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.

There are several things law firms can learn from the recent publicity of the JetBlue incident, particularly in the context of the social Web and reputation management, but three stand out.

1. Your stakeholders want you to succeed. They want to believe that you, their law firm, do the right thing; that you’re a valuable asset to their team and that others believe as they do.
2. Align your law firm with stakeholders, via engagement on the social Web, BEFORE a crisis strikes to give you access to, and credibility with, your stakeholders if and when an incident needs to be addressed.
3. Transparency on the social web is critical for law firms, especially in times of high media interest, and so it must be handled with care, for both the law firm and all involved parties.

Address crisis or rumor with effectiveness and style via the social Web

The recent Steven Slater/Jet Blue “Beer Slide” saga has had everyone in a tizzy lately; especially the media, JetBlue fans, executives at JetBlue who are normally quite chatty on the social Web, and their lawyers.  It appears that their legal counsel prompted Jet Blue’s silence in the early aftermath of the incident. Three cheers for the step-away-from-the-microphone advice during the initial brouhaha. In this case it turned out to be great advice.

Despite the negative squawking that penetrated the net – Where are they? Why aren’t they telling us what’s going on? – JetBlue pulled away from business as usual on the social Web until they gathered the essence and then posted a brief, but highly effective, entry on their corporate blog, BlueTales. They presented a side of the story with a compassionate, yet lighthearted, persona addressing the issues they were facing. They asked their online stakeholders to hold on.

What JetBlue did right.

In a simple blog post, they covered the issue with transparency –at least as much as legal considerations would allow at this early stage of the investigation— and the blog tool was the perfect delivery channel. (Note: they had already established a loyal following – see Lesson Two)

Lesson One: We love you!

In response to the blog post (193 comments so far), here’s what a few readers had to say

• …i love you jet blue
• …this is your chance to rise above all the nasty comments left online, by being gracious and forgiving. Offer his job back; don’t worry, he won’t take it; give him a stern lecture; and remind all passengers they MUST obey, by federal law, the orders of flight attendents, who are NOT just glorified waitresses and waiters. Here’s your chance: don’t blow it!
• Thank you for acknowledging your fine employees at this time. My family and I have always been very true, loyal customers of JetBlue.
• I think JetBlue should show the world, yes the world, that there is a lot of abuse in the service industry. Please show the world that there is a company that has empathy for their loyal employees. I feel your company is in the best position to teach the world it needs to be polite to people in the service industry and people in general. The world needs this lesson. Show us your empathy.
• This is a goldmine opportunity. You should definitely hire this guy, and have him make a bunch of funny YouTube videos about the dos and don’ts of carryon luggage. Have him try to shove a size 10 carry-on into a size 9 over-head, sideways. At the end he could have a little sign off (think Dan Rather’s “Courage!”) and then take the chute out of the plane, like Batman. If you don’t somebody else will, why not get the credit for being fair to someone who is viewed by many as a hero, and at the same time turn some lemon-like bad publicity into some earned advertising lemonade.
• I’ve flown with Jet Blue and I have nothing but good stuff to say! I don’t think this story will tarnish ur reputation. Your a great little airline keep doing what your doing it works I really like that Google maps thing that says where the plane is that is so cool!
• Jet Blue…..the most polite officers and crew. I only fly Jet Blue. Only had one tiny set back on Blue….No TV for 3 hours of my flight. But I lived. Thank you Jet Blue for being the best Airline to fly with…

Okay, okay, so we don’t expect law firm clients to be in love with their law firms in the same way they might love their preferred airline. BUT, take for example today’s headline story on the National Law Journal site.

Hunton & Williams has been hit with a $150 million lawsuit in Wisconsin claiming that the law firm maliciously squeezed a broker out of a contract and should pay up for the company’s losses.

The Richmond, Va.-based law firm issued a statement through a spokeswoman in response to the action. “This suit was filed by an adversary of one of our clients,” it said. “These allegations have no merit, and we plan to vigorously defend against them.” [Emphasis added]

What if, in a circumstance like this, there was a social channel (blog, website, discussion board, Facebook page, whatever) where the law firm laid out, after careful examination and with some transparency, the situation to the extent allowed by ethics and privilege? What if loyal clients added their comments? How would that impact the reputation of the law firm? How would that impact the clients’ perception that their voices mattered? How would it give readers what they wanted to hear and give them understanding?

Before you say, “noooo way would we open up the pipes and let people trash us,” I say, why is that? Why do you think you’d get trashed? Don’t you know you have clients who really do depend on you? Sure there might be people who would use the opportunity to grind an ax, but I’m going to take a guess that, over all, sophisticated readers would see right through that. Especially if you were being transparent, i.e. human, rational, reasonable business professionals who practice law and deliver value to clients.

Lesson Two: Align with stakeholders before the crisis hits.

For JetBlue, their social Web presence started long before Steven Slater, a veteran flight attendant, had maxed out on his tolerance for rude passengers, chugged a few beers, opened the evacuation slide, exited his job in dramatic fashion and entered the Internet media spotlight. They were there, amidst their stakeholders before the crisis hit. They were active on Twitter, Facebook, and their blogs. They were not only posting news releases and canned messages, they were engaging.  They had positioned themselves positively in the minds of their stakeholders. They were a “human” entity. (Which is also why there was shock when they didn’t give an early response. A two edged sword that had a happy ending.)

Law firms that are still on the ledge or are not taking the social Web seriously may be in for a surprise the next time they need to communicate with a broad base of share stakeholders. (See also Toyota Recall) Best to be proactive and get a social media presence now.

Lesson three: Be transparent, but handle with care.

I am not suggesting that law firms or anyone should try cases in the media. We all know that strategy. Sometimes it works and other times it hurts. However, it doesn’t hurt to be prepared and the social Web needs your attention.

When something dramatic happens, the media is looking for a story. They’ll get it where ever and however they can. In the pre-Internet days they would pull quotes and sentiment from passersby. That hasn’t changed, only now they have access to those sources 24/7 without leaving their desks, thanks to user generated content. To make matters more intense, passersby are telling their stories without the filter of the media.

Prepared statements from public relations departments and executives are becoming passé where the social Web is involved. Canned statements are ineffective unless they are handled with transparency and human perspective. The social Web demands it. Woe to the law firm who ignores it. Eventually it WILL catch up to you. On the flip side, speaking too early or too loudly may come back to haunt you. It’s a new PR approach, best to be prepared to handle it carefully.

Bottom Line:

Maybe if we–law firms–were more transparent, within ethical boundaries, people could be educated in the subtleties of the profession and attitudes would shift. After all, aren’t most civil disputes and legal actions the result of misunderstandings? The law is immense and difficult to interpret. What is your law firm doing to engage with their constituencies on the social Web so that you will have ready access to manage your reputation proactively?

As a marketer I rarely, if ever, try to “convince” a law firm or lawyer that social media and networking is something they MUST do. When I speak to groups of lawyers [or marketers] on the topic, I am careful to craft my speeches in a way that presents details, offers illustrations of what others are doing, and I like to share stories about what is or is not working. In other words, I try to give others enough information, pertinent information, which empowers them in making their own decision. But, it’s really more than that…without a need a tool has no meaning.

If you only know how to use a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

Whenever I hear a social media guru preach about the miracles of the social Web and how everyone should be doing this or that, I cringe. It’s like the construction worker who only knows how to use a hammer and so everything starts looking like a nail.

You see, digital communications and the social Web are fantastic tools, but without a need they have no meaning. How could I get in front of a group of strangers—in most cases—and urge them to use tools that they don’t need? If you’re working on your bike and you need an Allen wrench and someone hands you a screwdriver, it just won’t work. The screwdriver has no purpose, no meaning—it’s no use. I guess you could try to force the issue and try to use the wrong tool, but you probably won’t get the results you’re looking for, you’ll be unhappy, and you could waste a lot of time.

Likewise, if you’re not already developing business off-line, or you don’t know how to work a room, write about something people want to read, or understand the buyer and seller process, then you’re probably not going to find the social Web very helpful; it may be the wrong tool for you.

What makes a Rainmaker?

The impulses, skills, and personality types that make great rainmakers aren’t overtly impacted by the tools they use. Their success is the result of their behaviors, such as their ability to listen, see a need and respond.

Sure they need opportunities for exposure, conversation, and relationship and they use a variety of tools and tactics to inform, educate, relate or influence, but the focus is always on people and relationships – people, not tools, buy and use legal services.

For a rainmaker, whatever needs to happen…. well, there is a tool for that. Whether it is buying a table of ten, attending a golf tournament, sponsoring a little league team or getting some PR…whether it is writing a blog post, starting a discussion in an online social networking group, or Tweeting or forwarding articles via email, the best results will come from the operator using the RIGHT tool at the RIGHT time.

Sometimes proof or case studies can help us to identify with and understand our audiences; where they are and what tools might be effective in reaching them. One method is to look at survey data.

What does this data mean to you?

A recently released survey by GreenTarget, zeughauser Group and ALM Legal Intelligence documents attitudes and adoption (Consumption, Familiarity and Use) of New Media by in-house counsel lawyers. You may also find Heather Milligan’s recap of it at the Legal Watercooler Blog helpful, or the original research can be found on the GreenTarget Web site.*

I’m betting there are tons of marketing directors downloading the report right now and walking it down the hall to the managing partner’s office, and I’m really happy for them that they may have something that might help them make the case. You may also want to look at a recently release compilation of AmLaw 100 firms and their use of particular digital tools from MyCorporateResource.com.

*—One note on the GreenTarget research sample. It interviewed only 164 in-house counsel attorneys—there are 25,000 members of Association of Corporate Counsel. I’m not a researcher and  I don’t know the answer to this, maybe one of my readers can help me out… Does this type of research work like a “representative sample thing” suggesting that we can conclude from this small sample that it reflects the attitudes of the whole in-house counsel bar? What does this data mean to you?

What this data means to me.

Overall the data is hardly shocking—in the plus or minus column–because I’ve been following how general Internet usage has trended over the years. Pew Internet & American Life project found that in 2009 74% of American adults (ages 18 and older) among a sample of 2,258 adults, (English speaking 2,197) (Spanish speaking 61) were using the Internet. This represents an increase of 25% since 2000-2001. The report that 71% of those use the Internet (search) to find information.

Though any comparison would be apples to oranges, taking into account the educational difference between in-house counsel and the U.S. adult population, it’s interesting to me that:

Pew reports social networking among U.S. adults by age looks like this:

18-32 [67%], 33-44 [36%], 45-54 [20%], 55-63 [9%], 64-72 [11%].

GreenTarget reports social networking among in-house counsel on LinkedIn looks like this:

30-39 [47%], 40-49 [39%], 50-59 [29%] and 60+ [13%]

(Surprisingly, this shows that the only highly skewed number is in the 50-60 range and that may be because the break outs of age range are different.)

Pew reports adult Internet users reading blogs looks like this:

18-31 [43%], 33-44 [34%], 45-54 [27%], 55-63 [25%], 64-72 [23%]

While GreenTarget reports that:

“Blog use, in comparison [to social networking], is more consistent across age groups and company size, demonstrating broad acceptance of the channel as a viable source of news and information.”

“Blogs are the most frequently used tool among in-house lawyers at the largest companies (revenue of $1.5 billion to $9.9 billion) with 35 percent having visited a blog in the past 24 hours, and 54 percent in the past week.”

Inside/Outside counsel.

Another interesting tid-bit from the GreenTarget survey reports how in-house counsel ranked the following activities “most important” for helping them to vet and research outside counsel for potential hire:

1. Recommendations from sources you trust 73 percent
2. Articles and speeches the lawyer has authored 38 percent
3. Bios on the firm’s Web site 30 percent
4. Blogs published by lawyers 27 percent
5. Rankings and directories 25 percent
6. Twitter feeds from lawyers 22 percent
7. Endorsements and connections on LinkedIn 18 percent
8. Quotes by lawyers in relevant media outlets 15 percent

[The study notes that that 37 % of counsel aged 30-39 rated “blogs published by lawyers” as the second most important activity for helping them to research outside lawyers for potential hire, following “recommendations from sources they trust and many regarded LinkedIn as the most powerful new media platform.]

I’m not surprised to see “recommendations from sources you trust at the top” of the main list…and, would point out that in the right hands social media and networking tools can play a role in becoming known, liked and trusted!

I suppose this research is getting closer to defining a need that all lawyers may want to understand, i.e. if in-house counsel are (or will be shortly) looking to the Web as a primary source for information then you should be feeding the hungry beast and “hanging out” in the same places.

If you want to be present and accounted for and you’re not already there, you may want to start cutting your teeth now…

By that I mean, get out on the Web more often, watch, listen and learn. In the beginning, business development should be the LAST thing on your mind. Get a feel for the tools and learn to enjoy being there before you put pressure on yourself to see specific business results.

Use the social Web as:

• an intellectual exercise
• a creative outlet
• a way to stay connected to a community
• a resource for your practice
• a resource to learn more about your clients

I recently interviewed six attorneys for my forthcoming book social.lawyer: Transforming business development (Thomson West mid-summer). ALL but one of them has been “working on the Web” for many, many years—some their entire adult lives. It takes time to learn how to use the entire tool box…online (or offline!).

So, if the solution to a recognized need points you toward the social Web, relax and enjoy. Take it slow, get help, and ask questions. Remember, it’s your behavior and the way in which you use the tools that matters most, not the tools. When you’re engaged in something you enjoy others often see it as a sign of confidence and self-understanding –all good traits I’d want to see in my lawyer if I were an in-house counsel. If it’s a chore or you don’t see a need and resent doing it, others will see that too….

**One caveat: use social with discretion and be sure to add value! Those in-house counsel often used words like Time, Information, and Credibility–reflecting a collective voice that engaging in social media platforms is extremely time-consuming, that credibility is a serious barrier, and that the sheer abundance of information poses the difficult challenge of discerning between credible and non-credible content.

While no longer a novelty to Tweet a conference in social media circles, (see #SWSX), for the legal industry it is ground breaking. Just a short year ago we only had a handful of people experimenting with the tools during the Legal Marketing Association’s annual conference. This year we had an amazing group of social webbites taking it to the extreme. Every session was covered on Twitter via an army of volunteers. The transcript of the three day conference can be found here. #LMA10.

A year ago at the 2009 LMA Conference, I presented a very basic, very general  session on  social media and social networking. What a difference a year makes.  This year I had the opportunity to share a breakout session with two senior legal marketers, Heather Milligan and Russell Lawson, on how to integrate STRATEGY into social law firm marketing.  We had only a short 45 minutes to cover all the exciting ways we’re adding the social web to the marketing mix and so we decided to limit questions and discussion from attendees during the session. That, of course, didn’t matter to this group. Twitter was in the audience.  The questions AND insights offered via Twitterverse expanded and enriched the experience remarkably.

Lindsay Griffith wrote a very thorough recap of the session on the social web for small and mid-sized firms on her blog Zen and the Art of Legal Networking. Take minute to read it, and let us know if you have comments. Her recap includes excerpts of Tweets. It’s a great recap and shout out to Lindsay for taking the time to pull it together. So, even if you didn’t get to attend the conference, head on over to Lindsay’s blog where she also has recaps of other session.

Nancy Myrland at Myrland Marketing Minutes put together a cool Vimeo of the Tweet-up during the conference. Others have added post conference insight on their blogs, which I’ll try to dig out and add to this post. Meanwhile, if you have one, please feel free to add it to the comments here.

Bottom line. The legal industry is waking up to Twitter and it’s a brand new day. Now, if marketers can be of any inspiration to lawyers, I encourage everyone to join the party. If lawyers started tweeting substantive law conferences – we’d all be smarter and they’d be famous just like folks over at Russell’s law firm, Sands Anderson.

Folks, the 24^th running of the Annual Legal Marketing Association Conference, Grade 1 Stakes, hosted this year Denver, Colorado is about to take off…..they’re all loaded and they’re……OFF! Out in the lead is Pre-Conference Session, followed on the rail by Darling Nathan, Twitter, and #LMA10, neck in neck for third is Tweet-Up, Your Honor Award and Concurrent Break Out, following about three lengths off is Exhibit Hall, Night Out and Akina AfterParty, trailing the pack is Say Good Bye and dead last, is Long Flight Home. Looks like he has a lot of ground to make up.  Folks, this IS a horse race! They’re rounding the club house turn now, it looks like #LMA10 is taking a run for the lead…oh, no, no,no,  it’s Darling Nathan out in front and leading ALL THE WAY TO THE FINISH LINE…..It’s Darling Nathan!  LMA10 and YourHonorAward finishing out–in the money!

Okay, so now that I got that little bit of fun behind me…tomorrow, I’ll be joining my colleagues Heather Milligan @heathermilligan and Russell Lawson @russ23229 for a panel discussion on Social Web Strategies for Mid-size and Small Law Firms #LMA10SM. But you already knew that because I’ve been yapping about it for months now. We’re just so excited to join lawyers and marketers who’ll be attending our session at 4Pm on Thursday and for those who can’t here’s a preview.

This is a list of questions we’ll be taking during our session. Anything we don’t get to will be found in posts on our blogs and on our Twitter streams.

1. What was your greatest PERSONAL challenge when you first jumped on to the social web and what is your greatest PERSONAL challenge on the social web TODAY?
2. What is your greatest challenge in your role as MARKETER today and how has that changed from when you first introduced online social to your firm?
3. ­­­­­­­­What would you say is the greatest overall challenge for your LAW FIRM and THE LAWYERS? How are you, or how do you plan, to address these challenges as a marketer in your law firm?
4. How do you, as a marketer or attorney responsible for your firm’s marketing efforts, influence and organize the law firm’s overall objectives with social web tactics? Do you have a master plan and if so, what does that look like? Does it integrate offline tactics or is it a stand-alone plan?
5. How important is it to your overall plan to strike a balance between micro-managing the process and giving attorneys the freedom to experiment? Or, in your experience do they lean on you to experiment, guide, teach and lead?
6. How do you help your attorneys keep up with the volume of info on the social web and make sure they’re tapped into the right people? How important is it for the marketer to help attorneys set realistic and achievable goals that match their individual style, time restraints, and comfort levels? And how do you do that? With a small in-house staff, do you ever outsource that work?
7. What in your opinion are the pros and cons of hosting an attorney blog on the firm website vs. independently? How did you make your decision, what does it look like, and is it working?
8. How aggressively does your law firm cross promote its blogs and what does that look like? Who does it? Where? Etc.  Have you added or do you intend to add any social networking and social sharing features to your home website?
9. How important is it to your strategy to get attorneys to post comments on other people’s blogs?
10. What advice do you have about comments on lawyer or law firm blogs? How have you addressed that in the disclaimer or not?
11. Some law firm’s have editorial or ethics committees that want to approve posts. How does content approval work in your process? Do you have any advice on the process?
12. What do you believe is the marketer’s role in coaching, training or policing issues of attorney ethics or even simply social web engagement?
13. To be or not to be on a social network is still a hot topic. What are common objections and how do you respond?
14. Do you have a specific strategy for spreading out attorney participation across social networks or do you leave it up to them? In either case, how do you monitor or measure their involvement?
15. When you are introducing a lawyer to the social networking space, do you help them lay out objectives or let them just explore? If objectives are in place, what key strategies do you emphasize, how do you help them in an ongoing way?
16. What does transparency on the social web mean to you personally and is that any different than what you try to teach your attorneys? Is transparency and collaboration a deal killer for some of your attorneys? What, if any, is the difference in an AmLaw 100 firm, a small firm or a mid-sized firm? Is there a noticeable difference between their comfort zones regarding transparency?
17. The social web is a BIG topic with lots of nuances, but if you could pass along one piece of advice, what would that be?

Okay, that’s a lot when I see it in black and white,  so maybe we’ll never get past the first 10 questions, but we’re going to try to cover all this stuff. I hope you’ll follow along: #LMA10SM.  Or  visit VMO, legalwatercoolerblog.com and progressivemarketingblog.com for an after session round up.