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….

Created by: Online Schools

WHAT’S IN YOUR DIGITAL LIFE?

Me. Well, I recently moved and do not have an extra outlet at my bedside so I’ve been recharging my iPhone at night beside my desk–in another room. The difference is noticeable. Before I used to wake up in the middle of the night and look at the email.  Then before I got out of bed in the morning I’d check my email and chat. Now, I open my eyes, step out of bed, open my curtains and greet the morning sky (and usually sun) with a big stretch and thanks to the heavens for giving me another day. I put on the coffee and then….I go to the door to pick up the morning paper from the stoop. I breath the fresh air deeply. With my cafe con leche in hand, I move slowly to the desk, unplug the phone and check the email, but rarely respond unless there is an emergency. (Is there ever really a marketing emergency that can’t wait till I get to the office at 8AM?) Then I move outdoors to read the paper and laugh at page 2 of The Key West Citizen. The Citizen’s Voice is a barometer of the tribe–these days it consists of those of us strong enough to weather the summer in Key West. Late this winter it’ll document the 2 cents of the snow birds (as if we really care, right?). But besides being informative it can be amusing! You probably aren’t up to speed on the impact that cruise ships, ghost tours, street musicians, and the chronically homeless have on a small island community such as ours–it’s just outrageous! (tongue- in-cheek). If only the world had such troubles. And, I often LOL at the ever humorous page 2 Crime Report–stupid is as stupid does.

After indulging in this “real time” experience, I awaken and go to my office refreshed and connected for another day! Then I fire up the Mac, the apps and the mail and wonder….what did I ever do without technology?

How does your day begin? With a smart phone or a sun rise?  With a café con leche and a laugh? I hope so!

Are you still trying to get your arms around social media? Still feeling uncertain about it’s usefulness in marketing your practice or for networking your referral sources?

You’ve probably attended webinars, conference sessions, read whitepapers, articles, blog posts, and maybe even books, to try to find the most simple, direct answer to “what should I be doing?” And, you might even have come up slightly more overwhelmed, right? May I suggest that you…

Establish context.

I’ve spent the last three years speaking on social media to groups of lawyers, marketers, law firm administrators, and more, watching eyes glaze over densely illustrated slide decks with dizzying screen captures of sites and services. I’ve gotten my share of unsettling looks from the risk averse when covering the issues of privacy, policy, ethics, and other do’s and don’ts. I’ve fielded hundreds of questions from lawyers and marketers, only to realize that I’ve created more questions than I answered for them.  Truth is, I study this stuff, it’s my JOB, and even I am often challenged by the unstructured nature of social media.

I determined to fix that. Social media needs a little more structure. To that I said, ahaha! CONTEXT. We need context. Context gives structure to plans, why not social media.  So, if you’re tired of the buck shot approach and want to give your social media experience a little more structure…read on….there’s only one step…

1. Don’t do anything different.

Keep doing what you’ve always done (either consciously or unconsciously) when originating or expanding on business—help the buyer through the purchase process. That process of buying services hasn’t changed since the first day that the very first service was bartered or bought.

Whenever there is a high involvement purchase, you can be certain that the buyer WILL pass through these four phases:

1. Recognition
2. Knowledge gathering
3. Consideration
4. Selection

Your job as an attorney is easy; help the buyer through the stages.

The Buyer’s Process.

1. Recognition – the buyer seeks to recognize their options; i.e., “Who can help me set up a trust fund for my kids?” Now, without being aware that you, an estate-planning attorney, exist, how can they hire you? They can’t. You have to have exposure.  Marketing your practice via things like advertising, sponsorship, speaking, writing, website optimization, or word-of-mouth (referrals) are all good ways to “help buyers” who are looking for your services to find you. (I used the estate-planning example here, which is more B2C, but it is really the same, or similar, for B2B practices as well.)

2. Knowledge gathering – Once the buyer feels confident that they have sufficiently identified a manageable universe of attorneys they will move into the knowledge gathering phase. This is where they start talking to others, ask for specific reasons why they are recommending so and so, AND, they do an Internet search to learn more about you, as well as learn as much as they can about their options—your competition. (Give them lots to look at! Give them more than the one-dimensional website bio page!)

This is the stage where you need to stand out from the others. You can differentiate your self by carefully listening for the real needs then offering proof of your expertise in that regard. Or, you can maintain a high profile reputation among those who can recommend you. You can also differentiate by providing educational content through publishing articles and, hopefully you’ll be able to engage directly with the buyer through substantive conversations while having a get-to-know-you with them.  In this phase remember, you are not selling, you are educating – but really you are closing the engagement – more on that coming up!

3. Consideration – When the buyer determines that they have enough information, they make a short list and enter the consideration phase. This is when they analyze the pros and cons of each attorney based upon what they uncovered during the knowledge gathering stage. If you, the seller, have been helpful in the knowledge gathering stage, you may also be invited to the consideration stage.

In the consideration stage it is your job to stay top of mind with the buyer, dig deeper into their thought process and fill in any gaps or doubts. Manage this stage well and you increase the likelihood that their selection is YOU!

4. Selection – If you did everything right in the knowledge gathering stage, and helped them through the consideration stage, you have already closed the engagement.

SOCIAL MEDIA.

In the context of the buyer-seller processes use social media — social media gives you ample opportunity to hit all the phases: recognition, education, consideration and selection.

First, get to know which social media serves best in each phase, then use it! For example, having a search footprint that is full of content links – not just those that lead to your firm website bio – is great for exposure.  And, if some of those links lead to published content that serves to educate the buyer, not only about your services but also about your topics, you will be helping the buyer through the knowledge gathering phase. Then, if you add value to conversations, post questions and answers, participate in groups, network on Facebook, etc., you’ll not only address the knowledge-gathering phase; you’ll be keeping your name top of mind during the consideration phase. And the beauty of it all is that your online footprint keeps working for you even when you’re sleeping, or playing. Further, online content spreads and there by increases your exposure to new prospects, again, filling in the beginning recognition phase of the process.

Make sense? Hope this helps you in your knowledge gathering stage…let me know!

As always, standing by to help you grow your practice via social media, and more…

Looking back – Looking forward.

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

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

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

Focus on content and community.

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

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

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

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

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

Community intersects with business.

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

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

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

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

As social media channels grow and the “what should we be doing” buzz slowly moves across the legal marketing industry, more legal marketing professionals and law firm leaders are asking, do we need to hire an agency? If you’re big enough or serious enough, you probably do. And according to some of the heavy hitters in corporate America, maybe even more than one if you want to touch all the bases.

Big Brands Weigh in on Social Agencies

In a post by Kate Kay at ClickZ, the big brands weigh in.

“Depending on the agency and the need, we leverage them and their strengths,” said Singh of the social agencies Pepsi works with, noting that he has yet to find one agency that fulfills all his social marketing needs. “We shop by skill on the agency side,” he added.

Scott Monty, Ford Motor Company’s pioneering head of social media, told the social marketing panel’s audience, “We’re very methodical and very aggressive about our social media” efforts. He said Ford has a social media agency at the corporate level and works with Team Detroit – a joint venture of WPP agencies including JWT, Mindshare, Ogilvy, Wunderman, and Y&R – in crafting social campaigns.

Ian Schafer, CEO of Deep Focus, an agency that handles social media strategy for companies and brands including HBO, Diageo, and Bing, suggested that social agencies have varying approaches. Some, he said, are more focused on scale, reach, and frequency, while others are focused on engagement.

Microsoft is also learning as it goes when it comes to integrating social agency services. “We’re really starting to blend the ideas of our agencies and our media partners,” said Eric Hadley, general manager, for Microsoft’s online services division. He said the company typically writes quarterly or annual briefs, and brings in its agency partners to help decide who should handle specific projects. Hadley continued, “If you have the media agencies in silos it doesn’t work.”

Law Firm Marketing

The legal profession is typically slow to adopt, but most larger law firms (say 60+ attorneys) who are serious about promoting their brand do have public relations or marketing design agencies on retainer or in-house. And, within the past year, most of those agencies have added a social media service line or “expertise” to their offerings, but is that enough?  It may be wise to step back and take a hard look at how well they are covering all the bases and if it might be to your advantage to test additional options.

Where are law firms headed in the social media space?

Frankly, the argument is no longer about whether or not your clients and prospects are there, as recent statistics show that 80% on the U.S. online population is engaged in social media one way or another. Rather, the issue is that despite the massive scale and promise of social media, it is much more subtle than traditional marketing and business development communications. So, with all this new activity and subtlety, how do we keep all the balls in the air, how can we cut through the noise, and probably most important is what are we ultimately doing with all this activity? Do you need an agency or maybe two or three to handle your strategy and some of your tactics?

It’s no longer a novelty to launch a blog, build a mobile app or create a Facebook fan page.  It’s time to move on to questions like:

• How do we integrate all this connectivity with our CRM system? What does social CRM mean to the law firm organization?
• How can we use our activity to position ourselves favorably against the competition? Is creating our own social network an option?
• How can we use social to streamline our processes of recruiting and marketing and client service? Will virtual tools give us a new type of workforce – one with less overhead?

What other ideas do you see in the future for social media programs in law firms?

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

About social.lawyers: Transforming Business Development

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

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

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

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

CHAPTER 5:  PROFILE AND PERSONA

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

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

Profile

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here’s a summary of contents:

Summary of Contents

PART 1. THE APPROACH

Chapter 1. Change

Chapter 2. Fundamentals Do Not Change

Chapter 3. How Things Work

PART II. STRATEGY

Chapter 4. Build a Better Mousetrap

Chapter 5. Profle and Persona

Chapter 6. Policy and Privacy

Chapter 7. Posting

PART III. IMPLEMENTING A STRATEGY

Chapter 8. Blogs and Twitter

Chapter 9. The Role of the Organization

Chapter 10. Social Lawyers’ Case Studies

Index

Cheers!

It’s no trivial thing: the social web opens access to some amazing people that I would not otherwise had the opportunity to meet. It really works – on many levels.  It’s absolutely fascinating to me; geography, culture, time, and professional status are no longer an obstacle to growing my network. It gets more interesting every day.

I recently met attorney Robert H. Thomas, one of the preeminent land use lawyers in Hawaii (I live in FLORIDA!). He blogs at inversecondemnation.com and @invcondemnation on Twitter. I had an opportunity to take our online conversation off-line to chat with him on the phone the other week. Here’s his story…..

Inversecondemnation.com

Robert’s been in private practice for 30 years. Up until four years ago, he published articles, gave presentations, was active in the American Bar Association, and hit the local cocktail circuit as much as he could in order to build his practice. Marketing was slow going. Then, in 2006,  he published his blog, inversecondemnation.com, and everything changed.

Inquiries accelerated and the pace of his workload intensified. Today, he tracks almost ALL of his new business and ALL of his connections with journalists, including national and global media interests, back to his blog.

Blogging is like getting to hear your lawyer think out loud before your hire them.

No small task, he landed two Fortune 100 companies as clients; a direct result of his blogging. They didn’t contact him to submit a proposal; they contacted him to do the work. They found his blog on a Google search, and after reading his posts they knew he had what it would take to do the work they needed.

Contrary to his prior networking experiences at ABA events, people began approaching him as if they already knew him. They read his blog, they knew his voice, something about him, and it made him much more approachable. His networking effectiveness increased noticeably.

Journalists started calling him for background on related legal cases after his blog took off. He now knows everyone in the local media and many national and international journalists because he blogs, twitters, and cruises around LinkedIn (LI). At first he fed them background on cases that were not his, but he nurtured the relationships to become a trusted source. Now, when Fox News is looking around Hawaii for a story, they contact him and ask for HIS stories.

Not a solo journey.

To build readership for his blog, he ventured into social networking. He originally split up social networking duties with a partner; he took LI and the other guy took Facebook (FB). His partner reported that FB turned up too many “x-girlfriends” so he stayed clear , at least for a while. Then the ABA Eminent Domain section launched a FB page and he was sort of forced into it.

Still a bit skeptical of the FB value proposition, he’s found some rather original ways to participate. He stays away from political discussions and other conversations that have the potential to be heated. Instead, he takes pictures of signs in the courthouses he frequents and posts them to the group page and his profile. Funny signs like the one he found in a Hawaiian courthouse: “Court Room Attire | Regular Street Wear and Work Wear Acceptable Footwear Mandatory.”

Leveraging content.

Robert takes an open approach to sharing content because he knows the value keywords have in getting found by search engines.

Cross publishing his blog content to other networking sites or document sharing sites like JDSupra has a multiplier effect. For example, often the same article will return higher in results from a JDSupra posting than his own blog. This led him to start posting his legal briefs on document sharing sites, but not without first getting major resistance from some partners who were concerned about giving away work product.

He argued that this type of transparency is valuable to business development. Any work product he would share is already in the public domain. He reasoned that anyone can get it from the courts online, so why not have it out there where Joe Public can find it and associate it directly to him. If another lawyer wants to lift case cites from the brief, so what.

“We’re not selling documents, we’re selling brains. It’s not like they can download the brief, plug in new names and win a case.”

Only he can craft his case and argue it. The brief is only part of the package. Makes sense to me. (Good lawyering!)

The keyword play he gets from posting his briefs works really well in online search and makes it a smart integrated strategy.

If it all sounds easy, it’s not. It takes work, time, and commitment.

Quick to point out, Robert views his blogging and social networking activity as a critical, vital, and exciting part of his practice. He writes a half hour a day, every day, and posts three to six times a week, plus promotes his ideas and thoughts on Twitter and LinkedIn. Vacations? No sweat. He loads up his posts and times them to go out while he’s gone.

His blog is mostly pure information and little analysis so it takes less time to craft a post, however, it’s a skill set that not everyone can master and identifying topics to report on daily requires good organizational skills. An unexpected benefit of publishing his blog; his writing has improved and his subject matter knowledge stays fresh. He noted that this really pays dividends when writing client communications and other legal documents as well as expands his industry knowledge.

The results of his work have inspired his colleagues to successfully launch law blogs.

The story of inversecondemnation.com is not as uncommon today as it was when Robert first started blogging. Although he wasn’t a trailblazer, he was a member of the first wave of lawyer bloggers.

Now, two of his colleagues at Damon Key Leong Kupchak Hastert, also blog.

Mark Murakami produces www.hawaiioceanlaw.com, which, as the title indicates, focuses on maritime and environmental issues, although it is not limited to Hawaii. Mark is a former Coast Guard lawyer and ship captain, so he brings some experience to his blogging. He is just over the two-year mark on his blog.

Tred Eyerly produces www.insurancelawhawaii.com, which focuses on coverage issues, again, not limited to Hawaii law. Tred is the chair of the ABA subcommittee on coverage issues and has developed a very expansive reputation as an expert in this area of law. He’s in his third year of blogging.

Robert’s final comment to me on the phone was:

“I’m shocked that not more lawyers are taking advantage of the reach and exposure social media provides.”

Me too. While writing isn’t for everyone, there is something for everyone on the social web. If you need help finding what that is, drop me a note. I welcome the conversation and another new contact in my network!

Got a story? I’d love to hear it. Feel free to email me or share with everyone in the comments. Thanks!

“What blogs do you read?”

That’s what CMO Melanie Green of Baker Daniels in Indianapolis, Indiana (Go Colts!) asks an attorney before approving their request to blog. Melanie was  a panelist on the break out session, “Success on the Social Web,” at the 17^th Annual Marketing Partner Forum, Hildebrandt Institute and West EdCenter.

“If you are not reading blogs how do you know if you’ll like the environment? Find some blogs you like to read and come back to us.” Melanie Green

Not a criticism, just an observation, other than that clever, tactical idea; the Success on the Social Web  breakout panel was surprisingly “101;” a lot of focus on blogs and push delivery. Lacking was any discussion about using enterprise social web tools or Google Wave for client team collaboration. No one was talking about integrating mobile applications, yet. …Though this year I predict everyone will be.  The panelists didn’t report that social web interactivity was taking hold.  And, there were no examples of firms implementing cross-platform strategies—except to promote blog content on Twitter or LinkedIn. (Stay tuned for an upcoming post on how Arnold Porter is using social tools satisfy their client’s appetites for multiple access points.)

The VMO often covers the social web from a more forward-looking perspective, but there were a few bits of information, graciously shared by the in-house marketing panelists, which readers may find beneficial.

• Law firms are using Facebook fan pages and Twitter to push out news releases, announcements and seminars.
• Involvement in LinkedIn is lawyer driven. Participation varies across the board. Most firms do have a firm profile. (Whether it differs from their website “About” page, I’m not sure. I’ll have to check that out. Missed opportunity if it’s the same.)
• Hubbard One shared numbers from a recent survey that showed 35 percent of the top 20 U.S. law firms are blogging.  And……
• The panelists confirmed the popularity of blogging. They all claimed to have a blog, sometimes several, in their marketing mix.
• In one example, a panelist described their blog as an extension of their PR campaign and replaced the firm newsletter. (Hmm…they didn’t take audience questions, but I was curious to know if the bloggers interacted with their readers or if it was truly just another method of pushing out newsletter content. Again, not a criticism, just wondering when corporate law firm bloggers are going to start leveraging the power of social to full extent. Why are they hands off? Share your thoughts….)
• That panelist also claimed to have tracked “client generation” from their blog.(Great!) Her firm now has six practice specific blogs and adds six new posts everyday. They now claim 1000 subscribers in total. (That’s cool. Statistics are always useful.)
• Another said that promoting seminars on the social web via twitter or blogging was delivering an entirely new audience. (Very nice.)
• Using hash tags on subject and keywords in Twitter posts significantly increased their exposure and brought in over “400 subscribers.”
• All agreed that when it came to interaction on the social web, the skill sets, or interest, was not yet in place.  (Perhaps they’re all still too risk averse?)
• The panelists like the social web’s inexpensive cost of entry. Most are do-it-yourselfers, committing some of their time or their staff-time to learn the tools.
• Significant challenge lies in training lawyers to integrate the social web into their daily activities. (Sounds familiar. We’re all time challenged. That’s why marketing success comes from “do what pleases you.”)

Overall, it seemed that, at least, “we” all now agree that the social web is not a fad and it’s here to stay. (That’s a relief!)

The Bottom Line

Bottom line for marketers: the social web offers new tools at a low-cost of entry and offers measures of progress via statistics to share with management. Further, social web activity places more of the burden on the individual lawyer-participant, freeing up time for marketers to work on strategy and look to the future for new opportunities.

DIY vs. Hired Help

Of interest to note, there was a healthy discussion among a few attendees after the session on the issue of DIY vs. outsourcing social web strategy. (Thanks Adrian Dayton for your insight!)  There are definitely legitimate arguments on both sides.

Having an outside agency or independent marketing consultant focused on social web tools, strategies and synergies, who lives and works in the trenches, who knows the legal industry, and knows how lawyers go to market, can take some of the details off the in-house marketer’s desk. In that regard, it is often worth having them around; especially if in-house marketers don’t have excess manpower.

I know how challenging it is to keep up with the evolving social tools. Sometimes it takes a while to connect the dots.  And, sometimes new tools can really make a difference.  Finding them among all the noise, taking time to test them and apply them to strategy can be a full-time occupation. I know. I read hundreds of pieces of content and look at new tools each week.  Of those hundred or so ideas, I am lucky to find a few usable pieces of information.  That’s a huge chunk of time for small return. But it’s my job. My clients benefit from my legal industry marketing expertise and my focus on what’s new and what’s on the horizon. Putting it all together is a task that often benefits from outside perspective.

Either way, in-house marketers must be familiar with the social web and conversant on its value to the overall marketing strategy of the firm or business development efforts of individual attorneys. The panel participants were certainly in that group. Thanks for your insights!

Law firms may need to play catch up if they don’t start integrating social technologies into their marketing, client service and business development mix in 2010.

In the late 90’s, the word “touch-point” was frequently heard in legal marketing conversations. There was even a session on it at the LMA annual conference. No longer a trendy buzzword, touch-points are the essence of how lawyers develop relationships and new business. A lawyer should count on needing seven to nine touch points in order to win a relationship. To win business, it may take many more.

Traditional series of touch points.

1. Meet at a social event- exchanging business cards
2. Follow up with a personal phone call or email
3. Extend an invitation to a business lunch or breakfast
4. Pass along an article or send a relevant firm newsletter
5. Follow up, again, with a personal phone call or email
6. Place an advert or a press release in a mainstream publication that your contact is likely to see and raise your visibility.
7. Send an invitation to a charity event, sporting event, or other party – whether or not they accept, the invitation is a touch point.
8. Add the person to the firm mailing list for the annual report or new partner announcements. Send a holiday card.
9. Learn something new about the person’s business interests and call them with a helpful tidbit of information.

Social Buzz

Today’s buzz word is “social.” Social technologies are replacing some of the ways lawyers make contact in building relationships and business. Social technology is changing our touch points. I think you’ll agree, chief marketers need to be on top of this shift.

Jeremiah Owyang in a recent post on Web-strategist.com says it best:

Social Technologies are a Horizontal –Not A Vertical Approach
It continues to amaze the market that such simple social technologies can impact the entire organization.  In fact, social technologies, at the core, allow people to connect to each other without a middle person in the way.  As a result, expect social technologies to impact every employee and customer touchpoint.   CMOs must prepare in their 2010 planning how to leverage social, not as a skunkworks but as a strategic shift in all communications.

What this means for law firms and their chief marketers.

I find Owyang’s Web Strategy Matrix (found on the post referenced above) to be an extremely valuable illustration of what’s happening now. [Thanks, Jeremiah, for sharing and allowing me to share via a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License]

I’ve taken the liberty to add a 5^th column, for the purpose of this blog post, to expand the implications for law firms and lawyers.

(This matrix, created by Jeremiah Owyang, first published on web-strategist.com is being shared here under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.)

What have I missed here? Are you willing to share any of your social initiatives for 2010? What challenges or obstacles are you facing that we might be able to help you think through here in the comments section?

The debate rages on the value of Twitter to lawyers in their practice, marketing, and the business of law. Here on the Virtual Marketing Officer, I acknowledge Twitter as one of the tools to fit into a holistic social media program; however every tool isn’t for everyone.

Twitter is a place where people gather. Wherever people gather there is exchange of words in the form of  ideas, content, and people helping one another. When you think about it, isn’t that really how the most long lasting and thus effective business development is accomplished for high involvement purchases like legal services.  People learn more about you, your work, integrity and values through the content you produce. And they get a picture of how you collaborate and respond to others. If they get to know, like and trust you, when a legal problem arises, they are more likely to engage you than if they had only seen your law firm Web site bio.

If you are trying to find a productive place in the Twitter stream it might help to understand the original purpose of the tool. This post also includes examples of Tweets from lawyers. I thought for those who are unfamiliar with the tool, it might give you insight.

The Birth of Twitter

The birth of Twitter had humble and practical roots.  According to Shel Israel in his new tome; Twitterville, sometime around 2006, Odeo, a Silcon Valley start up was having trouble rounding up software developers for meetings. Developers worked long hours, but those hours were rarely burned during traditional business hours; or in the traditional workplace. Programmers were working late at night or the wee hours of the morn from home, from coffee shops, on weekends and holidays.

Excerpt: “So, when an issue popped up and [sic] the head guys, Biz Stone and Evan Williams, needed to call a few team members together, it was difficult. It was also hard to figure out if the meeting was more important than the work that would be interrupted. Someone was always asking a tech team member, “What are you doing?”

Jack Dorsey, the project’s software architect had a solution. He dusted off a little idea he’d been playing with since he was a teenager fascinated with dispatch routing issues – technology used by police, ambulance drivers, firefighters, cab drivers, and etc.  After a few detours, his idea for Web based personal status updates got refined and eventually worked its way into solving Odeo’s challenge of getting programmers together. The rest of the story is history. I highly recommend Israel’s book, Twitterville. (My summary barely covers the very interesting birth of Twitter story.)

How do I Tweet?

“What are you doing?” is still the cornerstone of Twitter.  But the gathering has morphed. Here are the basic types of Tweets you’ll find on Twitter.

• “What are you working on?”
• “What are you reading?”
• “Where are you?” “I’m here.” Let’s meet up”
• “What are you thinking?”
• “What are you seeing?”
• “Hey, can you help me?”

Is Twitter for you? Maybe? Maybe not? You decide. Some snippets of lawyers talking in 140 characters….

What do you think?

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