Despite the stereotype of teens spending every waking moment on a mobile device, Nielsen data suggests their parents actually spend more time performing mobile web surfing. Only 7% of mobile social networking activity was represented by 13-to-17-year-olds and only 16% by 18-to-24-year-olds in December 2009.

The leaders in mobile social networking activity are 35-to-54-year-olds, who accounted for 36% of mobile social network usage in December 2009. Close behind them were 25-to-34-year-olds, who performed 34% of the month's mobile social networking activity. Users ages 55 and up combined for the remaining 7%.

The overall growth in the mobile use of Twitter and Facebook last year was staggering.

Access to Facebook via mobile browser grew 112% in the past year, while mobile Twitter access experienced a 347% jump, according to a new study from comScore.

In January 2010, 25.1 million mobile users accessed Facebook via their mobile browser, up 112% from 11.8 million mobile users in January 2009. While only 4.7 million mobile users accessed Twitter from their mobile browser in January 2010, this represented 347% growth from 1.05 million mobile users in January 2009.

Building relationships by engaging your target audience is the essence of client development for you as a lawyer or law firm. Client development success for law firms is not all about websites, search engine optimization (SEO), and pushing out digital alerts and newsletters by email. It's about listening to your clients, prospective clients, referral sources, and the influencers of those three. And then engaging them. The result is relationships and legal work.

In order to listen and engage your target audience as a lawyer or law firm, you need to go out to where your audience is. Today your audience is increasingly at Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking sites. It behooves you to start learning how to engage your target audience at these places.

Eye opening findings from the study include:

• Social networks and blogs are the most popular online category when ranked by average time spent.
• Americans spend more time on blogs and social networking sites with total minutes increasing 210% year-over-year and the average time per person increasing 143% year-over-year in December 2009.
• Facebook was the No. 1 global social networking destination.
• The time spent by users on Facebook has increased to six hours per month.
• The time spent by U.S. users, for both Facebook and Twitter.com, outpaced the overall growth for the category, increasing 200% and 368%, respectively.
• Among the top five U.S. social networking sites, Twitter continued as the fastest-growing in terms of unique visitors, increasing 579% year-over-year, from 2.7 million unique visitors in December 2008 to 18.1 million in December 2009.

Where Americans are spending their time is clearly depicted in the below graph.

And 45% of US law firms block the use of social media and social networking sites in the work place?

The study covered six types of social media tools, including blogging, podcasting, online video, social networking, message boards, and wikis. Highlights from the survey include:

• America's fastest growing private companies adopt social media marketing initiatives at much higher rates than other companies.
• 91 percent of companies use at least one social media tool, compared with 77 percent of companies surveyed in 2008.
• Of the six social media categories covered, the one that continues to be the most familiar to Inc. 500 companies is social networking, with 75 percent saying that they are 'very familiar with it.'
• Twitter is the most widely used, drawing activity from 52 percent of the respondents.
• 26 percent cited Twitter in particular as an important vehicle for communication with outside partners.
• 34 percent of companies reported that they were using social media to communicate with vendors and suppliers.
• Interest in some older social media tools such as message boards and podcasting has declined.
• 44 percent of companies without a company blog say they plan to start one.
• 36 percent intend to use some form of online video.
• 68 percent were monitoring mentions of their company name or their brands on social media sites compared with 50 percent just two years ago.

Eric Mattson, CEO of a research firm named Financial Insite and one of the head researchers in the study commented:

Inc. 500 companies are focused on doing anything they can to grow faster and social media is an innovative tool that may give them an edge over their competition.......From a big picture trend standpoint, these results show how prevalent and widespread social media is becoming in every aspect of business now.

If you're a law firm not using social media, how are you to engage and network with corporations who are effectively using blogs, Twitter, Facebook and the like to build relationships? Aren't you going to be viewed as an outsider looking in? To leaders of America's fastest growing companies, isn't your law firm going to look behind the times?

If you're leading a law firm looking to get business from the Inc. 500, and which good sized general practice law firm wouldn't be, I'd be asking those questions. I'd be asking the same as a lawyer. I'd be recognizing that if my firm doesn't get aggressive in the use of social media, we're going to lose work to the competition.

Other than lawyers speaking and networking at legal and industry conferences, the primary means of sharing this intellectual capital to establish brand expertise and word of mouth reputation was through the traditional media.

Public relations professionals got media coverage, either highlighting law firm accomplishments or having lawyers serve as sources and be quoted as experts for reporters. Lawyers wrote articles for mainstream or trade publications.

With the rapid deterioration of newspapers and mainstream media, can law firms realistically expect traditional media to be there much longer as a means to share the law firm's intellectual capital? Add to that the declining number of Americans who read magazines, newspapers, and the like or watch traditional news shows on television.

Just yesterday, the New York Times David Carr, who covers the business media, lamented that business news, as we have come to know it, is over.

So you might expect the business press to be striking up the band and restocking the cigar cabinet. Instead, Forbes, a magazine that sells a beau idéal of capitalism, announced last week that it was cutting a quarter of its already decimated staff. The Wall Street Journal's Boston bureau -- historically a hothouse of game-changing business coverage -- is being closed.

Fortune magazine had already cut back to 18 issues a year from 25 and this week will be whacking anew at staff along with other Time Inc. magazines. BusinessWeek was sold for parts to Bloomberg a few weeks ago.

So, while the business of business may be back, the business of covering it with heroic narratives and upbeat glossy spreads most certainly is not. And probably never will be.

......Writers and editors who cover business now know that the jig is up, that those bespoke suits are put on one leg at a time by men that seem far less Olympian than they once did.

A recent survey of bloggers commissioned by Technorati and conducted by Penn, Schoen & Berland is also ominous news for traditional media.

• 73% believe blogs are taken more seriously as source of news and information.
• 60% believe most people will get news and info from blogs in next 5 years, with 40% believing newspapers will not survive the next 10 years.
• 63% say that blogging has led them to become more involved in things they are passionate about.

Admittedly the survey is limited to bloggers, but there's little question the public's consumption of news and information from blogs is rising geometrically while traditional media and print viewership and readership is on the steep decline.

Businesses, including sports teams, have turned to blogging to get their message out. There were no longer reporters around to do so.

With the advent of the Internet a decade ago law firms began to archive articles and related content on their websites. But getting the firm's target audience to read that content on the firm's website has met with very limited success.

Already, nearly half of the largest 200 law firms in this country are blogging. Their blog content, in addition to being consumed directly by clients, prospective clients, and referral sources, is being automatically syndicated to mainstream media such as the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. Such syndication taking place without any effort from the law firm or the need for a reporter.

By citing and commenting on lawyer's blogs, other business, legal, and industry blogs are further syndicating law firm blog content. Law blog content is also being shared via other social media such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

With the decline of traditional media and the growing number of current business leaders and the entire next generation of business leaders consuming their news and info via new media, do law firms have any other alternative than to blog?

Per a just released survey on Twitter and Status Updating from the Pew Internet & American Life Project:

Some 19% of internet users now say they use Twitter or another service to share updates about themselves, or to see updates about others. This represents a significant increase over previous surveys in December 2008 and April 2009, when 11% of internet users said they use a status-update service.

Of particular note for lawyers is that median age of those using Twitter and social networking sites.

• Median age of a Twitter user is 31, which has remained stable over the past year.
• Median age for MySpace is now 26, down from 27 in May 2008.
• Median age for LinkedIn is now 39, down from 40.
• Median age for Facebook is now 33, up from 26 in May 2008.

No question, per the Pew Foundation, that we're going to see nothing but growth in the public's use of Twitter and social networking sites.

[I]t is clear that a 'social segment' of internet users is flocking to both social network sites and status update services. This segment is likely to grow as ever more internet users adopt mobile devices as a primary means of going online.

The Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan, nonprofit "fact tank" that provides information on the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world. Their Internet & American Life Project produces reports exploring the impact of the internet on families, communities, work and home, daily life, education, health care, and civic and political life.

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• 71% have greater visibility in their industry.
• 63% said clients purchased products and services.
• 56% find they are regarded as a thought leader.
• 40% are asked to speak at conferences.

But it's only 15% of 'professional part-time' bloggers who are blogging for financial gain, to share their expertise, or attract new clients for their business. 72% of bloggers are hobbyists who blog for fun or to express themselves. The remaining 13% are blogging full time for their own or another company.

No question the survey supports the proposition that lawyers who blog to enhance their reputation and grow their practice are likely to succeed. Of particular interest though is that almost five times as many bloggers blog not for client development, but as a hobby.

The hobbyist manner of blogging may well explain why some lawyers do not experience professional and business gains from blogging. While professionals blog primarily about about the topic of their blog and avoid personal musings, per the survey, that's not the case for hobbyist bloggers.

The survey's findings may be found in the PowerPoint of Technorati CEO, Richard Jalichandra, embedded in Michael Arrington's post at TechCrunch. Jalichandra presented the findings at Blog World '09 on Friday.

Linda's a social networking/media evangelist who runs from top to bottom Sun's widely respected online community efforts. I just added her blog to my feeds this morning.

Back-to-back studies, the most recent issued Tuesday, show a big chunk of corporate America is banning communication wonders like Twitter and Facebook from the workplace.

According to the latest survey of more than 1,400 U.S. companies, more than half (54 percent) said they prohibit employees from visiting sites such as Twitter, Facebook and MySpace while on the clock. The survey, by Robert Half Technology, a provider of information technology staffing services, was based on telephone interviews with U.S. companies of 100 or more employees.

Another recent survey delivered even graver news for the social media world. According to an August survey by ScanSafe, a Web security provider, 76 percent of companies are now choosing to block employees' use of social networking -- up 20 percent from February -- which is now a more popular category of sites to block than those involving shopping, weapons, sports or alcohol.

Law firms are leading the way in the blocking craze. Per Baldas:

Indianapolis-based Barnes & Thornburg has blocked all access to Facebook. Twitter is still available, however. Gunster Yoakley & Stewart of West Palm Beach, Fla., blocks Facebook and Twitter for all its support staff, including secretaries and legal assistants, but lets lawyers use the social media tools.

Even crazier are the findings of an informal survey of 231 law firms conducted by Steve Matthews and Doug Cornelius and published in the ABA's Law Practice Magazine which found 45% of the law firms blocking social media. Of those law firms who blocked social media, what mediums did they block?

• Facebook 85%
• MySpace 77%
• Twitter 26%
• LinkedIn 14%
• YouTube 55%
• Blogs 22%

The main reported reasons for blocking:

• Loss of productivity
• Viruses
• Confidentiality
• Bandwidth consumption

What's happening screams ignorance and lack of trust. Neither of which are high on the list of traits for law firms heading anywhere.

Maybe things have changed since I started practicing law almost 30 years ago. Back then law firms got their best work by word of mouth. Both lawyers and non lawyer personnel were expected to represent the law firm well in all they did (some things we were more proud of than others). We knew the more our employees came in touch with other people, the greater the opportunity people got to know them, and when the need for a lawyer arose, the people our employee's met would think of us. Novel concept? Hardly.

Heck, I can remember being pushed out the door to Rotary and Kiwanis meetings. No small feat when they kicked off at 7:30 AM with grown women and men singing from song books that looked like those Sister Mary Rose passed out in the second grade. But the whole idea was to meet doctors, realtors, bankers, and other local business people.

I vividly remember my senior partner, George, asking me to be more like Gerry. Gerry played golf at the country club and hung out in the grill afterwards. He went to all types of civic events. All the stuff I didn't like - and frankly felt uncomfortable participating in. But George wanted me to grow my practice.

Now we have one of the most effective mediums - the Internet - for time and cost effective networking and we're telling lawyers and other legal professionals they can't use it. Can't use it because of fears born out of ignorance. That's nuts.

I don't know about the leadership in your law firms, but in the law firm's I led, I valued three things: 1) Personal growth of my employees (to be better people, for their sake and for their families); 2) professional growth of my employees (I wanted my employees to go anywhere they wanted, I wanted them to chase their dreams); and 3) to have fun (we spent more time awake working than we did at home, so we sure as heck better have fun at work).

Professional growth, personal growth, and fun needed to be based on trust. I wasn't walking around looking over people's shoulders to make sure they were working. My employees knew the big picture of service to our clients. My employees had important things to do. I placed great faith in them. I didn't need to breed distrust by having rules dictating personal behavior in the work place.

To find problem and fault in things you don't understand (many in law firm management have not a clue about social media) and use this ignorance to demoralize employees and hamstring those looking to use the Internet for networking is a step backward.

Leaders in law firms looking to compete in a world that's changing faster than ever before need to adapt, to learn, and to empower the employees who work with them.

The study found that 54% of the Fortune 100 were using Twitter to reach out directly to stakeholders, while 32% were using a blogs and 29% were actively using a Facebook Fan Page to engage. Despite the perception that Twitter is the newest kid on the block among the three platforms, 76% of Fortune 100 companies that were using just one social media channel were using Twitter over Facebook and Blogs.

And the Fortune 100 are using Twitter effectively.

94% of Fortune 100 Twitter accounts distribute company news updates and announcements while fully 67% are at least partially serving a customer service function.

If your prospective clients are using social media, how do you, as the Managing Partner or Chief Marketing Officer of a major law firm ignore social media? Is it a defensible position to say that the legal profession is above social media? With the over 50 demographic among the fasting growing segment using social media, you'd like foolish saying social media is just for kids.

The law is a profession, but it's also a business. Innovative executives and in-house counsel I'd classify as 'go getters' have to be influenced by your law firm's take on social media.

You can't pick up the Wall Street Journal or turn on CNN or Fox News without seeing yet another use of blogs or Twitter. Social media is being discussed by CEO's, VP's of Marketing, and the Fortune 500 public relations professionals. "What is social media? How are we as a corporation going to use social media to communicate with our customers, extend our brand, and keep up with the competition?"

A Law firm's use of blogs, Twitter, and other social media in a smart and effective fashion is not going to be lost on the people employed by the Fortune 500 who are hiring lawyers. Rather than your firm's use of social media being frowned upon or viewed at with suspicion, your law firm is likely to be looked at as an innovator, dedicated to client service, and employing lawyers who are thought leaders in their area of practice.

Per Beebe, social media (Twitter, Facebook, blogs) has become so ubiquitous that businesses are using it to fuel sales and profits through social interaction with customers and clients.

• Five years ago, just three Global 500 companies were using social media, today the number is close to 200. (Shel Israel, a Silicon Valley-based social media writer)
• Almost two-thirds of retailers have invested in the social-media frenzy in some way and another 22 percent plan to get involved in the next year. (Technology research company Forrester Research)
• Traffic to Facebook is up almost 200 percent over the past year. (Nielsen)
• Twitter has seen an increase of almost 1,500 percent. (Nielsen)
• Twitter tops the list of social media used by Fortune 100 companies (54% using), with corporate blogs at 32%, while 29% have Facebook fan pages. (Burson-Marsteller and its Proof Digital Media subsidiary)
• 107 of the 150 companies attending a recent trade show staged by Shop.org, the digital division of the National Retail Federation, were using Twitter.
• Delta Airlines is evaluating additional opportunities within the networks they are actively using, such as Facebook and YouTube, as well as other networks, such as Twitter, and are developing a comprehensive strategy to enhance their existing efforts.
• The companies using networks and blogs to stay closer to customers, for sales, marketing, customer support, recruiting, investor relations and product research. It is absolutely not a fad. (Shel Israel)

Look at the personal experiences and stories of the small business people Beebe spoke with:

• Kalani Mack, the owner a Salt Lake fast-food alternative to expensive steak houses, attributes the opening of a second restaurant solely to Facebook, on which the restaurant has 1,1759 fans. Mack uses Facebook to promote new menu items and events at the restaurant, and gather customer feedback. "It was like a brick hitting me, I just realized it could be a powerful tool for the business, and the business could be a profile itself. Just being in contact with customers directly that way was huge. I'm not sure what kind of value it brought them, but I noticed that they enjoyed being in contact with their favorite restaurant."
• Melissa Coates, an account executive at a Salt Lake City-based designer of mall kiosks and trade show exhibits uses Twitter to develop relationships with businesses and find clients. Coates started following those companies who had Twitter accounts at the Shop.org trade show. She hoped they would follow her. "I don't know how many followed me back, but a lot did. I went to the show wanting to target 10 companies. I got seven companies that wanted to do business. I was kind of shocked."
• Grant Gordon, a co-founder of a software company and who 2 years ago saw nothing in Twitter, uses Twitter to drive awareness of his company and keep up with trends. "All these experts, executives and prominent recruiters are on Twitter all the time. They will post articles they've read, things that are happening, questions. If you are not listening to that conversation, you are completely out of the loop. If you are not participating in that conversation, you really are not heard."

Lawyers and law firms ignoring evidence of social media success like this do so at your own peril. You have more in common with the above companies and small business people than you think.

In addition, companies and small businesses using social media are more apt to hire law firms who do the same.

Per Jon Gibs, vice president, media and agency insights, Nielsen's online division:

This growth suggests a wholesale change in the way the Internet is used. While video and text content remain central to the Web experience - the desire of online consumers to connect, communicate and share is increasingly driving the medium's growth.

Those spending money on the net - advertisers are taking note of this trend, big time.

Estimated online advertising spending on the top social network and blogging sites increased 119 percent, from approximately $49 million in August 2008 to approximately $108 million in August 2009 - all despite a recession. Share of estimated spend on these sites has doubled, from 7 percent of online ad spend in 2008 to 15 percent in 2009.

What does this mean for lawyers and law firms? One, don't think for a minute blogs are a passing fad. Not, only are blogs here to stay, the use of blogs by your target audience is increasing.

Second, a website, combined with directory listings, is not going to give you an effective Internet presence. Americans use of such sites is on the decline. You need to create a compelling Web base to attract your target audience - a blog. And you need to start networking with your target audience of clients, prospective clients, referral sources, and their influencers via social networking sites and blogs.

Listen into every word at a cocktail reception of lawyers, industry professionals, reporters, and corporate executives following a one day seminar for corporate leaders and in-house counsel. Pull out isolated 140 character phrases from the conversation. Think they'll all be priceless words of wisdom on which one could hang the next large business deal? Hardly.

You'd be just as apt to hear someone talking about buying a recent puppy, which vodka they like best, or the recent weather as offering valuable insight and commentary on the law or industry happenings.

But that does not dismiss the value of you, as a lawyer, attending that reception. The opportunity to engage and connect with your target audience so you can get to know each is invaluable. Developing relationships through networking opportunities is the stuff client development in the law is made of.

Plus, much of networking and making connections with your target audience is done through conversation about subjects other than the law and business. Relationships flourish based on getting to really know people. And that means getting to know things relating to each others' personal lives.

Heather Milligan, Director of Marketing at Los Angeles' Barger & Wolen LLP, referencing a recent post of mine, explains how useful Twitter can be in client development.

In the legal world, we hear from GCs time and again that, with all things being equal, they hire lawyers they know, like and trust.

Social networking isn't about "selling" a product or a service; it is about expanding our networks and connecting with people with similar or like interests. It's about becoming known, liked and trusted by those in a position to hire or refer us business.

Kevin O'Keefe was amongst my first follows on Twitter. As we learned by using the tool, I would "listen" in as Kevin would Tweet baseball games. I got to know Kevin, like Kevin and trust Kevin through Twitter and other social media and networking tools.

While a lot of people were still questioning Twitter, we spent time over coffee, over the phone, texting about how social networking could impact client development for lawyers.

One thing became extremely apparent early on: Twitter was extremely powerful (and quick) in identifying a broad network of people with whom we could network and develop relationships. We just had to figure out how to convert these relationships into new business. Turns out, it isn't that complicated.

In the case of Twitter, many lawyers and other legal professionals are finding it invaluable in networking and building relationships with their target audience. The fact that much of the information shared is babble or that you don't use Twitter for client development is irrelevant.

Patsi Krakoff turned me onto these survey results by Ipsos Mendelsohn and reported by eMarketer.com.

For lawyers, this increases the need to have an effective Internet presence.

Effective does not just mean ranking at the top of Google. Can these folks pick up on your talent, intellect, and your legal philosophy? Can they see other folks citing what you're saying? Can they see your growing network via LinkedIn and other social media?

For people like me who spend time on the net checking out service providers I'm considering hiring this is the type of info I'm looking for.

And for $250,000 a year for me, my wife wishes it were anywhere close.

The percentage of internet users who use search engines on a typical day has been steadily rising from about one-third of all users in 2002, to a new high of just under one-half (49%). With this increase, the number of those using a search engine on a typical day is pulling ever closer to the 60% of internet users who use email, arguably the internet's all-time killer app, on a typical day.

One reason for the increase in search use is the quality of information available on topic specific sites. People can find a site-specific search engine on "just about every content-rich website that is worth its salt."

With a growing mass of web content from blogs, news sites, image and video archives, personal websites, and more, internet users have an option to turn not only to the major search engines, but also to search engines on individual sites, as vehicles to reach the information they are looking for.

Can you say niche law blog with a clearly displayed search feature retrieving highly relevant searches in a hundredth of a second?

Perhaps of interest to law firms is the demographic makeup of those using Internet search.

• More likely to be socially upscale
• At least some college education
• Incomes over $50,000 per year
• More likely to be internet users with at least six years of online experience
• Younger internet users are more likely than older users to search

Also of interest is how search use compares to other Internet daily activities.

Note the increasing use of the net for news (39%) and social networking (13%). Both represent opportunities for savvy lawyer PR/marketing and networking through news syndication (blogs, Twitter) and social networking (LinkedIn, Martindale's Legal Connection, Legal OnRamp etc).

Click here for a copy of the study. (pdf)

Not a study solely about lawyers, but one that finds nearly one-in-five adult internet users (19%) say they have searched for information about co-workers, professional colleagues or business competitors with an online search engine. Searches are also being done on people users are meeting for the first time as well as those who we're considering hiring.

You've got to believe the number of people doing such background checks increases when you have two additional factors in play, as is the case with lawyers. The need to place great trust in the person being searched. The higher the amount being charged by the person being searched.

Ask yourself what people are finding when they search you. If it's only your website and directory listing or two, you're in trouble.

The report finds Social media, and blogs in particular, are becoming a more important part of global media consumption for Internet users than some traditional media channels.

Key findings include:

• 78% of Internet users read blogs, up from 66% in the last study
• 57% of Internet users are now members of a social network
• RSS consumption is growing rapidly up from 15% to 39%
• Podcasts are now mainstream digital content, listened to by 48%

It's like I told law firm PR professionals last week in Chicago. Ask your attorneys under age 35 if they they subscribe to the major local newspaper. Ask them if they're considering do so. You're likely to get a question in response. 'Why would I?'

For a growing portion of our population news from social media whether it be from blogs or links to news stories shared by 'friends' on social networking sites is their preferable source of news.

Key findings from the survey of 17,000 Internet users worldwide:

• 83% watch video clips, up from 62% in the last study in June 2007
• 78% read blogs, up from 66%
• 57% of internet users are now members of a social network
• RSS consumption is growing rapidly up from 15% to 39%
• Podcasts are now mainstream digital content, listened to by 48%

Sounds amazing that the more people could rely on blogs as a media source than newspapers, magazines, radio, and TV. But maybe not with the Internet being the top source of news for 50% of Americans.

LexBlog's recent research indicates that 85% of blogs started in our legal profession are maintained. Only 15% of blogs go months without a post.

How'd we arrive at that? As part of a new service LexBlog expects to launch next month, we're compiling a list of active blogs being published by those in the legal industry - practicing lawyers, law professors, students, law librarians, legal marketing & knowledge management professionals, vendors, etc.

Going in, we thought we'd find over 2,000 law blogs. That was based on information from the ABA Journal that they had about 2,000 law blogs in their blog directory and were adding about 4 per day. However, our editors found only 1,700 to 1,800 active law blogs. Blogs that hadn't posted in months were not included in our census.

When I first heard the numbers I thought that's a lot of law blogs not being maintained. But looking at it percentage wise, that's 85% of law blogs going strong (admittedly some are much more active than others). From what I understand that's a much higher percentage of blogs being maintained as compared with blogs in general.

Tom Mighell, lawyer and blog pioneer, should be glad to hear that his numbers from 3 years ago remain as accurate today. He posted 3 years ago next month, of the '...blawgs I have been tracking, almost 85% are still going strong.'

The premise of Tom's post was whether we lawyers will be blogging in 5 years. Looks like it's going to happen.

No wonder lawyers are finding legal blogging so effective in reach clients, potential clients, and others in their target audience. These folks are turning to the Internet for information. And lawyers blogging on niche areas of the law are kicking out exactly what Americans are looking for when it comes to the law.