Law firms best not to get ahead of themselves on social media
I was meeting with a large law firm last week which wanted to pick my brain on the use of social media. Listening to the questions, it became clear that though the law firm was using various forms of social media, they weren't having a whole lot of success.
The law firm was using Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Blogs, and other social media solutions. But I don't think they were using any of them particularly well. There didn't seem to be a clearly defined strategy, their lawyers didn't seem to understand that social media was no different than traditional networking by lawyers, and the firm's management, though going along with the social media campaign, couldn't be seeing any big successes.
Before just using every form of social media as a law firm, why not just master the basics? Rather than use a whole lot stuff badly and embarrass yourself unknowingly in the process, why not use something well?
Blogging is as basic as it gets in social media. And there's not a better way for a lawyer to demonstrate their expertise, establish themselves as thought leader, and get work the old fashioned tasteful way - by word of mouth.
To start a few blogs, do them poorly, and have lawyers struggling to continue to publish to the blogs while starting off on Twitter and Facebook is the height of folly. You've identified the most effective tool offering the highest ROI, a blog. Rather than learning how to use the tool wisely, you do a crummy job, leave the lawyers hanging, experience no success (other than saying we have blogs), and move on to the next great thing. Lunacy.
Don't get me wrong, Twitter and Facebook have their place. But telling me you are getting a bunch of your lawyers, who don't have a clue what social media really is, Twittering sounds silly. Sillier yet is telling me you started a law firm fan page at Facebook and you can't figure out why clients and the business community aren't lining up to follow you. Get real.
Education comes first. What is social media and social networking as it relates to law firm client development? It's not identifying tools. Second comes learning how to use well one of the most basic tools, a blog.
Don't do these two and you're going to set social media in your law firm back a couple years. The reason being that you'll have little success, little lawyer buy in, and ultimately have your law firm management conclude social media doesn't work.
I couldn't agree with you more. From what I've seen from the firms using social media in the corporate & securities world, very few lawyers have figured blogging out yet, much less the other forms of social media...
Kevin, you and I discussed this when we met, so you know I agree with you wholeheartedly.
Firms need to step back, talk about what they're doing, how Social Media and Social Networking fit in to their firm's business and marketing plans, provide training on the art of conversation, networking and more, and about 10 more steps to help define direction and tone before jumping in head 1st. There might just be concrete there with no water as a buffer if they don't act strategically. We all know what happens then....
Thanks for the comments Nancy and Broc. Both of you being out blogging and using other forms of social media, you see how crazy many law firms are in their use of social media. It's almost as if the firm's marketing professionals are being rewarded for their use of social media, as opposed to their client development successes.
I think one of the worst things you can do is start a form of social media and then let it falter within a few months. That suggests both to fellow professionals and to potential clients that you are unreliable and don't follow through on what you start. Dead blogs and unupdated Twitter accounts indicate that you're better at making grandiose plans than actually doing the work necessary to achieve your objectives. It's better to start slowly and set reasonable goals, and then follow through on those goals. You may not take the social media world by storm and immediately have hundreds of followers, but you will indicate to those who visit your site or account that you are grounded and reliable.