This is a popular video from YouTube that shows some compelling stats about social media and the reason we are here today!
Like any of your marketing activities, your online image is a profile raising tool and ultimately a biz dev tool.
Let’s take a step back b/c you can’t view social media in a vacuum.
It is ONE arrow in your quiver, to be used in conjunction with the more traditional marketing, media relations, biz dev, and face to face networking that you have always done. Despite the focus today on social media, I am not suggesting that it is only tool you should be using.
Cool counter like the national debt clock in Times Square.
Example of use of social media. From foxnews.com – recorded video, interactive poll, ability to comment, viral button to connect on Twitter & Facebook, can share via email and other social media tools.
Clients are going to be talking in this space regardless of whether you join the conversation; by not responding, you might miss a huge opportunity to interact with your network and build your firm’s name recognition.
Law students are using these sites to “get the scoop” about firms.
There are dozens of social networking sites. Today I focus primarily on LinkedIn, while also touching on Legal OnRamp and Twitter.
I will examine a few of these separately to show you how these myths couldn’t be further from the truth.
Facebook says that usage of members aged 55 and up grew by 923% in 2009.
One story I heard highlights a risk to billing! An attorney billed for time and the client was able to prove that he was facebooking with him at that time so he couldn’t have been doing what the invoice claimed he was doing!
Two potential ethics issues with respect to providing recommendations on social media sites – 1st, that such a recommendation might be construed as a "testimonial" under certain state bar rules, and 2nd, that an agreement between lawyers to give each other a recommendation may contain sufficient "value" as to violate advertising rules.
I was asked to include some material on specific relevance to Labor & Employment and Litigation. I’m not a lawyer nor do I play one on TV but I did find some interesting information to share while researching.
Again, I’m not a lawyer. I’m not here to answer these questions but to point them out as hot items in your field these days.
When choosing a network, ask yourself strategic questions: who is your target market, where is your audience likely to be looking? This is a strategic decision and one may be better than the others, based on your practice.
Can’t be all things to all people so narrow your focus.
Relationships matter – this is what is driving the 2.0 revolution. It is all about being transparent/open/caring/honest.
Last summer 2009, this first number was only 45 million!
It’s about meeting new people through current contacts and leveraging their connections.
She uses lots of keywords to enhance chances of being found in a search, joined lots of relevant groups, linked to her firm’s website, posted links to presentations she’s given, has a vanity URL, etc.
If you contribute to the answers in a way that showcases your expertise, you could become known as a thought leader.
Quick note on writing your profile.
Note that “specialties” is a hot word for The Bar.
This search yielded 418,000 results. Where is your law firm??
In most searches, only the first 2 pages of results will be viewed. There are no law firms on this first page, only associations and a couple of L&E BLOGS. On page 2, there are a few small firms and one AmLaw 100.
If the content you post on social media sites isn’t found, it’s almost useless. But SEO is a topic for a whole other presentation!
Any registered user of JD Supra can link his/her account to his/her LinkedIn profile. All of the lawyer’s JD Supra content will then be displayed on the lawyer’s LinkedIn page. So, when you add a new document to JD Supra, your LinkedIn network will be notified. Members of your network can recommend, favorite or share the document to their own networks.
Let me focus on LOR for a few moments. Although it is skewed towards GCs, that’s a GOOD thing for law firm attorneys who get invited to join. An especially effective mechanism to showcase your thought leadership is with a private ramp. Here are just a few examples.
Womble – mass tort litigation and case management
Latham’s private ramp for Outsourcing deals
Littler’s L&E ramp
A recent webinar discussing Legal OnRamp and Web 2.0 provided this direct insight from the GC of a technology company.
Lawyers on Twitter are using the service for networking, information gathering, sharing, branding, and marketing:
A construction lawyer in Virginia tweets about green building practices
One lawyer monitors conversations about legal issues and his firm’s and clients’ reputations
Another uses it to monitor breaking news that could be relevant to her practice
I added this slide last night b/c I had several people ask me at dinner about tweeting, and when I mentioned that there are productivity tools out there to help you pre-schedule your tweets, they seemed interested. Many of these tools integrate other social media platforms and have other productivity enhancing tools in addition to advanced tweet scheduling.
95 percent of blogs are abandoned. The most successful bloggers put their personality into and even stick their neck out to make it more conversational and distinctive.
92 percent of journalists use search engines to research their stories, and if you are blogging actively, you will be visible.
Attorneys blogging say it takes 5-10 hours of work each week.
Assign blog post drafting duties to staff who are underutilized.
Ford & Harrison blog about all the politically incorrect shenanigans on The Office.
Above the Law is worth a special mention. They get lots of confidential information and go public with it, so it can be very damaging. Can’t ignore it.
Sure, it’s easy to see how social media has helped Old Spice or Ford, but how about attorneys? Thought I’d end with some success stories from actual lawyers.