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We rely on the people we trust in choosing a lawyer : Not search

“When we make truly life-changing decisions, we don’t use search; we rely on the people we trust.” That from Deep Nishar, LinkedIn’s Senior VP of Products and User Experience, in a Los Angeles Times story by Jessica Guynn on LinkedIn’s launch of its social news service, LinkedIn Today.

LinkedIn Today allows LinkedIn users to see articles, blog posts, and Tweets that are being shared by their connections and by people in their industries. In other words, from people they’re apt to trust.

What’s the value in this? As people, especially as legal professionals, we rely on people we trust for information. No question, search, via Google, has been a God send. It’s changed where and how we look for information like nothing before it.

But as social media evolves — as people learn to follow people they trust and more people share information via social media — we’re going to go with people we trust over search.

Google knows this. As I blogged last month, social media is receiving higher priority in Google search results. LinkedIn knows this. That’s why they’re launching LinkedIn Today.

As a lawyer or law firm, you need to get over all things search. Out of ignorance and being told by legal marketing companies that your clients come via search, you’re heading down the road.

The Internet is not a giant search tool. It’s not we get seen in search as a law firm and we’ll get hired.

That’s the billboard and yellow pages philosophy. Put the biggest and shiniest billboard with our logo on I-95 and people and companies will call to hire us. Put my picture in a full page yellow page ad with purple and green ink and I’ll get hired.

You need to build trust in order to get hired as an attorney or law firm. You need to conduct yourself on the Internet in a way that builds trust with others who read what you share. You need to build trust with the influencers who frame people’s opinions. You need to build trust with referral sources.

You build trust on the Internet by sharing insight and commentary via blogging. You develop followers who trust you as source of good info in your area of practice and the industries you represent by using Twitter in a thoughtful way. You build further trust by networking on LinkedIn and Facebook.

Don’t look at blogging and social media as a means to push your ‘stuff’ at people. That’s as short sighted as thinking if you get seen in search you’ll get hired by good clients. Look at blogging and social media as a means of building trust.

At the end of the day, it’s as Deep Nishar put it, When we make truly life-changing decisions, which selecting a lawyer can be, we don’t use search. We rely on the people we trust.

  • http://www.attorneysync.com Gyi Tsakalakis

    Hi Kevin,
    Personally, I agree with you and Deep. And I also completely agree with your relationship-based approach to business development and professional reputation building.
    However, empirical search user behavior, at least thus far, has shown that lawyers who are highly visible within search results get visits, inquiries, and eventually new clients.
    Now please don’t misunderstand me. As you have noted in the past, there are numerous legal services consumers that aren’t merely searching for “lawyer” and hiring, or even calling, the first one to appear.
    They are researching their issues, looking for answers to their questions, and consuming news and information.
    And there can be no question that demonstrating one’s knowledge, developing one’s reputation as an authority, developing new professional relationships are all part of building trust online.
    However, historical search data has proven that at least some consumers do use search engines like yellow pages. And many others that are performing research-based searches will click-through to and call attorneys with visibility.
    Will search behavior of legal services consumers continue to evolve? Absolutely.
    I suppose my only disagreement, if any, would be that, as much as it is foreign to us, there are many Internet users out there who make hiring decisions without trust.
    However, this is not an excuse for lawyers to go out and game search engines. The truth is that taking the trust building approach is really the best search engine optimization.

  • http://www.kherize5.com Suzanne Vara

    Kevin
    I agree with you about building trust but conducting yourself online is more about referrals and not so much about being in front of the right audience –> potential clients for lawyers. Mostly lawyers are reading other lawyer blogs. While you, me and a whole lot of other people are online engaging frequently, the majority of people are not.
    People when looking for an attorney are in need of one. It is not just a casual question that they ask their friends or a casual search they put into Google. Generally they want to hire someone right away (sure there are different practices of law that are not as urgent to hire but for the most part it is a need-it-now search). This is why the yellow pages worked so effectively. I agree with you that blogs are very effective but if your target is not reading them they are not going to hire you. Now they through search can find your blog when they are seeking counsel and that may be what gets them to your website. Search has changed with places and with the search results including reviews but blogs are found in search and will when blogging frequently and matching the SE algorithms outrank a static site. Blogging is important for trust, you bet but it is also important to be found to build the trust.
    And for the folks who try and game the search engines, it is temporary. My advice to them is instead of trying to game, get into the game and blog!

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

    No question Gyi that there are people hiring lawyers ‘without trust’ as you label the behavior of someone doing a Google search for a lawyer by area of practice and locale. But, as you’re aware as a business person, working with clients who don’t trust you and where you may not trust them is no way to run a business long term.
    As a practicing plaintiff’s lawyer I wanted clients who trusted me.
    More than once I wondered how we got a client that caused us so much trouble all the way through trial. Not listening. Second guessing our counsel. Invariably it was through advertising in the yellow pages.
    No question lawyers get work from search and the yellow pages. I don’t begrudge the lawyers nor the people selling such methods of advertising legal services. I just believe trust is more important – to people looking for a lawyer and the lawyers.

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

    Thanks for the comment – and the suggestion that professionals blog Suzanne. But I don’t think you understand how the Internet is used by lawyers and other professionals to accelerate relationships and word of mouth.
    It’s relationships and word of mouth that is the leading way good lawyers and professionals get hired. Not yellow pages in days past. Not search on Google today.
    People don’t always as you say ‘I need a lawyer right now’ – go to yellow pages or go to search. It’s not a certain ‘area of practice’ thing either. The best personal injury lawyers get their work by reputation and word of mouth. Same for divorce lawyers. Same for criminal lawyers. Same for bankruptcy lawyers. Same for employment lawyers. Same for securities lawyers.
    It’s not just lawyers who read lawyer’s blogs. I have too many lawyer clients who tell me otherwise. Would you argue that why should Southwest Airlines publish a blog, only other airline employees would read it.
    But let’s assume a lawyer’s clients and prospective clients don’t read blogs. It simply does not matter. Blogs build trust, enhance your reputation, and accelerate your word of mouth reputation. In addition, the people who influence your clients do read blogs.
    What’s the anyone does when they get a lawyer’s name from a referral source? Google the lawyers name. If they see the lawyer being cited by other lawyers in their state and around the country, quoted in newspapers, and speaking at events they’re impressed that this lawyers is the real deal. Heads above other lawyers for whom they saw just a website and directory listing.
    Imagine using a blog to engage association executive directors and conference coordinators to get speaking engagements. Like other professionals and lawyers, I find speaking helps bring in work big time. Even though the audience and the people I met at the conference never read my blog.
    The ways lawyers strategically engage people with their blogging – clients, prospective clients, referral sources, and influencers of those three go on and on.
    I know people find lawyers through search. And that search works for many lawyers. I just believe search is not the panacea many lawyers and people sellling search to lawyers believe it is.
    Trust, word of mouth, and reputation trump search.

  • http://www.kherize5.com Suzanne Vara

    Kevin
    Absolutely trust is why people hire a lawyer. Trust is enhanced by blogging which is found in search. It is a combination of things that leads to trust. When people see a story on the news and develop a favorable brand image about the firm they will remember the firm’s name for that area of law that the case was about. When they are needing an attorney for some sort of matter, they will look to see if they can help. No doubt.
    You stated above that you build trust on the internet by sharing insight and commentary through blogging. This is true but also you need to consider the other aspects that go along with building trust. A potential client may have that trust (or even a positive brand image) and then the trust could be gone when looking at reviews. They can build trust from other mediums which you discussed in your comment.
    As a daily blogger, I very much support blogging as a means of building trust. Word of mouth is where a good portion of the business comes, there is also search which in 1 day brought in 3 new business calls this week alone, and then there is also the blog which is found in search/improves the rankings.
    Choosing a lawyer is a decision that is not taken lightly. We all want the best lawyer and one that has a proven record. Proven record does equate to trust. The better the outcome for them, the more they tell their friends. Certain cases become a big part of their life (divorce, custody, criminal) and peruse some FB accounts and you can find out more about how the case is going. Having worked in a firm that was pulling in over 120 new cases a month, I did speak with clients on how they found the firm, why they chose the firm and also with the exit interviews what their feelings were at the end of the case. Trust/good reputation was always the main answer as to why they chose the firm; which the trust was not built from blogging alone. It was a combination of things.