There are two fatal errors that keep great projects from coming to life:

1. Not finishing
2. Not starting

—Buddha

A DEEP BREATH OF LIFE

Early last year I took a yoga class at Florida Keys Community College. While I was far from a good student, having missed more than half the classes, the small investment I made paid off in a BIG way. At the end of each class the instructor read from a book, which I eventually bought and became an extremely positive force in my life, my relationships, and my work. The book, written by Alan Cohen, is titled “A Deep Breath of Life.” It is organized with daily stories that inspire “heart-centered living.” Over the past year there have been a number of entries I thought to share on the VMO blog but held back for one or another reason, mainly because I feared being too touchy-feely. Today’s entry was just too instructive to take a pass on not sharing, and so applicable to the law firm environment where great marketing projects too often fail to come to life because we don’t ACT NOW!

Act Now

“While living in a farming community, our group planned to erect a new house. For many months we discussed the plans, and because we did not fully agree, nothing was done. Then one day, one man went out to the building site with a plumb line and began to hammer stakes into the ground. It wasn’t long before the house was built.

“You can think and talk about a project for a long time, but only action will manifest it. If you wait until you’re ready, you’ll never get anything done. Don’t wait until all the conditions are perfect for you to begin. Beginning makes the conditions perfect.”

—Alan Cohen, author, A Deep Breath of Life

When I was working as an executive marketer in-house at law firms, more times than not, great projects were delayed by analysis paralysis. I think back to how many of those projects, had we simply started, could have made a significant difference.

Begin Here

While I believe Cohen’s story is inspirational and instructional, in a law firm it is simply just not acceptable to “start” anything without going through the hoops and layers of approvals. So, what can we do? Here are a few things I’ve done in the past or have seen others do to “start” great projects and still honor the system. (Please add yours in the comments!)

1. Build your case. Law firms are noted for their reliance on precedent. First to be second is the mantra for many.

Managing Partner: “You want to do what? Show me other law firms that are doing it successfully then we might try it.”

Marketing Director: “There are no other law firms doing it, that’s why it’s a great project for our firm and we could be first!”

Managing Partner: “First? Too risky. We don’t want to be the first to fail.”

While not ideal, you might point to other non-law firm examples where similar projects have worked. You’ll need to connect the dots for the decision makers, so in advance of presenting your project idea I recommend a good brainstorm session with trusted advisors or your team to identify potential objections. You might also consider running a what-if scenario past your ethics committee or state bar association. At the end of the day, I believe and have seen it work, if you do your homework and come to the discussion prepared with some key evidence that the project has real legs, you stand a better chance of getting it off the paper. That’s a good start.

2. Test it. Part of building your case, especially if it’s really original, is to test your project. For example, I know a marketing team that created “draft” videos using what they had on hand at no additional cost, a flip camera. Before they pitched the project to management, they wrote the scripts, played the parts, recorded them, and edited them into something close enough to their vision so the partners could actually see how it would play out. While the quality was not on par with their ultimate goal for the project, seeing the draft clearly demonstrated the  potential of the medium and the direction the team would be taking the project. They are now one of the most prolific law firms creating effective videos for internal communications as well as for clients and prospects today!

3. Prove it. A young associate attorney asked his firm for permission and a small stipend to start a blog. He was succinctly turned down—“We’re not ready for that social media stuff.” Not deterred, (and with the VMO’s encouragement ) he tried another approach: invest time on his own to creating a well-thought out plan for content and promotion before he pitched it to the law firm again. He took action and started. Short of actually launching a blog on his own, he prepared a statement for the blog’s “About Page,” his “Author Page,” a comment policy, disclaimer, and fleshed out a list of content Categories complete with descriptions. He made a list of 50 SEO terms he could use, having done a little research on the web, including an analysis of potential titles for the blog and tactics for cross promoting. Then HE WROTE A DOZEN blog posts! With this in hand, he went back to the practice chair and demonstrated that it was a plausible project and that he was committed to it.

How will you “get the party started” in 2012?

Exceptional ideas and projects need exceptional measures to get started. Are you up for it? Books I recommend for further inspiration include:

1. Enchantment by Guy Kawasaki and his earlier book,
2. Rules for Revolutionaries
3. How to Act Like a CEO by executive coach, Debra Benton. (How to Think Like a CEO by Benton is also very excellent!)

What books are on your list for 2012? Drop us a note!

Go Forth! Happy New Year!

In a nonscientific reader poll conducted for SmartBrief on Social Media, leading marketers (of all types) were asked:

Does your company have a formal training process for employees before they’re allowed to blog, tweet or post other social media content on behalf of the company?

The responses were mildly shocking;

• 70.66 percent said NO,
• 18.56 percent said YES, and
• 10.78% replied “not applicable.”

Frankly, I say, NOT training all employees for social media engagement is equivalent to giving anyone in the organization blind authority to speak to the press/public/clients/prospects/partners/etcetera on behalf of the entity!

We Have A Social Media Policy

You’re probably already thinking—“We don’t need training, our law firm’s social media policy clearly states that employees or Partners engaging in social media must never speak on behalf of the law firm without prior permission. They are required to state that views expressed are their own. Further, we require everyone that puts our law firm on their social media profile as their employer to abide by our policy and guidelines. And…we monitor our firm name using Google Alerts. And….”

I have had the privilege of setting up social media strategy, policy and programs in dozens of law firms over the past three and a half years and I can assure you that simply issuing a policy and/or guidelines without MANDATORY training for attorneys and staff doesn’t cut it. There is plenty of room for personal interpretation of guidelines and rules.

PRACTICAL POINTER: In addition, I’ve seen many law firms skip over the FACT that social media is a fluid form of communication. Why is this important to keep in mind?  Because rarely does the user take the time to review the “guidelines” before posting anything, particularly when they have a tid-bit of gossip that needs to get out to their network, pronto or they are reacting to something said by another without thinking! This is often referred to as SMAD—Social Media Affliction Disorder. One becomes so engaged in the medium that it impairs their frontal lobe—that valuable part of the brain that controls impulse.  Look no further than some fine examples of social media fail caused by SMAD in corporations such as Chrysler, Nestle, Red Cross, Ketchum, and Kenneth Cole. In most cases the communications department made these mistakes or the social media staff person responsible for feeding the social media beast, but in other cases it was the CEO (see Kenneth Cole)! No one is immune. SMAD is real.

Training Leads to Better Execution or a New Job?

Long accepted management principles assure us that training employees leads to better execution. Although law firm dollars are being stretched further these days and fewer are devoted to training, much less to something as dubious as social media, some types of training can be vital to the health and welfare of the law firm—social media training is one of them. At the very least your whole marketing team needs to be trained by someone who knows the landscape very well and can tell the story convincingly.  Further, we’re all still in the early stages of defining best practices. So if you had that training a year or two ago, it’s time to refresh the memory as well as update it to keep up with the latest developments.

Not All Training Is Equal.

In my experience there are four core groups that need social media engagement training:

1. Senior Management/Senior Partners/and anyone that is only marginally engaged in social media but needs to be aware of the mechanics as well as the liabilities.
2. Partners, associates, law clerks, and paralegals that frequently engage with social media.
3. Marketing personnel and particularly those whose job it is to feed social media content and conversation.
4. All other law firm employees, including receptionists, file clerks, HR staff, secretaries, legal assistants and etc.

Each of these groups arrives to training with different perspectives, needs, and precepts. Although I’m often brought in for delivering a basic briefing on social media to key leaders or training on tools for marketers, there never seems to be a priority on training the whole organization. I’ve been preaching it since day one: guidelines and policy tend to remain in the theory stage–stuck in a drawer or the firm Intranet, until they are taught in a physical setting.  I’m not saying law firms aren’t training beyond the boardroom level, in fact, in some cases the marketing staff take my training and share it with the general firm population. This is good. No matter who or where the training comes from, the critical point here is to be aware that there are various levels of training and various messages to be communicated in order to reach those four audiences where they live, work and breathe if the training is to have effect. Still, some training is better than no training. Don’t you agree?

Jeremy Victor, the editor in chief of B2Bbloggers.com on this topic for SmartBlog for Social Media says it like this:  (paraphrased)

Though some argue training is an opportunity for employees to gain new skills and use them to find new jobs…“The only thing worse than training people and having them leave is not training them and having them stay.” Zig Ziglar

So, readers of the VMO blog: What’s in your training room? Training sessions on appropriate social media engagement? Or, lights off? Share your thoughts, success stories, and challenges to training in the comments. We all learn more from shared insights. Thanks!

David Fraser (@privacylawyer) is not just a lawyer online; he’s a Canadian privacy lawyer—online.  Participating on a panel with David last Friday, it was immediately obvious that he “gets social media” when he flat out told a Canadian Bar Association group of Intellectual Property lawyers that …being a lawyer online does nothing for you. Being anything too broad; and you’re going to get lost.

I couldn’t agree more: It’s getting noisy out there—to think that only three years ago plenty of lawyers had only two things to say about social media: Me? Why? Well, the crowd has arrived.

So, what should you be doing to be present and counted for in social media today?

David had some sage words of advice that echo my own experience in coaching lawyers and share them below, paraphrased from my notes.

• Listen, listen, and listen. If you listen, you have a better opportunity to distinguish yourself from the crowd.
• Don’t dilute the message. David is a Canadian privacy lawyer and he only tweets and blogs about privacy. He doesn’t dilute his message. People who follow him are people who want to know about privacy-simple, right? The dividend is significant; it gives him quality followers and qualified leads. [Note from VMO: you may have a fairly broad practice, but you should pick the most interesting and profitable part of it to emphasize for your online practice.]
• It’s about people. People want to network (converse) with people. Following law firms is not generally helpful. (Well, maybe you should follow your own firm to get the latest news first!). Follow people. Follow the right people; those who want to talk about your subject—which by the way should be very specific….
• Be a part of the community. Once you’re online, by default you’re part of that community. Living your practice online, you have a responsibility to be a contributing member of that community. While David has gotten to know other competitors pretty well using social media, he warns about getting into battles with your competitors—it never looks good.
• Be clear about your message. You need to be clear about what you’re putting out there—it becomes part of your online presence. Know what “it’s” about before you get into anything online. Checking into a client’s office on Foursquare is a bad idea; it can breach confidentiality.
• Watch out for chilling effects. There is a LOT of user-generated content posted to social media sites receiving legal attention these days. It is never wise to enter social media without a comprehensive understanding of the liabilities—both professional and personal.  Facebook alone reported to Newsweek in January 2011 that it receives 10 to 20 requests for user account information per day or approximately 5000 email subpoenas per year. (You can view some of them at ChillingEffects.org, a watchdog, non-profit organization that catalogs lawyers’ cease and desist letters.) Canadian litigants with claims of assets-at-risk or reputations-at-risk are more likely to receive attention from social media services because there is more liability placed on the publisher in Canada. However, in the U.S., the Communications Decency Act squarely places the liability on users for what they post, not the publisher of the social media site. It’s important for everyone (not just lawyers) to know their rights and responsibilities, terms of service and conditions, and live within the boundaries.
• There is no anonymity. Everywhere you go on the Internet you leave a trail. (Dare I risk saying the obvious?) Whatever you wouldn’t do in public, you shouldn’t do online. Hot issues like John Doe Anonymity (fake profiles), protest, parody and criticism, copyright and DMCA, linking, patent and trademark/trade secret are all being vetted in consideration of new legislation specific to new media channels both in the U.S and Canada. If you are hiding behind an avatar,  a stage name handle and a disposable email address, don’t think they can’t find you if they want to.

Of course, if you’re not living your practice online, you’re less likely to be impacted by any negatives but also less likely to benefit from the positives. If you are living your practice online, you may need to do some housekeeping and tidy up your message. You can start by asking, “What does my professional title on LinkedIn say about me?” Are you Jane Smith, Attorney, Smith, Jones & Brown? Or, are you Jane Smith, Miami-based, Bi-lingual Import/Export Attorney Serving U.S and Latin American Markets?

Listen first; then post. Don’t dilute the message.  It’s about people, not push messages: Be community minded. Know your rights, responsibilities and liabilities; there is no anonymity. What else would you add to this list?

(This post is dedicated to the wonderful people at American Airlines who make me turn off my Kindle during take off and landing, forcing me to pick up random magazines at airport kiosks so I can distract myself the old fashioned way; reading paper magazines.)

I love my 11″ MacBook Air. It travels well and it’s a powerful work tool. (Glad I didn’t jump on the iPad bandwagon at first blush because this is all that and more!) I also love my Kindle! Everything I need fits neatly into my chic little Coach handbag that my dear daughter gave me this past Christmas. (Hugs!) Together, they make my travel load light and productive…until take off and landing when I have to pull out something paper to read. (Note to airlines – Kindle wireless off, what’s the difference?)

On my most recent business trip I purchased a “hard” copy of LAPTOP magazine (mostly Microsoft stuff) and found a helpful piece on 101 Social Networking Tips. I’ve pulled a few, put them in my own words, and hope they will be helpful for VMO readers.

1. Community is a two-way endeavor.

Don’t be THAT GUY or GAL that everyone blocks from their NewsFeed because they only know how to talk about his or her self. Yes, your Friends and Fans want to know what you’ve been up to, but they also want you to be a part of their online lives: It’s community.  To engage with others or give credit to their fantastic blog post, video or a photo, consider “tagging” them in a Facebook Status Update. Simply precede their name with the @ sign in a post; i.e. @johndoe. This will automatically include a link to their profile page and they will receive a notification linking back to your post. Get the conversations flowing.

2. The view from here.

If you think those vacation photos are just a tad bit inappropriate for sharing with your business colleagues or clients that you’ve Friended, no problem. Create a list to change how certain groups of people see your profile on Facebook. Start by going to your Friends page, click Account drop down menu, select Edit Friends and Create A List. Give it a name such as business, family, alumni, inner circle, or casual acquaintances.  Select Friends to add to the list. Then, go to Account/Privacy Settings/Customize. For each of the items listed; i.e. Photos, Videos, Birthday, Contact Info, etc., select the view setting (on the right) and chose Custom. In the pop-up window type the name of the Friend List you created in the “Hide This From” box. Don’t forget to save the setting.

3. Speaking of the view.

While you’re at it, remember that “Everyone” is a dangerous setting. Not only does anything you share with EVERYONE expose your stuff to EVERYONE on Facebook it also exposes those comments and pictures to public search engines and more. So for example, whenever you chose the icon “Share on Facebook” from another web site; i.e., the New York Times, that site will grab any data from your profile and friends that is open to EVERYONE. In return, the NYT will share the information they store about you, i.e., browsing history, user name, etc. with Facebook. So, think twice before you share that interesting news article you are reading on the New York Times using the “Share on Facebook” icon. To limit what 3^rd party sites can retrieve, make all your settings either Friends Only or Friends of Friends. Alternately, just copy and paste the URL into a Status Update manually.

4. Finding “Friends” on Facebook.

Looking for your old college roommate John Doe on Facebook? If you simply type the name John Doe into the Facebook search bar, you’ll have to sift through a lot of results. Try adding a pipe character between two terms, i.e. “John Doe | San Diego” to limit the number of returns. And, you can use the pipe character between any two search terms, for example john doe | NY university, law school, or etc. You could also do an age range search by typing in the name and separate it by y1 and y2; i.e. John Doe y1:40 y2:50.

5. Friends can be fickle.

Do you care who has un-friended you? Do you want to know who has not accepted your Friend request from last year?  No big deal, right, but if you have a ton of friends on Facebook and want to keep up with who has left your circle of influence, whether by choice or because they deactivated their account, there’s a handy app to download from userscripts.org/scripts/show/58852.

It works with web browsers Chrome, Firefox, Opera or Safari. After downloading the plug in, log into Facebook and going forward Unfriend Finder will alert you when someone un-friends you. It will also show you the people who have declined your friend request or simply not responded. Once activated, Unfriend Finder uses Facebook notifications to alert you on these events. It doesn’t register unfriending that occurred before you loaded the add-on.

6. It’s a family affair.

When you create a Group on Facebook (not to be confused with Fan or Community Pages) you can broadcast information to that small set of people in the group instead of your entire Facebook community. Create a group at www.facebook.com/groups. Once you create your group, invite the Friends you wish to include. Conversations, status updates, videos, photos, etc. that are posted to the Group will appear in the newsfeed but only those in the Group will be able to see them. This is a great solution for extended families that want to share personal photos with one another but do not want them visible on any public search timeline. Groups are a form of cloud computing in that you can also create and collaborate on documents. You may also want to create a group for business purposes. For example, if you are working on a presentation, you could create a group of co-presenters or others that might be helpful to you. Then, go into the Group and select Doc from the navigation bar, create a document, name it and save it. That document will then be available to all group members to view and edit.

7. One man’s treasure is another man’s trash.

Your Facebook Home Page displays a News Feed of all the status update posts from people in your network.  If you’re wondering why you’re only getting posts from a small number of your friends, it’s because the default view is “Top Posts.” That view only shows posts from those Friends on Facebook with whom you regularly interact. To change this to view to Most Recent, which will include the recent posts from your entire Facebook Friend network, simply click the Most Recent tab found at the top, slightly to the left of the Feed display. Want to see more or less of specific friends? Scroll to the bottom of your News Feed page and select Edit Options. Or, to hide a specific Friend’s updates, simply click on the X found to the right of one of that Friend’s posts and select “hide just this one,” “hide all posts from this friend,” or unlike a Fan Page, etc…

To permanently block someone without unfriending (if you don’t want them to know) or to stop getting their event invitations, you can block them via Account/Privacy Settings/Edit Lists/Block Lists. You can remove someone from your friends list or block invites from specific people or applications.

8. DANGER WILL ROBINSON.

Facebook Notifications can be your surrogate guardian. Control your alerts in the Account Settings/Notifications tab. Check those items that are important to you and uncheck those that are not. Notifications can be sent by email or text message.

9. Safe keeping your memories.

Many users deactivate their accounts for temporary reasons. You can deactivate your account from the Account Page. Select “Deactivate Account” from the drop down. When you deactivate, your profile all information associated with it is immediately made inaccessible to other Facebook users, however, Facebook does save deactivated profile information (friends, photos, interests, etc.) in case you decide to reactivate it at some point in time.

To disable your account completely and remove all your information forever, you’ll need to select DELETE from the Deactivate Account tab. You’ll be prompted to send an email request.  When you delete your account your information is gone and cannot be restored. However, be aware that some of it may be cached in users’ browser history (including your own).  And, anything you once shared with Everyone may still turn up in public search results.

10. Archive your presence.

In either case, deactivate or delete, before doing it you can download your entire Facebook presence, including photos and status updates, to your hard drive by going into your Account/Settings/Download Your Information. Why would you want to do this?

Maybe you want to give your account a face lift and remove all your photos without losing them. Or, you might just want to keep old status updates for the memoir you’ll be writing some day.

11. Download photo albums.

In the same vein, perhaps you want to download a photo album posted by a family member or friend to your hard drive so you can make a picture calendar or add it to your screen saver rotation. No problem.  There’s a free FireFox add-on, FacePad that allows you to download an entire album of photos. Get the app from addons.mozilla.org, and then go to one of the photos in an album, put your cursor over the album name on the bottom right, right click and select Download Album with FacePad. This add-on is also useful in the event you’ve experienced a hard-drive crash and your photos stored on the computer were lost. You can go into your profile and grab the photos and be back in business.

12. Please Join Us!

Never before has it been so easy to invite friends, colleagues or business acquaintances to an event you are hosting. Whether a family barbecue, seminar, webinar, birthday party, or charitable event you can use Facebook to send the invite and receive RSVPs. To create an Event, just click on the Events tab below your Profile picture. You will be prompted to add details such as date, time, and place. Then select guests from your Friends list and adjust visibility settings.  If you make the Event public it will show up in your News Feed for everyone to see. Alternately to limit visibility to only invitees, just select Private. (You can also add non-Facebook users by entering their email address.)

If you receive an Event invitation via Facebook, you can RSVP with a click of the mouse and see others attending. If something comes up at the last minute preventing your attendance, you can change your RSVP status to cancel. If you created the Event and need to postpone, cancel or reschedule, you can do that too!

13.  Remote access.

Oops, forget to log out of your FB page while using a public computer? No problem. Login to Facebook and go to Account/Account Settings/Account Security. A drop down displays a variety of information where you can select to be notified via text or email if a new computer or mobile service logs into your account. You will also see your most recent logins, including date, time, location, browser and OS. If there is an open connection, select End Activity to remotely log out of any active sessions.

14. Untag ME!

The new Facebook Profile Page now features a filmstrip of photos that have your tag embedded in them across the top of your profile. (Your tag is your name) This makes it easier to see the photos where your friends have tagged you. If you don’t want to be tagged, simply click on the photo which opens it in the album, go to the bottom of the offending photo and check the box next to your name that says Remove Tag. Only you or the owner of the photo can untag you.

15. Rememberances.

Facebook has made it possible to memorialize an account when a Facebook Friends passes away. Go to www.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=deceased. There you will be asked to fill out a form to verify your relationship to the deceased along with a few other questions including a link to the obituary. You can request that the account be removed completely or memorialized. Facebook memorializes a profile by removing the deceased’ status updates, contact information and adjusts privacy settings so that only confirmed Friends can see the profile or locate it in search. Friends are able to leave Wall Posts in remembrance.

16. Identity theft.

It happens, but when it does, Facebook gives you an avenue to report it. If you find that someone has created a fake profile for your name or likeness, go to the page, on the bottom left side, and click Report/BlockThisPerson. The select Fake Profile as the reason and add “impersonating me or someone else” as the type. You should also include a URL to the real person’s account so Facebook can see what’s going on.

That’s it for now. Until my next flight….

Check out all the social networking tips in the “paper” version of the February 2011 edition of LAPTOP magazine.

Today a package of materials from a new client of mine arrived overnight, first AM delivery. The delivery surprised me and exceeded my expectation as our scheduled meeting is weeks away. There was nothing urgent about me receiving the materials, but it sure was nice to have them in hand so far in advance. Then I recalled how earlier communications with the managing partner and his staff had clued me in that I was dealing with a first class organization with great respect and value for everyone they do business with, even those outside the direct revenue stream. Their treatment of others goes beneath the surface and is the heart and soul of their success.

They are successful not only because the firm has excellent, experienced lawyers, though they do. Not because they discount services or offer alternate fee arrangements, they don’t. They are successful because they have a law firm culture that operates on mutual respect, consideration, and honesty. CLIENTS like that. A successful firm will not take for granted the impact their internal culture has upon its success.

Culture is a law firm’s DNA.

Truth be told, you can actually tell A LOT about a law firm’s culture by the way they treat their vendors. When someone told me this, years ago, I thought it was absurd. Now, after 15 years in the legal profession, both as an employee and a vendor, I can tell you its true. [Too bad more prospects don’t know this or they’d be interviewing a firm’s vendors, not their lawyers, to uncover what they might expect from the client/attorney/law firm relationship.]

I can now predict, with accuracy, client satisfaction levels in almost 100% of cases simply by my dealings with the firm as a vendor. I have found that there is a direct correlation between the degree to which I am treated respectfully and the degree of the law firm’s success.  Weird, I know….well, maybe not.

In a new book by Barry Libert of Mzinga, “Social Nation. How to harness the power of Social Media to attract customers, motivate employees and grow your business,” (Wiley, 2010), Libert posits that the power of culture is not to be underestimated where business and community intersect. (Yes, your clients are a community!) Among many golden nuggets the book has to offer (full review to follow shortly*), Libert proposes that clients can sense when your culture is a healthy one, and a healthy culture is a healthy company.

“If the DNA is healthy, the company is healthy. If it is not, the company, just like your family, will falter and eventually fail. In business, it means your customers will leave in pursuit of a competitor that will care more about them and better meet their needs.”

I couldn’t agree with Libert more. To wit, I’ve worked inside law firms that had a DNA of respect, honesty and action. They respected their employees and their vendors, i.e., valued their expertise, engaged in fair contracts, didn’t haggle, returned calls, and paid invoices promptly. Not surprisingly, they also had a lot of loyal and happy clients and are still going strong today. Conversely, I’ve also worked where it was exactly the opposite. Ironically, in once such instance, the law firm no longer exists!

Observations from the vendor trenches. [ Or, what shoppers can learn from vendors.]

It starts in the evaluation stage. When a prospective client law firm and I are getting to know one another I’ve noticed that the best firms have taken the time to prepare good questions. They might also have an idea for how they want to proceed, and they have determined a range of fees they’re willing to pay.  Some even have an idea of the specific results they are seeking. (They’ve done some homework or they tell me up front that they are clueless. Honesty is always a good start.) Though this often evolves as we talk, their preparedness is a sign that they take the project, my services, and me seriously. Following the logic, these law firms would also be those that are not afraid to tell one of their prospective clients the truth about the prospects for their case. They would reasonably estimate fees and, if necessary, refer them to another attorney or law firm that is better suited for the matter. In essence, they are prepared and preparation is a hallmark of great law firms and great cultures.

Alternately, I can immediately tell when an evaluation call is a fishing expedition for FREE expertise. In these cases I can fairly accurately assess that the firm is not successful enough to pay for expertise or that they believe their own expertise is the only kind worth paying for; both are bad. Avoid these firms and you avoid disappointment.

After the evaluation stage, I learn a lot about the firm by the length of time it takes to return phone calls or respond to emails. It is illuminating.

For example I am often asked to submit a proposal TOMORROW, i.e., “This is an urgent project for the firm. Can you get that to me tomorrow?  Our committee is meeting on Friday.” “Sure,” I say and work through the evening hours to deliver on my word only to hear silence for weeks. Now, I know that my proposal is not always at the top of the list, but is it too much to ask for a quick email response to say; got the proposal, the committee did not have time to discuss it on Friday, but it’s on the agenda for next month? Non-responsive behavior from a firm that has an URGENT need is likely to be a firm that communicates poorly (or even dishonestly) with their clients. (Note: a distinction should be made between lawyer and law firm, i.e. the law firm may be unresponsive but an individual lawyer can be very responsive. However, when you hire a lawyer you essentially hire their law firm. It’s a 360-degree relationship, and it takes both to make it work.)

The pricing stage is also often a very telling sequence. Being the Pollyanna that I am, I assume that once past the evaluation and the proposal there is sufficient understanding of the value of my services and respect for me as a business owner; that I’ve priced my services competitively and that I intend to deliver value along with the price tag. If I say my day rate is X, it is X. If there is variation in what you’re asking me to provide there may be room for a discount, but if the project is as quoted you can be sure that is what I believe the project will cost—and for me to remain in business to help you in the future. The law firm that doesn’t understand this equation distrusts me. And, not in all cases of course, but such a law firm could actually be over charging or under-delivering their services and they are projecting their behavior on me. [Note to shoppers: There are some firms that just can’t help themselves from negotiating everything! While that’s fair, beware; they will likely be tough negotiators when it comes to writing down your legal bill too!]

Finally, much can be read from the payment process. As a responsible contractor I always include terms of payment in my letter of agreement.  When a client signs that agreement I believe they, in good faith, intend to conform to the terms. (Lawyers must understand this, right?) But to my surprise, even when the situation is black and white, i.e. product or service delivered and approved, there are some law firms that purposely sit on the payment for months, ignoring the terms of our agreement. How this reflects a firm’s culture is crystal clear. In one example, I waited over a year to get paid! It was no surprise to me when I learned that the named partner of that firm was found guilty of fraud and his license suspended.

If clients aren’t raining from the sky…

Word of mouth marketing can be the life-blood of a law firm, i.e. referrals. It can also be what’s standing between success and failure. In today’s social marketplace,  people are talking. The insight we receive from social interactions and communications that take place among and between our clients, employees, vendors, and partners reveal a lot. Decisions about purchasing products and services are more frequently based on how the outside sees our “inside” culture. If clients aren’t raining from the sky for you or your law firm, you may want to step away from the sunshine and look inside at your culture.

“Everybody talks about the weather, but no one does anything about it.”– Mark Twain

Perhaps I could have saved a lot of words and simply said “actions speak louder than words.” Or, perhaps corporate culture, like the weather, is impossible to change for anyone but the Heavens. So, our only recourse is to talk about it and make us feel a little bit better-though totally not in control.

Whatever the case, weather happens. So does culture. Only difference is you can influence your law firm’s culture. Like it or not, how you do business with others outside your revenue stream will impact how you do business with your revenue stream, i.e. clients. And, as Libert suggests….”take good care of your personal values and you will energize your customers, partners and employees.”

__________________________________________________

*Disclosure: I was given a complimentary copy of this book to review.

Looking back – Looking forward.

Social media and social networking platforms open up doors to new relationships and often work well as tools for marketing – broad distribution, top of mind impact, and exposure for expertise.

However, looking back on my social media involvement during 2010, these two uses actually had the least impact on my business goals.

Interestingly, social media was most helpful to me in 2010 when I was engaging with colleagues and friends with whom I already had an off line relationship at one point or other in time.  This didn’t mean that I ONLY interacted with people I knew in the bricks and mortar world; in fact, I made several significant new connections in 2010 with people I’d only met via social media who became new clients, valuable resources, and generally great people to know. But overall, this was the exception not the rule. I received more new business from mining my known network and from using social media tools to deepen relationships with those in my network who are geographically distant.  Realizing this is helping me focus my social media activity in 2011.

Focus on content and community.

Based on my experimentation with open networking in the very large marketplace of the social web, I’ve learned that the best use of social networks, and even my blog, is to “get together” online with people I already know using smaller communities; so I intend to do more of that in 2011.

Essentially my community interaction revolves around content, i.e. status updates, reviews, ideas, suggestions, quotes, links to what’s being read, and notes about what’s going on in lives, both personal and professional.  For the most part, I care about what my established communities are talking about because I already have a sense of who they are and where they fit into my life. It gives our interactions focus. It allows me to contribute in a meaningful way. The content we share creates a sort of bond. Within this type of community we are all free to do business with one another and indeed we do. What really makes focused communities helpful to me is in knowing that being social online becomes something I want to do and not just another “marketing” chore. It’s authentic. And, when you’re doing something you like to do, the enthusiasm is noted by others and often translates to new business.

This is really important, I think, for law firms who are trying to make sense of how they can leverage social tools for the entity. Casting a wide net may have a place in the marketing mix, but finding or creating smaller communities to engage in is where they will begin to see the most meaningful activity and new business prospects.

Chris Brogan recently blogged about the importance of building your social media activity around an object of focus to stimulate content and community:

You need a campfire…you need that social setting that consists of: object of focus, group experience of that object, and then creative expression thereafter. In literal terms, the party is around a campfire. In more stretched out thinking, the party is around the creative content. It’s content, community, and marketplace, said another way.

Community intersects with business.

As more law firms (and individual lawyers) will be entering the age of social media this year they will be looking for beneficial ways to engage. I suggest you do yourself a favor, skip a couple steps and take note; human behavior doesn’t change: Humans seek connection – in both their personal and professional lives.  Whatever community you want to penetrate, reach, influence, or start, the secret to successful social media engagement is to study human behavior. Humans connect around commonalities, interests, issues, industries, questions, answers, topics, opinion, politics; you name it. Study the behavior of your clients, “friends of the firm,” referral sources, and even partners and employees in far flung offices, whoever you wish reach, because the more aware you are of the fundamental human behavior at work, the more likely your online activity or social media strategies will feel natural and be valuable on numerous levels.

A community within the very large online social marketplace is the most viable source for doing business. The best way to create business opportunities using social media is to be a member of a community where you can engage others, enable relationships, and create trust. How do you do that? I’ve said it before and will say it again…in using social media tools we’re not doing anything different, we’re just doing it differently. In life, we chose our friends based on synergies – we share a love of conversation, family, sports, literature, politics, movies, travel, wine, etc. And, we gravitate toward certain people in our workplace based on like passions for the work and other commonalities like schools, neighborhoods, or even the charities we support.

Whether you are a law firm marketer building a social media strategy or a lawyer executing on tactics, devote your premium time to interacting with people you know and converse about what it is that they, and you, care about most; if you try to force interaction or push content that is not relevant, it just won’t happen. Think about your object of focus, build on the experience of the group, and your social media activity will become meaningful, natural and beneficial no matter what the topic or focus. It’s really quite basic.  Oh, and lest I forget to mention….it’s been my experience in 2010 that engagement that leads to new business does not happen without consistent participation, i.e. work! Those who are new to social media, looking for a short cut or quick fix will be disappointed. Here’s to a great new year with social media!

And, here’s an excerpt from my recently published book, social.lawyers | Transforming Business Development, West, (2010 ed.), that tells the story of how community creates business.

Do you use Google Alerts? They’re great, aren’t they? (If you don’t, go get a Google Account and start right now. There is a help tab that will walk you through how to get started.)

I’ve been using basic Google Alerts to follow my name, my company name, and select clients’ names for as many years as they’ve been available. However, Google Alerts are much more. For example, a few months ago I set up an alert for [ LinkedIn +Tips ].  This search string produces a surprising bounty of web content, blog posts and news stories that inspire new ways (tips) for using and improving my participation on the LinkedIn social network. You could add +Tips to any search term and get all the content being published as a Tip, i.e. [ tennis +Tips ], [ human resource +Tips ], or [ law-firm-marketing +Tips ].

Alert Search Tips

Here’s a few tips for getting the best results from Google Alerts, all of which can also be found in Google’s Help articles.

• It’s important to keep the topic keywords precise unless you don’t mind getting a lot of peripheral hits. The more precise your search terms are, the more relevant your alerts will be.
• You can also use quotes around words if you are looking for them together.
  • “white house”
  • “Mike Smith”
• You can use a minus sign (-) in front of words that you want to exclude.
  • paris -texas
  • apple -fruit
• Or, put a plus sign (+) immediately before a word to match that word precisely as you typed it, which will exclude synonyms and spelling variations.
  • +foard (to stop Google including results for Ford)
  • Michael +Jacson (to stop Google including results for Michael Jackson)
• Use the site: operator to limit your search to specific sites.
  • physics site:.edu
  • congress site:nytimes.com
• Use the site: operator with a dash to exclude specific sites.
  • “joe bloggs” -site:twitter.com
• Always use square brackets [ ] to denote queries, i.e. [ to be or not to be ] is an example of a query; [ to be ] or [ not to be ] are two examples of queries.
• Check out Google Guide Quick Reference Cheat Sheet for Advanced Search Operators

More Alert Search Details

Here’s a little more detail from Google’s Help article about what these advanced search features deliver.

• Phrase search (“”)
  By putting double quotes around a set of words, you are telling Google to consider the exact words in that exact order without any change. Google already uses the order and the fact that the words are together as a very strong signal and will stray from it only for a good reason, so quotes are usually unnecessary. By insisting on phrase search you might be missing good results accidentally. For example, a search for [ "Alexander Bell" ] (with quotes) will miss the pages that refer to Alexander G. Bell.
• Search within a specific website (site:)
  Google allows you to specify that your search results must come from a given website. For example, the query [ iraq site:nytimes.com ] will return pages about Iraq but only from nytimes.com. The simpler queries [ iraq nytimes.com ] or [ iraq New York Times ] will usually be just as good, though they might return results from other sites that mention the New York Times. You can also specify a whole class of sites, for example [ iraq site:.gov ] will return results only from a .gov domain and [ iraq site:.iq ] will return results only from Iraqi sites.
• Terms you want to exclude (-)
  Attaching a minus sign immediately before a word indicates that you do not want pages that contain this word to appear in your results. The minus sign should appear immediately before the word and should be preceded with a space. For example, in the query [ anti-virus software ], the minus sign is used as a hyphen and will not be interpreted as an exclusion symbol; whereas the query [ anti-virus -software ] will search for the words ‘anti-virus’ but exclude references to software. You can exclude as many words as you want by using the - sign in front of all of them, for example [ jaguar -cars -football -os ]. The - sign can be used to exclude more than just words. For example, place a hyphen before the ‘site:’ operator (without a space) to exclude a specific site from your search results.
• Fill in the blanks (*)
  The *, or wildcard, is a little-known feature that can be very powerful. If you include * within a query, it tells Google to try to treat the star as a placeholder for any unknown term(s) and then find the best matches. For example, the search [ Google * ] will give you results about many of Google’s products (go to next page and next page — we have many products). The query [ Obama voted * on the * bill ] will give you stories about different votes on different bills. Note that the * operator works only on whole words, not parts of words.
• Search exactly as is (+)
  Google employs synonyms automatically, so that it finds pages that mention, for example, childcare for the query [ child care ] (with a space), or California history for the query [ ca history ]. But sometimes Google helps out a little too much and gives you a synonym when you don’t really want it. By attaching a + immediately before a word (remember, don’t add a space after the +), you are telling Google to match that word precisely as you typed it. Putting double quotes around a single word will do the same thing.
• The OR operator
  Google’s default behavior is to consider all the words in a search. If you want to specifically allow either one of several words, you can use the OR operator (note that you have to type ‘OR’ in ALL CAPS). For example, [ San Francisco Giants 2004 OR 2005 ] will give you results about either one of these years, whereas [ San Francisco Giants 2004 2005 ] (without the OR) will show pages that include both years on the same page. The symbol | can be substituted for OR. (The AND operator, by the way, is the default, so it is not needed.)

Exceptions

Search is rarely absolute. Search engines use a variety of techniques to imitate how people think and to approximate their behavior. As a result, most rules have exceptions. For example, the query [ for better or for worse ] will not be interpreted by Google as an OR query, but as a phrase that matches a (very popular) comic strip. Google will show calculator results for the query [ 34 * 87 ] rather than use the ‘Fill in the blanks’ operator. Both cases follow the obvious intent of the query. Here is a list of exceptions to some of the rules and guidelines that were mentioned in both the Advanced and the Basic Search Help articles:

Exceptions to ‘Every word matters’

• Words that are commonly used, like ‘the,’ ‘a,’ and ‘for,’ are usually ignored (these are called stop words). But there are even exceptions to this exception. The search [ the who ] likely refers to the band; the query [ who ] probably refers to the World Health Organization — Google will not ignore the word ‘the’ in the first query.
• Synonyms might replace some words in your original query. (Adding + before a word disables synonyms.)
• A particular word might not appear on a page in your results if there is sufficient other evidence that the page is relevant. The evidence might come from language analysis that Google has done or many other sources. For example, the query [ overhead view of the bellagio pool ] will give you nice overhead pictures from pages that do not include the word ‘overhead.’

Punctuation that is not ignored

• Punctuation in popular terms that have particular meanings, like [ C++ ] or [ C# ] (both are names of programming languages), are not ignored.
• The dollar sign ($) is used to indicate prices. [ nikon 400 ] and [ nikon $400 ] will give different results.
• The hyphen - is sometimes used as a signal that the two words around it are very strongly connected. (Unless there is no space after the – and a space before it, in which case it is a negative sign.)
• The underscore symbol _ is not ignored when it connects two words, e.g. [ quick_sort ].

Other ideas for keeping track of web content.

If you only wanted to see social media activity for a person, you could use a social search engine like socialmention.com. If you want topical blog content, try searching alltop.com, a site that aggregates top blog content. Individual social media sites have in-site search that will flush out content. And, if you’re looking for deep web data, photos, and archival information you can subscribe to services like 123people.com or spokeo.com. Finally, if you want to see what a website looked like in the past, use waybackmachine.org which is a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form.

What are your favorite search tools and how do you use them?

We’ve come a long way, baby! Three years ago, when I founded my company Law Gravity, I talked to a lot of law firms about their “plans” for using social media. Their response: “What plans?”

There were firms that had a blog or two, but few looked beyond into opportunities presented by other social media such as social networking, social buzz, bookmarking sites, podcasting, or multi-media sharing sites and services like You Tube and Slide Share. Why? “Too much risk.” In fact, many law firms chose to block social media sites on their corporate network.

Fast forward to 2011, and social media is taking on a life of its own with or without the risk averse. Lawyers and law firm employees are doing more than just talking about it these days–many have moved beyond setting up accounts; they’re successfully engaging. Business development and marketing coaches, consultants, public relations, and branding agencies that serve the legal industry have all added social media capabilities to their offerings, leaving one to conclude it’s not going away…

So, what’s next?

2011 Prediction.

Generally speaking, social media for business development requires a lot of one-to-one engagement and tends toward random and serendipitous opportunity. For busy attorneys this becomes a time management challenge (as marketing one’s practice has always been). On the other hand, the law firm entity is challenged to benefit from such activity when it is one-off or worse, misdirected. Social media needs integration and management.

Tracking who’s signed up for what networks, who’s blogging, or how many visitors, friends or fans a page has is not integration. Having a social media policy is not a surrogate for meaningful management.

Progressive law firms, sooner rather than later, will begin to see and understand that effective integration of social media will require a managed business process. Why? Because social media is about a fundamental shift in behavior and it is impacting many facets of both our personal and professional lives – can it get more important than that? It is impacting the way we go to market, make decisions, and communicate with distant clients, friends and colleagues.  The usefulness of the Internet will only increase as the semantic web (3.0) gains traction. The time is NOW for law firms to start developing a managed business process to build social media into the fabric of business plans and all communications (both external and internal), just as was required with email and other disruptive technologies in recent decades.

I predict that in 2011, everyone will begin asking, earnestly, “Hey, how do we take all this random energy and manage social media to our advantage?”

I intend to be on the cutting edge of that answer.

Here’s how I’m seeing it…

2006/07 –

• Maverick attorneys blog and/or open a LinkedIn account.
• Most of the legal industry has no clue what those “Join my professional network on LinkedIn” messages mean.
  • They delete them.

2008 –

• Facebook gets a bad rap as a time wasting activity, so it’s blocked.
• Legal centric social networks appear behind walled gardens removing some of the perceived risk factor.
• Most lawyers have no clue about Twitter
  • “who cares what you had for lunch?”

2009 –

• LinkedIn begins gaining mass – but not depth.
• More attorneys jump on Twitter, but still only a few “get it.”
• Law firms experiment with video.
  • They confuse talking head monologues “about the firm” posted on the firm website with short educational clips on You Tube that people might find really helpful.

2010 –

• Law firms attempt to “manage” social media via POLICY.
  • Half of the firm doesn’t understand what’s the big deal and the other half gets scared away from using social media out of fear.
• Marketing departments scurry to claim the firm’s name on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.
  • and post press releases and event announcements.

2011 –

• Progressive law firms begin to MANAGE social media by first aligning business goals.
• They seek business metrics, i.e. revenue, efficiencies (cost reductions), and brand equity.
• Beyond business metrics they use social media analytics, i.e. measuring centers of influence, share of voice, and sentiment.
• Marketing staff and individual participants continue to measure engagement data such as fans, friends and followers, clicks and views
  • but squarely the real money is on the ROI – how does this impact the top line revenue and enhance client relationships and perceived value.

(For more on how these 2011 ideas are shaping up in the corporate sector, see Jeremiah Oywang’s Framework for Social Media ROI here.)

It’s Elementary.

“Excellent!” I cried. “Elementary,” said he. “It is one of those instances where the reasoner can produce an effect which seems remarkable to his neighbour, because the latter has missed the one little point which is the basis of the deduction.” –Watson and Holmes in “The Crooked Man”

While I don’t claim Sherlock Holmes’ powers of deduction, I am a fan and want try my hand at looking for the one-little-point when unraveling a puzzle. So, while most of the early emphasis of social media among lawyers and marketers was placed on “should we be on Facebook,” “do all our attorneys need a profile on LinkedIn,” or “what should I post on Twitter,” I deduced that social media tools were not the point of social media –they exist, simply, to help people and organizations achieve marketing goals. And, I staked the success of the social media squarely on a “social media plan” informed by a Marketing Plan.

Okay, so I was a bit off track. In 2011 things are becoming clearer. I’m changing my tune.  The heavy lifting of social media starts with “what’s in our Business Plan?” You do have a Business Plan for your law firm, right?

Putting a Business Plan before any action is fundamental. Just because we have new tools, does not mean we have new rules.

(I hate to admit that in my past are far too many Marketing Plans without the fundamental Business Plan in place. One should never lose sight of the fact that the Marketing Plan is a separate document created to support the Business Plan. Also known in legal industry circles as the firm’s “Strategic Plan.”)

So I stand resolved; to deploy social media tools successfully in 2011, you must first have a Business Plan—with goals, objectives, strategies and tactics. A Marketing Plan is merely a strategy found in a Business Plan and social media is simply one of several types of strategies that can be used to execute either or both a Business Plan and Marketing Plan. Only after the social media strategy is chosen, can tactics be identified to execute the strategy, and tools be selected to execute tactics—Yes, Virginia, there is NO Social Media Plan. (Sorry to disappoint the social media consultants and marketers who are busy writing social media plans – your comments are welcome!)

You Need a Tight Ship.

Assuming social media is one of your Business and/or Marketing Plan strategies, in order to manage it successfully you need a tight ship. A tight ship doesn’t leak; it is, at its very core, well built and sea worthy. The captain and the crew trust it implicitly to take them wherever they need or want to sail. Furthermore, on a tight ship, the captain and crew have well-defined roles and an eager willingness to work together to arrive at their destination. If your firm has a well built and sea worthy Business Plan and a well-defined and respected organizational structure, chances are your social media tactics won’t sink.

That being said, launching the social media strategy takes time. It’s okay, and probably necessary, for marketers and lawyers to take some time to experiment with social media tools outside a managed business process. To use the boat analogy, think of it as being in a little dinghy on your way from the dock back to the ship anchored off shore. When a critical mass gets to the “I’m On LinkedIn, Now What?” vessel, it’s time for all hands on deck, check the charts, fine tune the gauges, and get sailing!

I’ll be writing more specifically about organization, management, and business process related to law firm integration of social media in 2011. After all, I’m looking for the same business metrics for Law Gravity that you are… Meanwhile, your thoughts?

There’s a lot more interest in Twitter from law firms these days. We know that individual lawyers are having success using the micro-blogging service for gaining exposure and access to extremely broad networks of interested parties, including prospects, clients, and the media. But, what about law firm Twitter accounts? What kind of feedback is the “entity” getting from posting their press releases, event announcements and other “self-facing” tid-bits?

Few law firms seem to be engaging at the brand or entity level.  Who wants to engage with a faceless entity? How do you engage with a brand – especially one that doesn’t post give-aways or special offers? Are their followers a meaningful network or are they competitors, social media consultants and curiosity seekers?

One way to cure this obstacle is to put a voice behind the entity account. It’s okay to have the law firm Twitter account staffed by marketers, but wouldn’t it be so much better if we knew that the spokesperson had a name or names? It’s a Wizard of Oz thing.

One of my favorite examples of a law firm that IS engaging with their Twitter stream is @verrilldana. BUT, until last week at the Legal Marketing Association New England Regional Conference (kudos to co-chairs Mark Agneta and Shelley Swanson and their committee!)  I had no idea who “was” @verrilldana. They were responding to messages and starting conversations but I had no idea who was talking. Then I met up with Emma Peck Lishness and Gretchen Johnson the Tweeters behind the brand and found really smart marketers and kindred spirits. I liked the brand even more!

What can we learn from this? If you are Tweeting for a law firm, let us know who the voice behind the brand is. It doesn’t matter if its not the chairman, CMO or founding partner. We don’t really care. We just want to know there is a face behind the voice.  You’ve got 160 characters for the profile bio. Just add your names. See if it doesn’t make a difference and let us know!

I’m excited to share with readers of the Virtual Marketing Officer blog a short excerpt about creating an effective profile on LinkedIn taken from one chapter of my new book, social.lawyers: Transforming Business Development, (by Jayne Navarre), which was published by Thomson West last month. (The book is now available for purchase on their website here.) Although the excerpt addresses a simple, yet practical approach to creating a profile, the book is not just a how-to tome on social web tools. It covers philosophical and strategic components, including a full chapter on social media and networking for the organization, as well as law firm policy and ethical best practices for participants.

About social.lawyers: Transforming Business Development

The book takes a fairly in depth look at what I believe are the most oft asked questions and oft encountered challenges in marketing a professional services practice, both online and offline. In fact, one of my primary objectives in writing the book was to debunk the hype surrounding social media and online networking and to cast light on the fact that….We’re not doing anything different in marketing professional practices, we’re just doing it differently!

Yes, there are a few attitude shifts needed to leverage these powerful new tools—the book addresses those early on. And, yes, the fact that content travels further and faster is something to get used to managing. But, overall, the fundamentals of business development, marketing, public relations, publicity, and communications with stakeholders has not changed:

• exposure is critical to getting found,
• relationships matter,
• corporate messages need human connection, and
• people purchase services from those they trust.

I hope you will read and comment on this excerpt and buy the book! If you are a blogger and would like to review the book, please drop me a note and a link to your blog. If it looks like a fit, I’ll send you a review copy. Meanwhile, here’s just a small snippet of one of the more practical sections of the book.

CHAPTER 5:  PROFILE AND PERSONA

Quick, what was on the last billboard you passed? Do you remember what it said? —“You’re faster than you think” (Nike), was it “Pick your style” (Levis) or “100% UrbanProof” (Nissan)? Do you remember the visual story? –Athlete in running shoes hurdling an oversized obstacle –a giant pair of blue jeans with a wired in joystick hanging from the back pocket –sleek silver automobile in a chic urban setting? When it comes to crafting your online profile for business networking, there are two things we can learn from the best outdoor signage—you need only a few important words in large print so it can be easily seen as people pass by at high speeds, and you need only one large brilliant image that quickly tells the story to keep people thinking about it miles down the road—to make it memorable.

Billboards are designed for high-density consumer exposure and so should your profile. Billboards must make a strong first impression, as many passersby are often seeing it for the first time. The same is true for your profile. A first impression may be the last impression you leave with someone if you do not take the time to give passersby something of what they need to know about you right up front.

Profile

Profiles on social networking sites conform to a fairly standard set including your name, title, geographic location, employment, education, summary of experience, Website addresses, interests, groups and associations. After that they vary according to the purpose of the community. For example, you may be able to add recommendations, third-party applications, PowerPoint presentations, articles, an in-site blog, or other community specific activities. However, community profiles are so similar in design that in order to save time, it is smart to draft one complete social-networking profile and store it in a document. Each time you join a new community you can quickly access the basics without starting over.

Your title is the first and probably the most important piece of your profile—those “few important words in very large print” that can be read and understood quickly by people passing by. For example, on LinkedIn your name and title are the only part of your profile that follows you throughout the community as you post to discussion forums, join groups, and answer Q&A. Additionally, a good title will contain specific keywords that improve your ranking in on-site keyword searches within most social networks.

In a networking situation, online of offline, the first question that someone you have not previously met will ask you is “what do you do?” (More accurately they are asking, “What do you do for others that you might be able to do for me?” That’s the real question you need to answer.) Think of your title as an elevator speech—that short sentence you use when introducing yourself to others in a business setting.

When someone asks you “and what do you do?” and you respond, “I’m a lawyer,” you’re probably getting a blank stare and dead silence—often a real conversation killer. The fact is, their reaction is not because you are a lawyer; it is because you are representing yourself one-dimensionally. People will typically project their preconceived notions onto a single word—like lawyer—when there is nothing to put it into a context. Some people hear the word lawyer and think Jack McCoy (Law and Order), while others think “ambulance chaser” and still others think “that smart woman who helped my mother manage her estate.” The best way to avoid being stereotyped is to give your answer context. In your title, reveal something distinctly memorable about what you do that others might be interested in knowing about you—you are multi-dimensional, right?

There’s little or nothing in the words “attorney,” “lawyer,” “shareholder,” or “managing partner” that reveals what you do for your clients or what you could do for the person with whom you are speaking—or for that matter, little that inspires further conversation. Your title should reveal more than simply your job title, i.e. “Jonathan Jones, Partner, Jones Law Firm” or “Jonathan Jones, Founding Attorney.”  At the very least you should tell passersby what kind of attorney you are or that the focus of your practice is business law, i.e., “Jonathan Jones, Global Business Attorney at Jones Law Firm, N.Y.C.” Better yet, you could add your practice area, plus a specific industry niche, i.e. “Jonathan Jones, Legal Counsel to Global Internet-Based Technology Companies, Mergers and Acquisitions, Complex Finance Structuring.” You have the rest of your profile to tell readers the name of your firm, where you are located, your role in the law firm and, of course, all the other things they’ll want to know once they have an initial idea about why they might want to connect to you.

Everyone is busy, social networking online can be noisy and the time you have to devote to business development on the social Web is finite. Make it easy for the right people to cut through the noise and reach out to talk to you. A good title can help them, in an instant, identify your interests and quickly assess what you do that you might do for them or someone they know. A thoughtfully constructed title, one that describes what you do for others, will decrease your missed opportunities—where preconceived stereotypes got in the way—and reduce wasted time in fielding invitations from people who will never earn you a penny of new business.

Bottom line: Your title on a social networking site is your billboard. It is the first impression that people get from you, about you, as they’re speeding down the Internet super highway.

Here’s a summary of contents:

Summary of Contents

PART 1. THE APPROACH

Chapter 1. Change

Chapter 2. Fundamentals Do Not Change

Chapter 3. How Things Work

PART II. STRATEGY

Chapter 4. Build a Better Mousetrap

Chapter 5. Profle and Persona

Chapter 6. Policy and Privacy

Chapter 7. Posting

PART III. IMPLEMENTING A STRATEGY

Chapter 8. Blogs and Twitter

Chapter 9. The Role of the Organization

Chapter 10. Social Lawyers’ Case Studies

Index

Cheers!