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Ross Kodner’s Top Ten Internet Networking Tips ©1998 Ross L. Kodner, Esq. All rights reserved May 1998 The Internet offers lawyers in all walks of public, private and corporate law practice the penultimate medium for interactive networking. Better than Rotary meetings. Better than being on one’s church or synagogue board. Better than weekend kids’ soccer matches. Why? Because it’s a 24 hour a day, 7 day a week virtual talkfest. Discussion happens everywhere all the time and the following tips are focused on how and where to network and what and what not to say. 1. E-mail discussion lists, sometimes referred to as "listservs" (yes, without that ending "e") are the ultimate collegial communications tool. An e-mail discussion list is a way to have a simultaneous ongoing discussion on specific substantive or practice management/legal technology topics with hundreds or even thousands of fellow lawyers. 2. Have a purpose. In other words, know what you want to accomplish. For example, your goal might be to find a group of lawyers you feel comfortable enough with to refer matters to that you can’t handle. Or you might want to gently get the word out that you’re an expert on a particular substantive topic and can help people or accept referrals in a specific area. 3. Take it easy when signing up for e-mail discussion lists. The traffic, or the volume of daily messages, that come through on e-mail discussion lists can be absolutely staggering. For example, on the ABA’s "Solosez" list, oriented to solo and small firm lawyers, 70-100 messages a day are not uncommon. Sign up for four or five e-mail discussion lists and you can quickly find yourself swimming in a totally unmanageable sea, teeming with hundreds of messages . . . in a single day. Start with one or no more than two--see if you like them, get used to the volume then consider adding more--or switching to other lists that might be more pertinent to your needs. 4. Check out legal-specific "Usenet newsgroups" as a somewhat neater, cleaner version of e-mail discussion lists. Newsgroups are more like public bulletin boards--there is no e-mail involved. You use software called a "newsreader" (available standalone such as Forte’s popular Free Agent - www.forteinc.com, or built into Netscape Navigator/Communicator and Microsoft’s Internet Explorer to look at the postings on the virtual bulletin board and then you can reply to any of them. Others can see your reply and post their own responses. If e-mail discussion lists are a voluntary "push" product, with e-mails sent to you automatically if you voluntarily subscribe, then you can think of newsgroups as a voluntary "pull" system where you have to go to the messages, they don’t automatically come to you. 5. You can’t network if you’re seen as the proverbial bull in the china shop. Before diving into the conversation on an e-mail discussion list or a newsgroup, learn the tone, tenor and "customs" of the group. Many such discussion lists have evolved into genuine virtual communities where regular participants become quite friendly and develop a set of mores and communication standards. It can be very easy to alienate an entire group if you don’t follow basic netiquette standards (see A Lesson In Netiquette: Mom Was Right - Manners ARE Important- Even for Lawyers!, Kodner, Kennaday & Ross, "LawTalk: Legal Technology for Everyone"- online column at http://www.microsoft.com/industry/ legal/lawtalk/ ross4.stm) 6. Do not confuse networking with SPAMming. Spamming is the ultimate breach of netiquette and in the case of a couple of Tennessee lawyers, led to disbarment--yes, you read that correctly. Spamming is the process of sending unrequested, uninvited and typically unwanted advertising to users via e-mail or posting the same to a newsgroup. People will hate you, publicly vilify you and bombard you with nasty e-mails (called "flaming"). So never, ever post a message to a discussion group that says something like "Hi, I’m John and I’m a great personal injury lawyer. If you’ve been hurt in an accident and are tired of getting the runaround from insurance companies, contact me NOW!! And get a free keychain just for the call!" Completely verboten. 7. Be helpful--build a reputation in your virtual community and business will come. If you are a helpful participant in discussions, give more advice than you ask for and especially if you take the time to provide well-reasoned, concise information to discussion group participants, your chances of being perceived as a credible expert worthy of a direct contact when services are needed increases substantially. Don’t expect overnight miracles; it takes time to build a virtual reputation, but the Net.effect can be quite powerful. 8. As with "live" networking, the key is to have people think of your name, first, in connection with whatever service you offer, or want to offer. So that when someone thinks "hmm . . . we have an environmental matter in Northern Virginia," they immediately think "so I better call John Jones" because John Jones is a lawyer in the area who is an active and apparently quite knowledgeable participant in an environmental law e-mail discussion list. It happens--all the time. 9. To find law-practice oriented discussion lists, go to the ultimate source: Lyonette Louis-Jacques "List of Law Lists" (http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/~llou/lawlists/info.html). This is a massive collection of information about legal e-mail discussion lists with descriptions of the focus of the discussions and subscription information. It’s also fully searchable by keyword with instructions at the site. 10. Above all, network patiently, but consistently. Persistence pays off, as with live networking. You need to build a positive reputation in the virtual communities you participate in. As when networking with "liveware" (also referred to as "people" (), pushiness and blatant self-promotion are the ultimate networking turn-off. Credible helpfulness without obvious or direct self-promotion is always appreciated and will ultimate help you reap potentially rich rewards. So as the Nike ads say, "Just do it!" BIO FOR ROSS KODNER
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