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This is a guest post from LinkedIn Marketing Expert Kristina Jaramillo.

LinkedIn is the most popular business social networking site used by attorneys. In fact, a recent report shows that 70% of corporate counsel use LinkedIn as a tool, and half rely on it. Executives from every Fortune 500 company are using LinkedIn.

To help law firms attract and retain more clients using LinkedIn, I have identified ten different opportunities attorneys should take advantage of.

10 Ways Law Firms Can Use LinkedIn to Attract and Retain More Business

1. Build relationships with potential clients – If you deal with corporate business, small business or real estate issues then you can use LinkedIn to network with potential clients – and educate them so they will want to come to you with their problems.

2. Build relationships with potential referral sources – For example, an attorney who specializes in social security law can network with partners or employees at general practice firms so they can pass business on to you. Business lawyers can network with accountants and business advisors. Lawyers that work in the real estate industry can connect with realtors who can refer business to them.  Elder care attorneys can network with assisted living homes and care giving service providers and associations who can refer business to them.

3. Create a community of like-minded professionals - For example if you are a real estate attorney educate a group of real estate agent so they can refer business to you or use you if their clients need your advice. Within this group, you need to create conversations and link prospects, referral sources and the media back to your blog or website where they can get even more information. Notice, your LinkedIn group is part of the lead generation funnel.

4. Build relationships with the media - 92% of all media professionals are on LinkedIn, which is more than any other social networking site. That means editors, journalists and reporters of local, regional and national publications and other media types are available to you on LinkedIn. You can reach out to these individuals and invite them to your group so they can see the type of information you can offer their readers, listeners or viewers.

5. Spread your content and prove you are a thought leader - Placing your content, expertise and messages in front of targeted prospects is the absolute best way to attract new clients and referral sources. That’s why you need to join groups where your prospects are going to for information you can provide and engage in conversations.

6. Nurture relationships with existing clients - Your marketing and relationship building efforts should not stop once someone becomes a client. That’s why attorneys should have a group specifically for providing ongoing, exclusive content and information just for clients where they can answer more specific questions. This will help you with client retention.

7. Perform market research that you can promote with articles and press releases - Recently a client of mine who is a workplace communication expert conducted on LinkedIn a study of CEOs, Presidents, Vice Presidents and manager. From his research he found that 44% of the executives surveyed were unhappy with their employees’ performance and their own communication style. Using his survey questions he was also able to uncover what problems they were encountering. 

With this knowledge he then created:

• A report that showcased the results. 
• Press release to reveal the results and position him as a thought leader.
• Webinars to discuss solutions to the problems his audience were encountering
• Articles and LinkedIn discussions to promote the study, the report and the event
• A complete marketing and PR plan and strategy based off this study

8. Build an extensive network of connections who can be expert witnesses for your clients. By building a relationship on LinkedIn with connections who can be expert witnesses for issues relating to your law specialty, you give prospects and clients a reason to hire you. Now, you are combining your expert knowledge in the industry with support that other law firms may not be able to offer.

9. Stay up-to-date on what’s happening in your industry – Join groups that your peers, colleagues and competitors belong to. This will help you way stay current on trends, problems, concerns and even cases in your industry. You will be able to see what others are talking about and what they have to share. And, you can use this as an idea bank for articles and press releases that you can write to promote your law firm.

10. Showcase your attorney’s abilities - Every attorney in your practice should have a LinkedIn profile and there should be a link to it on the company website. This will enable clients or prospects to reach out to your practice in another way and on a more personal level. And, the lawyers will be able to update their LinkedIn profiles to showcase their skills, abilities, articles that were published and media mentions without having to pay expensive webmaster fees. .

Now, as I said earlier, LinkedIn is reportedly the most popular business social networking site used by attorneys. In fact, a LinkedIn search for the keyword “legal” gave me more than 1 million results. However, only a small percentage of these attorneys are using LinkedIn to its fullest potential for bringing in more clients, referrals and publicity. The question is:

Are you willing to breakthrough the pack – and become part of that small percentage who of attorneys who are using LinkedIn effectively to market their law firms?

About the Author:

LinkedIn Marketing Expert Kristina Jaramillo creates online marketplace opportunities for lawyers and law firms who want to attract more clients. Now, you can uncover the LinkedIn marketing mistakes you are making the opportunities your law firm is missing by grabbing Kristina’s free special report at: http://www.Free14LinkedInMistakesReport.com <= Get this report for free and start getting more publicity, more clients and more referrals!   

Here's a great tip about Using Google+ that I picked up from Mike Elgan.

Instead of saying, "I'm going to write a blog post now," or "I'm going to send an e-mail" or "I think I'll tweet something" you simply say what you have to say, then decide who you're going to say it to.

• If you address it to "Public," it's a blog post.
• If you address it to "Your Circles" it's a tweet.
• If you address it to your "My Customers" Circle it's a business newsletter.
• If you address it to a single person, it can be a letter to your mother.

I'd say this is pretty revolutionary.

There are lots of great articles online now about Google+. Here are my favorites:

5 Ways Journalists Are Using Google+ - from Mashable

Google+: The Complete Guide - from Mashable

5 Possible Reasons U.S. Users Are Ditching Facebook

- from PC World

Why Google+ Business Profiles Will Trump Facebook Pages - from CFO World

35 Personalities To Add To Your Circles -- HuffPost Tech

From JusticeNewsFlash.com:

Facebook has clinched the top place for online advertising as the social media giant has captured 23 percent of all Internet display ads, resulting in 297 billion ad impressions, which is higher than the total of all display ads on Google, Microsoft, Fox and Yahoo sites combined.

The astounding numbers, wallet-friendly prices and Facebook’s ability to target specific audiences have catapulted Facebook to the number 1 position for display ads. Yahoo came in second with 140 billion display ad impressions, followed by Microsoft at 64 billion and Fox Interactive Media at 48 billion. Google came in last at 35 billion ad impressions, according to the ComScore third quarter report.

So what sets Facebook apart from the other Internet publishing sites? Three things: socializing, price and Facebook’s ability to target its audiences. People spend an average of 700 billion minutes a month on the social networking site, and with over 500 million active users, the potential consumer impressions can be tremendous.

“Facebook’s increasing share of the display ad market probably resulted from the company’s fast-growing audience size, an increase in the number of ads per page that Facebook delivers and an increase in the amount of time that users spend on its website. The more people in your social network that are online, the more value it creates to you as a user, the more you are likely to engage and contribute,” stated comScore’s Andrew Lipsman.

Facebook online display ads sell at a big discount when compared to sites like Yahoo and Microsoft. The CPM (cost per thousand impressions) for Facebook’s U.S. display ads runs at about $1, compared to a $3 CPM for display ads on U.S. Yahoo sites. The discounted pricing is appealing for people who are looking to make a big impression on a small budget.

Facebook also has a unique feature that allows the social network to target the exact demographic they are looking for. The age, sex and interests all factor into what ads will appear on user’s Facebook pages, which ensures your ad will be seen by the right audience.

Facebook is an ideal place for law firms who are looking to get more “bang for their advertising buck.” Not only can your law firm save a little bit of cash while still achieving a high dollar audience reach. But, remember, keep the ads engaging and “worth the look” for consumers; generation Y are heavy users of Facebook and your attorney’s potential clients.

Martindale Connected, an online social network for lawyers, has grown from 3,000 lawyers when it was launched one year ago to 30,000 members, including members from more than half of the Fortune 500, lawyers from 98 of the Am Law 100, and 10 Alliance Partners from prominent legal organizations and associations.

To date, almost 700 active groups have formed within the community, where members collaborate and share ideas on a number of legal issues, and 2,500 members have participated in community-hosted webinars.

From my own personal experience I can tell you it's a lively group of people led by energetic community leaders. LinkedIn may be 100 times bigger, but the discussions don't go anywhere.  In contrast, the discussions on the more intimate Connected are 100 times more active.

Among other things, Connected has led me to:

• Have a live video interview using Skype with community leader Mike Mintz, who was 5,000 miles away in Jerusalem.
• Get the opportunity to lead a live online discussion of virtual law firms on Twitter.
• Met the wonderful people in the Virtual Law Firms group, including Richard Granat, Stephanie L. Kimbro, Joseph Walsh, Alan Wernick, whom I knew "IRL" (in real life), Donna Seyle and many others.

Legal OnRamp -- the leading online social network for general counsel and in-house lawyers -- is adding 14,000 additional corporate lawyers to its membership, as part of a deal with Corporate Executive Board Co. ("CBE"), an executive network based in Arlington, VA.

“Our mission is not to be simply a Facebook for lawyers, but to be as compelling for a 49-year-old general counsel as Facebook is for a 19-year-old college student,” said attorney Paul Lippe, CEO of California-based OnRamp.

“Because knowledge in law comes from many experts, a profile-based system that allows each expert to share his knowledge is the most efficient platform to reduce costs and improve quality. The purpose isn’t to network. It’s to do your job better.”

The agreement links 9,550 Legal OnRamp members to CEB’s 14,000-member general counsel division, which advises corporations on how to manage legal departments and outside counsel. Publicly traded CEB advises 4,700 businesses, including more than 80 percent of the Fortune 500.

Legal OnRamp has 4,458 in-house members and 5,000 lawyers in private practice, who can request an invitation online to join OnRamp. The site was created by Mark Chandler, General Counsel of Cisco Systems; the law firm Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe; and Paul Lippe.

Legal OnRamp allows members to create profiles, e-mail each other, join group discussions, read blogs and post content such as articles, speeches and draft contracts. Discussion topics range from the future of patent litigation to anecdotes about the difficulties of working out alternative fee arrangements. 

“Smart clients are increasingly using non-traditional interactive approaches to find and reward the law firms that deliver the most value,” said FMC Technologies General Counsel Jeffrey Carr. “OnRamp is a great platform for these sophisticated processes.”

Carr used Legal OnRamp this year to solicit proposals from firms such as Greenberg Traurig and Kirkland Ellis -- as well as many small and mid-size firms --  which bid for pieces of FMC’s litigation work. FMC provides technology for oil and natural gas fields.

According to Steve Matthews and Reid F. Trautz, social networking sites are free services to connect to others through your existing relationships in order to obtain business referrals and build new alliances for future business.

"Know that every time you participate in your network you make small deposits into relationships in order to maintain them and have them grow," they said.

"Becoming involved in social networks helps us manage our existing relationships and build new ones. Spending time through social networks is an investment in future business. Increasing communication is an important aspect of social networking -- more frequent, more varied to deepen your relationships. However, like so many marketing activities, many lawyers are loath to invest that time, preferring to “just be a lawyer.” Social networking is more fun and less drudgery, especially if you are not comfortable in face-to-face interactions."

• Illustration: An often untapped source of quality referrals is an individual's past, and sometimes distant past: childhood friends, elementary and secondary school classmates. While most people will think to reconnect with University peers from their past, one of frequently told benefits of social networking is 'the excuse' to re-connect with people we've known in the early part of our lives. Interestingly, these bonds can be exceptionally strong; and can be especially beneficial when an individual comes from affluent background.
• Illustration: If you represent businesses, use your social network connections to add more to your client roster. As part of your overall marketing efforts, identify businesses that you would like to represent and find the names of their top decision-makers. Then search for those names across social network websites (all of them provide this simple service), then find people in your own social network to help you get an introduction to the decision-makers.

Visit the LawMarketing Portal to read the 7 benefits of online social networking, and their take on LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, Legal OnRamp and Plaxo.

Today’s post on getting new business out of online social networking is part of a series coordinated by Martindale-Hubbell Connected.

So far we've heard from bloggers Bob Ambrogi of LawSites, Monica Bay of The Common Scold, Sean Doherty, Rees Morrison, and Kathleen Delaney. Despite the Twitter about it, we are not receiving payment or any other gratuity for participating in this series. Today it's my turn. 

Whenever I train or coach lawyers to become rainmakers, I remind them to polish their online profiles, invite every client and lawyer they know to connect with them, list their blogs, and use the app to answer "What are you working on now?"  59% of lawyers have joined an online social network and 48% of in-house counsel have also joined, according to Leader Networks.

I've been a fan of LinkedIn and have just started using M-H Connected. I don't bother with Naymz, Spoke, or Plaxo because they have too little traffic. I skip Myspace because it has 90,000 registered sex offenders on it. I don't use Facebook, but law firms like Curtis Mallet-Prevost have created nice recruiting and alumni sites there.

One trick to getting new business is to join groups. For example, I moderate the Chief Marketing Officers Forum on LinkedIn. It's a great way to meet new connections and comment on topics like legal fees, the recession and hot practice areas.  To be viewed as a thought-leader, however, a lawyer should start a discussion.

Another trick is to send questions to your connections.  Oddly enough, you must click on the Answers link to find the "Ask A Question" box. Then you pose your query and follow the pages until you get to selecting to whom to send your question.  Lawyers can distinguish themselves by the quality of their questions.  It also works as a nice promotional device, because there's no rule against sending a news alert or announcement to your own contacts.

Finally, lawyers need to weed out irrelevant connections they've made along the way. I'm not impressed with people who have 500+ connections, because they accept invitations from anyone. I'm over my limit with 293 connections, so I'll need to click on the Remove Connections and trim down my network.

Here's wishing you "happy hunting" in the quest for new business.  See tomorrow’s post on the Martindale-Hubbell blog, 

News Alert: the ABA has launched an online social networking site – Legally Minded – at LegallyMinded.com

Benefits include:

• It offers ways for lawyers to generate referrals by making connections online.
• One twist is that it has a “people map” that displays other members who have similar interests, or are looking for what a lawyer has to offer.
• It’s free.
• No ABA membership required. It’s public.
• You can view most of the site without having to register.
• There’s less “noise” than you’ll find on LinkedIn and Facebook.

It’s a “public beta” site, so the ABA is aware it’s not perfect. Full details are now available on the LawMarketing Portal at http://www.lawmarketing.com/pages/articles.asp?Action=Article&ArticleCategoryID=7&ArticleID=831