The lions share of my learning has come from reading lots of blogs. Blogs I subscribe to in an RSS reader where I can browse headlines by folders I set up by particular subjects.

Social media, including blogs, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, social networking sites, and hell of a lot more, is hard for me to keep up with. And I'm leading a company that's serving as a social media partner to law firms, not practicing law or running a law firm like you.

So it piqued my interest when Ritu Pant, a web strategist of a couple years, posted a list of 25 blogs to help you stay current with social media on the Freelance Folder blog.

I'm going to use the list to do a better job of staying up to speed with social media news, trends, and ideas. I'll share what I think worthwhile for lawyers and legal professions on my blog and in my Twitter feed.

As a legal professional you may wish to subscribe to the blogs to learn more about how to use social media. You'll always see things I miss.

For those unfamiliar with the power of a RSS reader, here's a list of the 25 blogs in a social media folder in my RSS reader, NetNewsWire. Scanning headlines from these blogs organized by folder so I see the aggregated post titles is the only time effective means of consuming such blog content.

I can't vouch for the list yet, but reviewing the blogs in the list, a number I already subscribed to, and titles of posts from the list, the 25 blogs look pretty good. As with all my subscriptions, I'll fine tune the list cutting some blogs and adding a few more to my social media folder.

My answer is we have enough to handle. Blogs, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and more. The key now is for lawyers to assimilate these tools into how we network with our target audience for client development.

Shel Israel, a well known writer and speaker on social media issues, had an excellent post yesterday, 'The New Social Media Age of Normalization' driving home the point.

We have gone through a prolonged period of disruption in which social media tools have change a great many aspects of the way modern companies conduct business. I believe that this period is now coming to a close.

We are leaving the age of social media innovation and entering a longer, slower-moving period in which businesses and institutions will absorb and assimilate these tools into their everyday business practices. The novelty of these tools will fade away as the utility of them becomes clearer and more universally accepted.

There was a time when people wrote books and produced conferences to discuss the business benefits of email and fax machines. The telephone got introduced at a public fair and immediately business thinkers warned of the dangers that existed if such a device were permitted into the workplace.

......What I see happening in the near term future is far more valuable than it is controversial or interesting. We have entered into a long, slow, steady, non-disruptive period of refinement and adoption. The tools we have will get better and easier and faster, but they will not be soon replaced by some shiny new thing. The business that have painfully adopted the new tools will feel far less pain and far more results. New people coming into the workplace and marketplace will use social media tools with as little angst or consideration as they use email or phone.

Shel's analogy to the phone and businesses resistance to its use is the same analogy I use, except mine is lawyers resistance of the phone.

A great many executives agreed about the phone, but eventually, business saw that the benefits far outweighed the liabilities. Businesses that continued to ignored  those benefits eventually disappeared. And as the benefits of the phone became clearer to more and more people, the once-heated conversation about the phone's place in business cooled down, became obvious, tedious and would eventually wither.

There was time when the use of phones by lawyers was very controversial. Clearly unethical in exchanging confidential information in a non secure environment. And of course a phone would clearly be an unprofessional means for a lawyer to provide counsel. Lawyers who resisted the use of the phone went the way of the dinosaur.

Client development for lawyers has always been about forming relationships. Relationships built by engaging our target audience of clients, prospective clients, referral sources and the influencers of those three.

Blogs, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube and the rest are just networking tools. Tools that allow lawyers and law firms to engage their target audience to enhance and build meaningful relationships. In that networking for client development comes natural for good lawyers the use of social media tools will become second nature to good lawyers overtime.

Shel sees a Social Media Age of Normalization and an 'Era about as tumultuous as watching paint dry and as significant as the adoption of the automobile.'

From what I've seen so far, the legal profession's adoption of social media ought to be more entertaining than watching paint dry. But the professions use of social media may be as significant as the adoption of the automobile - or at least the phone.

If you haven't looked, business leaders are getting younger and younger. Their upstart businesses are leading the American economic recovery hiring people while large corporations are laying off people.

A year ago May I was speaking at the Community 2.0 conference in Las Vegas. Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, was also presenting. This kid, at least that's the way he looked to me to was sharing one good idea and story after another. Hsieh is 35 and just sold Zappos for $1 Billion. At age 24 he sold his company LinkExchange to Microsoft for $265 million.

Zappos and other upstarts are the companies law firms would die to have as clients. IP work. Employment and labor matters. Securities and corporate finance. You name it. These companies require a ton of legal work to grow.

How do law firms market to these upstarts? Social media. 96% of Generation Y uses social media. Social media including blogs, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and other social media/networking sites.

Landing upstart companies is not going to come via advertising, law firm websites included. Only 14% of generation Y trust advertising.

I'm a customer service fanatic. Zappos is known for outstanding customer service. So I sent Hsieh a private Twitter message (we're following each other) asking what was his favorite book on client service. Four hours later he replied on Twitter with a link to Zappo's library on best business practices. It was pretty cool though that his favorite was the same as mine, Raving Fans by Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles.

I share my exchange with Hsieh as a an example of the ease of reaching out to a business leader through the use of social media. How else could I effectively do that before social media? A phone call? Email? Letter? I'm not certain I'd have ever heard back.

If you want to start building relationships with upstart corporate leaders, learn how to use social media. Traditional legal marketing and PR is not going to cut it.

Thanks to Anita Campbell at Small Business Trends for turning me onto Fenn's book.

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.

Pushing law firm content on people is not what social media, or for that matter, the Internet, is all about. By all means have your content (lawyer articles, newsletters, alerts) accessible to be indexed by Google so it may be retrieved on search, but the Internet is about communicating. Communicating does not mean shouting content at people.

Realize the word 'social' is included in social media. The term 'social' means interaction of living organisms (humans in particular) with other living organisms.

Being social means engaging other people. Engagement requires listening first and then entering into a conversation. It's how we as people build relationships. Relationships drive client development in the legal industry.

Imagine a lawyer getting ready to network with industry leaders representing prospective clients at cocktail party. The law firm's marketing department works for a month in advance on some wonderful content written by associate lawyers. The strategy being to carry a box of content to the networking event, pull out the law firm's bullhorn, and shout the content out to all in attendance. Better yet, have minions push the content at people's chests.

You'd never do it. It defies common sense and would embarrass the heck out the lawyer and your law firm.

Just because social media has proven effective for law firm client development does not mean you should lose your common sense understanding of what 'social' means.

Being social for client development purposes means identifying your target audience, going to where they are congregating, listening to what they are saying, engaging in the conversation by referencing what others are saying, and offering information and insight of value to others.

Get that basic understanding down and you'll be ahead of 95% of law firms. Learning how to engage in social media for client development is then just getting the proper tools and learning how to use them.

Mann describes what I see in many a lawyer or other law firm professional.

So you've been dabbling in social media. You have a Facebook profile with a few hundred friends and perhaps you're now on Twitter. You aren't interested in blogging or webinars; YouTube is fun to watch but you don't want your own channel and now you wonder if it's time to introduce the company you work for or own to this space.

For law firms already involved in social media and for those considering sticking their toe in the water, here's Mann's advice (with a little editing by me).

• Your social media commitment must be completely in line with your strategic objectives. You wouldn't treat any other part of your company with a haphazard approach.
• Companies can get caught up in their own 'too busy' mentality and let things slide. Social media is not something to do 'when you have some time' - make time for it or you won't see the benefits.
• You'll need human involvement with real business leaders involved. Social media is not something you hand off to the PR, marketing, and advertising team.
• Resist the temptation to use the social web as a giant advertising medium. Social media is not a campaign and your company will not gain millions in revenue after a handful of tweets. If you aren't willing to pay attention to how people interact with your company online, this may be a struggle for you.
• Metrics are helpful but they are not the same as the 'sleep at night' estimates you may receive from other mediums. Just because you put up a billboard at the corner of East and South Streets doesn't mean anyone saw your message. That is the same with social media, it takes time and commitment.
• You need a corporate champion. If someone in your organization is committed to online social networking, you can begin to be a part of the conversation where your customers and potential customers may be as well.
• Focus the funnel. There are many social networking spaces but it's difficult to keep profiles and contact on each because of the law of diminishing results. Pick the channels you want and do them well. Skip the rest.

Social media is an art learned over time through personal involvement. The ROI from social media, done right, can exceed any other forms of law firm client development. But you've got to treat social media like a business.

A growing number of businesses are tracking social-media outlets such as Facebook and Twitter to gauge consumer sentiment and avert potential public-relations problems.

Ford Motor Co., PepsiCo Inc. and Southwest Airlines Co., among others, are deploying software and assigning employees to monitor Internet postings and blogs. They're also assigning senior leaders to craft corporate strategies for social media.

Shouldn't law firms being doing the same for matters about their firm and the matters in which their firm is representing clients? In this day and age when it's so easy to set up a dashboard via RSS feeds monitoring names, subjects, and sources it borders on negligence for law firms not to be doing so.

Not only do law firms need to monitor the likes of Facebook and Twitter, law firms need to respond quickly. Per corporate communications pro, Shel Holtz, "Social media [has] magnified the urgency of crisis communication, seemingly small incidents can quickly spread into bigger PR problems via the Web."

Scarier yet for law firms is not having all communications go through the law firm's traditional communication channels. Per Needleman:

Some companies are training staffers to broaden their social-media efforts. At Ford, Mr. Monty plans to soon begin teaching employees how to use sites like Twitter to represent the company and interact with consumers.

Coca-Cola Co. is preparing a similar effort, which initially will be limited to marketing, public affairs and legal staffers. Participants will be authorized to post to social media on Coke's behalf without checking with the company's PR staff, says Adam Brown, named Coke's first head of social media in March.

We've already seen how woefully unprepared law firms are for this type of monitoring and rapid response. Embarrassing emails from law firm management leak to blogs or main stream media. Virally passed across the Internet, without any response from the firm via social media, these things take on a life of their own.

I heard from one national law firm communications director that stories spreading across the Internet about senior partners thinking of leaving the firm, whether true or not, all but put the firm on a path leading to its demise.

For lawyers doing litigation, there's little question news and information about matters in dispute are going to be spread across Twitter and Facebook. A gag order is going do do little to quash discussion effecting the news, your bargaining position, and the views of a fact finder - judge or jury.

No one's got the perfect answer on how to monitor social media and how to respond yet. All we know is that not monitoring social media is a dangerous proposition and not responding in a timely fashion via the same social media is even more dangerous.

Billed as 'Social Media: Expect the Unexpected,' we'll be in Seattle at the Washington Athletic Club on Tuesday, July 7, and in Portland at the Portland Hilton & Executive Tower on Wednesday July 8. Running from 8 to 10 AM with 1.5 hours of CLE, topics include:

• Social Media - What is It and Why You Need to Consider Using It; Kevin O'Keefe, CEO, LexBlog Inc.
• Technology and Intellectual Property Issues - How to Manage Risk; Craig Bachman, Intellectual Property and Technology Attorney, Lane Powell PC
• Issues for Public Companies and First Amendment Rights; Mike Nesteroff, Chair of Lane Powell's Sustainability and Climate Change Team, Lane Powell PC, and Former KOMO-TV Journalist
• Employment Issues that Follow Social Networking and Practical Guidance to Help Minimize Risk; D. Michael Reilly, Director of Lane Powell's Labor and Employment and Employee Benefits Practice Group, Lane Powell PC
• Panel and Audience Discussion: Sea Change or Flash in the Pan; What is Really Going on Here and Why is it Important to You and Your Company

You may register for the Portland program here and the Seattle program here. I hope to see some of you there.

Hosting social media educational programs such as this offer law firms an excellent opportunity. Not only does the firm put itself at the forefront of innovation, but large corporate audiences starved for credible information on the topic provide excellent relationship building opportunities.

I participated in an event with a Manhattan firm that brought an excellent turnout. I'm honored that Lane Powell thought enough of what I could offer to invite me for their program.

Looking to host a similar event? I'd be honored to take part.

For those who missed it, or for attendees who want to revisit the Webinar, you can view the Social Media Webinar recording. You can also view this and past Webinars on the LexBlog Support site.

Today's Webinar drew with over 90 LexBlog clients with a LexBlog team presentation on how to use LinkedIn and Twitter. We actually ran over by 30 minutes, thanks to a constant stream of questions about these social media tools.

Since there's so much to talk about for both LinkedIn and Twitter, we're considering breaking up the two into separate Webinars of their own. We could easily spend an hour talking about how to get a Twitter account, what applications to use (like TweetDeck, Twhirl, and Twitterific) and how to get the most out of Twitter.

LexBlog client webinars dedicated to best blogging practices and keeping LexBlog clients up to speed on effective ways to leverage their blogs occur monthly on Thursdays at 9am PT/12pm ET. Coming up:

• March 12: Creating Effective Blog Posts
• April 16: RSS: The Secret Sauce of Blogging
• May 14: Social Media

We'll post information on how to register shortly before each Webinar.

It's encouraging to see so much interest in social media from lawyers and law firms large and small, and we hope today's Webinar was beneficial to you. Drop us a comment here or email me with your feedback.

You may post pictures via an iPhone or other mobile device by emailing a picture to a twitpic email address you are assigned. The caption of your picture, which you put in the subject of your email, will accompany a link to the picture in your twitter post.

You may also use twitpic to post pictures to Twitter from an application such as a TweetDeck.

Why is twitpic an effective social media tool for lawyers? Because it lets those who follow you on Twitter get to know you a little better.

Face it, as lawyers we are not only not the most interesting people in the world, but people downright dislike us. However, people are interested in what you're interested in. Your sharing your personal interests with people builds relationships that grow your network, a network that grows business over time.

I asked Heather Milligan, Director of Marketing at Barger & Wolen in Los Angeles, why she thought Twitter may be an effective client development tool for lawyers. She told me something to the effect of 'Clients are not interested in lawyers per se, but they are interested in what the lawyers are interested in.'

Twitpic by its very nature lets people know what you are interested in. You're sharing things you see and value enough to not only take a picture, but to share the picture with others. As more people following you on Twitter find you interesting, they mention you and what you blog or twitter about to others - both on and offline.

Nikki Black twitpics her gourmet touch each evening, tweeting a picture of what always looks like a pretty good dinner. Any given evening, Nikki may have 50 or 60 people look at a dinner plate from her kitchen.

The result? Nikki has over 1,500 followers on Twitter who are getting to know her even better. Those followers in turn talk more about Nikki. And people across the country remember Nikki is a lawyer in Rochester, New York. She's got a growing network and reputation that lawyers with huge PR budgets would kill for.

I twitpic about various things. Arriving in a new city, pictures of my kids, or my family at a baseball game.

This summer I shared a picture of roaring fans at Wrigley Field after the Cubs' rookie catcher just drove in his 3rd run of the game. Des Moines lawyer Rush Nigut direct messaged me on Twitter a minute later saying his kids had their picture taken with Geovany Soto when they threw out the opening pitch at a Des Moines Cubs minor league game the summer before. Received a call from Rush the week I got back from vacation regarding new 2 new blogs for his firm.

Are you sharing too much of your personal life with twitpic? Not really. When you sit down with a new client or business associate, the conversation starts off focusing on personal items. You're more apt to talk about your kids' soccer games or who won last night's NBA game than to lead off with 'I'm a no nonsense guy, give me just what I need to start work on this matter.'

To give you a further idea of how I use twitpic, here's a number of pics from the last two days followed by some responses I received.

From a law blogger meetup in Toronto on Friday evening.

I shared that it was great to be back in New York City with this pic upon walking out of the subway.

I shared some pics while out for a beautiful run through Central Park this evening. Yes, I tweeted while running. The first is from Columbus Circle entering Central Park.

Here's upon reaching the reservoir running loop at the North end of Central Park. (yes that's ice)

Looking back at the Manhattan skyline from the North side of the reservoir before heading back into a cold wind.

And back at the ice skating rink on the South end of the park, where I pointed out the Trump sponsorship signs you can't see in the picture.

I find sharing photos like this a lot of fun. Turns out some of my followers on Twitter thought so as well.

• UK's Mike Semple Piggot (@CharonQC): Hi Kevin... I'm watching you as you wander through `North America! Great stuff. Enjoy NYC. Keep the bulletins going. :)
• San Diego copywriter Beth Ziesenis, (@AvenueZ): So beautiful... My run was through an industrial park today. And very hot.
• New York lawyer John Hochfelder (@johnhechfelder): What the heck Kevin, are you literally tweeting while on the run?
• Columbus Social Media Account Manager, Anna Young (@ayoungone): Loving your pictures of NYC. It makes the cold snow look so much nicer.

Give twitpic a try. It's a lot of fun. And though you may not see the business development side, client development begins with strengthening relationships.

Two reasons. One, you draw more traffic to your law blog through the effective use of social media than SEO. Two, traffic drawn to your blog through social media is more preferrable.

I've been blogging less than the mad 2 or 3 posts I've done in the past. However, traffic to my blog for this month is the highest ever.

Why? Because of social media. By social media I mean people passing on to others what I say via a blog post or something I say on Twitter. Plus I've been more active on Twitter.

When I tweet about a blog post of mine, I share word of the post on Twitter. People following me on Twitter, retweet word of my blog post. Through this network I wouldn't be surprised if within an hour of my tweeting about a blog post 25,000 or 30,000 people receive word of my post through Twitter. That's a powerful network.

Without even linking to a blog post of mine, my using Twitter in general draws traffic to my blog. I'm a notorious sharer of news via Twitter. I'll share links to news and blog posts offering my brief commentary. I'll retweet what someone I'm following may have tweeted - so long as it's of interest to my followers. I'll also offer brief commentary without a link or a retweet on various subjects of interest to my followers.

In each case, whether it be a follower of mine on Twitter or a follower of someone who has retweeted what I've said, people look at my Twitter profile. That profile includes a link to my blog. And a lot of people click on that link to find out more about me.

Traffic to a law blog drawn via social media brings higher quality traffic than SEO. Good lawyers get their best work via word of mouth and people doing research on the lawyer. Doesn't matter whether the word of mouth is generated or the research is done offline or online.

Social media traffic drawn to your blog comes because someone else, more likely than not a thought leader in your field, blogged about what you've blogged about or retweeted about something you said or shared on Twitter.

Someone else sharing what you've said is a tacit endorsement of you as an authority. Why else would someone share what you've said with their friends and followers unless they thought enough about you or what you said? People are drawn to look up more about you when you have received a tacit endorsement. Those people end up at your blog.

Take it a step further and realize that these people who see your content via social media and then look you up are more apt to have a keen interest in what you're saying, what you do or about you personally. They're also a tad more advanced than someone, who previously went to the yellow pages, who goes to the Internet and keys in New York City bankruptcy lawyer. You want that kind of traffic to your blog.

Speaking in Toronto yesterday to law firm management professionals with medium and large law firms, I felt very comfortable telling them that social media through blogging was more important than any sort of search engine optimization of their law firms' websites or blogs.

Sure, you want your blog and website optimized by having the right title tags. You also want to have incoming links to your blog and website from other relevant sites. Social media and blogging will get you all the links you need.

But at the end of the day, I just wonder if social media, which includes effective blogging, is not a more powerful way to draw traffic to your blog than search engine optimization?

• Connie Bensen, a community strategist in Minnesota (@cbensen): I use Twitter for tech support :) I have very geeky friends who are quite knowledgeable.
• Gabe Acevedo, attorney and E-Discovery consultant in Washington, DC (@GabeAcevedo): There are many ways to use Twitter effectively. To me, interacting with other members just as important as promotion/marketing.
• Bob Ambrogi, Rockpot, MA, lawyer, writer and media consultant (@bobambrogi): How lawyers can use Twitter: see my 'Tweet 16'.
• Connecticut employment lawyer Dan Schwartz (@ctemplawyer): It depends. Lawyers use twitter differently based on the audience they are trying to reach. No 1 right way.
• David Harlow, health care lawyer, consultant and blogger (@healthblawg): See my recent Mass Bar Assn twitter article and social media presentation.
• Gordon Gates, Maine social security disability lawyer (@gordongates): For real lawyers with a blog, displaying your twitter feed on blog gives your readers updates between "regular" blog posts.
• Timothy Corcoran, New Jersey-based legal marketing, technology and business management executive (@tcorcoran): Effective Twittering: Share learnings, spot trends, meet like minds, glimpse personalities. Clients hire who they like & trust.
• Jennifer Gumbel, Minnesota estate planning attorney, (@jgumbel): networking... see 10 character answer :)
• Doug Cornelius, chief compliance officer at Boston real estate company, (@dougcornelius): Twitter effectively?: Connect, Communicate, Contribute.
• Nancy Myrland, professional marketing advisor, (@nancymyrland): People want 2 do business w/people they like & trust. Twitter helps us share so clients can see, meet, like & trust. 
• Roy Mura, Buffalo, NY, insurance coverage and fraud lawyer, (@royamura): I'm a newbie, but am using Twitter for the most current updates/info on legal issues and...to microblog insurance coverage articles and case decisions to my niche blog that I'm not writing full posts on.
• Josh Fruchter, New York-based founder of eLawMarketing and publisher of LawyerCasting (@joshfruchter): Monitor conversations in your area of expertise and offer insight when an opportunity arises.
• Susan Jacobsen, PR/communications director in Washington, DC (@LUV2XLPR): Strengthening relationships/establishing trust by sharing knowledge & new insights. A trusted business advisor. 
• Eric Grindley, Florida real estate litigation lawyer (@LawandLegal): Twitter is used effectively by allowing attorneys to interact with clients, referral sources, friends, and colleagues.
• Gregory Nerland, California business litigation and consulting attorney (@gnerland): Effectiveness is in the eye of the beholder - twitter as advertising - no; twitter as word of mouth - yes.
• Nicole Black, Rochester, NY, attorney, legal writer and blogger (@nikiblack): Twitter & most forms of social media are effective only if user is comfortable & enjoys the interface.

Until now, Internet marketing has been all about websites and search engine performance. If your website couldn't be found, spend money on search engine optimization. Still not found, throw money at legal directories like lawyers.com, Martindale.com, or FindLaw. Want to spend even more, throw money at sponsored links to your website on Google or banner ads at the legal directories.

The majority of lawyer's Internet marketing to date reminds me of how we viewed lawyer advertising back in the 1970's when I went to law school. Advertising then was reserved for lawyers who did not have a reputation as a reliable and trusted authority. Such lawyers had either sullied their reputations and needed to advertise to get work from the unknowing or had not done anything to earn a favorable reputation, a reputation that was then spread by word of mouth.

Sunday afternoon I took a look at my web stats to see how people were coming to my blog. They were coming by virtue of social media, not because of search engine performance. Ten of the top eighteen referring sources to my blog were references generated via social media. Twitter, Google Reader for people subscribing to my blog, blogs referring and linking to my blog, and social bookmarking. Each of the arrows references a referral from social media, not a Google search.

Though my blog ranks in the top three for lawyer blog and lawyer blogs, people did not come to my blog via those searches. People came by virtue of my word of mouth reputation as evidenced in social media.

People were interested in what I had to say. People were interested in what other's were saying about me.

I asked a friend in the technology industry last evening what was more important for a lawyer? Social media or search engine optimization? His answer: social media.

The reason is that search engine performance can be gamed. References to a lawyer in social media are earned. People are referencing the lawyer because of the lawyer's knowledge, the lawyer's skill, and the lawyer's reputation.

Don't get me wrong search engine performance is important. You want your blog to be found when people are searching for you and what you are writing about. Effective blogging will get you that.

But in the long run, build a reputation. A reputation means more. A reputation is not fleeting. And a reputation brings the best clients.

Social media will get you that reputation and spread it by word of mouth. Search engine optimization will not.

For explaining social media to to your law firm, try Social Media in Plain English from their Common Craft Show.

You may wish to check out the Common Craft Store, a resource for influencers and educators to purchase and download licensed, higher resolution and improved versions of Common Craft's videos for use in the workplace.

The theory being that so called 'experts' go to social media websites, create a persona, and then tell everyone they need to be on them so the expert gets a following. The person concluded that no one they knew was using social media to make any money.

May sound crass to say I make money from using social media, but I do. Social media is a means whereby my blog content and other things I may say are amplified to more people and I connect with my target audience of bloggers, reporters, conference coordinators, clients, and prospective clients.

I regularly see referral traffic to my blog from social media/social networking sites such as LinkedIn, Delicious, Facebook, Twitter, and Stumbleupon. And the traffic is not coming from a profile of mine at those places with a link to my blog. The traffic is coming to my blog from posts displayed by syndication, a mention of a post of mine on Twitter, or someone sharing one of my posts on a social networking site.

A significant number of people in this country no longer get their news and information from mainstream media. They get their news and info from trusted 'friends' who blog about something they see or share a link and description to something they've read. Major publications such as the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal get huge amounts of traffic because links to their news stories are shared this way.

If major publications can draw traffic, why not well done niche publications written by authorities in their field? Like a lawyer following the niche in which they practice and sharing what they see with accompanying insight and commentary. The key is then leveraging social media to amplify your content's distribution.

You don't make money from social media anymore than you would make money from a cell phone. You make money as a result of effectively using a cell phone.

With regard to social media you make money as a lawyer by further enhancing your reputation as a thought leader and spreading word of your stature. That comes in part from effective blogging and leveraging social media.

Bissinger said Will was full of shit, and basically said that blogs were a pile of crap, and that it's a travesty that people today are getting information from blogs as opposed to seasoned journalists. Reminded me of an AmLaw 100 CMO jumping me on blogs. ;)

Seriously though, lawyers and law firm management needs to recognize reality. Younger people, age 40 and below, are not looking to print for news and info - they're looking to the net. And you better understand better than Bissinger that all these blogs are not crap. These blogs are published by some of the most knowledgeable people around - and like it or not, these blogs are read by your target audience.

The average age of newspaper readers is over 50. Ask new lawyers around your office how many subscribe to the local newspaper at home. Let me know if you find anyone who does.

Getting the paper at the bottom of the driveway before a juice and english muffin each morning is as routine as taking a shower for me. But I'm a dying breed.

And those non-subscribers are not missing out on news. They're seeing what to they want to see, and arguably need to see, throughout the day.

Their trusted influencers (friends, bloggers, reporters) turn them onto things they'll find of interest through blogs, Twitter, Digg, Delicious, IM, and all sorts of social media. Better yet for the non-subscribers is that they are seeing the news the day before the people who subscribe to hard copy publications.

Don't get me wrong traditional news is still valuable. Good reporters and columnists continue to be in demand.

But they need to make their content relevant to a growing population getting their news online. Get the content online with a RSS feed. Have an effective Internet presence through blogs, and what are becoming mainstream, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook, so that people on these mediums get familiar with you and your content.

Gain the trust of people using social media and those folks will spread word of your content to the masses. There's a stream of comments with links flowing through the Internet each minute of the day in a fashion that most folks cannot fathom. You need to get your content in that flow.

Unfortunately for most law firms, they have no desire to learn social media. Some just flat out say it's all bullshit - like Bissinger. Others give it lip service but don't hire or empower people to harness the powers of social media.

Law firms are filled with some of the brightest people in the country. Law firms try to use their intellectual capital to showcase this talent. But articles in print and archived on websites or email newsletters and alerts aren't going to cut it.

Those mediums are irrelevant to a growing population who get content through social media. Not only are you not connecting with the people under 50 who are leading today's businesses, you're increasing the divide.

Among their findings:

• Fifty-seven percent of respondents said that social media tools are becoming more valuable to their activities as more customers and influencers use them.
• Twenty-seven percent reported that social media is a core element of their communications strategy.
• Only three percent stated that social media has little or no value to their communications initiatives.

And the most effective tools for their social media initiatives:

• Blogs
• Online video
• Social networks

The top three criteria for determining the relevance and potential influence of a blogger or podcaster:

• Quality of content on the blog or podcast
• Relevance of content to the company or brand
• Search engine rankings

Online engagement was not viewed as important. However, it's possible that we're dealing with PR/Communications folks, who in the absence of blogging themselves, cannot appreciate the value of networking via blogging.

For online communities and social networks, the top three criteria for evaluating influence do reflect the importance of online engagement:

• Participation level
• Frequency of posting by the community member
• Name recognition of the individual

Detailed results of the study will be published in the upcoming issue of the Journal of New Communications Research and a full report will be made available via the Society and the Institute for Public Relations in early 2008.

Reminds me of TheGlobe (two guys worth billions at the time), iVillage, About.com, and others which generated huge traffic and became the stock market darlings of the the late '90's. Most failed completely and those that survived had a 90% + reduction in their value.

You're going to see lawyers getting into blogs and RSS in a big way through aggregators, directories and communities. It will be similar to the law portals of MyCounsel, Ed Kopp's law site, USLaw and many others of the late 90's. As far as I know, all but FindLaw know owned by Thomson/West and Prairielaw, incorporated into Martindale-Hubbell's lawyers.com shut their doors.

Don't get me wrong. I am an evangelist on blogs, RSS, syndication and collaboration. Innovation is good. Effective use of low cost technology is good. And the strong social media sites such as Flickr and MySpace are going to survive.

Ignore history at your peril though. Just because there is a huge buzz about what you are doing and you are attracting capital doesn't mean you are a success. Success will be measured by a strong business model, a valuable product or service people will pay for, and a lot of hard work by a talented group of people.

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