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Law firm leaders need to understand strategic implications of social media

November 15, 2011

“A law firm managing partner’s blog would be a nice start.”

This from Jordan Furlong, a partner at Edge International and senior consultant at Stem Legal Web Enterprises, in an interview with Sean Larkan, also a partner at Edge, a global legal industry consulting firm.

It’s also the same thing Colin O’Keefe, editorial manager of the LexBlog Network, has been after me on. He’s been arguing that blogging and other social media at major law firms will not truly take off until a managing partner steps up to the plate and blogs as a leader and that LexBlog needs to make that happen.

Larkan was interviewing Furlong regarding the need for law firm leaders to understand the strategic implications of social media. It’s an excellent interview with Furlong, who is a lawyer, writer and speaker whose specialty is analyzing the changing state of the marketplace and forecasting its future.

I suggest reading the whole interview and circulating a copy among your law firm’s leaders. Furlong does not overhype social media, nor does he say social media needs to be a strategic initiative in all firms. Here are some excerpts.

  • Leaders who regard marketing and communications as matters not meriting their attention are either too busy for their own good or don’t fully appreciate the degree to which a law firm’s reach and reputation is linked to the firm’s business success.
  • For social media to really catch on within a firm, there has to be clear buy-in from the top — not just from the managing partner, but to the extent possible, from senior rainmakers and other influencers.
  • Social media should be part of a sophisticated and well-supported communications strategy — and this is where I’d say most firms are lacking.
  • Law firm leaders should understand they have never seen a communications tool like social media. “Irresponsible” would be one word to describe a firm that doesn’t recognize this and keep at least one eye on social media’s rapid rise.
  • There are no better, more effective and more affordable content publishing and distribution platforms than blogs and Twitter (or perhaps Google Plus).
  • No law firm in the world has an email database that can compare (either in size or in pass-along functionality) to Twitter, LinkedIn and Google Plus. Create blogs, as many as you can manage, as niched and as specialized and as client-focused as you can make them. Trust your people to publish great content, and then give them the editing, publishing and circulation functionality to multiply the impact of that content a hundredfold.
  • Many of the same risks that attend other communications, marketing and business development efforts: errors flowing from poor judgment, bad timing, useless content and tone-deaf interactions. None of these is unique to social media, although perhaps the magnification of mistakes is far greater. But these are all manageable risks. …[T]here are extremely few risks that can’t be countered or minimized through a healthy dose of common sense.

Furlong’s a bright guy and I agree with him.

Now that law firm leaders know that social media is here to stay and see their clients using social media, they are starting to see the need for social media for their firm.

A couple years ago, I was rarely asked by firm leaders to discuss blogging and other social media. It was individual lawyers and marketing professionals who took the initiative.

Today I am getting the audience of managing partners, executive directors, chief operating officers, and executive committee members. Not too many, but it’s a start.

As law firm leaders I talk with understand that social media is about building and nurturing relationships, networking, and enhancing one’s reputation, they are very receptive. And why not? Those are the keys to traditional business development for law firms.

With the Internet increasing the speed of business and one’s competition, law firm leaders are going to come to grips with social media and lead. They have no other choice.