Martindale-Hubbell Connected - Pinpointing Social Media for Lawyers, or Just More Noise?

I had the opportunity to listen to Darryl Cross from LexisNexis yesterday talk about Social Networking for Lawyers and how Martindale-Hubbell Connected plays a part in the whole scene. The presentation was held at the House of Blues in Houston -- and to be honest, I'd attend a quilting bee as long as it is held at the HOB -- and was pretty basic, but Darryl did have some good information to share. One thing that I did find odd, was that he stressed that Connected was a "lawyers-only" resource. Although Connected started off as a "lawyers-only" service, there was enough grumbling by non-lawyers within law firms about be excluded, that there are now 'exceptions' to the rule. So, law firm librarians, CI professionals, marketing, IT, and KM folks are now welcome into the Connected world.

Here is the generic "about" information that Connected writes about itself:

Martindale-Hubbell Connected is an online community for legal professionals that thrives on user participation. Every community is only as great and beneficial as the community involvement of its members.

Here are some of your options for getting involved with the Martindale-Hubbell Connected community:

• Blogs. Read perspectives from legal professionals on current issues and add your own views in comments.
• Forums. Answer questions or share your thoughts on topics ranging from legal management and practice-specific issues to business travel.
• Build your network. Connect with other legal professionals.
• Enhance your profile. Give others the chance to know more about you and your experience. Don't forget to add a photo.
• Share your ideas for the Community. Post questions and feedback.

You may contact the Community Manager through Martindale-Hubbell Connected's private messaging, or email directly at communitymanager@martindale.com.

I think there is a lot of potential in the Connected product. Time will tell if Lexis can leverage its existing resources and make Connected a "go to" resource for lawyers wanting to connect with others using pinpointed social media tools. At last count, Connected was approaching 12,000 members. With the fact that all of these are specifically legal industry people, Connected seems well positioned to be the big player in Lawyer Social Media resources.

You do still have to be 'invited' to join Connected. [Note: You do not have to be invited. Thanks to Ohad from MH for letting us know that you only need to go to http://www.martindale.com/connected and sign up.] And, I'm assuming that since you're still reading this post, I've at least piqued your interest in looking at Connected. Email me if you want to join the network. Then comment back here -- preferably by becoming a CIBlawg Contributor and writing a follow-up blog post.