Total Client Awareness

Here’s a simple tip from Personal Tech Pipeline (via LifeHacker) that all lawyers should take advantage of:

Let's say you have a friend who lives on the other side of the country. Let's call her "Janet Birkenstock." You can set up a Google Alert using quotation marks around her name that searches both news stories and web sites. Then you can just forget about it. From then on, whenever Janet runs a marathon, gets promoted, is quoted in the local newspaper, or does anything that someone mentions in the news or on the web, you get an e-mail with a link to that page. You can always be the first to congratulate her, or whatever. The point is that you're staying in touch with and remain aware of your friend without any effort at all.

Now imagine setting up similar searches with all your friends, family members, former colleagues and others -- and, of course, yourself (to find out what others might say about you).

You can set up dozens or even hundreds of these Alert searches, and they will work for you forever, finding information on people you care about and letting you know what's new with them.

Now set up searches about your neighborhood or small town. If some developer is planning to bulldoze the local park and build a shopping mall, you'll be the first to know (and can visit the local city council meeting in time to provide input).

Easy, cheap, and your clients will wonder how you know everything about them (and their industry, competitors, etc.) before they do.