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Do law firms need to measure ROI on social media?

Companies are having trouble measuring the ROI of social media. As a result, they’re holding back from investing further in social media. This per eMarketer citing a recent Econsultancy survey.

Social media gets a lot of discussion and even a lot of participation from marketers, but in most cases budgets remain low. One reason for the reluctance to invest more is the old problem of ROI. While some marketers have created successful social media campaigns that they feel they can measure and determine a benefit from, many have still not solved the social success equation.

The problem is not getting a return on your investment from social media. Using social media correctly, you can’t help but earn significant returns. The problem is companies, law firms included, getting all caught up in measuring the ROI on social media.

Rather than looking at who you are engaging, who you are developing relationships with, how your influence is increasing, and how your word of mouth reputation is growing, companies and law firms want to measure the ROI on social media like it is some sort of marketing.

Social media is even referenced throughout the Econsultancy report as a form of marketing. The failure to integrate social media into their other marketing is identified as one reason companies were unable to measure the ROI on social media.

Social media, whether it be via blogging, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Facebook, is all about traditional client development. Networking, engaging your clients and prospective clients, enhancing relationships and building new ones, and developing a word of mouth reputation as a good lawyer.

Offline, lawyers do these things by writing, speaking, socializing with clients, prospective clients, and referral sources, and serving on civic boards. No one questions the value of such activity for business development. No one questions a lawyer’s taking time to do this sort of client development.

Imagine someone in your law firm’s marketing department saying we’ll no longer invest in or promote the use of such activity by our lawyers until someone develops a method to measure the ROI on such activity. They’d be thrown out on their can by the lawyers who bring in more work than most of the firm’s lawyers because the lawyers engage in this activity. Such lawyers don’t need a ROI measurement tool.

Social media is the same. Lawyers using social media (blogs, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook) effectively are having business development success. How do they know it? Because they’re building relationships and enhancing their reputations. They’re bringing in work.

Such lawyers don’t need a ROI measurement tool. Follow their lead. Your law firm does not need to measure the ROI on social media like other forms of marketing.

  • http://anapolschwartzfoundation.org/ Karen Swim

    Kevin, part of the issue is what is being measured. In many instances the wrong analytics are being assessed, such as # of followers versus true engagement. For law firms having a presence, and being a resource on social media and most importantly actually building relationships is not something that average measurements can assess. Great insights Kevin!

  • http://www.gjel.com/blog Ben Buchwalter

    I think it is important to measure ROI in social media, but not in the traditional sense. As you say above, it is not important to measure the dollar amount that social media brings in to a firm. But it is necessary to take a step back from time to time, and determine whether you are using social media in a way that builds strong connections online. In this sense, the return is a link, a blog comment, or a retweet, rather than a dollar amount. If you’re not achieving the kind of communication you want, then it is important to think about what you need to change in order to revamp your social media strategy and boost communication with others.
    Thanks for the post!
    Ben

  • http://kevin.lexblog.com Kevin OKeefe

    Ben, I do think the returns on social media should be measured in dollars brought into your law firm. Look at the lawyers who serve as the originators of work to law firms historically – they are the lawyers who have the relationships they’ve built up through networking for years.
    Same thing with social media. You build relationships. Relationships that generate business.

  • http://www.markmaraia.com Mark Maraia

    Kevin,
    I found your post interesting. You’re spot on in emphasizing that social media is another way to build relationships. I’d contend that most lawyers have plenty of improvement they can make to their off line relationship building.
    Social media is all the rage right now and can easily distract lawyers into taking their eye off the ball: The ball is relationships. As you and I both know they are best done in analog fashion. I’ve written two books on HOW to do that.
    What’s missing from most of the social media set (not you) is more on HOW to use social media. We’re all still learning WHAT to do and we get excited but then we really don’t know HOW to do much with what we’re learning.
    Oh and one more thing: I’m giving away free copies of my first book Rainmaking Made Simple for the iPhone or Kindle. Your readers can go to the iBookstore or my website for the Kindle version.

  • http://www.markmaraia.com Mark Maraia

    I’ve made a career out of helping lawyers identify metrics for building relationships. Here are two simple non monetary metrics that lawyers might use to keep daily or weekly track of their social media relationship building:
    Add 5 new connections per week to my LinkedIn profile.
    Post 5 comments per week to relevant blogs.
    Total elapsed time to meet these metrics is under one hour per week. I’m betting if every lawyer were to adopt AND APPLY them their online presence would grow dramatically in 6 months. What do you think?
    Mark Maraia