How to get social media buy in from lawyers

Amy Jo Martin (@AmyJoMartin), founder and CEO of Digital Royalty and Digital Royalty University, had a piece in Harvard Business Review yesterday entitled For Social Media Buy-in, Lead with the “Why.”

It’s been said that people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it. So the goal is not to connect with people who want what you have; the goal is to connect with people who believe what you believe.

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In social media, I’m not sure we’ve done a good job yet leading with the why when trying to get executive buy-in. You don’t have to look further than their behavior to see it. CEOs don’t think twice about hopping on the corporate jet to New York for a three-minute interview on national television, for which they’ve been media trained. The why has been communicated to them: If you can demonstrate leadership (through training) and broadcast your message to millions, in a medium they use and trust, that’s good for the company.

Yet the same executives don’t get social media training and won’t start a personal twitter account from which they could communicate to more than 550 million people from their phone while sitting at a fundraiser. The why is pretty clear to most of us in the industry, but we’ve been leading with the what: Twitter, Facebook, and so forth.

Martin believes it’s time for a re-think of how you sell social media. Get executives (and lawyers) to the why first. I’m right with her that it begins with real education.

We need serious education, not brown bag lunches that talk about how neat this new medium is. The most influential humans behind the brands must understand why social is relevant, critical even, to success of their companies.

Why should law firms and their lawyers invest time learning and using social communication? Here’s Martin’s three why’s with a little annoting by me:

• It saves money. This is always a good why to start with. Reach versus investment is fundamentally different than any other medium. Research, customer service and traditional advertising allocations can be decreased.
• It’s safer than it seems. Lawyers like to point to all the hazards of social media, especially if the law firm allows its lawyers to use social media without the lawyers content and engagement being vetted. The fact is the ABA declined to propose new rules for social media on the grounds that waht was required was better education of what social media is and how it can be used. Over the last nine years I have seen very, very few incidents of lawyers running into ethical or liability issues from blogging and social media. Like Martin, I believe 90% or more of those situations could have been prevented if proper education was provided.
• Better communication enhances company culture and relationships with the law firm’s target audience (clients, prospective clients, and the influencers of those two). A socially communicating company is one in which, employees are happier and more productive. Social media allows people to expose their ‘why’ to co-workers and target audience as well as connect with other co-workers and target audience who believe what they believe.

I’ll add a few more whys:

• Social media is founded on traditional legal business development. It’s networking with your target audience to establish and nurture relationships and to further enhance one’s word of mouth reputation. It’s not the type of marketing or advertsing that concerns lawyers or that lawyers feel is below them.
• Social media is about trust. Listening to your target audience and engaging them in a meaningful and caring way establishes an intimate level of trust, something that can not be accomplished through other forms of legal marketing.
• You need not start with an avalanche of social media where you try to get all the lawyers on board or declare we’re a ‘social law firm’ now. Start with a pilot program to learn what it’s about. Perhaps a blog in a niche area you are looking to grow complemented with the use of other social media platforms once you understand blogging. If you need help, get a trusted company to help you.

Rather than lead by a show and tell about social media platforms (blogs, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.) and what other law firms are doing, lead with the “Why.” Why the law firm might wish to consider social media. And that “Why” means real education about you do it.