Who looks more strange? Geeks using social media or lawyers avoiding social media?
The majority of lawyers, including the management of large law firms, find people regularly using the Internet for social media and social networking to be an odd bunch. This group of 'younger people' are quickly dismissed as geeks and techies.
There's almost a sense of comfort for lawyers in finding these folks out of step with traditional business. 'Certainly these techies have no place in leading positions in law firm management and client development.'
On the other hand, there's a growing population who sees lawyers not in tune with social media as out of step. Perhaps not labeled odd, these lawyers are viewed as traditionalists and falling behind the times.
Look at these numbers from Erik Qualman's new book, Socialnomics.
- Generation Y (birth dates from late '70's to late 80's) outnumbers Baby Boomers (birth dates from 1946 to 1964) by 2010.
- 96% of Generation Y use social media.
- If Facebook were a country, it would be the 4th largest.
- Boston College quit sending email to students. Students were more apt to receive messages via social media and social networking.
- Over 100,000,000 videos on YouTube.
- Over 200,000,000 blogs in existence.
- Over 100,000 blogs post daily.
- 25% of search results for top 20 brands are user generated.
- 78% of consumers trust peer reviews.
If I am lawyer charged with client development for myself or my law firm, I'd be looking at these numbers very closely. The day is soon coming where the majority of people hiring lawyers will be heavy users of social media and social networking.
Lawyers not using social media will seem pretty strange then. Law firms shunning social media will be looked at as behind the times by people looking for innovative firms to engage.
If being looked at as odd or behind the times isn't enough to get you using social media, ineffective client development ought to do it. Positive mentions of you or what you're saying in user generated content and positive peer reviews generated by participation in social media are the stuff these 'geek's will be looking for.
I find it often helps lawyers to think about the internet as if it were made up of offline encounters. Were you looking for a new dentist, wouldn't you ask around and make sure the person you were considering was a good dentist before going to him? And if nobody knew any information about him, wouldn't you reconsider and try someone else--probably someone one of the friends you asked recommended?
Now all of this asking around is happening online. If you were to google this dentist you're considering and find no information about him, wouldn't you go to someone else--probably someone with some good reviews online?
It's important to have an online presence for many reasons, but at the very least because you want to be someone that people have heard of and that they think have a good reputation. Then you can work on increasing the value of your reputation.