Can social media kill your law practice?
Lawyers can spend a ton of time using social media and not bring in new legal work. Lots of activity doesn't necessarily equate to progress.
John Jantsch goes so far to ask 'Is Social Media Killing Your Business?'
Some small business folks equate busy with business. The problem with social media usage is it can keep you really, really busy, without producing a dime of business....... It's all too easy to get sucked into building a big blog readership or twitter following and then wonder why your phone isn't ringing.Social media for the small business is a catalyst, a tool, a way to create awareness and deeper engagement - it's not a way to take orders.
At some point you've got to take orders. If you can't convince someone face to face of the value of your proposition, don't expect to do it in 140 characters or less.
This post is not for the social media legal luddittes who think social media has no place in the law. They're in more trouble than the lawyers spending too much time on Twitter.
For those of you using social media just keep some things in mind.
- You need to be focused in your use of social media. Large blog readership and Twitter followers are not the goal.
- You need to focus on building relationships with your clients, prospective clients, referral sources, and their influencers.
- You need to keep track of the people you meet through social media via LinkedIn and/or your law firm's client relationship management (CRM) system.
- You need to get out and meet the people you've met through social media for coffee, lunch, or a beer.
- You need to ask industry groups whose members you'd like to represent to speak at their luncheon meetings or conferences.
- You need to follow up with the people you meet, relationships aren't built in one meeting.
You can be a social media rockstar, but you still need to deploy real world client development skills. And God forbid, you may even need to ask someone for their legal work.
A good summary of how to use twitter. It is a way to initiate communication, and to maintain contact - but the work will not flow in until you interact on a more personal level, as you say. (level 1 of relationship building)
The fact that your should keep record of your contacts in a CRM system makes a lot of sense - that then allows one to initiate the next level of relationship building. (Level 2 of relationship building)
Then make contact verbally, face to face if possible. (Level 3 of relationship building) And this is where you can ask for the business.
hi kevin,
Thanks for the interesting posts.
I do not think this is such a serious problem. a lawyer may spend too much time in\on social media at first When he discovers the possibilities and the opportunity in it,but in the Long-term he will find the balance and learn how to do it right .(Especially if it does not lead to practical results).
Why pay the price of learning the hard way? Because social media is something that at the end of the day you have to do yourself if you want to do it properly.
Notwithstanding, of course that consulting with experts Before entering social media For Business & Marketing Reasons will be more Effective and a wise thing to do.
Kevin,
Excellent points for anyone using social media as part of their business marketing repertoire. Building relationships on SM is just one step in trust building; ultimately we need to meet people face-to-face and do the ask. When I've worked with private practitioners to expand their businesses, that's often been the hardest thing for them to do. The nice thing about SM is it helps cut down on the dreaded cold calls. Thanks for the post!
Too many companies want to jump onto Twitter, build a 1,000,000 person following and hope that the traditional 2% marketing rule applies. My experience has also been that a tool like Twitter is good for meeting new people and searching for real-time information, but if I want to convert that into something lasting the next step is taking the conversation to a new communication medium, whether that is email, phone, or in-person. For law firms the same principle applies, converting your social media contacts and efforts into new business requires an initial effort of building your presence, a continued and consistent effort of having conversations, and then the next step that Kevin describes of "deploying real-world client development skills." Just like the NY Jets getting to the red zone won't mean much unless they convert to a touchdown, a lawyers social media efforts come up short unless they are turning them into new contacts, thought leadership opportunities, and clients.
Great post Kevin.
I agree with you 100%, lawyers using social media need to be more focused than ever. Focused on building relationships, providing useful content, and most importantly taking the conversations offline.
There are a lot of ways to waste time online. Social media is perhaps the most fun way to waste time online. It is kind of a double edged sword in that respect. It has so much potential to create new relationships and conversations- or it can be the best aggregator of information on college football. Many firms and company ban social media use completely for the fear that it will lead to this type of inefficiency. I think companies and law firms will continue to work to balance this out over the years to come.
Well observed Kevin. Have you read my book "Unpaid Law Practice May Lead to Starvation" in which I warn against being incredibly stupid, too? I also plan to publish a LinkedIn manual explaining that you don't get paid just for being "linked in." Turns out you actually have to do a job too!