Performance

LinkedIn’s CardMunch … A Networking Necessity

Happy 2012!! If one of your goals for 2012 is to improve your networking, you might decide to follow what I refer to in my book as the “business card rule.” This rule, simply stated, suggests you connect with people on LinkedIn each time you exchange business cards with new contacts.

LinkedIn’s free CardMunch app for the iPhone helps you execute the business card rule. CardMunch is a business card scanning service which LinkedIn acquired in January 2011. CardMunch is the only business card scanner that syncs with LinkedIn and links scanned cards with the card owners’ LinkedIn profiles. You can then invite the card owner to connect on LinkedIn from the CardMunch application. After downloading the CardMunch app, follow these steps as you collect business cards in the course of networking:

Go to the CardMunch app and take a picture of the business card collected.
CardMunch will ask you to confirm the legibility of the scanned card.
Within minutes, CardMunch transcribes the content on the business card and checks to see if the card owner has a LinkedIn profile. If the card owner has a LinkedIn profile, CardMunch displays information from the LinkedIn profile such as name, title, picture, contact information and mutual connections.
From the CardMunch app, you can send the card owner an invitation to connect on LinkedIn and a follow-up networking email.
You can also save the card owner’s contact information in your iPhone address book.

LunchMeet for LinkedIn

One recurring theme in my book is the need for job seekers to take online relationships offline. Now, the free iPhone app LunchMeet facilitates offline meetings with your LinkedIn connections. LunchMeet syncs with your LinkedIn account and identifies connections who are available to meet for lunch, coffee or drinks.

I love the concept of LunchMeet and decided to try it last night. I logged in using my LinkedIn username and password. The app prompted me to set a time slot I was available to meet. After choosing a date and time, I searched to see who was available to meet. None of my 1,028 LinkedIn connections appeared in the search results. The only result was a “Vice President of Information Technology” in the Printing industry (LunchMeet identifies people outside of your LinkedIn network who have indicated they are available to meet, but LunchMeet only reveals the title and industry of the people).

Finally, LunchMeet posted the following update to my LinkedIn profile so my connections who aren’t using LunchMeet will see the note about my availability and (presumably) inquire about LunchMeet.

My initial thoughts about LunchMeet:

I continue to think LunchMeet is a great concept designed to facilitate offline meetings.
More people need to use LunchMeet for it to become a powerful networking tool.
Some professionals might shy away from posting their availability out of fear that “unwanted connections” (e.g., vendors) might take advantage of securing meetings with them.
I’m not inclined to meet with non-connections such as the Vice President of Information Technology in the search results above. My preference is to use LunchMeet to develop the relationships I’ve already created on LinkedIn.

Have you tried LunchMeet? What are your thoughts?

Performance — 2 Comments
27
Dec 11

Are You Tagging Your LinkedIn Connections?

Nick Ducoff recently tweeted that he spent Sunday morning tagging his LinkedIn connections, and his tweet reminded me that many job seekers are not taking advantage of LinkedIn’s tagging feature. Here are some facts about LinkedIn tags:

LinkedIn allows you to create up to 200 tags or labels to assign to your connections.
You can assign more than one tag to each connection.
The tagging feature is free—you do not need a premium account to tag your connections.
LinkedIn provides you with five default tags which you may use or delete:

Partners

Group members

Colleagues

Friends

Classmates

When you accept a LinkedIn invitation to connect, the basis for that connection is automatically applied as a default tag. For example, if Ashley Smith invited me to connect on LinkedIn and indicated that we were “friends,” her profile would be tagged as “friends.”
You can delete the default tags and create your own system or you can use the default tags, plus your own tags. I recommend that job seekers, at a minimum, create tags to better identify their professional connections.
You can search your LinkedIn connections by tags.
You can send a message to LinkedIn connections with a specific tag.

To illustrate how a job seeker might use the tags, suppose a 2nd year law student at The University of Texas School of Law is interested in employment law and plans to return to Florida, her home state, after graduation. She might create the following tags for her LinkedIn connections:

Florida lawyers
Employment lawyers
UT Law alumni
Friends
Classmates
Group Members

Before going home for the holidays, this 2L could message her contacts with the “Florida lawyers” tag to schedule meetings/lunches with lawyers in her home state. Finally, note that a UT Law alum who practices employment law in Florida could have three tags: Florida lawyers, Employment lawyers and UT Law alumni.

As you organize your job search for 2012, spend some time this week tagging your own LinkedIn connections and then tapping that network in the new year.

Performance — No Comments
16
Jul 11

Job Change Notifier for LinkedIn Connections

I previously wrote about job search clues available in your LinkedIn network updates, such as the weekly email updates informing you about a connection’s new job. I noted in that post that job change information notifies you about (1) potential openings at the connection’s old firm/company, (2) your possible elimination as a candidate for the same position, and (3) potential opening resulting from your connection’s new role.

A new (free) service, Job Change Notifier, launched earlier this month and sends an email when someone in your LinkedIn network changes jobs or titles. How is the Job Change Notifier service different from the weekly email you receive from LinkedIn notifying you of your connections’ job changes? From what I can tell, the email you receive from LinkedIn only lists up to five connections’ job changes. If you have a larger network (and job seekers should), you are likely to have more than five connections changing jobs/titles in a given week.

The second difference between the LinkedIn email updates and Job Change Notifier is that Job Change Notifier sends email alerts immediately upon a contact changing his or her profile to reflect his or her new job/title. For example, I received four email updates from Job Change Notifier on Thursday (July 14). I received my LinkedIn email update on Tuesday (July 12). The job changes I received from Job Change Notifier on Thursday were not listed in my July 12 LinkedIn email. I would have to wait until the following Tuesday (July 19) to receive those updates (assuming they were the top five job changes LinkedIn chose to share with me).

It’s easy to set up the Job Change Notifier service if you are interested:

Go to the Job Change Notifier website: http://www.jobchangenotifier.com/
Click the link to log on with your LinkedIn account.
Enter the email address to receive job change updates.
Select which LinkedIn contacts you wish to track (I selected all). Click “Save & Finish.”

#LawJobChat / Performance — 1 Comment
1
Jul 11

Raising Your Profile to Get Hired (#LawJobChat No. 12)

It’s no secret that raising your profile through speaking, writing, blogging and other activities leads to new career opportunities. Jack Whittington, a May 2011 graduate of The University of Tulsa College of Law, explains in this post how an employer already knew about him before he interviewed because the employer had read his blogs.

During our June 2011 #LawJobChat, @arikaplan @adriandayton and @cordellparvin shared their thoughts on how law students and associates can raise their profiles. You can read the entire transcript of #LawJobChat No. 12, and I’ve also summarized some highlights below.

Writing

Select topic that addresses a timely client problem, opportunity or change
Submit articles to industry association publications
Submit articles to law school alumni magazine
Attend events that reporters and editors are attending – for example, @adriandayton met an editor for the National Law Journal at an ALM business development event
Review editorial calendars which tell you what editors are looking for and when (BONUS: @arikaplan will send #lawjobchat participants copies of his 2011 editorial calendars – tweet to him if you are interested)

Blogging

Must be consistent – post at least once a week (more if you have something to say that clients care about)
Short (250-500 words), short paragraphs, bullet points or lists
Follow @copyblogger or @problogger for additional ideas on blogging
Collaborate – guest blog or offer clients opportunity to post on your blog
Interview industry leaders to use as content for article or blog post – @arikaplan interviewed the CEO of @thebighandtweet for @lawdotcom guest blog post and @thebighandtweet ended up sponsoring @arikaplan’s 12-city book tour

Speaking

Contact local bar association – have speaking topic/idea in mind and explain who you are, why you’re qualified, and the relevance of the topic/idea
If your practice is industry focused, get to know the executives of the industry association so they can recommend you for speaking opportunities
Speaking to other lawyers (bar association events) may be a waste of time; may want to focus on speaking to your clients (for example, contractors if you are a construction lawyer) — exception: your practice generates significant business from referrals by other attorneys
Hold something back and let participants know you’ll send it to them after the event

Other Job Search Advice / Performance — No Comments
9
Jun 11

Lessons for Unemployed Lawyers From Laid-Off Social Media Specialist/Fitness Blogger

I began following Theodora Blanchfield (@tblanchfield) on Twitter when I first joined the social networking site in August 2008. At the time, Theodora was a reporter for Legal Technology News, and I was focused on following people in the legal industry. Theodora eventually obtained a position as a social media specialist for a magazine company, but I continued to follow her because she published an interesting fitness blog, Losing Weight in the City (you can read Theodora’s fitness story here).

While I don’t read Theodora’s blog daily, I do pay attention to the headlines of her posts when she tweets them. This headline last week caught my attention:

THE NEXT CHAPTER: MY LAYOFF STORY

My immediate response was, “oh no!” But, I was comforted after reading the post, and I think unemployed lawyers can learn at least three lessons from Theodora’s layoff story. Consider the following quotes from Theodora’s post:

“I have some freelance work lined up and lots of leads for both projects and positions.”

Lawyers can also freelance. I’ve referred to freelance lawyering as an option for laid-off lawyers in this past newsletter with resources for laid-off lawyers and in #LawJobChat No. 2 with Lisa Solomon, a veteran freelance lawyer. Refer to Lisa’s site for more information about the freelance lawyering process and tips for getting started.

“If you have or know of any job or project leads in NYC (or telecommuting), I’d love to hear about them.”

Theodora immediately reached out to her network asking for job and project leads. She shared her layoff story on her blog and sought help. Based on a subsequent post, many of Theodora’s loyal readers responded with tips and leads.

More importantly, Theodora cultivated a strong following over several years by blogging and using other social media sites consistently. Theodora’s efforts paid off on the day she was laid off because she had assembled a strong network to provide leads and encouragement.

“I also plan on blogging a lot more … partially because it’s such a good release.”

I mentioned in this video clip that one of the biggest mistakes job seekers make is sounding desperate. Note the tone of Theodora’s layoff story — it’s filled with positive thoughts and optimism. She doesn’t sound desperate at all.

Finally, as I suggest in my book, remember to follow people outside the legal industry on Twitter and other social networking sites. You’ll gain new ideas by following professionals in other industries who may be experiencing similar challenges.

Performance — No Comments
2
Jun 11

‘Apply with LinkedIn’ Button Replaces Resumes

A few months ago, I wrote about the idea of law school career offices requiring law students to learn how to use social networking tools in their job search. If you need another reason why law schools should require mandatory LinkedIn training (at a minimum), consider LinkedIn’s latest development … the “Apply with LinkedIn” button.

Law firms are already posting attorney job openings on LinkedIn. Now, law firms will also be able to add the “Apply with LinkedIn” button next to job postings on their own websites. Lawyers and law students will apply for these jobs by submitting their LinkedIn profiles instead of a resume.

While it appears job seekers will still be able to apply the old fashioned way, I think the addition of the button illustrates another reason lawyers and law students can’t afford to ignore LinkedIn.

#LawJobChat / Performance — No Comments
24
Apr 11

Tapping Alumni Networks in Your Job Search (#LawJobChat No. 10)

How can you connect with alumni from your law school without looking like you are just fishing for information? How can former colleagues from your non-legal career help in your legal job search? Can your law firm alumni network help in your search for an in-house legal job?

Join #LawJobChat this Tuesday, April 26 at 9 p.m. EDT for answers to these questions and more about tapping alumni networks in your job search. Our guest co-host is Kelly Hoey, a client relationship and business development advisor who previously served as the Global Manager for Alumni Programmes at White & Case.

Join #LawJobChat on Tuesday to tweet your own questions to Kelly. Or, email your questions to me in advance (amanda@aellislegal.com), and I’ll tweet them during the chat.

Click here for details about how to participate in a Twitter Chat. As always, I’ll post the #LawJobChat transcript following the live chat.

Performance / Protocol — No Comments
19
Apr 11

Diversity Tweets

I have the pleasure of speaking on a panel about brand/image management at the 2011 NALP Annual Education Conference. This panel is part of the Diversity and Inclusion track of programs. To prepare for the program, I compiled a Twitter list of users who frequently tweet about diversity issues in the legal profession. I’ll incorporate this list in the presentation and share the list with all attendees. Click here to view the list, and please let me know if you frequently tweet about diversity issues and would like to be added to the list.

The 6Ps of the BIG 3™Get Hired Using Social Networking