Will lawyers hide from real interaction in their use of social media?
Righ Knight (@RighKnight) asks in a piece at Wired whether social media is driving people away from real social interaction.
…[H]ow many times have you been in a social gathering and 80% or more of the those in the room have their heads down at their cellphones, tablets or other mobile devices.
It seams that not only are we using these devices to hide from social gatherings, but the use of social media on a lone basis (in other words, those who rely on social media for their social and cultural stimulation) find it increasingly difficult to not only socialize in situations where it is called for, but they are generally more depressed and anxious in actual social situations.
No question many of us look like fools looking at our iPhones when out to eat with our spouses or standing on the side of the room for a few minutes at a business networking function.
We ought to be able to cure that foolishness by our desire not to look stupid. The bigger question for me and a lot of law firms is whether the use of social media curtails real interaction by lawyers.
I have personally found that social networking and social media advances real social interaction with people.
By nature, I am a bit of an introvert. I never liked going to networking events and getting to know people I didn’t know. Nothing necessarily wrong with the people at the event, I just felt uncomfortable.
Now when I go to networking events, I tend to know more people. Even if I have not met them in person, we have made each other’s acquaintance online. We know each other’s interests and strike up a conversation on topics of common interest.
I have always been willing to knock on doors, send out cold emails, or to make a phone call asking to meet with someone. Maybe it was my selling lightbulbs door to door to raise money for Boy Scout camping trips. Who knows?
But social media has taken my willingness to email or call someone to meet for coffee to a whole new level. Why? Because it’s more probable than not that the person knows of me and what I do. If they have been following my blog or Twitter feed, they are apt to already trust me — at least as a source of information and insight.
In one meeting in Toronto, a CMO had blog posts of mine she had printed out a couple months ago on her desk. Another CMO in New York City said she met with me because of my reputation and the reputation of LexBlog. A reputation earned, for me, in large part through social media, including the publishing of this blog.
Anyone worth their salt knows that until you sit down with someone face to face you haven’t taken a business relationship to where the relationship needs to go. Of course there’s going to be work garnered through the Internet where we never meet the client, something never before possible. But for lawyers building a book of business, real relationships nurtured with clients, prospective clients, and referral sources are key.
Could lawyers hide from real interaction in their use of social media? Sure.
But lawyers already using social media in a strategic way should realize the gift they possess. Unlike their competitors, these lawyers will know people at networking events, people will come up and shake their hand after they present at conferences they’ll be invited to, and they’ll be taken up on their offers to get together for coffee.
Rather than social media curtailing real interaction, social media opens the door to more real interaction — interaction with a targeted audience who you want to get to know better.