Networking and e-Commerce: Get To It and Stay at It

Networking.

I know, you either:

• Think you're good at it; or
• Don't do it ' not really.

Yes, you go to the conferences and seminars and continuing-education meetings and dinners and roundtables, but has standing at the bar with someone you knew before you got there produced any new work for you? Have you met anyone at a Martini party with whom you've cultivated a relationship that has paid some estimable dividend? Are you frustrated?

First, don't be shy or too disappointed in yourself and your business-development efforts and skills ' networking is all about making connections for business.

Our very good friends (a network connection of sorts) at Merrriam-Webster define networking as “the cultivation of productive relationships for employment or business.”

Merriam-webster.com also defines networking this way: “the establishment or use of a computer network,” with network a link to that definition. (As editor of an e-commerce publication, I feel that I must add that they're on to something, huh?)

Especially for e-commerce attorneys ' who have quickly adapted to doing all of their business chained to a computer monitor ' in-person networking is becoming a lost art. Even if you may very well be doing the right thing in attending networking events, you may not be doing the thing right well.

You Don't Know What You Have, Until '

You're bombarded with all manner of messages about networking: you must do it, do it here, do it with this person, come to this conference, join this network, enroll in this club. But according to business-development and communications experts, many attorneys just don't network, despite these practitioners' desire ' in some cases, yearning ' to rub elbows and business-card swap, even when they're not firm-shopping. Despite their frequent interpersonal relationships, and often dramatic ones, at work, they're shy about networking.

So, what's going on? And how can networking work for you?

“I think one major mistake people make is that they throw mud at the wall to see what sticks, rather than carefully choosing where to spend their time and money,” New York City public-relations and business-development master Christy Burke says in her typical smooth style of getting to the point.

That's because Burke, president of Burke & Company and a Board of Editors member and columnist for our sibling newsletter Marketing the Law Firm, does have the information you need and she is expert at getting to the point ' a point that matters for business development, and in a way that makes the point important.

“Networking is crucial to business development,” Burke says.

But it's more than just showing up, shaking some hands, collecting as many business cards as your pockets will hold, eating some Vienna sausages and swilling a little white wine at the island table in the middle of the intersection of two convention-center aisles.

No, it takes planning, preparation and precision. You wouldn't attend a hearing or trial you had no interest in, or eat at a restaurant where you don't like the food ' so don't waste your time, and your own or your firm's money, at events that won't help you or your firm. The bottom line (and networking is largely about that): Plan your networking for business development the same way you would plan your business development.

“Select events where you know you'll have opportunity to shore up existing relationships and meet new people who can help you develop your client base,” Burke says.

But, Burke and other consultants and lawyers who make a large part of their living networking say, the art of networking isn't just about saying, “Hi, I'm Lou the Lawyer. The food's good here, huh?”

“The other issue is that networking isn't just meeting people,” Burke says. “It's meeting people and making a memorable and positive impression. They need to know you're a lawyer, and a good one, and you need to really represent that when you're meeting people.”

Where Should e-Comm Lawyers Network?

No special place emerges large for e-commerce lawyer networking: The corporate, industry-specific and issues-oriented meetings lawyers who practice e-commerce attend should provide good gatherings for networking. But people who practice a considerable amount of e-commerce law should consider attending functions ' physical ones, in some geographic locations ' at which e-commerce entrepreneurs or people who use e-commerce or e-commerce applications in their work will likely be. Some of these include:

• Logistics conferences ' transportation, warehousing, distribution, maintenance, fleet service and management, trucking;
• Retailers' conferences at which players, including technology officers and legal representatives, may be;
• Computer and technology conferences;
• Legal conferences. It's always good, of course, to work the crowd you're always in, regardless of location, so attend law conferences to network;
• Local law-school alumni meetings;
• National, state and local bar association gatherings; and
• Any group whose members use e-commerce as a primary means of revenue-generation.

As for law-focused technology gatherings, check these out ' or make more of them, if you already attend. These three conferences were on everyone's list of the best for e-commerce attorneys to attend.

1. New York LegalTech. Everyone mentions and strives to attend this one. The show, put on by Incisive Media, the publisher of this newsletter, is the largest of its kind. It has been heavy on electronic discovery in recent years, but is a general legal-tech show, as its name telegraphs, and features topics salient to any lawyer who does e-commerce ' and e-discovery is each day a topic of increasing relevance to e-commerce. The 28th meeting will be held Feb. 5-7 in the New York Hilton Hotel. Get information at http://www.legaltechshow.com/.
2. The ABA TECHSHOW in Chicago. Put on by the American Bar Association's Law Management Practice Session, April 2-4 at the Chicago Hilton Hotel. This show, which draws about 1,500 people, is high-tech and delves into many aspects of technology and legal practice. Get information at www.abanet.org/techshow.
3. The International Legal Technology Association (ILTA) conference. This tech show offers a smorgasbord of presentations and vendors related to technology in law. This year, it will be held at the Gaylord National Hotel in National Harbor, MD, August 25-28.

Conferences usually offer attendees many networking opportunities, from general breakfast and lunch meetings to specific gatherings in hospitality suites (rooms reserved by some parties for food, drink, entertainment and conversation) to press tours with vendors to outings for attending members and spouses.

You can find other conferences good for networking for your interests by doing some research, on paper or online, or by networking with colleagues to see which gatherings, nationally, regionally and locally, are worthwhile.

Social Networking for
e-Commerce Practitioners

e-Mail is a good way to follow up, and a good way to do some of the footwork, so to speak, before networking in person, such as making an initial contact with someone, perhaps setting up a meeting or alerting someone you mean to meet with him or her, at a conference or other meeting.

But other technology, particularly social-networking Web sites and networks, are proving to be a boon for professionals.

“Online social networks are excellent,” says Larry Bodine. The Glen Ellyn, IL, lawyer and business-development consultant focuses on helping law firms get and keep business. He's also a technophile who uses the Web to deliver for himself and for his clients. Bodine likes LinkedIn. But many people don't use the service, or others ' they're part of it, but don't work it the way a person should work a room, or nurture fledgling relationships.

“Approximately 60% of lawyers have a LinkedIn profile, but don't do anything with it,” Bodine says.

Bodine suggests making someone you've met at a conference ' including an event speaker ' use his or her LinkedIn profile by sending an invitation to connect via the network, once you're back in your office. Include reporters and editors in that strategy, too, Bodine says, and occasionally, send all contacts questions about, for instance:

• Research you've discovered;
• Ideas you may be mulling over; and
• The organization where you met the people or points the speaker may have addressed at the conference.

Olivera Medenica, a partner with Wahab & Medenica in New York City who practices e-commerce law, agrees that online social networks are tools attorneys should use. But she warns against mixing too much personal with professional information in an online listing or profile, and against appearing like an avatar. Personal touches should be tasteful, should enhance the mostly professional data in a profile, and not something that could drive potential clients away.

“You need to decide up front whether you will use them for business or personal use ' the two don't mix, (but) I do think that you can add a ' personal touch so that you seem human. There is nothing more annoying than an attorney who updates his/her status on Facebook with only business matters,” Medenica says. “Get a personality!”

Allan Ripp, of Allan Ripp Media in New York City, which handles public relations and profile-building for many law firms, has clients who use JD Supra, a Web portal for publishing legal documents and lawyer work product. JD Supra, like Facebook and MySpace, is free. The San Francisco-based company recently developed an application called JD Supra Docs, which allows lawyers to post documents, including recent case victory summaries, and stream them to Facebook accounts. Facebook, of course, is built on profiles connected to profiles of people with whom one wants to be “friends,” but many professionals use Facebook for work, too.

Rochester, NY, criminal-defense attorney Nicole Black was an early JD Supra user, according to Ripp. “It's a great way to extend your online presence ' particularly if you're someone like me who writes frequently,” says Black, who maintains four of her own legal blogs.

Says Boston real-estate lawyer Douglas Cornelius ' also an early JD Supra user ' who uses online communities to extend his connections and build business: “I'm a huge fan of the connectivity between online communities. It creates much more value by republishing information in different ways so people can access and find the information they need in a way that works for them, which is exactly what JD Supra's new application allows me to do.”

JD Supra is not alone in the legal online-networking community. Burke points to LegalOnRamp, which describes itself on its home page as “a Collaboration system for in-house counsel and invited outside lawyers and third party service providers.” LegalOnRamp notes that its membership is by invitation only but, in the spirit of free online communities, the site has a link from which any user can request an invitation to join. “Membership” categories range from law-firm lawyer to non-lawyer in a law firm and corporate legal department to legal educator to law student.

A variety of online networks oriented toward lawyers operate, and include features for online social networking, and for a range of legal areas ' from contracts and general in-house counsel concerns to tax- and estate-planning. Some are more worthwhile than others for a lawyer, depending on what he or she needs, how well he or she can navigate the sites and networks, and how keenly the lawyer has determined what he or she is looking for from the site or network.

Burke adds that many attorneys and the people with whom they network and work, would be lost without their BlackBerrys, through which they keep in touch, network, and plan and follow up on meetings (for a perspective on BlackBerrys, e-mail and the next president of the United States, see, “Losing My e-Mail,” on page 1). She said she knows a lawyer who uses instant messaging (“IM”) to network and find clients and says he has a relatively high success rate. He embeds an IM link in his home page, allowing prospects to contact and communicate with him instantly, instead of them putting that decision off after reading on the Internet how he might help them.

Bodine, a big believer in technology, outlines a method of speaking with prospects, and filing information about them electronically to search easily when needed.

“Don't talk about the weather or sports,” Bodine counsels about speaking with new contacts at networking events. “Instead, ask questions about the other person's business. Talk about their favorite topic: themselves. Get their business card and immediately write three things on the back: 1) the date; 2) the place; and 3) what you talked about and how you can follow up. When you return to your office, immediately input this information into your Outlook Contacts ' especially the “notes” box. This is essential. You can search Outlook, but you can't search a wad of business cards with a rubber band around them in your desk.”

Plan Your Moves Tactically

Whether a networker uses technology to network or does it the old-fashioned, but still-fashionable, way ' pressing flesh and speaking eye-to-eye ' Bodine says a networker must plan, plan, plan.

“Networking only works if it is done with marketing aforethought,” Bodine says. “A premeditated networker checks the membership or attendee list of an event, and highlights three to five people to meet. That way he's not walking into a huge room full of people he doesn't 'know.'”

And here's where the “people he doesn't 'know'” part comes partly into play.

Bodine says: “At the event, the networker asks the president to introduce him to one of his targets. The networker asks the prospective client intelligent questions, which were prepared in advance, inquiring into the target's business 'pain' and plans.

“The idea is to get the prospective client to talk; if he's talking, the networker is selling. The idea is to start a relationship by asking questions. If the prospect has unmet needs, this creates an opportunity to meet again later.”

Burke and Bodine say that existing relationships should also be cultivated at networking events.

Attorney and marketing consultant Cole Silver calls a lot of what has been discussed above tactical networking.

“Of all the marketing strategies you can use, networking represents the most effective method for growing your business,” Silver, head of The Cole Silver Group, a legal marketing consultancy in Moorestown, NJ, says. “Ironically, to many lawyers, networking and building relationships are often seen as the most uncomfortable form of marketing. In fact, the very idea of networking can bring forth feelings of anxiety, fear, and dread to even the most outgoing and confident attorney. Shaking hands at useless and annoying networking events, mixing sweaty palms with pigs in a blanket, all in one massive business-card swap is often seen as a total waste of time.”

Tactical networking is focused networking actively pursued. In it, targets at events are the people who are the most relevant prospects for developing relationships and business.

Here's a thumbnail sketch of how you might prepare (attendees' names and contact information is usually easily accessible on an event's Web site, or from the event's or its company's public relations office):

• Set goals for any meeting you may attend ' and try to set meetings up ahead of time, because everyone is busy at conferences, between learning what they must, prospecting and head-hunting, making dinner plans and doing their work.
• Try to meet and learn something substantive about at least three people at any new event you attend. As you would for a job interview, find out what you can about people who'll be attending the function and with whom you want to speak. Do some Internet research. Learn about the person and his or her company so that you can ask directed questions about your expectations and needs, and the prospective client's. Check personal and professional profiles on the Web or in publications, like alumni or professional directories.
• Find out what these prospective working partners need, want and are having trouble with.
• Design some questions that will get personal and professional information from contacts so that you can follow up and speak efficiently ' knowledgeably ' with these people later.

Still, some people, even lawyers, who may be tiger-like extroverts in a courtroom, are timid about approaching and speaking with strangers.

“People believe it's hard to start a conversation with a stranger so they don't network,” Bodine explains. “It's easy to start a conversation if you premeditatedly pick out the people you want to talk to and prepare five good questions in advance.”

For example:

1. What has changed since the last time we met?
2. How has that affected you?
3. How are you dealing with the (significant) issue in your industry?
4. How do you think that will affect you in the future?
5. What are the two or three things that absolutely must go right for you to have a good year?

Good networkers prepare for their experience, engage prospects, collect salient and relevant data, converse, and then ' yes, follow up.

Ah, the Follow-up

Some people, when asked whether they followed up with contacts, may well say, “Ah, follow-up!” No, no, no, the experts say. Don't let it come to that. Follow-up is crucial.

Remember, says Catherine Alman MacDonagh, a lawyer and president of the Legal Sales and Service Organization in Boston, that it's rare to walk away from a meeting with work found through first networking contacts. She says it takes six to eight contacts with someone before a person will associate your name with a project or other work you might do for him or her. The key to cultivating business relationships is to keep yourself in someone's mental Rolodex and, ultimately, in a real one or a database so that the person you met becomes a regular contact.

“Where most people fall down (in networking) is in the follow up,” Burke stresses.

And how does one do that these days? Surprise, in this tech era: Handwritten notes are probably the best way, and it serves as one of the six to eight contacts.

“Always follow up with a person the day after an evening event, or a few days after a conference,” Burke advises. “Handwritten notes are great, but an e-mail is sufficient. In your message to the new contact, refer to your conversation and include details you learned about that person. A good trick is to write that information on the back of the person's business card so you can remember it later.”

Others agree. They also suggest phoning a contact after a meeting ' to say hello, to offer a free report or article or other resource your new contact might find interesting or useful, or to ask whether you may be of any assistance. Yes, ask whether you can help your new contacts. Most legal marketers stress that networkers should be prepared to give, and to give gratis ' and to do it willingly and cheerfully ' before expecting work assignments for payment. This makes an impression, shows your skills and work style, and is perhaps the best way to keep you in a prospect's mind ' another of the six to eight follow-up points MacDonagh mentioned as necessary for networking to pay off nicely.

Bodine suggests a point that may help new contacts from seeing a networker as predatory: Ask whether you may periodically send information they may find useful. This establishes you as considerate and aware of the value of the potential client's time.

As for using technology in networking, Bodine adds: “Get the e-mail addresses of everyone you met. Follow-up with a 'great to meet you' e-mail, and point them to a link of useful information. Then add them to your mailing lists and make sure you send them a newsletter, e-alert or research findings on a regular basis. Make it worthwhile for the other person to stay in touch with you. If you've met someone who has an unmet need they described, set up a face-to-face meeting or conference call with (that person and) invite the decision-maker to the call or meeting, and focus on their 'pain' and how you can solve it.”

New, Rusty or Awkward at Networking?
Here's Some Help

You show up, you try to cozy up ' and then you freeze up.

Networking have you topic-dry, tongue-tied and lead-footed?

Here are some tips from legal-practice consultant and marketing guru Cole Silver of The Cole Silver Group on how to gather personal and professional information from people you meet or want to. Silver and other expert networkers stress preparation. You can sketch specific questions from information you find in a Google or other search, and then seek the sort of information that Silver suggests below.

For personal background and getting-to-know-you, easing-the-process questions, try these.