Are you  an “experienced” lawyer? If so are you effectively using tools on your computer,iPad and iPhone for client development?

Last year I did a cross-Canada tour speaking on blogging and social media in four of McCarthy Tétrault offices. (I think I was asked to do the presentations, at least in part, because of the color of my hair.) I shared with the lawyers I met, my thoughts on how to use the social media tools to better serve their clients. In small groups, I showed lawyers some of the apps that are available for their computers, tablets and mobile phones.

My goal in this post is to share with you the computer tablet and phone tools that will enable you to better serve your clients and build better relationships. I will share with you how I would use the tools if I was still practicing law and provide links where you can learn more:

  1. Google Alerts: I would have Google Alerts for all of my clients, some of their competitors and industry information like highway construction, bridge construction, airport construction, rail construction. I would NOT send these alerts to my email. Instead, I would send them all to Google Reader (another tool). If you want to learn more, look at How to Use Google Alerts.
  2. RSS Feeds: I would subscribe to industry publications, general news publications, blogs I enjoy. Again I would not send any subscriptions to my email. I want them all to go to Google Reader. Kevin O’Keefe wrote a great blog RSS feeds make comeback with tablets and apps. Kevin mentions some of the apps below.
  3. Google Reader: I would use Google Reader to organize my feeds and alerts. I would set up folders. So, I might have folders for each client, each competitor, each industry topic. Since my other subscriptions or alerts would be for news, sports, my college-Virginia Tech, my current hometown-Dallas, Travel etc., I would have folders for those topics also. Kevin has created a video: Google Reader in Plain English.
  4. Zite: It is an iPad/iPhone app that creates magazines on topics of interest to you. It goes out and locates what has been written on those topics. It can also be used as a dissemination tool to send articles found by email to clients/contacts or to Twitter and other social media sites. To learn more read and watch: 3 More Reasons You Should Use Zite as Your Personal Digital Magazine
  5. Feeddler Pro-It is another iPad/iPhone app that creates a distribution tool for the materials in your Google Reader. To learn more read: Feeddler RSS Reader – My Favorite iPad RSS App Now Works on iPhone
  6. Flipboard: It is another iPad/iPhone app that creates magazine looking pages of your home pages on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and various other sites. To learn more read: How to Use Flipboard for the iPad
  7. Slideshare: It is an add on to LinkedIn, but it also is a website of its own. I use it to upload pdf versions of my presentation slides. In some cases I have added video to the beginning of the presentations. I make people aware of these presentations by linking to the slides on Twitter and in LinkedIn Groups. To learn more watch: How to Use Slideshare for Business.
  8. Hootsuite: I use it as a dissemination tool. I can send my blog, my presentations etc. to LinkedIn, My Facebook Coaching Page, and Twitter all at once and I can set the time when I want the materials to go. To learn how to use Hootsuite watch: How to Use HootSuite – A Quick Start Guide for Beginners.

I hope I have given you some ideas. Do you want to learn more? I am planning a webinar in June on all that I covered above. If you are interested in participating, contact Joyce at jflo@cordellparvin.com.