Like you, I get many solicitations to join bar associations and sections and attend CLE seminars. County bar, state bar, ABA – one could easily make a full-time job out of bar activities. Now I’ve learned that there is a bar association that exists almost entirely in cyberspace: the Second Life Bar Association.

Second Life, as more thoroughly described in a California Lawyer article, is a virtual world (some would call it a game) in which you create an “avatar” for yourself with a unique name and looks you design and venture forth to chat with others, play games, create and sell virtual products, and heavens knows what else.  Members are under no obligation to look or act like their real life selves; escapism and role playing seem to be a big draw for Second Life. Some people, on the other hand, just want to be themselves.

Which brings us to the lawyers, a handful of whom have decided it would be cool to form a bar association in the virtual world. (more…)

Jay Foonberg reported that, as of 2006, only 22% of blue-collar Americans and 11% of middle-class Americans use the phone book to find a lawyer. And that was two years ago.

If you don’t market online, that means you are ignoring 80-90% of your potential future clients.

And not just the younger ones. According to the AARP, 52% of americans 62-71 are online, using search engines (59%), staying in touch (59%, presumably with social networking sites as well as email and IM).

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Reason #1: You actually blog about what you are doing. Reading your catalog of what you are actually doing throughout your day is boring. For example:

• Just woke up. Making coffee.
• Sitting down with the morning paper.
• Leaving for work. Lots to do today!
• Sorting through the mail. Lots of bills, no checks.
• Eating a turkey sandwich from the corner deli. Yum!

Not reading that.

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Time seems to be one of the most-common reasons why attorneys who do not use social networks do not start. In the world of hourly billing, all time has a value, and many attorneys seem to believe that (1) networking online will take a lot of time and (2) may not be worthwhile in the end.

The second belief may or may not be true, just like having lunch with a potential client or colleague may not result in a new client or referral to the firm. The first belief is a misconception, at least partially.

Networking takes time, whether that networking takes the form of a bar association event, a happy hour with colleagues, or online social networking. Just like “regular,” offline networking, time spent networking online is up to the person doing the networking online. Networking online is “real” marketing. It should be a necessary part of your job, not just frivolous web surfing. But you do not need to spend more than 15-20 minutes a day to benefit from networking online.

So let’s take a look at three major online social networking tools—LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter—and how much time you will probably have to spend to see some benefit.

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Avvo has finally come to Minnesota. The controversial lawyer rating site has been sued, panned, and lauded. Whatever your feelings on it, Avvo is here, and soon your clients will be looking you up on Avvo and reviewing your performance.

On the plus side, Avvo lets lawyers claim their profile and add information like practice areas, contact information, publications, etc. Lawyers can also raise their profile by answering questions in the “Answers & Advice” section of Avvo.

Like it or not, people will soon be shopping around for attorneys. Best get to Avvo, claim your profile, and ask your favorite clients to review you.

Luis Suarez, who works for IBM from the Canary Islands, got tired of wading through piles of e-mail, so he moved most of his communications to social networking tools, especially blogs. To keep up with his co-workers, he used an RSS reader (I use Google Reader for the same thing) to stay on top of their blogs.

Lawyers can make use of social networking tools, as well. A litigation team could make extremely effective use of a blog to track ideas, due dates, documents, and more. It would need to be a non-public blog, obviously, but this would be easy to accomplish.

One of the problems with e-mail is it is sent, received, and then lost. If team members communicated on a blog, that information would be constantly available and frequently reviewed.

I Freed Myself From E-Mail’s Grip | New York Times

To play, go to twitter.com/samglover and follow me. I will select one winner from everyone who adds me by tomorrow.

To play, go to twitter.com/samglover and follow me. I will select one winner from everyone who adds me between now and June 30th. The tickets are two vouchers for the lower reserved section, and you can use them at any home game.

To play, go to twitter.com/samglover and follow me. I will select one winner from everyone who adds me between now and June 30th. The tickets are two vouchers for the lower reserved section, and you can use them at any home game.

To play, go to twitter.com/samglover and follow me. I will select one winner from everyone who adds me between now and June 30th. The tickets are two vouchers for the lower reserved section, and you can use them at any home game.

I know the Twins are not exactly hot right now, but hey, maybe they just need you in the stands.