According to the gossip site, radar.com:

A photograph posted by Paris Hilton more than a month prior to her drug arrest in Las Vegas could blow up her claim that the purse she was carrying — which contained cocaine — did not belong to her. In mid-July, Paris Tweeted a photograph of a purse and wrote: “Love My New Chanel Purse I Got Today ” That purse appears to be identical to the purse she was carrying when arrested on cocaine possession charges in Las Vegas last weekend. It could be a stunning blow to Paris’ claim that the purse in which police found cocaine did not belong to her and that she borrowed it from a girlfriend.

Perhaps its too late for Paris—caught in a little white lie–but for legal defense teams everywhere this example should be instructive.  Okay, I admit we don’t know if the radar.com story is manufactured or if the TwitPic is just a fake, but I checked out the Tweet and it looks like she (or whoever manages her Twitter account) really did post that photo on July 15th. At any rate, her legal defense team better understand the implications of social media discovery!

When hired to navigate a legal dispute do you ask your client about their online engagement?

Debriefing clients about their online activity should be part of the intake form, I think. It should be routine now as more often than not what happens online ends up in court. Online communications on social networks and blogs, both public statements and those thought to be private, are being brought into legal cases and not just in cases of matrimonial or child custody suits. Social networking discovery can either work in your favor or against you, so it seems pretty critical that lawyers should dig up not only what the opponent might be saying online, but also know exactly how, when, where and what your client is saying in order to build your case. This is not a simple job. Digging deep is time consuming and often links won’t show up in simple social site searches. I’m predicting that if it hasn’t already, beyond electronic documents and email, online discovery will spawn a critical new skill-set for paralegals and competitive intelligence professionals.

Help your clients avoid trouble by offering advanced training.

A lawyer needs to manage their own social networking behaviors and those of their employees, but now it seems they must also manage those of THEIR CLIENTS! Why not offer training classes for your clients and their organizations? Talk about value add, this would be a terrific way to step into the gap, especially for smaller client organizations that may not have the infrastructure to support such educational training.

With the plethora of web-based services available for training, you could you could offer your clients a custom, virtual training room. If you don’t have the staff in-house, consider outsourcing this project to a training consultant who understands best practices of the social Web AND the nuances of how, where and why plaintiffs or defendants trip up online.  Or, you might consider creating a set of videos or podcasts for your clients and add them to your YouTube channel and link them from your website. At the very least, employment law attorneys should start including a session on this topic in the seminars they host for prospects and clients.

What, if anything, are you doing to help your clients navigate the legal ramifications of the social web?

Online reputation management is essential in the Internet crazed business environment. In-house counsel are being asked to get up to speed on risk avoidance related to employee online activity and their outside law firms have a real opportunity to lead the way. If you are looking for help for your law firm or if you’re interested in developing a curriculum to share with your client organizations, my company, LawGravity, provides educational programs and has been working in the legal industry for over 15 years. Contact us for help!

Is social media distracting lawyers from the real work of developing new clients?

A healthy little discussion on the Martindale.com Connected social network this week asked the question, “Has Social Media Gotten Lawyers Out of Focus?”

Particular emphasis was placed upon evidence that while it may be more “natural” for the young professional to use social networking and social media, it’s not helping them engage face-to-face in business development settings. [Paraphrased].

Should we blame social online forums for the lack of offline people skills or inability to do the real work of developing clients? I don’t think we should rush to that conclusion, do you?

It is true that many young professionals know how to navigate the social Web quite well; they may even spend a good bit of time there to the chagrin of an outsider who perceives it to be wasted time. But, the fact is their peers are present there—those who could or would one day hire the services of a lawyer—and communication channels are changing.

Communication Channels Change

As a law firm marketing professional for over 15 years, one who continually seeks out beneficial communication channels, I have seen first hand the evolution of various technologies used for marketing communications between lawyer and client—carbon paper, teletype, fax, photo copier, answering machine, mass mail, email, color photo copiers, floppy disc brochures, cd-rom seminar materials, e-holiday cards, websites, intranet, Extranets and more.

Each of these new tools was ushered into the management and marketing of law firms with varying degrees of skepticism so it is only natural that blogs, wikis, social networks, sharing, collaboration, search engine marketing, video, postcast, webcast, and mobileApps are receiving the same sort of attention. They all require degrees of change; and it’s not over yet. (Stay tuned for the semantic web – yikes! It’s really revolutionary)

That being said, what I have not seen change is:

• the need for human voice;
• effective language skills;
• an attractive personality;
• sincerity;
• confidence;
• the need to understand the buying and selling process; and
• the ability to build trust.

These fundamentals do not change, regardless of the chosen communication channel. As I write in my soon to be released book, social.lawyers: Transforming Business Development (West Publishing):

We’re not doing any thing different, we’re just doing things differently.

While some may think that the art of human engagement that leads to business relationships is being lost in the social media shuffle, I’d argue that not a single one of us skips down the road to becoming a rainmaker. It evolves over time with trial and error, coaching, mentorship, and of course simple maturity, both professional and personal, no matter what the forum. And that’s why it’s important to include some basic business training into every lawyer’s schedule.

Tools are NOT a substitute for fundamentals

Maybe it’s time to rethink a few things. Growing up on the social Web is not inherently a bad thing, but having a macro-training scheme can help. For marketing professionals, coaches, and mentors, the key is to make sure young professionals know the tools are not a substitute for the hard work of studying the psychology of sales and honing face-to-face people skills—provide fundamental business development training.

Business basics and client development fundamentals plus tactics that include the nuances of social web placement and best practices can be a winning combination; because this new media of marketing and business communication is not going to go away.

If social media is making you lose your focus, or if you never had focus in the first place, then perhaps its time to re-boot.

Setting up a blog is easy. Whether you do it yourself or hire someone to do it for you, it will probably be the last easy thing you do in your life as a lawyer who blogs. The rest of your life as a lawyer who blogs will revolve around an empty white box—a box longing to be filled with your nifty ideas and brilliant insights. Trouble is, nifty ideas and brilliant insights are not enough. As a practicing lawyer you also must write quality content to reflect the level of quality that represents you. For some (probably most) lawyers who blog, both new and experienced, it can be a real challenge to keep meaningful, nifty, brilliant, and high quality blog content flowing.

So, let’s look more closely at how to write a great blog post. First, if you’re going to blog effectively, you should keep these three basic goals in sight at all times.

Three Goals.

1. Write blog content that is attractive to readers.
2. Write blog content that others want to share and promote.
3. Write blog content that opens connections to new people.

Next step is to add variety.

Style.

Every blogger has his or her own writing style and voice. In most cases this remains consistent throughout the blog. A consistent voice helps readers get to “know” you better. In some cases it can be like hearing the lawyer think out loud. (This can influence business decisions!) But, you’ll probably want to mix up the format of the content you present to keep it interesting for both you and your readers. For example, you may have some posts that simply report pure information while others will go into a longer form of analysis or a how-to.

Fresh format ideas can be found from reading other blogs outside the legal industry and modifying them to meet the criteria of your law firm’s blog policy and your ethical responsibility to the legal profession. In addition, sites like PRO BLOGGER or Copy Blogger offer valuable tips and inspiration for your journey. Meanwhile, here are a few new ideas I compiled from my own journey. (And Here and here are a few old ones too!)

Format.

• Dissect a problem. Is there is a common mistake people make related to your area of practice? Define the problem and describe a few suggested ways to avoid it. Don’t give away the punch line, but give readers enough to take away a practical pointer or two.
• Tell a story. Do you have an instructive experience to tell? Put it in story form and share what you have learned with your readers.
• Teach. Imagine yourself a law professor. Create a “tutorial” series. Break down complex concepts into simple to understand steps. For example, you might explain how venture capital deals are created; the various structures used, the types of individuals involved, sample goals for the individual parties, etc.  The key for teaching posts is to keep them simple, use lots of subtitles, sections and even illustrations. (See more on Visuals below)
• Share a statistic. When you come across an interesting statistic, build a blog post around it. This could be as general as labor department data points, trending worldwide mergers by geography, or the number of insurance claims filed annually in the state of [fill in the blank]. While you could include an analysis or connect the dots to some pending legislation in the content copy, often the graphic itself can be the focus of the post, providing a fairly work free entry.
• Promote your clients (and even their customers.) This type of post, when handled appropriately, is sure to generate good will and add some new readers, not to mention the SEO juice you, your client and your client’s customer will get from the links you place within the post. Try an interview style that serves up a story of how one of your client’s customers benefited from their product or services. You could do a friendly review of a new product line, or invite them to do a guest post on a management issue or etc. (Make sure to disclose your relationship.)
• Re-purpose your press releases. Turn your press releases into a news story for your blog. Include links to publications where the story was originally covered and get bonus points.
• Go off topic. Blog readers often find your content via a general web search. That’s why its important to employ smart usage of keywords and tagging. Though your blog is focused on your area of expertise, sometimes throwing in an off topic post can generate new readers and give regular readers something extra. It could be a topic that is related to the legal industry but not necessarily “your” topic. For example, although your blog is about international law, you could write a post about general counsel who blog.
• Ask a non-legal question. Got a burning question? Ask your readers to help you solve it. Again,  it’s okay to go off topic from time to time to mix it up. For example, say you are trying to decide between a Kindle, a Nook, or an iPad. You could create a post about your 10 key needs—things you are considering in your decision—and see if you don’t get some feedback.

Visuals.

• Graphs and diagrams. Graphs and diagrams are one of the quickest ways to communicate complex information and add visual interest. A visually simple graphic delivers value that readers will often share with others and even re-blog, helping you build new readers. Some of my favorite sites for ideas about the visualization of information are: InfoGraphics Blog,  Flowing Data, and Information is Beautiful.
• Photos and videos. Photos (and videos) are almost always featured in search results on major search engines, so, make sure to give the photo good keywords in the alt tag, caption and post title. Videos work well with teaching posts and can be easily re-purposed on your YouTube channel giving you added exposure. Feeling creative? Robert Thomas, Inversecondemnation.com, takes pictures of funny signs he sees around the court buildings he visits and adds them to his blog and Facebook page.
• Illustrations and cartoons. Bankruptcy Bill is the best example of blogger using this format successfully, though there are probably a few others. His character is used to illustrate relevant challenges businesses are confronted with in bankruptcy matters and also to make complex concepts simple. (You can purchase these cartoons!) You could probably find a local illustrator to hire or if you like snarky stuff check out Hugh McLeod at Gaping Void. (rights reserved)

Persona.

• Humor. While not everyone knows how to be both funny and professional, if you’re one of the lucky ones, injecting a humorous post into the mix can be a nice diversion for you and your readers. You may want to create a specific “category” for these posts like Friday Funnies or Coffee Break.
• Vision. Adding some visionary posts to your blog content mix can set you apart from the rank and file. Instead of just reporting on pending legislation or commenting on high profile cases in the news, with a little imagination you could craft an illustrative scenario that connects the impact such events may have upon a particular industry. While this may take some research and care in keeping your points general, writing this type of post can establish you as a thought leader. Thought leaders are highly valued by blog readers.
• Subtlety. If you typically go around spewing marketing messages, then doing so on your blog will be totally consistent with your persona. Go for it. If you don’t, well, be subtle. In my experience, the competent lawyer blogger does not ever need to “sell” their services. Their content does it for them. Content that is generous—meaning you share experience and expertise fairly freely and often—is more effective than any pitch you might make. Of course, a discrete link from relevant content back to an article on your law firm’s Web site is totally okay and qualifies as subtle in my mind. Other subtle promotional options for your blog would include having a personalized “About Me” page rather than a cut and paste biography from your formal web site. And, as you demonstrate knowledge, good will and authority people will be more receptive to more prominent promotion, so go ahead try including a short bio at the end of each post and test it’s impact on your marketing efforts.

Posts.

On a final note, whatever formats you chose for your posts it’s important to respect your readers’ time. The best posts are written for time-starved people who struggle with information overload. Keep posts concise, well-organized and focused. The inverted triangle style used by journalists can work well for lawyers who blog. The widest part at the top, your introductory paragraph, represents the most substantial, interesting, and important information you want to convey while the tapering lower portion includes material in order of diminishing importance. It is sometimes called a “summary news lead” style. The format is valued because readers can leave the story at any point and understand it, even if they don’t have all the details. Using bullets and bold headlines at the beginning of your paragraphs will also make it easy for readers to skim. Not exactly what you are hoping for after you’ve spent hours writing your post, but the fact is, the most valuable posts, those that meet the criteria in the three basic goals, are typically those that take 60 seconds to read.

Got any suggestions for unique posting formats?

Coming soon from Thomson Reuters,  social.lawyer | transforming business development,  my new book about business development fundamentals translated for the social Web.

Nothing makes me more confused and frustrated than when I anticipate one thing and get something entirely different. When this happens I think that I have failed to communicate clearly or manage my own expectations. (I.e. “How could Santa leave me a book when I clearly asked for a doll? Maybe the North Pole wasn’t making dolls this year and I shouldn’t have expected one.”) Lately however, I realize that the primary reason for mismatched outcomes is caused by how well people are listening. There’s a lot of  hearing-what-you-want-the-person-to-be-saying going on rather than listening to what they are actually saying.  (Yes, even Santa suffers from this condition from time to time —matching what’s in the inventory to what’s being said rather than what the client is actually saying.)

The Cross-Sell.

Think about the last time you set up a casual lunch with a business client to go over some “things” and at the last minute you decided to make it into a “cross-selling” call by bringing along a few other lawyers from your law firm—a tax lawyer and an IP lawyer. Your rationale was that all business people have taxes and most have intellectual property issues, right? And, since the law firm has put a significant emphasis on cross-selling lately, why not? Although the client was probably polite about the two new “products” you introduced, they really weren’t interested because they didn’t anticipate the scenario or want what you were trying to cross-sell. Quite possibly they were expecting the meeting to be about their agenda, not yours, and they were disappointed. In that case, hopefully the cross-sell moment died a quiet death. But, don’t believe for a minute that the client didn’t leave the lunch feeling confused or even frustrated because they didn’t accomplish what they anticipated. Cross-selling legal services, or any service, requires a delicate balance of timing and presentation that comes from active listening and trusted relationship.

A recent experience brought this to my attention in a dramatic fashion.

Listening.

This past January, I joined a newly established health club. Though it was five months later and I had not yet used it, mainly because the opening was delayed and they failed to communicate when they finally did open –bad way to start a business relationship—I stopped by the club to inquire about an orientation of the facility. Specifically I explained that I was promised when I bought the membership that someone would help me design a simple work out program. I also explained to the woman behind the counter that I was interested in the circuit equipment. She said she’d be happy to help me tomorrow at 2pm.

She got everything wrong…

I arrived at my scheduled time.

My objective: a friendly orientation of the facility’s features and a suggested work out routine on the circuit equipment.

The employee’s objective: sell me personal training services.

Although I had again explained to the very personable (and knowledgeable) employee that this was my first visit, she did not show me around the layout of the gym, instead she walked me to her “sales” desk…hmmm. I again, yes again, explained my objective for our meeting—set up a circuit program. She nodded her head and began to chitchat about my exercise history, my goals, my level of commitment, and etc. Fine. I gave her all that good stuff thinking it would help her help me get started using the membership I had purchased and had not yet benefited from. Several times during our conversation I again mentioned that I was most interested in circuit training and some cardio. I explained that I was not a big fan of classes or “exercises” that I could do at home.  When we finished the chat at her sales desk, we were ready for my sample workout.

She walked me past the circuit equipment and over to the exercise floor. For ten minutes I did what she directed me to do; stand on a wobbly ball while lifting weights, lunges and leg kicks, i.e. exercises I could do at home without paying a membership fee –trust levels were dropping by the minute.  Before the 10 minutes were up, I began to resent her for wasting my time, though I remained polite. I decided right then that whatever she was trying to sell me I didn’t want. It was apparent that she had HER agenda and was not interested in helping me with a circuit. The only voice she was listening to was her own. At that point I just wanted to get out of there.

Could I have benefited from a personal trainer? Probably, but I wasn’t ready. At that moment I didn’t want a personal trainer, I wanted a quick orientation to a circuit program.  I wanted to experience some benefit from what I had already paid for. Had she done a few things right, for example listen to and act upon what I requested, I might have considered a few personal training sessions. Instead, I walked out with a strongly negative feeling toward the WHOLE CLUB.

How to earn my trust.

1. While I’m not closed to learning more about the additional services you offer, first I want you to show me the value of what I already purchased.
2. It’s really about me and you can’t miss that point. It’s not about you making your sale, it’s about me getting to know, like and trust you because you understand my goals.
3. My time is valuable and I want you to show me that you understand that. If you can’t, why should I trust you?
4. Once we’re on the same page, I want you to build a relationship with me, so when I need additional services I can trust you to steer me in an intelligent direction.

Lost opportunities.

The fitness instructor/sales person followed up with a phone call a week later and asked if I was ready to sign up for personal training. I laughed to myself and told her I was out of town and would contact her when I was interested. NOT!

What could have changed my response? If over time this fitness instructor saw me around the gym and stopped to ask how I was doing, give me a few pointers, and demonstrate her helpfulness, I might have purchased some training. Or, better yet, if the fitness instructor would have given me what I anticpated during that first meeting I might have been so convinced I’d have purchased more sessions on the spot. These few things could have turned around the outcome. How often do lawyers miss the forest for the trees? It’s so much easier to “sell” their services when the preparation is in place and that can only come from listening.

Which brings me to a final thought…if an opportunity (prospect or cross-sell) mysteriously disappears, you might want to ask yourself how well you were listening. It could be that you weren’t dialed in to what they were actually saying. And that happens to everyone as circumstances and communication styles differ…but when it happens to me, I’m going to make it a learning experience so I can do better next time.

In these changing times, we all need fresh ideas and inspiration.

Delivering Happiness delivers.  

Tony Hsieh’s recently released book, Delivering Happiness | A Path to Profits, Passion and Purpose, is destined to be a classic Gen X must read business book following in the footsteps of other great Boomer reads such as Jim Collins’ Good to Great and Built to Last. I read it cover to cover and found tons of nuggets. Despite being a case study of an Internet retailer the nuggets should be pure gold for law firms who currently are struggling with their business model, culture or staff morale (law firm layoffs) in light of the recent economic landscape.

Here are just a few:

• Figure out the game when the stakes aren’t high. Get core values in place, know who you are as a culture so you will be ready when the stakes get high.
• Don’t play games you don’t understand even if you see a lot of other people winning at them, i.e. making a lot of money from them.
• Take the focus off of “making money” put the focus on people; happy people, and passionate people, people who want to go to work tomorrow. What would it take?
• Great companies (and great people) have a greater purpose and a bigger vision beyond just making money or being number one in the market…if you fall into this trap you never become a great company…the core values of your employees must go beyond the paycheck. The best gift you can give your employees is the perception that there’s something ahead for them…
• Help shape the stories that people are telling about you. Do you want to be about the VERY BEST CUSTOMER SERVICE? How many people in your organization want to be known for the VBCS? Your culture is your brand.
• A customer centric organization will execute exceedingly well on core competencies. A core competency of Zappos is shipping. They ship product. They promise customers delivery in 4-5 days, but they “upgrade” the service for almost all customers. It’s not something they have to do and it’s not something that increases their profits in the short term. It is something that creates a great customer experience.
• Never outsource our core competency. Trusting a third party to care about your customers as much as you do is a big mistake.
• What is the extra step? Think about some experience where you interacted with a person responsible for your satisfaction….what did they do?
• Life values apply to both work and life…that’s they way they should anyway.
• Make the transaction for the customer as easy and risk free as possible.
• Make customer service a priority for the whole company, not just a department.
• View each interaction as an investment in building a customer service brand, not an expense of time or staff you’re seeking to minimize….
• How a company treats its vendors is a reflection on the company.
• If you had to describe your company’s culture in two or three paragraphs, what would you say? If you asked your coworkers to do the same, what would they say? How different do you think their answers would be…

The World is Changing for Law Firms.

The power structure is shifting from the law firm to the client in the legal industry. That’s the word on the street from general counsel to clients, law firm leaders, marketers, and Michael Bremer, President of The Cumberland Group in Chicago. He addressed attendees last week in a keynote at the Legal Sales and Services Organization’s RainDance conference. He suggested that what is missing most when the average law firm tries to improve its position in a competitive market is a focus on customer value, engaged employees, and an executive mindset that knows these are the most important things.

According to a Gallup poll, in an average organization less than 30% of people say they are ‘highly engaged’ at work. Certainly the average level thinking of law firms of today fit in that mold. Worse is that they don’t see a need to change, don’t want to change, feel they’re already working at it and routinely push back on fresh ideas. How long can that be sustained and keep employees engaged?  If we’re not giving employees a voice with open environment, learning environment we’re loosing engagement. The firm misses out on good ideas when employees are not passionately engaged. To remedy this, it is leadership’s primary responsibility to create an environment where people can do their best work (this does not mean a well decorated office space and stocked break room).  It’s easy to say we want this to happen and we aspire to this but to be successful organizations must have above average thinking and strategy. Leadership needs to understand that customer loyalty IS linked with business performance.

Every employee of the organization is capable of driving customer loyalty and this is exactly the message you’ll find in Delivering Happiness.

Back to Zappos….

Delivering Happiness is an action packed story, easy to read in a few sittings, documenting how Tony Hsieh and his associates at Zappos did exactly what Michael is suggesting for law firms who want to succeed in the value game…create a workplace where employees are fully engaged, do their best work and exceed customer expectations because they perceive a greater purpose than making money. Zappos provides an open, learning environment that has made them one of the most successful Internet retailers of the decade. ( On Oct. 31, 2009 Amazon purchased Zappos for 1.2B. In Jan 2010 Zappos moved up 8 slots and was ranked #15 in Fortune magazine’s annual “Best Companies to Work For” list.)

Gen X

So, the book is really great and I highly recommend it…with a few sidebars.

1. Tony built the culture of Zappos inspired by PLUR, an acronym for “Peace, Love, Unity, Respect” born out of the rave community.  (see here for Wikipedia description of Raves) (This may be a stretch of the imagination for anyone pre GenX. I had to adjust my thinking a bit and well, that’s exactly why I think the book is great. It made me think outside my box….yeah, hippies rule, right?)
2. Tony had a “mysterious” and brief encounter with a woman following a New Year’s Eve party that involved ear whispering: “Envison, create, and believe in your own universe” which became a sort of mantra for him. (Not dissing that, just pointing out that again, not exactly the stuff you’ll hear from a managing partner of law firm…tee hee)
3. Tony does not use proper grammar and sometimes the structure is weak. This was a distraction for me as I most enjoy well-crafted (written) books. True to his GenXer generation…he chose to write the book without the help of ghostwriter, and I get that but…. he also chose to use a lot of dangling prepositions to make his grade school English teacher cringe. I read an advance copy of the book and so some of the structural things may have healed themselves with an editor at the helm—hope so.

Otherwise, again, fantastic case study with lots of golden nuggets and inspiration for law firm leaders, marketers, human resource professionals and certainly anyone responsible for process improvement in an organization….

As a final note…gotta run down to my mail box….I looking forward to some happiness being delivered today…placed an order on Zappos last evening, got an email an hour later telling me it was packed and shipped and  already in route to my house  and may even get here today… LOVE YA ZAPPOS.

(Disclosure: I received an advance copy of Delivering Happiness through a call for bloggers who would write reviews. The criteria for receiving an advance copy was that I would give an honest review of the book, which if you got this far, you have read. Cheers!)

Following my post on Alternative Fee Agreements for law firms and their clients I had one of those days where I wished I had never heard of the phrase. I was sitting in the middle of a flat fee project. Had I priced by the billable hour, I would be rich and retired today. Instead, my hourly rate is clocking just above minimum wage and it’s not finished yet. That’s just how it goes sometimes, I guess.

Of course I was discouraged. Of course I started beating myself up for not having managed my time better. I kept thinking over and over wondering what went wrong and how could I have stopped the runaway train? There really was nothing unusual about the project, a pretty straightforward engagement that I’ve done successfully many times over, which is why I priced it the way I did. Still, things got out of hand. Some things that happened were out of my control but there were also things within my control and I was starting to get really angry…then I had the opportunity to speak on the telephone the next morning with Laura Colcord, the lead instructor for Legal Sales and Services Organization’s Legal Lean Six Sigma training program focused on process improvement for law firms. Yup, that was it…somewhere the LawGravity process broke down and the process needed improvement…

Laura is presenting a pre-conference workshop at Raindance next week. She told me that she and the team at LSSO has translated every six sigma concept, methodology and tool into an easy to understand and practical guide specific to the legal industry. I was pretty impressed. I thought Six Sigma was for car manufacturers…isn’t it that management strategy used to improve the quality of their products?

Indeed. She explained that essentially, Six Sigma process improvement identifies mistakes, defects, waste and seeks to reduce them as well as minimize variability in repetitive processes. When the automobile industry needed to reinvent itself they employed Six Sigma. Today these concepts, methodologies and tools are finding application in other businesses, including professional services firms; law firms, in particular, who in the past two years have been dealing with a lot of change. She was reminded of a quote that resonates:

“If the rate of external change exceeds the rate of internal change the end is in sight.” Jack Welch.

Well,  I think we have enough evidence to recognize that law firms can no longer just sit on their laurels, they need to keep ahead of the change. One place change is taking effect is in the pricing and delivery of services, thus the whole discussion of Alternative Fee Agreements. Laura suggested that by improving certain processes involved in doing repetitive tasks and managing certain types of cases, there is benefit for the client and for the law firm in light of these new fee agreements. It involves a combination of pulling together timing, knowledge and expertise into a repeatable process to maximize the probable outcome.

For example, if a law firm uses an alternative fee agreement and they spend too much time on it they are not going to make a profit. [Ask me, I know!] Therefore, they need to break down predictable tasks and allocate them to the correct level of talent. When you can staff the work appropriately, the high paid brain power will be engaged only for the high value portion of the work, making the whole arrangement satisfactory for the client and profitable for the law firm. Sigma methodologies focus on looking at how people work and finding ways to improve them–eliminating the need for a clean sheet of paper every time something needs to get done. The organization asks: what is the best way we know how to do this? This applies to more than just how a law firm structures case management.

Beth Cuzzone, a founding member of LSSO and Director of Marketing at Goulston Storrs, speaking on a panel at the 2010 Marketing Partner Forum gave a number of examples how process improvement can be applied to administrative tasks in accounting, IT and marketing, and other client facing experiences, such as the intake process or even what happens when they visit the law firm’s physical location. Almost anything that has a repetitive element can be improved through the concepts, methodologies, and tools of Legal Lean Six Sigma as long as the quality of the outcome is satisfactory to the client.

By the end of my conversation with Laura, things became clear….surely I need to improve some processes at LawGravity. We’re a young business, and growing. Just took off the training wheels, have a couple scrapped knees to show for it, but all the same, ready to get back on the bike, keep peddling forward and with some process improvement we’ll be better prepared to maximize the probable outcome, stay profitable and continue to make the quality of the outcome satisfactory to the client.

Legal Lean Six Sigma offers a private label training experience as well as a twice yearly open enrollment two day course and an annual introductory level training during the pre-conference session of Raindance. More information can be found here….

I’ll be reporting live from Raindance next Wednesday and Thursday here on VMO and Twitter (Follow #RD10). Hope you’ll check in on all the action….

Who has time for business development when you’re really busy with client work? Since the beginning of 2010 I’ve been struggling to balance the time I devote to taking care of my clients-who deserve 100 percent of my attention-and the time I  can devote to writing my blog, following up with the great people I’ve met at conferences and on social online networks and building exposure for my business, LawGravity. Every time I’ve wanted to say,

“I’m too busy with client work or writing my book, social.lawyer, to spend time on marketing,”

I think about all the lawyers over the years that have told me, “I don’t have time for marketing right now, when things slow down, check back with me,” and I replied, that’s not a good strategy, I’ve had to bite my tongue. That would be on more than one occasion, recently.

Fact is, the social Web is an excellent destination for “having it all.”

Even though I wonder how many opportunities to connect to new people I’ve missed because lately I’ve been too busy to write any decent blog posts and I’m tempted to beat up on myself, I remind my self that….

How can ANYONE be too busy to set aside the job of expanding or growing their business?

It’s the easier path, I guess.

But then I remember that everything I do is business development. When emails are returned promptly, when I deliver projects on time or communicate their progress with detail, when I  keep my promise to send a proposal on Friday and deliver it on Thursday exceeding their expectations, or when I take fifteen minutes to help out a colleague or introduce someone to new a connection, that’s all business development. And I do it all the time!  Even when I’m busy. When I do all those things with excellence, people notice. When people notice, they actually do my business development for me by spreading the word—word of mouth marketing is very effective. It’s a natural part of the flow.

The social Web, social media or social networking all make it easier for me stay in touch one-to-many AND open up new opportunities.

Adding a social Web dimension to the communities I’ve nurtured over the years has been very valuable and in fact increases my business development WOM (word of mouth) exponentially. Not just in marketing terms, but also for the support my communities have been to my work. They are a lifesaver in enabling me to do both my client work and my marketing….it can work for you too! We all get by with a little help from our friends.

My client work is amazing (thank you wonderful clients!) and I just finished my massive book project — well not finished entirely. I’m still writing the last chapter. But the manuscript for social.lawyer has been submitted to Thomson West and that’s a huge relief. Except of course for the last chapter. And that, readers, colleagues and friends, is where I need your help, again!

Do you have a story?

Social.lawyer is full of strategy. In the book I’ve included a few stories that illustrate how lawyers are using social tools for touch points with clients, prospects, referral sources and the media to make my points. However, in the final chapter I want to give readers more stories! Stories from social lawyers who have used online tools to get exposure to new connections and turn those into relationships that resulted in new business. I’m looking for very specific stories. Along the lines of…I did this, then that happened and I did that and a connection introduced me to…or as a result of my blog I was contacted by….and I built a relationship that turned into a client, a new job, or a new opportunity. (Thanks in advance to Jonathan Handel who has a very fine story and also to Lance Godard who interviews lawyers in 22Tweets. He always includes a question about their online success. They’re really great if you’re looking for ideas. And, Robert Thomas the amazing story captured here. )

Of course we all know that it takes many different touch points and that often we can not point directly to one single action that returned the tangible result, but if the story can pull together the touch points -both online and offline– and map them to the result that would be terrific.

Just a few short paragraphs would do it. (I do not want names of clients or anything confidential.) Just your story that says…this is how I did it and yes, it can work for you too! Important to note that the book spends a lot of time talking about the buying process and how the fundamentals don’t go away just because your involved in an online community. It’s important to understand how people buy and sell things. It is not an ugly or crass reality, helping clients through the buying process is…well, helpful. I also talk a lot about how buying and selling takes place in the marketplace which is essentially a community where people gather to talk about what they do and eventually get to know each other better and trust each other with their business or referrals.

If you have a story you’d like to share with me and the readers of the VMO, please add to the comments here. If you’d rather share it via email send it along here or Twitter @jaynenavarre. Stories that are included in social.lawyer will be attributed or if you’d rather not, that’s cool too.

Doesn’t social media make keeping in touch easier when you’re busy?

The whole experience of writing a book is somewhat like a lawyer going through a big trial–I literally slept only 4 hours a night for over month while I frantically juggled everything from client work to personal obligations. I was totally focused on social.lawyer and it was really the only way I could do the best job on it. Still, I found a few minutes here and there to reach out to those in my network and keep my valued community connections in tact. I think that when marketing isn’t an add-on, when it is integrated into your work flow, even for a lawyer in trial or working a big deal night and day, there’s no reason reaching out to your community has to be a separate chore. And social Web tools and communities can really help. It’s a great way to keep in touch one-to-many especially if you have limited time.

How do you manage to keep up with business development when you’re really busy with client work? Do social communities and social tools help you? Or are they just another chore added on to your already busy schedule?

Where does your law firm stack up? Are you creating experiences or are you delivering “business as usual?”

I wish I had some really good excuse for not publishing to my blog in over a week; like I tripped, fell and broke both my hands. But I don’t. Fact is, I’m still in the belly of the beast finishing up my manuscript for social.lawyer due to my publisher Thomson/West this week! Yikes!

Even if I had an a good excuse for my readers or my publishers, I’d be falling beneath the Amazon standard of Disney delivery,  the very thing I strive for in every business encounter and encourage my law firm clients to do: deliver Amazon or  Walt Disney to your clients.

Every time I order from Amazon (or Zappos – thanks for your support of professional tennis – love ya!), it amazes me. I get the feeling I’m a kid at Disney World.  It starts with the appeal: millions of choices, millions of visuals, with hundreds of people standing beside me saying I liked that and you might too.

From start to finish it’s an experience, not just a purchase. It’s so easy to use their one click button and buy with confidence knowing they they back up everything they distribute. (True for me in over eight years and counting.) But the crème de la crème is the delivery…it is an experience like no other online vendor. It is so efficient and they always seem to exceed my expectation even though they clearly state when the delivery will be made. As they say, they are in the business of delivering happiness.

What I don’t understand is why other online vendors can’t or don’t have the same standards of service? Why can’t they deliver happiness?

Amazon isn’t instant gratification; it’s better. Schlepping to a store and buying something that I immediately take home and use isn’t nearly as gratifying as shopping (with my unknown friends who review products and give objective advice) and getting that package in the mail a day or two later. For a few dollars more per year I sign up for Prime Shipping on Amazon, which means I get most items virtually overnight or second day delivery. Whether or not they beat their deadlines it always feels like it. It’s VIP treatment and it works. (Shouldn’t your law firm be doing this?)

It’s the Disney formula: book the trip, anticipate the day, then have it delivered perfectly exceeding expectations and leaving the client with good memories to share with others (or at least the perception thereof). Disney doesn’t sell rides and Amazon doesn’t sell products; they sell experiences. (And shouldn’t your law firm be doing this, too?)

No offense to the “other” online stores I’ve made purchases with over the last few weeks while I’ve been locked down to my computer drafting my book, taking only a few minutes to contemplate the things I need and steal a minute to order them online—yes, I have the iPad in my shopping cart on Apple.com but have yet hit the purchase button. I still have the capacity to see the difference between needs and wants. Quite unfortunate for my bank charge accounts.

Sorry but, Nordstrom and Gap you just aren’t cutting it. If the only time I have to shop online is on a Saturday morning and you tell me that it will take five to seven business days to arrive (excluding Sat and Sunday when your offline stores are open) after the order is acknowledged (Monday) you are NOT delivering a happiness experience.  You’re not making me mad and it doesn’t stop me from buying your stuff- yet-you are just not making me happy. I recently purchased from both vendors and waited and waited and waited, till it was so anti-climactic that when I got the box my feeling was “Finally! I thought you had forgotten about me.”

Maybe most people are used to that lag time; it’s business as usual. Maybe I’m just spoiled because Amazon rocks and I use them religiously. Still, when it all comes down to where I’m going to purchase something, I’ll choose happy—the one that ensures my experience always exceeds my expectations—over one that is doing business as usual. Better still for those who exceed my happiness quotient, I’ll tell my friends and my blog readers. How’s that figure into your business model…pretty solid I’d say.

There’s a lesson in this for me and for you. Is your law firm creating a Disney experience or is it business as usual? What do you think? Can law firms deliver a Disney or Amazon experience to their clients? Or are some law firms delivering the experience but aren’t doing enough to brand it so we’d know about it?

Facebook estimates that only 20% of its members take advantage of the privacy features. As a business professional using Facebook, privacy settings allow you to manage your network so you can speak discreetly to certain Friends, like co-workers or family members, as opposed to other “Friends” like bosses or professional colleagues. Last week I posted some general considerations about Facebook privacy here. If you want to know more about how-to-use-privacy-settings on Facebook read on.

TIP: You may recall that when you logged on to Facebook during December of 2009 you were prompted to either retain your current privacy settings or switch to the new default setting of EVERYONE for everything. That’s because Facebook had just opened up site content to public search engines for the first time and they wanted your content. From a business networking perspective, you do not want to share everything on Facebook with Everyone.

Five Steps to managing your Facebook privacy.

STEP ONE: ACCOUNT

Find the Account tab in the upper right hand corner of the Facebook main screen. There are four primary sections that affect your privacy – Edit Friends, Account Settings, Privacy Settings, and Application Settings.

STEP TWO: EDIT FRIENDS

From Account, select Edit Friends. On the left sidebar of the Edit Friends page you’ll see LISTS; under Lists, click on Friends. Click on “Create List.”

Lists are organized around the type of posts, photos, notes, status updates, etc. that you want to share with specific categories of Friends in your FB network.  Name your list something like Professional, Family, Tennis, School, Limited View, etc. Select the friends that fit that list. You can always add more Friends to a list after its been created. Remember to add any new Friends that you welcome into your network to the appropriate LIST. Friends can be on multiple lists. Make as many lists as you think you need, but try to keep it simple for your own sake.

Practical Pointer: You also have the option to dynamically control visibility for each individual piece of content as it is posted. Simply select a visibility setting for that specific post from the drop down menu beneath the post box.  In addition to the global choices of Everyone, Only Friends, or Friends of Friends, you can customize the post visibility to exclude individuals or Lists.  For example, a businessperson using Facebook may want to share a status update about a speaking engagement, article, or something clever. Selecting “Everyone” makes that post visible to public search engines. This, of course, is a good strategy for increasing your exposure and gives your online footprint one more hit. Other times, you may only want to share content such as a photo of your vacation with a narrower community. Keep in mind that even if you select Only Friends you will be sharing with your entire Friend list, but not with off site search engines. If you want to exclude certain Friends from a list you created, select Custom and add the list.

STEP THREE: ACCOUNT SETTINGS

Go back to the Account tab at the top of your screen and select My Account. The My Account Page covers a lot of categories. Let’s start by clicking the Notifications tab.

Notifications: To get notifications for the various actions other people take on Facebook (recommended for monitoring your reputation) check every box to notify you by Email (some notifications have the option of mobile delivery SMS). Keep scrolling down.

If you don’t want to get a lot of email from Facebook, you may want to uncheck the notification for “Friends Updates.”  Keep scrolling down.

Applications: Applications are things like those games and quizzes that your friends have tagged you on. It’s best to uncheck ALL the boxes unless you want your information being shared with applications your Friends use. Don’t forget to view the Show More.

Go back to My Accounts page and select the Facebook Ads tab.

Facebook Ads: On this page there are two separate controls. By default, Facebook occasionally uses your name in conjunction with advertisements, such as “Joe is a fan of Diet Coke.” Configure your appearance in social ads to “no one” and HIT SAVE.

Scroll down. The next action determines how your social actions, such as joining groups and fan pages effect the Facebook Ads you see on your Facebook page. If you want those ads to be relevant to you, go ahead and share your information. Otherwise, select “no one” and HIT SAVE.

STEP FOUR: PRIVACY SETTINGS:

Go back to the Account tab at the top of the page and select PRIVACY.

On the privacy settings page there are several categories: Profile Information, Contact Information, Applications and Websites, Search and Block List. Go through all of them carefully. I’ll mention a few below that I think need special attention. Remember that the default setting on your Profile Information depends on which default setting you chose when prompted during the December 09 change over.

Also note that content posted prior to December 2009, such as photo albums, notes, and videos that did not have a particular visibility setting, probably defaults to the most liberal setting, EVERYONE.  Therefore, you should go back and reassign the appropriate visibility to everything you ever posted – especially photos.

PRIVACY: PROFILE SETTINGS:

Each setting allows you to select from a drop-down list to “Make this visible to” ….

There are standard options or Custom, edit. Here is where your Friend LISTS come into action. Click Custom Edit. In the “Hide This From” box start typing in a List that you created to control who sees what, generally. You can always override the default settings for individual posts. I recommend making the default Only Friends, unless you feel comfortable with the broader network you are creating.

TIP: Think carefully whether you want to share your birthday information with anyone. It’s nice for your close friends to have a handy reminder, but it also makes it easy for hackers to connect the dots on birthday/birthplace/social security number.

Photos: You can control who sees each of your photo albums. Click Edit. It will take you to a page that shows all your photo albums, including mobile uploads. Again, any photo albums added before December 2009 will probably default to EVERYONE, so go in and reselect your privacy level.

Posts by Me: This is where you set the default visibility for your Status Updates, Links, Notes, Photos, and Videos that YOU post.  If you want the tightest control over each post you add to your wall, default to Only Me and then dynamically select visibility for every post you make.  If you use FB mostly for personal stuff, customize by excluding Business Friends (list) and then dynamically select visibility for business oriented posts.

Posts by Friends: You can control who can see posts by your friends on your Profile Wall under the setting “Allow friends to post on my Wall.” And you can control who can post a comment on the posts you create. However, you cannot approve individual comments on your Wall or photos, you can only approve whether or not a Friends are allowed to post/comment on Wall and photos. You can always delete their comments if you find them offensive or inappropriate.

PRIVACY: CONTACT INFORMATION

This is important. Selecting Everyone for any of the options here will make that bit of profile information visible to, well, everyone with a computer, an Internet connection and a search engine. Customize profile information with Lists. If you are using Facebook for business, select Everyone for your Website this makes only your Website on your Public Facebook Profile visible to search engines. Of course your website probably has your contact information so it’s not going to stop someone from contacting your through your website, however, it will make them take the extra step. Bonus: drives traffic to your business website.

PRIVACY: APPLICATIONS AND WEBSITES

Applications can make the FB experience more social. However, if you don’t want third party websites viewing your public information you may want to uncheck everything in the “What Friends Can Share About You.”  Doing that will restrict those playful applications your friends send you such as “What Dog Am I” from getting your status updates and so forth. Right now I don’t know of any useful “business applications” on FB, but there may be some in the future. If you know of any, add them in the comments, please!

PRIVACY: SEARCH

Your business goals and your comfort level should determine a visibility level for both onsite searches and offsite (public search engines like Google). The first toggle in the search settings controls onsite search. To expand your business network within Facebook, select Friends of Friends or to restrict visibility select Only Friends.

The second toggle controls what off site search engines like Google will index. If you want to use Facebook to network for business beyond your Facebook network, then go ahead and open your public profile to Everyone. (They will only see those things you selected in Profile visibility.) Your Public Profile will give your online footprint another positive hit.

STEP FIVE: APPLICATION SETTINGS:

Last step, go back to your Account tab and select Application Settings. This will list Applications YOU are using such as Groups, Notes, Gifts, Photos, Links, etc. For each application select Edit. A pop-up box appears. There are three tabs. The first tab controls what shows up on your PROFILE page. You can add a box or a tab and select visibility.

The second tab, Bookmark, adds that application to the Left Menu on your Facebook layout. A bookmarked application is one that you can easily access at any time.

The third tab is Additional Permissions. So, for example, in the Notes application you can chose to let the application Publish content to your Wall, or notify you when someone tags you in a note, comments on a note you wrote or comments after you in a note. Each application has different Additional Permissions so go through them all. They are all equally important and should be carefully selected.

ADDITIONAL CONSIDERATIONS:

For those who wish to keep their professional and personal life on Facebook separate, keep in mind that Facebook privacy settings are not as secure or private as we would hope.  A rare example of a security breach occurred in March 2009 when, for a few hours, a bug allowed users to gain access to portions of their friends’ profiles that were otherwise secured. In my opinion these rare occurrences are not enough to deter the benefit I get in being connected to others on Facebook, but that is up to you to decide.

A good rule of thumb is to not post anything on Facebook that you wouldn’t otherwise say or do in any public space. I keep the tone of my posts cordial and friendly. I generally stay away from religion and politics. Some of my Friends on Facebook wear their political heart on their sleeve and that’s okay, but I can’t say that it doesn’t impact my impression of them and in some cases it’s a real turn off.

A few other things to keep in mind:

• Take the time to read Facebook’s Terms and Conditions.
• No matter what visibility settings you have now selected, previously viewed content on Facebook may remain viewable in cached or archived pages if users copy or store the content, a situation you acknowledge in signing off on those terms.
• To remove the tag from a photo that someone else has uploaded and tagged you in, simply view the photo, and then choose “remove tag” at the bottom next to your name. The photo will no longer be linked to your profile. However, only your friends can take the photos down. Best to stay away from friends with cameras at rowdy parties. Make sure your NOTIFICATIONS are set to alert you when you’ve been tagged in posted photos.
• Several courts in the United States and elsewhere have held that private Facebook profiles are discoverable. Be aware if you are involved in civil or criminal legal proceedings that your Facebook profile (as well as any blogs, websites, or other online content) may be fair game for opposing counsel.

If you get stuck, search the HELP tab under ACCOUNT. It explains almost every feature and more. Next post I’ll cover Facebook for business entities and law firms – Fan Pages and Groups.

The VMO also offers custom training programs for organizations, particularly law firms. Contact me for more information….jaynenavarre@gmail.com

“Should I be on Facebook?” That is the first question lawyers often ask me these days. Followed by: “Should I trust Facebook?” and “Is Facebook really worth my time for business development?”

My answer is an enthusiastic YES! but…..

…..only in the hands of a conscientious user who

1. takes the time to understand the population,
2. knows the process of how business relationships develop, and
3. stays on top of the privacy settings.

Facebook can be a place for business and becoming more so all the time as the population of Facebook evolves. Just this month,  Experian Hitwise reported that traffic on Facebook surpassed Google to become the number one website in the U.S.

This post is the first in a series on Facebook for individuals who want to establish a business presence. The next post will cover more privacy settings and ideas for projecting a business image on Facebook, but for now, if you currently have a profile on Facebook and if you have not already visited your SETTINGS this month, I HIGHLY recommend that you go through each and every option under your ACCOUNT tab—settings, privacy, applications and HELP as soon as you’re finished reading this post.

HELP.

Open the HELP link, first, before going through your Settings. There you’ll find explanations of the various features and settings and what they mean.

USE LISTS.

After browsing the Help tab, set up some LISTS.

Privacy settings are very important and in order to use them to the fullest extent use Lists. Privacy settings allow you to customize who sees what according to LISTS as well as individuals.

Establish lists such as Family, Business, Limited View, Alumni, or even something like Casual Acquaintances. You can create your LISTS from your FRIENDS page. There’s a tab in the upper right hand of the center column that says CREATE A LIST. Cick it and it will prompt you through the process.

You can select people from your Friends to add from the Create List tool, or you can create all your LISTS, and then from the sidebar of your page, select the list and click on the edit button. It will allow you add people to the list.

Once your lists are established, go back to the ACCOUNT tab and begin adjusting your settings. Select CUSTOMIZE on any feature or application to lock down certain items according to your LISTS.

THOUGHTFULLY DETERMINE PRIVACY

Commit the time to thoughtfully determine your privacy settings. That is no small task. Just the other day while teaching business development strategies on the social web to a sharp group of attorneys, I presented the privacy settings on Facebook. The overwhelming sentiment was “That’s too complex and too time consuming.” And, I have to agree it can be. At first, the privacy settings are overwhelming, and worse, Facebook adds new setting controls frequently, forcing a contentious user to review their settings at least monthly if not more often. However, if you learn to use LISTS and SETTINGS your Facebook experience can be productive and the initial time you spend on those two things will be a wash.

Bottom Line:

Just because Facebook is perceived by some lawyers as being too casual for business, I don’t think you should discount it. I often argue that Facebook is like the country club, an event at your kid’s school, or the neighborhood barbeque.  Yes, it’s more casual and social than LinkedIn or a peer network like Martindale.com Connected, but I know plenty of lawyers who get their best referrals, and in some cases their best clients, from socializing at the country club, a kid’s sporting event, or a neighborhood barbeque.  (You could even name your LISTS like this! No one sees your lists but you.)

The thing about business development and marketing is that you should do what pleases you. Be somewhere you enjoy being because this communicates a lot to prospects with whom you engage.

Creating lists and checking your settings should give you enough to do for a couple days. Stay tuned to the Virtual Marketing Officer blog for more on FACEBOOK how-to’s for business development. Subscribe! Or, leave your comments below….Thanks.