Facebook for Lawyers Webinar on May 17

Monday, May 14th, 2012

With the IPO of Facebook fast approaching, interest in Facebook is reaching a fever pitch. As a result, even lawyers are starting to take notice of Facebook and how they might use it personally and professionally.

I’ll be co-presenting with Allison Shields on a May 17 webinar on “Facebook for Lawyers” (a joint production of ALI-CLE and the ABA’s Law Practice Management Section) and there’s still time to register. Details here. This presentation will have a highly practical focus and we’ll concentrate on ways to help you actually use Facebook rather than the all-too-common approach of worrying about a parade of Facebook risks.

Allison has more details and some Facebook tips here. Allison and I just did a well-received presentation on this topic, with a great audience who asked a lot of questions. That audience was the first audience we’ve seen where every attendee had a Facebook account. We’ll incorporate what we learned about what issues are important to lawyers from those questions into this webinar presentation. If you are using Facebook, it only makes sense to learn how to use it well.

As the perceptive reader will guess, you can also expect to see a new book from Allison and me called “Facebook in One Hour for Lawyers” later this summer, possibly in early August. The May 17 webinar will give you a good preview of the book.

Hope to “see” you at the webinar.

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

Follow my microblog on Twitter – @dkennedyblog. Follow me – @denniskennedy

The new book Allison Shields and I have written called “LinkedIn in One Hour for Lawyers” is now available. Also still available, The Lawyer’s Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell.

Permalink: Facebook for Lawyers Webinar on May 17

Upcoming Facebook for Lawyers Presentation and Webinar

Tuesday, May 1st, 2012

As the number of Facebook users approaches the one billion mark, lawyers are starting to take interest in Facebook and how they might use it.

I’ll be co-presenting with Allison Shields at an upcoming presentation and a webinar on the “Facebook for Lawyers” topic.

First, this Friday, May 4, if you are in the San Francisco area or are attending the ABA Law Practice Management Section’s Spring Meeting in Napa, you can see our live presentation called, simply enough, “Facebook for Lawyers.” Details here.

Second, on May 17, Allison and I will be presenting an ALI-ABA webinar called, simply enough, “Facebook for Lawyers.” Details here.

As the perceptive reader will guess, you can also expect to see a new book from Allison and me called Facebook in One Hour for Lawyers later this summer. Both the May 4 presentation and the May 17 webinar can be expected to give you a preview of the book.

Hope to see you for one or both of these events.

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

Follow my microblog on Twitter – @dkennedyblog. Follow me – @denniskennedy

The new book Allison Shields and I have written called “LinkedIn in One Hour for Lawyers” is now available. Also still available, The Lawyer’s Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell.

Permalink: Upcoming Facebook for Lawyers Presentation and Webinar

Three Articles and a Book on LinkedIn

Sunday, April 29th, 2012

As you might already know, Allison Shields and I have written a new book called “LinkedIn in One Hour for Lawyers,” published by the American Bar Association’s Law Practice Management Section.

We’re quite pleased with the initial reaction to the book (see comments here). Probably the most interesting response has been the inquiries from large law firms about bulk orders to bring their lawyers up to speed on LinkedIn. If you want more information on bulk orders, let Allison or me know and we can get you to the right person.

We’ve also had three articles on LinkedIn published in the last month. Again, each has gotten more interest than we expected.

1. The Chain: LinkedIn Is More than Social Media for Lawyers

This article was my monthly legal technology column for the ABA Journal in the April 2012 issue. It is a short entry-level article about LinkedIn, with three suggestions to quickly improve your experience with LinkedIn.

2. Ten Tips to Get the Most Out of LinkedIn

In this article for the ABA’s GPSolo eReport April newsletter, we cover ten of our favorite LinkedIn tips to help you increase the benefit you get from LinkedIn.

3. LinkedIn: How to grow, nurture your network and obtain results

In this interview for the YourABA newsletter, Allison and I discuss several aspects about how lawyers (and others inside and outside the legal professions) use LinkedIn, how than can improve their effectiveness with LinkedIn, and our LinkedIn book. It’s a very thorough interview, with lots of great, practical information.

If you like what you read int he articles, then, of course, I’d like to consider buying the book, either for yourself or your firm or organization. Remember that our LinkedIn book is part of the re-launch of the reasonably-priced “In One Hour” series of books from the ABA’s Law Practice Management Section.

Also, Allison and I have started a LinkedIn Group as a companion group for the book. It’s called “Social Networking for Lawyers.” Click on the link in the previous sentence or simply search for the name fo the Group when you log into LinkedIn. We welcome you to join the Group to discuss LinkedIn, the book and other issues, as well as to get a sense of how LinkedIn Groups work and might work for you.

Details on the book and how to purchase it may be found here.

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

Follow my microblog on Twitter – @dkennedyblog. Follow me – @denniskennedy

The new book Allison Shields and I have written called “LinkedIn in One Hour for Lawyers” is now available. Also still available, The Lawyer’s Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell.

Permalink: Three Articles and a Book on LinkedIn

The Debut of “LinkedIn in One Hour for Lawyers” Book

Wednesday, March 28th, 2012

As you might already know, Allison Shields and I have written a new book called “LinkedIn in One Hour for Lawyers,” published by the American Bar Association’s Law Practice Management Section.

For Allison and me, the target date for the “official” launch of the book has always been ABA TECHSHOW, and, more specifically, the Meet the Authors session for the book tomorrow (March 29) at 10:00 at TECHSHOW. Unfortunately, I’m not able to join Allison for that session (at least I have a medical excuse for that), but I know that she will do a great fantastic job in introducing the book and answering questions.

The book grew out of the very successful “LinkedIn for Lawyers” webinar Allison, Michelle Golden and I presented last summer. Allison and I took on the book project and some highly-ambitious deadlines to get the book ready for publication at TECHSHOW. It was a great writing collaboration and we already have another book project in the works. Here’s a hint about the topic of that book.

Our LinkedIn book is part of the re-launch of the reasonably-priced “In One Hour” series of books the LPM Section has done in the past. My friend and longtime collaborator Tom Mighell helped successfully re-launch this line with his highly-praised “iPad in One Hour for Lawyers” book. Tom’s excellent (I’ve already read it) new “iPad Apps in One Hour for Lawyers” and Ben Schorr’s Microsoft OneNote in One Hour for Lawyers” are new books in the series, with more in the pipeline.

Allison and I noticed that when we speak about social media and LinkedIn to lawyers, we consistently hear lawyers saying that while they’ve joined LinkedIn, they really don’t use it or even know how to use it. Interesting, many of them also say that one of their clients invited them to join LinkedIn and connect. That’s an interesting disconnect, when you think about it.

Our book tries to show lawyers how to get started with LinkedIn (the social media platform most commonly used by lawyers and certainly the social media platform lawyers find most comfortable), how to use it better, and, most important, how to integrate LinkedIn with your real world networking efforts in effective ways. The focus is on the practical, with lots of color screen shots, step-by-step instructions and our best practical tips on using LinkedIn.

The book is 128 pages long, divided into two main sections. The core of the book (which you should be able to read in about an hour) is a series of ten “Lessons” designed to walk you through opening an account, putting together an effective profile, adding connections, participating in LinkedIn and monitoring what’s happening in your network. We pack a lot of information into the lessons and have been told that even long-time LinkedIn users have learned some new things to implement right away. You can also think of the Lessons section as something to have at your side while you use LinkedIn. The second section is a group of essays on “Advanced Topics” – ethics, apps, advanced search, 60 tips, resources and more.

The early reaction to the book has been great, as you will see from the comments on the order page. My daughter, Grace, who helped with proofreading and editing, also thought the book would be very valuable to people who aren’t lawyers.

We’d be happy if you would take a look at the book and consider buying a copy. There are some discounts available for the book at TECHSHOW. If you are attending TECHSHOW, please stop by Allison’s Meet the Author session.

I know that there will also be an iBook version, but I don’t have the details on its availability at the moment.

If you haven’t started using LinkedIn or feel that you are using LinkedIn only to a fraction of its potential, this book might be just what you need.

Allison and I have started a LinkedIn Group as a companion group for the book. It’s called “Social Networking for Lawyers.” Simply search for the name fo the Group when you log into LinkedIn. We welcome you to join the Group to discuss LinkedIn, the book and other issues, as well as to get a sense of how LinkedIn Groups work and might work for you.

Details on the book and how to purchase it may be found here.

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

Follow my microblog on Twitter – @dkennedyblog. Follow me – @denniskennedy

The new book Allison Shields and I have written called “LinkedIn in One Hour for Lawyers” is now available. Also still available, The Lawyer’s Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell.

Permalink: The Debut of “LinkedIn in One Hour for Lawyers” Book

A Non-Attendee’s Guide to “Attending” ABA TECHSHOW 2012

Tuesday, March 27th, 2012

As I’ve mentioned, my recent bout with a blood clot in my leg is preventing me from attending ABA TECHSHOW 2012, my favorite legal tech conference of the year, later this week. That made me think about ways to “attend” TECHSHOW without actually being there. In fact, Tom Mighell and I talked a bit about this idea in our latest podcast called “Turning TECHSHOW Topics into Technology Agenda.”

The great thing about blogs, social media and especially Twitter these days is that you really can keep up with what’s happening at conferences that interest you. TECHSHOW generates a lot of traffic along these lines, so it’s a great place to see how social media works in connection with a conference.

Blogs. There is a concept known as “live blogging” where bloggers take notes during sessions and post them on their blogs after each session they attend. Some bloggers do an excellent job of this, which I admire, because I simply can’t do this. Watch the blogs of your favorite legal tech bloggers to see what they post. I find that the best blog source for legal tech conferences is JoAnna Forshee’s daily summary posts at the InsideLegal blog. She has already posted “ABA TECHSHOW 2012: What You Need to Know.”

Twitter. TECHSHOW can really help you understand what Twitter is and how it might or might not be useful to you. If you haven’t used Twitter Search much yet, TECHSHOW is a great time to try it. You can search on “TECHSHOW” or the official “#abatechshow.” The latter is what is known as a hashtag. Anyone posting from TECHSHOW can include this hashtag in his or her tweet and everyone can easily find all TECHSHOW-related posts. You might see tweets summarizing key points from sessions and other info from the conference. At TECHSHOW, the volume of tweets can be high and repetitive, but you can get a good feel for what is happening at the conference and capture a fair amount of information content from the show. You can also follow the tweets of certain speakers or attendees. I always enjoy Gwynne Monahan’s high-volume tweets as @econwriter5 and Tom Mighell’s helpful tweets at @tommighell. You’ll be able to identify other quality tweeters to follow by monitoring the Twitter search results.

Other Social Media. Of course, what you will get depends on the connections you have in LinkedIn, Facebook, and other social media platforms, but these platforms can also bring you information from the conference.

Handouts. Tom also pointed out on the podcast that you can also purchase the TECHSHOW conference materials. TECHSHOW has always successfully encouraged speakers to submit quality handout materials.

Participation. Using social media, you can do more than just monitor the conference. You can actually participate in discussions on Twitter, comment on blog posts and the like. You can also invite people to connect on LinkedIn, friend people on Facebook and follow new people on Twitter.

Frankly, all of this is not really the same as being there, but it’s the next best thing and it’s getting better. I’m so disappointed I can’t in person, but I’m happy I have so many ways to be part of TECHSHOW virtually.

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

Follow my microblog on Twitter – @dkennedyblog. Follow me – @denniskennedy

The new book Allison Shields and I have written called “LinkedIn in One Hour for Lawyers” is now available. Also, The Lawyer’s Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell.

Permalink: A Non-Attendee’s Guide to “Attending” ABA TECHSHOW 2012