14 DAY TRIAL // Lawyers too follow the trends and use, in a high percentage, the online social networks. 67% of the lawyers aged between 25 and 35 have an account on one of the networks LinkedIn, Plaxo, Facebook or MySpace, as a survey shows. The percentage decreases as the age grows; 49% of the attorneys from the 36-45 category use online social networks, while only 36% of the ones who have reached the age of 46 and more are interested in socializing on the Internet.
Personal interests prevail when it comes to online networking. Nearly 90% of the respondents said that this was the method they used to stay in touch with their friends. 55% wanted to make new contacts, 30% used social networks for a career advancement, and 24% to find new referral sources.
The percentage of those who employ their social network membership exclusively for augmenting the number of clients or for making new contacts grows with age. 40% of the youngest attorneys use the online social networking only to chat with friends or in order to pursue their personal hobbies and interests. The same percentage assigns an official role to Facebook & co., while only 12% use them for both purposes.
The 36-45 age segment is the most adaptable, more than half of the lawyers considered in the survey exploiting both possibilities offered by the networks. The more mature ones allot almost the same percentage for the personal, professional and cross-use of the two prospects of the specified online activity.
The respondents found some obvious advantages to a legal professional network. Some of them are seen as: access to information that can't be retrieved from somewhere else, easier exchange of data, the possibility to identify, evaluate and select more quickly, along with an advantage that can shift to the clients, who would have improved opportunities of finding the right lawyer to represent them when in need of one.