Over the past few weeks I’ve been getting a bunch of invitations from other family law attorneys to join them on LinkedIn. Lots of family law practitioners are a little late to the party but it’s still going strong.  If you’ve been at it for awhile already, that’s great. If your new to it, welcome. I’m glad you’re on board. If you haven’t jumped on the bandwagon yet then you’re going to find lots of us waiting for you on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.

LinkedIn is a great way to keep up with people you already know and find new people you ought to know.

Here’s how it works. You can set up a professional profile at LinkedIn.com in a matter of minutes. You can then find other people you know who also have LinkedIn profiles and invite them to become a part of your network. One of the most convenient features of LinkedIn is that you don’t have to type each of your contacts’ names one at a time into the “Search” field. The LinkedIn site can search and import your contacts from Outlook or an email server, locating others you know who maintain profiles on the site.

You may have heard that you’re not supposed to invite people you don’t know into your network, so how can you make new contacts? Check out LinkedIn’s primary features below which will explain how you can use it to gain new clients.

1.    Remember the book from a few years back, Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon? LinkedIn operates on this principle, so if you want to meet someone, you can search LinkedIn’s system for a name, a company name, or a profession. You’ll immediately find out if someone in your network is connected to that person. You can either ask that person to introduce you or, in some instances, you can introduce yourself directly. When you are further removed from the person, Linkedin will show you how your network overlaps with their network and you can piece together a path of connections to reach your desired contact.

2.    Besides new connections, you can find old friends on LinkedIn, and you never know what position an old friend may hold today that could be advantageous to your practice.

3.    Your clients can post testimonials about your work to your profile. Since these endorsements come directly from your clients through the LinkedIn system, new clients know that the recommendation is genuine.

4.    LinkedIn allows you to add keywords to your profile to optimize searches. If you include your specialties, others can find you even if they’ve never heard of you. Potential clients can then ask someone in their network to introduce them to you.

5.    LinkedIn includes an Answer feature, which allows members to pose questions for other members to answer. The more questions you answer, the more your profile is seen by other members. It establishes you as an expert.

6.    LinkedIn maintains various groups, and you can join those with similar interests, including professional organizations or your alumni association. This opens you to the opportunity to expand your network and make additional connections.

LinkedIn is, at a minimum, a great way to keep up with business contacts and their changing information. Fully exploited, LinkedIn is a terrific way to meet new people and build your referral base.

If your already active on Linkedin, or if your brand new, look me up at http://www.linkedin.com/in/leerosen.