people to recommend you. I HIGHLY recommend you use this feature. Employers and staffing firms "Google" candidates and sometimes look for candidates before a position is even advertised. Your LinkedIn profile looks more credible when you have recommendations and increases the chances of you being considered for a job.

But Wait..... Don't Just Ask For Any Ol' Recommendation....
You are building an "online brand" remember? So your recommendations will be different. Think about 3 things you want to be known for. These are the areas you want to build your "case" for. So, you will want people that can provide recommendations to "back up" that you can "do the job" in the areas that you want to be known for. Therefore, when asking for a recommendation - be specific. For example, if you want to be known as the best researcher in the world, then ask people that you have performed research for to write a recommendation based on their experiences with you in the areas of research. This way, if a hiring manager is looking for a great researcher, they will see that someone (or several someones) recommended you highly in this area.

In the end, you increase your chances of finding a job because of this unique approach because it increases your credibility and your ability to “do the job” better than anyone else.

Tell me what you think. Did this post help you think of using LinkedIn in a different way? Chime in!

LinkedIn Experiment Part 4: Branding Yourself Online

What Would You Do If.....

What would you do if you saw a movie with Batman flying though the air - by means of shooting a spider web from his wrists?

What would you do if you saw Spiderman driving - but in the Bat Mobile?

Would it seem out of place? Out of character? Would you think that something is wrong? Of course!

The same applies to your "Online Brand".

Spiderman is consistent. We expect to see him climbing buildings and shooting webs from his wrists. Batman is consistent, we expect to see him with a big "bat cape", while driving the "Bat Mobile" across town.

The same approach applies to your postings on LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook.

When You Create A LinkedIn Profile....

If you create a LinkedIn account for professional reasons, then keep your chats and posts professional and specific to your industry. For example, if you are a legal student and you want to be known as the "go to person" for paralegal "stuff" then you will want to write about - anything related to being a paralegal. Your posts should pertain to things that concern the legal field and you should stay on top of the latest "crime fighting” and/or problem solving techniques that are relevant to being in the paralegal field. This is true for any field as well.

Your posts should not include to much personal information. In the beginning, when you are trying to build and establish your "Online Brand" your post should really focus on your industry. This is not a time to share personal areas and interests. As you build your "Online Brand", you can opt for an 80/20 rule. Eighty percent professional and "brand oriented" content and 20% personal notes and comments on personal interests.

Why?

You Want People To Get To Know You As A Professional...

Because you want people to get to know you as a professional. You want to establish yourself as an industry expert - or at least an enthusiast. You want credibility. This way, when hidden and upcoming job opportunities are available, people will think of the professionals that they know of and think of you - the really smart and professional industry person. Not, the person with "personal issue xyz."

Make sense? Feel free to share. What have you been doing to create and maintain your "Online Brand"?

LinkedIn Experiment Part 3: The Art Of Following Up

The LinkedIn Experiment continues this week with "The Art Of Following Up" and how it can effect your job search.

Not to long ago, I came across a job posting on one of my favorite sites (Twitter.com) for a part time legal assistant/secretary. Immediately I contacted the individual via phone to inquire about the position to see if this was a job opportunity that I could share with my Legal Studies and Paralegal students. Although the person I spoke with informed me that the position was no longer available, once this person learned that I worked for Kaplan University they were curious to know if there were any positions available because they themselves were interested in employment opportunities. So I recommended that we keep in touch via LinkedIn.com after confirming the person had a LinkedIn account. The person agreed and stated they would contact me soon.

This conversation took place over 2 weeks ago....

Lesson Learned: Following Up Is Important

The reason why this event is important to your job search is that you may encounter people in your job search that are willing to help you, but if you don't follow up, you miss out on opportunities.

In the example of the hiring manager that I spoke with, this person was looking for a teaching position within the university. Although open positions are posted on Kaplan University's website, employees do hear of available positions BEFORE they are posted. In this case, if this person had followed up they would be in a position to learn about unpublished or soon to be published opportunities.

Don't wait until you NEED a job, start building your network now. If you promise to follow up - do so. Performing this one simple task will increase your chances of finding a job. It transforms your job search because you place yourself in a position to learn about opportunities and increases the chances of people personally identifying your resume as opposed to your resume being "just another resume" in a pile of resumes.

LinkedIn Experiment Part 2

Welcome to the “LinkedIn Experiment!”

To uncover job opportunities and show how to expand a social network by utilizing LinkedIn (and a bit of Twitter), I will post my findings to this blog once and/or twice per week every week from January 2009 – April 2009. Those that are looking for a job, or looking to expand their professional contacts will find the “LinkedIn Experiment” useful, because I will provide information on my progress that you can use to help you find a job or expand your network of professional contacts.

Step 1: Join A Group!
On LinkedIn I’ve discovered an interesting feature on the left side of the screen called “Groups”. After clicking on this option, I noticed an opportunity to search for groups. Since I’m the Career Specialist for the School of Legal Studies, I decided to look up the word “paralegal” resulting in 43 items in the search results. So, I decided to join a few groups that were familiar to me such as
- Paralegal Gateway
- Paralegal Network
- The Paralegal Group

The instructions for joining a “Group” are easy. Just click “Join this group” option at the bottom, select a few options in the next screen and then hit the button called “Join this group.”

Now the waiting begins…. Group organizers can review your profile and decide if they want to approve your request to join. Some organizers quickly accept you, others leave you waiting.

Fortunately, I’ve been accepted to a few groups that I requested, so now I can look at their discussion boards to see what’s going on.

After scrolling through a few posts, I notice a job opening for a Litigation Paralegal Manager so I contact the person that posted the position….

Step 2: Found a Job Posting
I contacted the person that posted the job via e-mail. After a few e-mails, I asked for her phone number because there’s only so much that can be learned via e-mail and phone calls are more personal. A brief discussion reveals that
- The position is close to being filled, but…
- Another position is available for a HR Generalist

After providing me with the initial job description we agree she will follow up via e-mail with the remaining details. Since Kaplan University has a School of Business and an MBA program, we can still list the position on our school’s on-line job board.

LESSON LEARNED
Although the original job opportunity may not be available, it is still helpful to learn of other job opportunities coming up. Who knows? You may be able to help the hiring manager (and someone else at the same time) by referring someone. This increases the chances of you being remembered as a person that works with the hiring manager to help solve their problem instead of "job seeker xyz". Therefore, the next time a position opens up in an area that you are interested in, you are more likely to be considered.

Was this helpful? Let me know!!