According to the 2016 ABA Legal Technology Survey report, more than 93% of lawyers surveyed now use LinkedIn, with large firm attorneys using it the most. There’s a good reason for this—LinkedIn has almost 600 million members and is easily the most “target rich” social media platform for a lawyer with a business-oriented practice. LinkedIn is a professional network, which means that people are spending time there for the purpose of doing business. There is no doubt that LinkedIn is the best place online for lawyers looking to grow their networks and their practices.

The problem, however, is that too many lawyers use LinkedIn as a place to connect and scroll through other people’s posts, rather than as a tool to aid in business development. LinkedIn has everything a lawyer might need to establish relationships that lead to new business. It’s just a matter of leveraging the tools to best effect.

Well known social media marketer Gary Vaynerchuk authored a book called “Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook.” It’s all about brand building, marketing, and developing business in today’s digital environment.

The central thesis is that in order to stand out and gain your audience’s attention, you need to give, give, give before asking for someone’s business. Giving can take many forms, but in the social media world it most often means producing valuable, relevant content for your audiences.

I believe that Vaynerchuk wrote the book because he believes that too many people are throwing too many right hooks, and not enough jabs. They’re blasting people with offers and asks, and not giving freely of their wisdom in order to build authentic relationships online and off.

But sometimes I think that a right hook can, itself, be a jab. After all, if you believe that the services you provide can genuinely help solve some of the toughest problems that members of your audience face, then you’re doing them a disservice by not introducing your solutions to them. Just as it’s easy to get caught up in a cycle of selling and never providing value, it’s also easy to publish, publish, publish and never share the skills and experience that underlie your content.

What’s the first thing that goes through your head when you meet a prospective client, sit down at the keyboard to write an article, or walk up to the podium to give a talk? What motivates you?

For many (too many) of us, it’s the desire to come across as smart, knowledgeable and polished. It’s natural to be internally focused. But being motivated by the desire to leave an individual or audience dazzled typically has the opposite effect.

I recently attended a conference and at one of the opening cocktail parties I completely forgot this lesson. I engaged in conversation with a nice gentleman and we chatted at each other instead of genuinely listening to what the other person was saying. Instead of probing for common interests, we focused on getting our points across. It ended up being a waste of time, full of awkward pauses and poorly delivered “elevator speeches.”

This poor interaction reminded me of what it takes to have a positive one: We benefit far more when we seek nothing in return. When we share our time, attention and wisdom freely, with no reciprocal expectations, we build relationships of the best kind – the ones built on a strong foundation of trust.

So the next time you approach an interaction, be it in person or via the written word, ask yourself a simple question: How much can I give my audience without expecting anything in return?

This is the time of year that many lawyers and legal marketers are deep into planning for 2017 business development initiatives. It’s the time of big dreams and grand ambitions. The problem is, while the plan is transformative, it rarely gets implemented. As almost all of us know through painful personal experience, one of the biggest issues with planning is that it can be overwhelming – it’s easy to be ambitious on paper, but in practice that ambition can lead to paralysis.

One of my favorite books is Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, by Anne Lamott. It contains many lessons on creative thinking and ways to approach your work. One of my favorite passages deals with the issue of paralysis – specifically, how to overcome the tendency we all have to get overwhelmed by the enormity of the task or challenge we are facing. Here’s Lamott’s advice, gleaned from a childhood family experience:

Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he’d had three months to write, which was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brother’s shoulder, and said, “Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.”

A note to readers: This post constitutes my entry in a writing competition called “Writing Contest: You Deserve to be Inspired” hosted by the Positive Writer blog. Positive Writer is one of my favorite blogs about writing – check it out if you’re looking for an excellent writing resource.

I shuffled the papers into a neat stack, stapled them, and strode confidently into my supervising attorney’s office, handing her the memorandum I had painstakingly prepared on some arcane legal issue over the last several days. I nailed it. Or so I thought.

I was a first year attorney at Skadden Arps. I fancied myself a skilled writer and communicator, but I was, in fact, neither.

Although many of us don’t enjoy it, selling is a necessary part of business development. But selling doesn’t always have to require cold calling, glad-handing, and small talk. The solution? Content marketing. Read my latest article below, published on the blog of law practice management software company Clio, to learn about how content marketing helps attorney’s sell their expertise in a smart, engaging manner. You can also access the article by clicking here.

One of the challenges that most lawyers face is the sales and marketing roller coaster. When the flow of clients slows down, business development picks up. Then a wave of new clients rolls in, and casework takes precedence over new business efforts and numbers begin to fall. The cycle can seem endless.

There’s no getting around the fact that selling is required to sustain and expand existing relationships and to develop new ones. The problem is that hardly anyone (especially lawyers) enjoys selling. You can rest easy, however, as there’s a way to sell that doesn’t involve cold calling, glad-handing, and small talk. At least not in the traditional sense.