SoMe marketplace
Lawyers are unquestionably growing their practices by virtue of social media. No longer a novelty, choosing the right strategy and platforms to use can make all the difference.
By Jason Scott Alexander
When Ogilvy Renault embarked on the use of social media roughly three years ago, it was almost by chance. “Some of the lawyers were interested in using blogs for their specific area of expertise,” says Sameer Dhargalkar, director of business development with the 700-lawyer firm, from his Toronto office. Others experimented with their Facebook accounts, he recalls. “The strategy going in was to make sure that the use of social media aligned with our overall business objectives. Today we view social media as one of the components of our marketing and business development toolkit…integrated with what we do, not a standalone area.”
Although none of these activities are firm-branded, per se, their use is supported so long as the same consideration for professional conduct and ethics is used by the lawyers as they would in any other business development initiative. “We encourage them to develop and promote their individuality,” notes Dhargalkar. “I believe that if the firm mandated a strict ‘one-voice, one-look’ directive for social media, it would actually diminish the effectiveness of these tools and the enthusiasm for using them.”
The results ranged from satisfactory to excellent, including a few surprises. “Adoption of Twitter by the segment of the business community that has influence on the purchase of legal services is increasing rapidly,” notes Dhargalkar. Ogilvy Renault began tweeting in February 2009, primarily to communicate recent articles of interest, topical video podcasts, upcoming seminars, news and development and recent transactions the firm has been involved in. “It’s a low-cost, time effective channel that allows the lawyer to develop a two-way relationship with their audience that is both mass media and narrow cast all at the same time,” he says.
And in the last 12 months, lawyers at the firm have shown strong interest in wanting to better leverage their LinkedIn profiles for business development purposes.
Samantha Collier, Business Development Coordinator for the Vancouver branch of MBM Intellectual Property LLP, and a social media maven in her own right, admits that LinkedIn is a great first step for lawyers when joining the social media realm. “It’s an online profile which showcases your experience, education, upcoming events, PowerPoint presentations and anything else you choose to share via their many applications.” She recommends taking part in relevant practice area discussion groups on LinkedIn and answering questions, which will highlight your expert status.
Though, blogging is her top choice for law firm social media, “especially if you can carve out a niche that hasn’t already been covered,” says Collier. “Blogs solidify a lawyer’s reputation and are also a great way to engage with people interested in your practice area.” Done right, a blog can put a face and voice on your legal expertise, and act as the foundation for your entire professional presence on the social web. “Remember, people do business with people. Blogging does take time, and you need to be in it for the long haul.”
According to Kevin O’Keefe, CEO and Publisher at Seattle-based LexBlog, a popular social media network for lawyers, ROI can’t be measured quantitatively or on webstats, alone. “Doing that is a crutch for people who don’t understand how social media works,” he says. “Measure in extending one’s reach, increasing your influence and activating your audience. Being quoted by reporters, getting invited to speak, peer referrals or having clients ask you to do work for them are the kinds of returns you should be aiming for.”
Jason Scott Alexander is an Ottawa-based freelance writer specializing in frontier-media and technology law topics.
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Tips
• Strategize. What areas of your practice are you looking to grow? What type of work do you love? Pick the platforms you want and do them well. Content is key!
• Identify your target audience. This goes beyond clients and potential clients, to include other bloggers, reporters, association leaders, publishers, conference coordinators, etc. “Engaging these ‘influencers’, and building relationships with them, is critical to growing a word of mouth reputation.” – Kevin O’Keefe
• Find a niche. Keep blog posts short (under 5 paragraphs) and focused on one subject at a time. This, and tagging your posts appropriately, will help you get indexed higher by Google.
• Become a source for news. In addition to creating your own content, aggregating and curating news about your industry can really help brand yourself as subject matter expert. Twitter is ideal for this.
• Grow your network. The advanced search function on LinkedIn allows you to see exactly how you’re connected to like-minded peers through your present contacts. On Twitter, use #hashtags to keyword search for topical discussions by others. Follow them and they’ll likely reciprocate.
• Be vigilant and protect your brand. Your firm may already have a user-generated ‘community’ page on Facebook, for instance, without you knowing it. “Brands can now claim these pages as their own, allowing for more control over content.” – Samantha Collier
• Be engaging. Remember, you’re in a service industry. Add value to every post. Good things, and good people, will follow!
6 cool links
brasstackthinking.com
lawyercasting.com/social_networking
lexblog.com
mashable.com/social-media
socialmediaforlawfirms.com
socialmediatoday.com
– J.S.A
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Don’t phone it in
Unfortunately, lawyers can often get caught up in the ‘too busy’ mentality and let things slide. Hectic schedules or not, the temptation to ‘outsource’ your SoMe presence – whether it be general account maintenance duties or the actual content creation – is strongly discouraged.
“Your audience is sophisticated,” Dhargalkar reminds us. “They will quickly be able to tell whether your presence is genuine or not. The real benefit of social media is that it can allow a firm or individual lawyer to create a relationship with the audience in a way that traditional mediums can’t. Authenticity plays an important role in this. There’s also the very real risk that whomever this task is outsourced to will not adhere to or understand the level of professional and ethical conduct that should be considered in each and every blog or tweet.”
Even the notion of having an in-house, carefully groomed, ghost writer conjure up your personal blogs and tweets should be avoided. “You need human involvement with the real business leaders involved,” says Ottawa-based marketing and media strategist, Kneale Mann. “Social media is not something you hand off to the PR, marketing, and advertising team. Resist the temptation to use the social web as a giant advertising medium.”
O’Keefe points out that lawyers should never engage in social media simply for the sake of it. “Social media is a business for law firms, not something you dabble in,” he stresses. Assembling a Facebook page ‘just because’ will often lead to unfocused efforts that can quickly zap any spare moments of one’s personal life. From a cold start, firm-wide education is first, he says. “Knowing that social media is closer to a face-to-face meeting than a website or ad, and that social media is about building relationships and trust is critical before developing a strategy.”
Dhargalkar adds that social media is all about participation. Success will be a direct outcome of how much effort you put into it. “Make sure you are prepared to be regularly engaged. It has to become part of your work and thought process, not an afterthought.”
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