From SuccessStories

Reprinted from http://www.smallbizpipeline.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=191101234

July 25, 2006

Lobbyist Finds Business Benefit In Social Networking

By Phil Britt Small Business Pipeline

Jeff Taylor, a lobbyist in the Washington D.C. office of Barnes & Thornburg, was invited by a friend of his to join LinkedIn a little more than a year ago. At first he declined, but went ahead with it when he was reapproached by the same friend a few months later.

Taylor, who joined the firm five years ago after working as a political campaign manager in Indiana, filled out the LinkedIn user profile, including professional background, experience, types of leads he was seeking, education, experience and other professional information. He also highlighted the capabilities of his firm, which has a message board via Yahoo! Groups. People are linked to his LinkedIn profile through the message board.

"It started very slowly," he says of the business activity generated LinkedIn. "After a while, it started going." Before long, he says, he was "on a roll."

This type of social networking brings Taylor contacts that he might not otherwise meet while still maintaining an air of professionalism. He considers that essential, which is why he avoided similar "community sites" like MySpace or Face Book, which are primarily social and are geared at college age and younger consumers, with little business use.

As with the sites above, LinkedIn members can post their professional credentials, search for jobs or employees, seek out college classmates, hunt for business opportunities, and otherwise expand their network of business contacts.

Membership is free through www.linkedin.com, but most individuals are invited to join by an existing member. Once someone joins, he or she is able to link to other members they know. These multiple connections act as a personal reference as well as a business lubricant.

Although members can include information about non-business interests, Taylor finds this sort of data irrelevant. "Having said that, I will notice somebody (who attempts to link with me) who is an Eagle Scout, because I am an Eagle Scout," he says.

The LinkedIn network has yet to help bring Taylor any business, though it has resulted in some for his firm. Yet now that the groundwork is laid and his LinkedIn network is growing, Taylor expects it to be only a matter of time before profiting directly from the network.

"I liken it to golf," Taylor explains. "If you are an average golfer, you will tend to hit a lot of average shots, but every once in a while, you'll hit a big one." That might be general counsel of another company looking for a law firm, he says. There's also the opportunity for that hole in one. "(For example), there might be a CEO looking for a lobbyist in D.C. Hopefully, my profile will be compelling enough to get that opportunity," he says.

The benefit, Taylor says, is that LinkedIn augments more traditional marketing without the cost. LinkedIn provides much of the same information to potential clients as marketing materials that include bios and initial e-mail communications.

Not all links or communications are worthwhile, however. Some potential contacts have been seeking out Taylor and his law firm seeking free advice.

Taylor also adds that LinkIn might provide some excellent contacts, but that is only the first step in landing business.

"For a guy like me, making the link is everything, but it's only the first step," Taylor explains. "It's like other networking, like (a chamber of commerce's) 'Business After Hours'. If you make the link, then you get together for coffee or something to discuss business."