The Apple Store is the most profitable retailer in America, generating an average of $5,600 per square foot and attracting more than 20,000 visitors a week, according to author Carmine Gallo, The Apple Experience: Secrets to Building Insanely Great Customer Loyalty. She writes that when Steve Jobs first started The Apple Store he did not ask the question, “How will we grow our market share from 5 to 10 percent?” He asked, “How do we enrich people’s lives?”

Reading this made me ask:

Are law firms stuck in the merely “aspirational” phase of implementing sales and service (and most are) because their business model is to “grow market share from 5 to 10 percent by selling more services?”

Advice from Jan Anne Dubin on reaching clients through sales and service

So I called Jan Anne Dubin, a long-standing pioneer in legal services marketing (and sales), former Director to AmLaw 100 firms, and now Chicago-based adviser to professional firms of varied industries. I asked her to talk about the mistakes law firms are making and how shifting their business model to one that can “enrich people’s lives” might be the gateway to growth like The Apple Store has achieved. This post summarizes the highlights of that conversation. Attributions to Jan (in italics) are paraphrased from the notes I took and are not verbatim.

First, Jan told me that she knows of only a handful of law firms who have “cracked the code.” She said that, law firms are leaving way too much on the table in the sales and service side because their efforts are misplaced.

In Jan’s 25-plus years of legal services marketing, primarily as an in-house professional, she has seen first hand how her relationships, the ones she owns, have been the catalyst for new engagements for the law firms she has served.

New business engagements are almost always the result of a relationship of some sort or other between a contact in the law firm and a contact in the client organization. Everyone who touches the client experience must know that fundamentally it is not just the features of the practice that will open a door—it’s hard to differentiate. It’s not about having the sexiest brand statement or website, either—though all have a role to play. A door is opened because a trusted relationship exists. It’s as simple as that. If a relationship is motivated by “enriching lives,” i.e., adding value rather than generating revenue, magic can happen.

This seems obvious to me. Whenever I ask a group of lawyers where their last piece of new business originated, 9 out of 10 say; a personal referral—a relationship. Why then do law firms find it so difficult to trust the sales and service model?

She said that the first mistake many law firms make today is giving lip service to the buzzwords of sales and service thinking that this is forward motion.

 They might rebrand marketing roles, update professional titles, or hire a lawyer with personal rainmaking skills to lead the firm efforts, but this is equivalent to just talking about sales and marketing. They tend to misplace their focus away from the things that really need to happen.  (Not necessarily in this order.)

• Firms need to trust sales and marketing professionals.
• Sales and service needs to earn the trust of their organization, including any specific attorneys with whom they must align, in order to gain a seat-at-the-table (a very critical component). This process varies but typically involves the ability of the professional to demonstrate meaningful value to the client/attorney relationship. They will inculcate themselves with the client and attorney, be personable, open and innovative.
• Sales professionals need to cultivate their own relationships with individuals who are decision makers, end users, or referral sources.
• Anyone responsible for sales—attorneys and biz dev professionals—must understand and respect the dynamics of how relationships work.

The relationship may be between a lawyer or a client service and sales professional and the decision maker, the end-user, or a trusted referral source to the client organization; it varies, but there will be a relationship involved. Knowing where to look for new relationships and knowing how to move a relationship forward toward trust is where many lawyers and sales professionals fail—it demands your time, something most are not eager to give up. But, once a trusted relationship is established, if there is a need that you or your law firm can fill, you will likely be called upon to be part of the solution.

 The Apple Store Model

At The Apple Store, the non-commissioned sales staff is empowered to do “what they believe is the right thing to do.” It doesn’t matter how much time they spend chatting with customers about their families or their day, or whether or not the client leaves the store with a bag of Apples. Their first and most important job is to kick off with a beneficial relationship.

If you’ve ever been to an Apple Store you’ve probably experienced it. Apple Store sales staffers are coached to do the following:

• Approach the customer with a customized, warm greeting,
• Probe politely to understand their needs,
• Present a benefit oriented, not feature oriented, solution that they can take home today,
• Listen for and address unresolved questions,
• End the interaction with a fond farewell, and an invitation to return.

If you’re like most Apple Store visitors, a sale typically follows. Maybe not today, but the message was loud and clear—you are more than the object that increases our market share—Apple Store employees are there to enrich your life with their products and services.

The Apple Store Model translated for law firms

Professionals that take the time to own a relationship will find that it opens many doors. Law firms need to empower lawyers and sales professionals to do what they believe is the right thing to do. Jan explained that, you can’t come out selling; especially when the audience is the sophisticated in-house counsel buyer—they will run. Any sale of professional services has to be a pull not a push. The terms are these:

1. Do your homework
2. Research the industry of the person with whom you want to relate
3. Understand needs generally and during conversation intuit specifically
4. Listen more than you talk

The most acute skills for success, according to Jan, are the ability to listen, intuit, and apply information gained from discussions. That is where the magic happens.

Success comes when you can inculcate yourself into a relationship. This is important in order to posit solutions to a problem by offering several options from which they can choose, rather than simply reiterate the problem and deliver what you think the client needs.

Jan points to three top legal sales professionals that have this magic gift: Kristin Sudholz, Chief Value Officer, Drinker Biddle; Catherine Zinn, Senior Client Development Executive, DLA Piper; and Steve Bell, Chief Client Development Officer, Womble Carlyle.

They all have the magic and are able to add value to a client relationship. They work to understand the client problem beyond the obvious, do the analysis, synthesize what needs to be done, and then deliver several options, including the cost for each. And, they innovate. When you do all of this, you can create the magic—you will make it easy to be your client and you will earn the respect you need to do your job.

Finding relationships

Unfortunately, law firms can’t wait for prospects to walk into their retail store; they have to get out from behind their desk and find them. Jan recommends personal involvement in trade groups, associations, and conferences where, for example, general counsel hang out. She said such events are typically ripe with opportunity to meet new people and begin to cultivate a relationship.

The Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) Annual Meeting has been a rich and rewarding destination for me, over the years. I put in the time and seek to meet new people and then cultivate relationships where synergies exist. When walking the halls, during the reception, or mingling with people at the hotel bar, I have uncovered numerous unexpected and unforced relationships with people that, down the road, have been instrumental in forging new business engagements.

She also said that,

You can’t sit behind your desk and expect new things to happen. You have to go out and be available to others. And, once a relationship starts, you can’t neglect it. It’s up to you to move it forward. Further, no two relationships are the same. “Every ball is different and the same approach to hitting it out of the park will not work every time.”

Jan’s advice to any firm that wants to create a loyal client is:

Remember, it’s not only the outcome of a deal or case that creates a loyal client—although that comes with the territory. It’s really about how well you can add value to everything that matters to the client, including things like budgeting, diversity, innovation, and catering to the relationship. You must constantly be working on the relationship. A loyal client is nearly always the result of a trusted relationship. 

The Good News!

For any one that would like to learn more about how to crack the code, Jan will be moderating a panel of General Counsel and other in-house counsel called “The Client Hot Seat,” (and I believe it will not be the usual suspects nor the usual outcome) at the Legal Sales and Service Organization’s RainDance Conference 2012 on June 5-6, Chicago, IL. It’s not too late to register. The panel will be interactive and you can be sure that there will be tangible, innovative ideas to take away.

Disclaimer: I have received a media pass for this conference. Everything I am reporting in advance of the conference is motivated by my interest in the topics being presented AND, by my desire to enrich the lives of my readers.

If you haven’t already seen it, seeing-is-believing. Check this out. Mark O’Mara, defense attorney to George Zimmerman—stand your ground case in Florida—has created a Facebook Page. Further, he has taken over the reins of all official social media interaction for his client, shutting down Zimmerman’s personal accounts and ratting out imposters. Does this raise your eyebrows? Mine are approaching my widow’s peak.

Is Social Media a Modern Channel for Defending a Witch Hunt?

There are many interesting questions, the least of which may be what happens when the trial court attempts to pick a jury? Skipping over that small detail for now… Other questions I had in mind include:

Is the George Zimmerman Facebook page, blog, and Twitter stream a signal of things to come? Is O’Mara a social media lawyer trailblazer? Is a social media channel(s) that gives voice to the public opinion in a high profile case just a practical solution for the defense counsel to efficiently manage the mouthpiece, or, is there some bigger motive, i.e., a tactic engineered by a cunning defense attorney (intended to blow up in the face of the court)? Maybe the social media sites were created to drive donations to the Zimmerman legal defense fund, i.e. O’Mara’s pocket? (In two weeks they raised $200,000 online.) Is this a Pandora’s box or what, to say the least?

(Disclaimer: My perspectives and opinions may be obtusely influenced in proportion to the number of Law and Order episodes consumed over the last 15 years or so…)

UPDATE: Here’s an article in the Miami Herald that digs deeper into the social media specifics (I was quoted), particularly allegedly damming history extracted from Zimmerman’s My Space Page. Comments on George Zimmerman Facebook Page claim that the MySpace page was allegedly hacked. While I can’t comment to that directly, it is possible. Hackers will do anything for a pizza.

I also neglected to mention that prior to Zimmerman hiring O’Mara, he was M.I.A. and thus not defending his character or his actions in the media. Interesting that defense counsel has “ramped” that up–and in particular using social media channels. I also learned from an unnamed reporter who spoke with O’Mara that the burden of managing this Facebook Page (i.e. moderating comments) has exceeded his expectations and he has hired several people to assist him. I am not surprised, but it certainly raises more questions: are they attorneys? Are they now registered counsel to the defendant? If they are not, is O’Mara violating the ABA and Florida Bar Rules on Trial Publicity (see way below)?

I’m going to guess that from what I’ve seen over the past 24 hours, the Facebook tactic is NOT going to become de rigueur for defense attorneys. Are they crazy! Who would want this noose around their neck? O’Mara is likely second guessing his own moves…at least if he’s as smart as he should be.

So, the question remains: will the judge put a gag order on the social media?

On Tuesday Seminole County Circuit Judge Kenneth R. Lester denied the prosecution’s request for a gag order.

From CNN:

“At this time, there is no demonstrated need to restrict free speech,” Seminole County Circuit Judge Kenneth R. Lester wrote.

The decision — which was made public Tuesday — rejects, among other things, prosecutor concerns over a lack of juror impartiality due to the amount of media coverage surrounding the high-profile case.

Of course the request and the facts were filed BEFORE the whole Facebook bru haha. Is it back to the drawing board?  With this HUGE social media factor being injected into the Trial Publicity can he change his mind? I would gander a bet that the judge is right now holed up in his office trying to makes sense of it all. Maybe he doesn’t understand the whole social media paradigm and the impact it has on public opinion and maybe he has a social media consultant at his side helping him try to understand it all? Let’s hope so.

Personally, I rather see this case tried in the courtroom, but I fear it is too late. Both sides will be subject to bad fall-out as it now in the court of public opinion. Yet, where social media is concerned, I think there are some serious holes in the defense tactic. I hope that the Judge cracks down on it–on both sides– before it gets out of hand–or maybe it has already. 

Let’s Examine Normal.

Common Uses of Social Media for Lawyers and Law Firms

In general, lawyers and law firms (of all practices: corporate, personal injury, class action, criminal defense, and etc.,) use the Internet and social media primarily for four common purposes:

1. To advertise
2. To educate
3. To network
4. To recruit employees

They pay to advertise their services on search engines, websites, directories, and blogs; they educate the public about their services and legal issues on their firm website, social networking sites, directory sites, and blogs; they use social networking sites to develop new business leads by posting a profile and interacting with the public; and/or use social media channels, such as Facebook, for recruiting associates and employees.

I know first hand via my social media counseling practice and from speaking to lawyers around the world that not all lawyers are endeared by the developments of social media. In fact, many lawyers are still dragging their feet for various reasons, the least of which are privacy issues and time limitations. But, just as many have simply resigned to the fact that it exists and take the attitude of “if you can’t beat ‘em; join ‘em.” Others find it unprofessional, period.

These fairly common (tame) activities are acknowledged by the American Bar Association, which is currently in the process of codifying an updated version of the Model Rules and Codes of Professional Conduct to include guidance on social media activities (due in August 2012). Until then, licensed lawyers are required to comply with the ethics rules as they are written. Little did they (or anyone) know that Florida attorney Mark O’Mara could upset the tidy apple barrel?

Unusual Uses of Social Media and Lawyers

Until the recent O’Mara/Zimmerman example (which is detailed below), the most unusual case study of a law firm using social media can be found in 2010 when the Sokolov firm, a class action law firm based in Boston, launched the first known “white label” social networking site to engage potential and current class members in discussions about the pharmaceutical birth control pill YAZ, Yazim or Ocella (generic version). In a May 24, 2010 Boston Business Journal article (in which I was quoted), the firm reported over “1,000 people visit YazTalk.com each month and the site has generated roughly 60 leads.” Their site, technically considered “advertising,” sought to comply with the ABA and State Bar rules despite the cutting edge nature of the tactic. It was definitely new to the profession and the Bar. Sokolov has since discontinued the open networking site and it is now just informational (I don’t have details on why). They still have a form on the site to generate leads, but they have moved user engagement over to Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Hmmm…the wagon train and the frontier…moving on…

Over the past two years we’ve seen an exponential rise in social media activity showing up in legal case discovery and is now more often than not admissible in the courtroom. We’ve also seen judges and lawyers being sanctioned by the courts or disciplined by the Bar for inappropriate comments on social media sites. BUT, what we have not seen is a criminal defense attorney “host” social media channels on behalf of their client. I would not be surprised to learn that members of the Bar are shocked and even disgusted. I am sure many see this development as just another dilution of what was once a “civilized” profession.

A Lawyer’s Responsibility in Trial Publicity

Every defense lawyer I’ve known has advised their clients that it is not in their best interest to speak directly to anyone from the media. Mr. O’Mara, in establishing these social media channels for his client, is attempting to, in his own words, “provide a voice for Mr. Zimmerman,” just as any decent defense attorney might do, albeit, in a less traditional fashion.

Despite the fact that this social media discourse will almost certainly taint a jury pool and compromise a fair trial (my opinion), I can honestly say, as someone who has been at the forefront of law firm communications and technology since 1995, that it makes perfect sense—technology making our jobs easier—dangerous perhaps, but not illogical.

The ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct as pertains to trial publicity says:

Rule 3.6 Trial Publicity
(a) A lawyer who is participating or has participated in the investigation or litigation of a matter shall not make an extrajudicial statement that the lawyer knows or reasonably should know will be disseminated by means of public communication and will have a substantial likelihood of materially prejudicing an adjudicative proceeding in the matter.

(c) Notwithstanding paragraph (a), a lawyer may make a statement that a reasonable lawyer would believe is required to protect a client from the substantial undue prejudicial effect of recent publicity not initiated by the lawyer or the lawyer’s client. A statement made pursuant to this paragraph shall be limited to such information as is necessary to mitigate the recent adverse publicity.

But the Florida Bar Rules, under which Mr. O’Mara is also subject, says:

RULE 4-3.6 TRIAL PUBLICITY

(a) Prejudicial Extrajudicial Statements Prohibited. A lawyer shall not make an extrajudicial statement that a reasonable person would expect to be disseminated by means of public communication if the lawyer knows or reasonably should know that it will have a substantial likelihood of materially prejudicing an adjudicative proceeding due to its creation of an imminent and substantial detrimental effect on that proceeding.

(b) Statements of Third Parties. A lawyer shall not counsel or assist another person to make such a statement [emphasis added]. Counsel shall exercise reasonable care to prevent investigators, employees, or other persons assisting in or associated with a case from making extrajudicial statements that are prohibited under this rule.

Focusing only on the first sentence of 4-3.6 (b), a person such as myself might think that setting up a FB Page that allows the public (a third party) to comment on the case gets dangerously close to violating this rule. Could the lawyer’s Facebook Page be assisting other persons in making extrajudicial statements? Never mind that O’Mara (and company) are now “moderating” the comments (after 4 days of open comments seen by the public: read prospective jury pool), what attorney in his right mind would want to vet all those comments and be responsible should one slip by that was argued by the opposing counsel as prejudicous!!!! Think: “cowboy?” I’m thinking David Letterman material…

Why Facebook?

You might ask, why would O’Mara, the mouthpiece, choose FACEBOOK as a channel? Simple, Facebook is the first place many people go to for information from people they KNOW, LIKE and TRUST. Why not create a Facebook Page for this client when MILLIONS of people will see these comments (good, bad or ugly) in their news stream. (Talk about tainting a jury, eh?)

A bad example, but one I’m personally familiar with, is that during the OJ trial third party buzz was created by face-to-face discussions among real time friends and such, limited by geography. Lawyers in the case did not enable it—technically. Today, on Facebook we know what our FRIENDS, thousands of them in some cases, are thinking-feeling-talking about by what they post on their status updates, not to mention that all their activity on Facebook Pages are passively posted to their stream and seen by their Friends. Do you think a lawyer that is maintaining a “Page” that allows public, third party discourse, is enabling?

Is it a defense strategy?

I’m not a defense lawyer and I don’t “think” like one ordinarily (I have a clear conscious), but I have to ask: Could a defense strategy be enabled by a social media presence?

Truly, after mulling this around in my brain, I concluded: I have never known a defense attorney to be upfront about much, especially where communication falls outside attorney client privilege. (I agree with that tactic by the way.) I’m going out on limb here to say that O’Mara is saying the right things on his blog/Facebook Page/Twitter, but I’m almost certain there is more beneath the surface… His posted statements claim that he’s using social media because it’s the message, not the medium. Again, it is a common practice for the attorney mouthpiece (my words) to respond to the press, ergo the public at large and the medium is less important than the message. But, a great defense attorney always has another angle up their sleeve and every move they make relates to legal strategy. Ask Jack McCoy.

Either O’Mara understands, or his social media counsel has advised, that social media has real power to influence causes, i.e. Arab Spring (I do not imply that this is remotely the equivalent of a movement by an oppressed people group, but just as an example), and etc. I think O’Mara’s move will play out in the big picture and maybe the big screen too $$$$. Social Network: Part II? Your thoughts?

I’d like to think that he is simply, as he says, accessing the tools to meet a need for efficiency in responding to emails, phone calls, etc., but we won’t know until this whole thing is played out in the courts.

The Edge of the Envelope or Genius?

O’Mara’s use of social media is riding on the edge of the envelope and I suspect the Bar will shut him down sooner or later. Or not. I have been involved in high profile cases responding to the media. Would I advise a client to use social media if I thought it could be done within the boundaries of the ethics rules and it created public communications efficiencies without sacrificing the defense? Yes.

Is it he genius? In this case, the jury is still out. I personally think this tactic will come back to haunt O’Mara and Zimmerman, not because of the medium, but because of the message. While I’d like to believe that he is using social media for good, there is that nagging intuition that says there is more behind the curtain. The question in my mind is, can social media factor into case dismissed? Unfair trial, jury bias, technical error, or incompetent counsel? Not to be flip, my sympathy goes out to the family of Trayvon, and Zimmerman is innocent until proven guilty by a jury of his peers, but don’t you think it will make a good “Law and Order” episode?

And now for something REALLY fun….

This post may not be directly important to your work as a marketer or lawyer, but I’m pretty sure you’ve heard or read many of these words in one context or another, and may even be wondering what they mean.

The Cloud? Social Discovery? SOA? De-dupe? SoLoMo? Robust? Emoticon?

Well, fact is, so do the people who actually use them in their work! Curious? No, that’s not on the list, but if you are, here are the Most Confusing High Tech Buzzwords of the of the Second Decade of the 21st Century, thus far (2010, 2011 & 2012) as released by The Global Language Monitor.*(see end of post for explanation of how the list was compiled.)

Note: Along with the tongue-in-cheek commentary provided by GLM, where I could find them, I’ve added common definitions in italics.

1. Big Data. Big Data is a big buzzword.  It has been called the key to new waves of productivity growth, essential to the US place in global economics, and more.  Now if only we could agree on exactly what this means and how we get there. Consider yottabytes: A quadrillion gigabytes. Hint: Just think a lotta bytes. In information technology, big data consists of datasets that grow so large that they become awkward to work with using on-hand database management tools.
2. ‘The Cloud.” The Cloud, in various manifestations has been ranked No. 1 for 2008, No, 4 overall for the decade, and now as No. 2 for 2012. Still all very nebulous. Most commonly defined as the Internet, where delivery of computing as a service (software as a service of SAS) rather than a product, i.e., shared resources, software, and information, are provided to computers and other devices.  
3. The Next Big Thing.  A cliché rendered nearly meaningless by the innumerable daily claims made by VCs, entrepreneurs, college dropouts, etc.  Actually, you can count the history of next big things on your fingers, and possibly toes.
4. Social Discovery. Social discovery is the process by which a user finds and connects with another while a social network is a social structure of people with social connections between them. Webster’s 1910 definition: “Consisting in union of mutual converse.” Might be an excellent corporate strategy.
5. Web 2.0 (3.0, and so on).  Ranked as the 1,000,000th English-language word in 2009, it just keeps morphing along. Web 2.0 is a loosely defined intersection of web application features that facilitate participatory information sharing, interoperability, user-centered design and collaboration on the World Wide Web.
6. Solid State. As in Solid State Disks (SSDs).  Remember ‘solid-state’ televisions switched from vacuum tubes (Paleozoic)? How about LED watches from the ’80s (Mesozoic)?  Today, it’s all-about Solid State Disks. Think iPad, net-books, and other handheld computers, all light weight because they don’t contain the spining hard disk drive. They use SSD for data storage.
7. CERN. You might want to understand the acronym before the Earth is swallowed up in the ‘mini’ black hole it just might create. CERN is The European Organization for Nuclear Research. It is the world’s largest particle physics laboratory and home of the first Web server used by British scientist, Sir Tim Berners-Lee.
8. Solar Max. In the 1850s telegraph wires melted.  Best not to shuck off the hype here. Solar maximum or solar max is the period of greatest solar activity in the solar cycle of the sun.
9. De-dupe. First we dupe, then we de-dupe. Flash forward to 2014: Re-duping!  Ah, the next big thing! To de-dupe is removing duplicates in records linkage, i.e. databases.
10. 3G/4G/5G. One of the benefits of having an open, open standard (AKA, no standard). Anybody can claim to lead as the (Generation) ‘standard’ expands into meaningless. The G stands for the generations of cellular mobile communications.
11. SoLoMo. This is not an oh-so-trendy neighborhood like Soho or Dumbo, at least not in the sense of brick-and-mortar.  This is the convergence of Social, Local, and Mobile.
12. SOA.  The number one Most Confusing Tech Acronym of the decade. Solutions Oriented Architecture (SOA), is the underlying structure supporting communications between services. SOA defines how two computing entities, such as programs, interact in such a way as to enable one entity to perform a unit of work on behalf of another entity. There a highly popular SOA for Dummies edition and Google Books list 47,300 editions that explicate upon the subject.

Want more?

Here is the first decade (2000-2009) of the 21st century’s Most Confusing High Tech Buzzwords with GLM comments.

HTTP — HyperText Transfer Protocol is used for HTML (HyperText Markup Language) files. Not to be confused with text-on-too-much-Starbucks.

Flash — As in Flash Memory.  “Flash’  is easier to say than “ I brought the report on my EEPROM chip with a thin oxide layer separating a floating gate and control gate utilizing Fowler-Nordheim electron tunneling”.

God Particle – The Higgs boson, thought to account for mass. The God Particle has eluded discovery since its existence was first postulated some thirty years ago.

Cloud Computing – Distributing or accessing programs and services across the Internet. (The Internet is represented as a cloud.)

Plasma (as in plasma TV) — Refers less often to blood products than to a kind of television screen technology that uses matrix of gas plasma cells, which are charged by differing electrical voltages to create an image.

IPOD – What the Alpha Whale calls his personal pod. Actually, Apple maintains that the idea of the iPod was from the film 2001: A Space Odyssey. The origin of the word IPAD is a completely different story.

Megapixel – Either a really large picture element (pixel) or a whole mess of pixels.  Actually, one million pixels (that’s a lotta pixels) OK, what’s a pixel? Computer-ese for picture element.

Nano – Widely used to describe anything small as in nanotechnology. Like the word ‘mini’ which originally referred to the red hues in Italian miniature paintings, the word nano- is ultimately derived from the ancient Greek word for ‘dwarf’.

Resonate – Not the tendency of a system to oscillate at maximum amplitude, but the ability to relate to (or resonate with) a customer’s desires.

Virtualization – Around since dinosaurs walked the planet (the late ‘70s) virtualization now applies to everything from infrastructures to I/O. I/O, refers to the communication between an information processing system (such as a computer), and the outside world, possibly a human, or another information processing system.

Solution — Ever popular yet still an amorphous description of high tech packages of hardware, software and service

Cookie — Without cookies with their ‘persistent state’ management mechanism the web as we know it, would cease to exist.

Robust — No one quite knows what it means, but it’s good for your product to demonstrate robustness .

Emoticon  — A smiley with an emotional component (from emotional icon).  Now, what’s a smiley? :’) (See Robust)

De-duping – Shorthand for de-duplication, that is, removing redundant data from a system.

Green washing – Repositioning your product so that its shortfalls are now positioned as environmental benefits:  Not enough power? Just re-position as energy saving.

Buzzword Compliant — To include the latest buzzwords in literature about a product or service in order to make it ‘resonate’ with the customer.

Petaflop — A thousand trillion (or quadrillion) floating point operations per second. Often mistaken as a comment on a failed program by an animal rights’ group.

Hadron – A particle made of quarks bound together by the strong force; they are either mesons (made of one quark and one anti-quark) or baryons (made of three quarks).

Large Hadron Collider – The ‘atom smasher’ located underground outside Geneva. Primarily built to re-create the conditions of creation, 1 trillionth of a second after the Big Bang.

So, there you have it. If you made it through this list, you may now consider yourself EDUCATED! Happy Friday

* From the The Global Language Monitor website: the GLM uses a proprietary algorithm, the Predictive Quantities Indicator (PQI) to track the frequency of words and phrases in the global print and electronic media, on the Internet, throughout the Blogosphere, as well as accessing proprietary databases. The PQI is a weighted Index, factoring in: long-term trends, short-term changes, momentum, and velocity.

Not particularly relevant photo.

There really is no substitute for the energy generated when people come together LIVE!  Discuss, debate, share ideas, practices, and swap stories—yup, it can be done virtually, but that’s so two dimensional. It’s no substitute for a real handshake, a paper business card passed to a new “friend,” makin’ eye contact, and feeling the table vibe as notes are being frantically scribed on keyboards, iPads, and even the ever trusty pen and paper.

A couple weeks ago, a bunch of lawyers, marketers, vendors, and consultants met LIVE in NYC for a day of all things social media hosted by Hildebrandt Institute and WEST LegalEdCenter and the result was “ELECTRIFYING!”

That’s right. I love social media and how it connects people and content 24/7, but golly gee, a little old fashioned interaction is good for the soul. This LIVE event was no exception and reminded me why I urge the lawyers I consult with to add social media to their business plan but not to the exclusion of personal contact. Okay, ‘nuf said on that. Here’s some tid-bits from the day: Social Media for Law Firms LIVE!

Every Audience has an Audience.

There’s more engagement value when you can create or post content that your audience can readily distribute to their audience. Stop trying to push your lawyers to engage directly with others over the content they create. Instead, encourage them or help them produce or select something OTHERS want to talk about. It makes them look smart while positioning them and their content, exponentially, in the minds of a much larger audience. One that you could never before reach in the bricks and mortar world—including business lunches, newspapers (print) or email and telephone.

This tactic—building content with the intent of helping others engage with others—was a recurring theme among panelists including: attorney blogger Roy Ginsburg – Dorsey & Whitney LLP; CEO, Peter Ozolin – Manzama, Inc.; and CMO, Adam L. Stock – Allen Matkins, as well as among my own panel mates Adrian Lurssen – JDSupra, John Hellerman – Hellerman Baratz Communications, and attorney/blogger Brian Wassom – Honigman.

The desired outcome, i.e., exposure, thought leadership, or feeding the sales pipeline all comes about when we facilitate conversations among a broad audience. And we thought our only challenge was getting attorneys to respond to @ replies on Twitter, Facebook, blogs, or LinkedIn. Not so. Although valuable, no question, producing content that others like, share, download, and discuss makes one’s contribution even more relevant and important to ROI. Especially in light of the fact that search algorithms are now accounting for “likes” and “shares” with even greater emphasis when indexing content in search results. Google+ has truly impacted this new model. So, get out there, build or share valuable content, get noticed, and don’t forget to notice others’ content. It’s a WEB! (LIKE THIS POST? Share and Like above or below!)

From my Lawyers’ Guide to Social Media which was posted to the conference website:*

• It isn’t what you’re saying on Twitter that best connects you and your services with others: it’s what you can get others to say about you that has the most impact.
• Getting reTweets can do more for you at the “handshake” level than any other social site.
• Focus on top 20% of followers as they are your most valuable conduit.
• Show up often. Repetition matters.

Take Control of Your Footprint.

Whether you blog or maintain a profile on LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook, you MUST pay attention. Adrian Dayton and Amy Knapp gave attendees an excerpt of their eBook LinkedIn & Blogs for Lawyers:Building High Value Relationships in a Digital Age, emphasizing the POWER of these new tools—not to be taken lightly. Your mere presence on the Internet (i.e. social media) is not enough. You have to be present. Opening an account and ignoring the obvious tactics of optimizing your profiles and responding to connections is a recipe for getting ignored-globally across networks. Clients, prospects and referral sources are taking social media seriously and woe to the lawyer or law firm that isn’t mirroring that.

I add that it is way too easy to use social media—to ignore it is a crime! Social media provides FREE tools that enable more marketing opportunities for FREE! What’s not to like about FREE?

VIDEO 2011.

Are your law firm videos still talking about yourself and how wonderful your commitment to client service is? Or, how carefully you recruit associates, and how you “understand” your clients’ business? Guess what? One point for trying, 0 points for execution. You’re missing some fertile ground for communicating REAL value. Aden Dauchess, Director of Digital Marketing – Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, PLLC and Adam L. Stock, Director of Marketing & Business Development- Allen Matkins Leck Mallory & Natsis LLP had a few things to say about creating and posting video content that gets noticed, shared, and adds value. This session, I believe, was one of the most valuable of the whole conference. Aden’s diagram of the video process his law firm follows from start to finish was worth the price of admission.

What’s effective today? Videos that demonstrate thought leadership, news, industry events, education, and community involvement. Check out the Allen Matikins and Womble websites for a taste of how video is done right! You don’t need an expensive crew, charismatic talking head, or an elaborate setting. Just a credible topic, authentic delivery, and a modestly professional recording.

AND MORE….

Thanks to the lawyers who shared their stories—bloggers who found a way to stand out, lawyers using LinkedIn Groups effectively, and time saving tips for cross posting and distribution.

Bottom line…social media is no longer a fad. It is a VERY POWERFUL medium. But, I’ve been saying that for almost 4 years now. The Law Gravity vision celebrates it’s 4th anniversary January 1, 2012 and we’re looking ahead at 2012 with optimism; offering lawyers, law firms and marketers context, training, coaching, content, policy, and strategy for successful and rewarding social media participation.

Look for a west coast edition of Social Media For Law Firms LIVE! in the Spring of 2012. 

* If you’d like a copy of Lawyers’ Guide to Social Media, drop me a note and I’ll send it along to you in a PDF. It compares sites and services and suggests best uses for communication and engagement during the buyer/seller process.

Cheers! Stop by often and share the knowledge….

Where else on Earth would you find…

• A conga line of ranging 56,800 miles (90,900 km): Equal to 9.76 round trips on the road between San Francisco and New York City.
• 74 Elvis impersonators
• 1.3+ billion potential connections
• 1,091 Chocolatiers
• 79+ million job transitions/changes tracked
• 46 profiles with “beatboxer” listed as a position
• 428% year-over-year membership growth rate in Brazil.
• The most registered users named Lee, Smith and Kumar
• 951 years of back-to-back 5-minute phone calls made by 100 million professionals
• 50% year-over-year growth in iPhone skill index
• A dog or cat psychologist / psychiatrist  [4 listed as a position]
• Target industries with the fastest year-over-year new member growth rates in Education (175%), Facilities Services (121%), and Ranching (112%)
• 100% of Fortune 500 company executives
• A martini whisperer [listed as a position]

Congratulations, LinkedIn on your 100 million member mile marker!

Says Jeff Weiner, LinkedIn CEO,

LinkedIn is used in over 200 countries and territories around the world, with more than half of our users coming from outside of the U.S. You can now connect just as readily with someone in Sao Paulo or Singapore as you can with your colleagues in San Francisco, London or New York.  You no longer have to live in the same city — or even the same country — to build and strengthen relationships that can help you succeed and grow professionally and fundamentally transform the trajectory of your career path.

Impressive!

Fifteen Ways Lawyers Can Use LinkedIn:

1. Create a profile | add to your online footprint—very high page rank on search engines, almost guaranteed first page results for individual name.
2. Use keywords in your profile title, summary, and experience to help you get found in “on site” searches.
3. Prepare and post a well-groomed and complete profile to position your personal brand – people hire lawyers, not law firms!
4. Create a personalized summary that expands on the benefits you deliver, not just features found on firm website page. Attract others to your network.
5. Encourage your employees to maintain complete profiles to show off your solid team.
6. Make introductions and get introductions from others in network.
7. Join client industry related groups.
8. Engage prospects by answering industry related questions.
9. Network in groups with your peers.
10. Use as a contact management system for getting and staying in front of your network via inMail, event announcements and press releases. (Use this in addition to the database used by your law firm marketing department and firm branded email blasts–it’s personal!) Stay top of mind!
11. Add apps to your profile to post docs, publications, feed blog content, JD Supra articles, Twitter updates, and travel schedules on Trip-it. Your activity shows up in your network “stream” keeping you front and center.
12. Share your presentation decks using the Slideshare application.
13. Use sharing and favorite or recommend buttons: Improves on-site traffic generation.
14. Customize links to your individual website bio page, firm’s main page, and blog or other personal website on your profile.
15. Promote and recommend others – the Golden RULE of business relationships!

ENJOY!

Last week the National Labor Relations Board launched a legal case asserting that employees have a right to free speech on Facebook. It announced that it had filed a complaint against an ambulance service that fired an emergency medical technician, accusing her, among other things, of violating a policy that bars employees from depicting the company “in any way” on Facebook or other social media sites in which they post pictures of themselves.

According to the New York Times, Lafe Solomon, the board’s acting general counsel, said, “This is a fairly straightforward case under the National Labor Relations Act — whether it takes place on Facebook or at the water cooler, it was employees talking jointly about working conditions, in this case about their supervisor, and they have a right to do that.”

That act gives workers a federally protected right to form unions, and it prohibits employers from punishing workers — whether union or nonunion — for discussing working conditions or unionization. The labor board said the company’s Facebook rule was “overly broad” and improperly limited employees’ rights to discuss working conditions among themselves.

Moreover, the board faulted another company policy, one prohibiting employees from making “disparaging” or “discriminatory” “comments when discussing the company or the employee’s superiors” and “co-workers.”

The board’s complaint prompted Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, a law firm with a large labor and employment practice representing hundreds of companies, to send a “lawflash” advisory on Monday to its clients, saying, “All private sector employers should take note,” regardless “of whether their work force is represented by a union.”

The firm added, “Employers should review their Internet and social media policies to determine whether they are susceptible to an allegation that the policy would ‘reasonably tend to chill employees’ ” in the exercise of their rights to discuss wages, working conditions and unionization.

American Medical Response of Connecticut denied the labor board’s allegations, saying they were without merit. “The employee in question was discharged based on multiple, serious complaints about her behavior,” the company said in a statement. “The employee was also held accountable for negative personal attacks against a co-worker posted publicly on Facebook. The company believes that the offensive statements made against the co-workers were not concerted activity protected under federal law.”

Law Firm Social Media “Policy?”

So, folks, what does this mean for our law firm social media policies? It certainly raises some interesting questions. Is social media the watercooler or is it something else? And if so, what is it? A permanent record that has the potential to be scrutinized by millions? Is it publishing: Like old school media where libel is a real concern?

There are some typical conditions included in law firm social media policies that may be impacted by this case sending us all into a tizzy.

Will this send us back to GO?
Will we lock down all social media sites and services?
Ban Facebook?

If this case wins and even if it only directly affects union workplaces, I’m pretty sure law firms will also want to revisit several policy points — just to be on the safe side. As innocent and full of common sense as the following language may seem, I’ve used them or seen them in law firm social media policies. With this case, policy statements like these may tip the balance between protecting the law firm brand and permitting free speech.

1. Individuals are personally responsible for the content they publish. What is published will be public for a long time — protect the firm’s good reputation as well as your own.
2. If you choose to add your place of employment to any profile, you must use common sense in all postings and comply with our workplace policies, ethics, and other requirements.
3. Respect for others is mandatory. Do not use ethnic slurs, personal insults, obscenity, or engage in any conduct that would not be acceptable in the workplace.
4. Show proper respect for others’ privacy and for topics that may be considered objectionable or inflammatory. We take this very seriously and any act to the contrary will be subject to discipline or result in termination.
5. What you publish reflects not only on the law firm’s brand, but can also impact your professional advancement, the achievement of your goals and your success in the future.  Use common sense and judgment. Ask if you are uncertain.
6. For your protection, be aware that your associations with others in online social networks and other user generated content sites are a reflection on you. All is revealed in search results. How you represent yourself can be a slippery slope.
7. You must make it clear that you are speaking for yourself and not on behalf of the firm. Speech that appears to represent the firm, even remotely, takes on the appearance of an official stance and is not permitted in any circumstance.

Lawyers Please Share Your Comments.

I’m not a human resource professional nor a risk manager so I don’t claim any authority on this, but I have been an employee. Policies, in my mind, mean that there are consequences to the employee when they are violated. Guidelines on the other hand are simply strong suggestions. Something to consider – are your social media do’s and don’ts policy or guidelines? If they are policy, are they overly broad? Do you need to be very specific and keep in mind the issues now being vetted by the NLRB?

At the end of the day, is firing someone over poor choices, bad judgment and such protected? I’d like to hear from an employment lawyer on this issue. I would think that any post that impedes the good will of the law firm or company could be considered bad judgment and cause for dismissal, but then I could be wrong on that.

I’ll be watching this closely. Meanwhile, please share your comments!

Something other than Autumn leaves is in the air. This week I’ve seen mentioned three high profile instances of individuals and institutions going on a social media blackout or brown-out and I admit my online activity has waned in the past few months — not because of choice but because I’ve got dozens of more immediate tasks (and relationships) to attend to. Anyway, here’s the rundown…

On Monday, it was Harrisburg University announcing an experiment to lock down access to social sites on all campus servers. According to Higher Ed;

On Tuesday, Chris Brogan posted this: Find Your Blinders:

Over time, I’ve been putting on very important blinders, one technology at a time. You see, our tools give us this “eyes wide open” blast-in-the-face exposure to information. We get text messages. We get tweets. We get email notifications. We get phone calls.

I have blinders on.

My phone doesn’t beep, buzz or blink when I get a SMS text message. I have to go find you when I’m ready to deal with you. My computer doesn’t ding or light things up when I get email. Not even my Twitter app.

I’m doing my best to direct my attention towards what matters: people, work, the future. Do I really want a tweet to draw me away from that?

On Wednesday, I opened the sports section of The Key West Citizen and found this:

NO TWEET ZONE – It’s a Twitter outage for Miami Football.

Miami’s football players just got the direct message: No more Twitter. The 17th ranked Hurricanes have been told to stop using accounts on the popular social network, the university’s athletic department said Tuesday making the announcement, yes, through it’s own Twitter feed. …. The goal is to limit distractions and focus..

The article by Tim Reynolds of the Associated Press (Sun Sentinel version here) also reported that a random check of Miami player accounts showed no activity since the announcement and several players had deleted their accounts. I’m anxious to learn if the blackout will work and to what effect.

Are we getting burnt out? Anyone working on a social media diet?

The demise of social media and networking has been predicted by some for a while now, here and here, but still, online users are flooding the bandwidth and new sites are launched daily, while tried and true sites continue to tweak and improve their offerings. Just a few short months ago EVERYONE was jumping on board to try their hand at cruising the social scene online looking for both personal and business opportunities. Unfortunately, those with get-rich-quick business development hopes may be building a house of cards—burn-out is for real…if you’re not careful your intake becomes a slippery slope and before you know it you’re sitting in the mud puddle trying to figure out what to do next.

What can we learn from this?

I don’t know about you, but for me, I’ve always worn a media filter and social media is no different. I love the global access to ideas, people and conversations the Internet makes possible, but I have to keep it real. Any engagement with media, especially the user generated kind, is an add-on. As a business tool there are great advantages, but for me, these advantages only exist in the context of fundamental business principles, real people and real relationships.

I’ll go out on a ledge here to say that I think the generation growing up with the Web and all it’s social media accouterments is kind of making up the game as they go along. It is parallel in many ways to those fake reality TV shows. My kids will tell you — I banned them from watching. I’m sure they can still hear my nagging words: “Go out and live your own experiences.”

It may be time to take a step backwards and align online activity to supplement what was working before the social bandwagon rolled into town. Perhaps the bit of old-fashioned wisdom in the actions of Harrisburg U’s provost and UM’s football coach is the ticket? What do you think?

How are you managing your social media tether?  I try to take it one step at a time, manage my time, AND my expectations.

Cheers!

If you’re responsible for business development in your law firm or your own practice, whether a lawyer, managing partner, marketing or business development professional, attending the Raindance Conference should be on your to do list, in my opinion.

What is Raindance? It is an annual educational conference presented by the Legal Sales and Service Organization. It is exclusively dedicated to all things business development and process improvement. I attended the LSSO Raindance Conference for the first time in 2008 and believe that it was probably two of the most valuable days in my professional development over the course of 15 years in the legal marketing industry. This year I’ll be attending the conference and will cover the content here on VMO and on Twitter.  (Disclosure: LSSO has graciously given me press pass privileges to attend. I’m not being paid. I’m covering all travel expenses.)

Here are the top five reasons why Raindance was valuable to me and may be valuable to you:

1. FOCUSED–Raindance does not serve a broad group with many agendas. It is a focused immersion into the components that make business developers and business development projects successful. The sessions are designed to build upon each other leaving you with a cohesive knowledge base.
2. EDUCATION–Raindance is not about parties. It is not a boondoggle. It’s about the business of professional development and business education.  Every session is a priority. The presenters are selected according to their distinct and valuable knowledge base. The presenters know why they were there–to teach, not just “share.” Many of the sessions are interactive and make learning more tangible. (I was able to remember what I was learning in a practical context and apply it to my business with specificity.) All sessions were high quality. The presenters are typically readily available after the sessions and during the luncheons and breaks. It is a holistic educational experience.
3. PEOPLE–Networking at Raindance is very manageable because the intimacy of a smaller setting puts you among people with similar professional development goals. It’s a good example of old fashioned community. Getting face time with colleagues as well as introductions to new people allow you to form meaningful new relationships that become valuable resources. Conversations are about what your are learning.  The connections you make at Raindance will stay with you all year long.
4. PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT–This is a sophisticated group of thought leaders; typically senior level people with responsibility for delivering real results in biz dev. Both attendees and presenters are the kind of people you want to surround yourself with if you’re seeking serious professional development. The conference may be especially valuable for professionals, both marketers and lawyers, who are new or junior to law firm biz dev. I wish I would have had this resource as I was coming up the ranks.

If you do decided to attend, make sure to touch base with me! If you can’t attend, follow along here on the VMO and Twitter #LSSO10 or @legalsalesorg. The conference is June 9-10 in Chicago at the Mid-America Club at 200 E. Randolph Street. More information can be found on the Website at www.legalsales.org or you can register at West Legal Ed.

Political topics are not my focus, however, I recently read with great interest a op-ed piece, Winds of Change? by The New York Times Op-Ed Columnist THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN that drew me in and so I’m sharing it with my blog readers for better or worse. He wrote on June 13th, 2009 that “something is going on in the Middle East today that is very new.” And …”four historical forces have come together to crack open this ossified region.”

Mr. Friedman lists as the first force: the diffusion of technology.

The Internet, blogs, YouTube and text messaging via cell phones, particularly among the young — 70 percent of Iranians are under 30 — is giving Middle Easterners cheap tools to communicate horizontally, to mobilize politically and to criticize their leaders acerbically, outside of state control. It is also enabling them to monitor vote-rigging by posting observers with cell phone cameras.

I knew something had changed when I sat down for coffee on Hamra Street in Beirut last week with my 80-year-old friend and mentor, Kemal Salibi, one of Lebanon’s greatest historians, and he told me about his Facebook group!

The evening of Lebanon’s election, I went to the Beirut home of Saad Hariri, the leader of the March 14 coalition, to interview him. In a big living room, he had a gigantic wall-size television broadcasting the results. And alongside the main TV were 16 smaller flat-screen TVs with electronic maps of Lebanon. Hariri’s own election experts were working on laptops and breaking down every vote from every religious community, village by village, and projecting them on the screens.

Wow. That’s powerful.

Daily photos, like these, posted on WordPress blog Tehran 24 show life in Tehran up close. These are not your ordinary media photos. They tell a story that only the independent photo journalist can tell. And the Internet is making it possible.

In addition to what is happening in the Middle East, here are a few more examples that I know of  where technology and the Internet are changing our world. (of course there are dozens more….)

It’s a small world after all.

I was told by a friend of mine after he returned from a writing assignment in a rural village in India that the country has invested in wireless towers everywhere; even poor cotton farmers were carrying cell phones. I imagine this technology is improving their quality of life by giving them access to services that would not otherwise reach them. Mobile cell technology is one step from Internet access.

The Internet is enabling free speech for those who have none, and despite extreme consequences, bloggers continue to publish.  As of April 2009, there were 21 online journalists in jail in Cuba.  Independent journalists in Cuba (or dissidents as they are often referred to by the government) using the Internet to disseminate their communications are apparently scaring the hell out of the dictatorship.

I think back to how the first televised presidential debate changed forever the way Americans view and elect our presidents. More recently, the Obama campaign used social media to push its message.  Although it was more of a substitute for a direct mail campaign (with some exceptions), I believe politicians can no longer run a campaign without it, at least not until the next thing comes along. Hopefully the next presidential election will use social media for more dialogue and debate, rather than just a medium to push a message.

The expansion of online social tools here in America and around the world is facilitating the renewal and extension of friendships on Facebook, establishing boundary less business relationships on Linkedin, and getting first on the scene news from Twitterers. That’s the good news.

The bad news is that that the Internet is also enabling criminal activity and other dubious enterprises, but over all, I look forward to hearing more stories of how technology and the Internet is empowering and connecting our world for good.

What’s in a name? A lot.

At least on June 13th starting at 12:01 a.m. (EDT).  Why?  Facebook is hosting a name claim extravaganza. That’s right, no more url addresses with Facebook.com and a random series of numbers and digits.  You will be able to select a username at http://www.facebook.com/username for your Facebook account to easily direct friends, family, and coworkers to your profile.

Law firms and the companies they counsel who are interested in getting found on Facebook will also be able to stake a claim such as http://www.facebook.com/yourcompanynamehere.

With one caveat, no Pizza or Flowers yet. At this time, generic words are not available as usernames. Facebook encourages all users and Page administrators to create a username that closely matches the true identity of their name or business.

Companies can (and should) preemptively protect their rights to their trademarks and block cyber-squatting by registering their mark with Facebook.  All you need to do is visit here. Provide your company’s name, the trademark and the federal trademark registration number, and subject to their review, Facebook will reserve the trademark and not let anyone else use it.

According to Brian Fergemann, a partner and intellectual property attorney at Chicago’s Winston & Strawn, quoted today in the National Law Journal,

“This is really a way for someone who has a distinct or famous trademark to let Facebook know that others should not be allowed to register that page. They can just say, ‘Please don’t let anyone use my registered trademark.’ “

I agree, and even if your law firm or company is not yet on Facebook you should register your mark, NOW.  The good news is, that even if you are not registered but  find that someone’s username infringes your rights, you can fill out an automated IP infringement form.

Now for the fun stuff!

Hold the presses! Your username url can be used in your marketing communications, company website and business cards e.g. http://www.facebook.com/yourname. Consider including it or at least your linkedin public url on the front or back of your card.

Usernames will be available in basic text forms, and you can only choose a single username for your profile and for each of the Pages that you administer; e.g. fan pages. If you have just signed up for Facebook since May 31, 2009 you’ll have to wait to claim your name. This is one way Facebook is hoping to deter cyber-squatting.

If you are an administrator of a Facebook Page (fan page, company page), you will be able to choose your username just like a user selecting a username for their profile. However, your Facebook Page must meet two requirements: it must be live on Facebook prior to the May 31, 2009 cut-off date and have a minimum 1,000 fans as of May 31, 2009.

Caution!!

Once you have claimed a username by clicking the “Set Username” button, it is not possible to edit it, or to transfer your username to a different account on Facebook. So be selective and, as always, think before hitting save or send. Additionally, when an account is removed from the site, its username will not be made available to other users for security reasons.

That’s it!

John Doe, Robert Smith and Susan Jones…. I’ll see you at http://www.facebook.com/username at 12:01 a.m. EDT, on Saturday, June 13, 2009.  The early bird gets the worm, I mean username.  For the rest of us, see you at 10 a.m.