How to measure the ROI of social media? Relationships
A legal marketing professional kicked off a good discussion on Facebook yesterday when she asked other professionals to share how they make strategic choices on how to use their lawyers’ and firm’s time, energy, and funds — and in particular how they judge the ROI they receive.
I picked up some good ideas, particularly one to measure ROI over time and relative to other activities. What did we gain from this activity as compared to a prior one?
Another person mentioned the need for a team that focuses on closing the ‘sale.’ Sale is not a favorite term of mine when used as to the legal profession, but the idea of leveraging lawyers or other professionals who know how to make a business presentation and ask for a client’s work makes sense.
But author and legal marketing professional, Jayne Navarre (@jaynenavarre), knocked it out of the park for me.
In 18+ years, I’ve not seen anything trump relationships: neither in getting new business or keeping business. Client interviews, honest and transparent discussion, are valuable to both the service provider and the client. They should not be feared. They should be celebrated. They should be valued as surely as hand-holds on a mountain, as stepping stones across a rushing stream. Woe to the person that thinks they cannot improve. They shall be cast into the pile of rocks on the bank of the river that mark the tombstones of those who failed to build and command a worthy vessel.
Best selling author and strategic consultant, Keith Ferrazzi (@keithferrazzi), writing for Harvard Business Review, reaffirms the power of relationships when it comes to business development.
The impact of relationship building with your customers may surprise you. Ferrazzi Greenlight’s study of 16 Global Account Teams (PDF) showed that these strategic, relationship-focused teams grew their accounts at least twice as fast as regular transactionally-focused account teams. This happened despite the fact that the relationship-focused teams worked on the company’s largest, most mature accounts — the most difficult to expand rapidly because they were already so large. Why? People do business with people they know and like.
Exactly the same thing Dan Goldman (@danielg280), one of 43 in-house attorneys for Mayo Clinic, told an audience of legal marketing professionals in San Francisco last fall who were struggling with the ROI on social media.
Don’t try to measure the ROI of social media in analytics, measure the return in relationships. Have you connected with in-house counsel in a way that they have come to know and like you?
With Mayo being a big proponent of social media for all of of their doctors and staff, Goldman personally uses social media to build relationships with lawyers and hires those lawyers he knows and likes.
Sure there are plenty of activities lawyers participate in for marketing or business development. Writing articles, presenting at conferences, speaking to the press, cocktail parties, golf outings, blogging, and the list goes on and on.
All of these activities come down to building relationships with people. Even those activities enhancing a lawyer’s reputation (blogging, writing, and presenting) have the effect of establishing trust in the lawyer. Trust that builds and nurtures a relationship.
Our Facebook discussion was not about the ROI on social media. It doesn’t matter. Measuring the ROI of business development efforts for lawyers and law firms, whether for social media or another activity, ought to be measured in relationships.