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Posted: Oct 12, 2009

Following was the lead article in the award-winning Newsletter of the ALA National Capital Chapter in July 2009. It can be viewed at http://www.alacapchap.org/documents/july09_capitalconnection.pdf

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Social Networking, Minus the Mystery

By Amy Knapp
President, Knapp Marketing

The hype about social networking makes many people feel like they are late to the party (and secretly like it wasn’t a party they wanted to attend anyway). We have all heard, to the point that we are dull to it, what a phenomenon social networking is. But I repeatedly hear legal professionals wondering: how important is social networking for a professional services business like law, and to what extent should we be getting involved?

Sea Change: Fact or Fiction?

The mainstream media have dubbed social networking and Web 2.0 a “sea change” and “the most important invention since television.”

First and most important, Web 2.0 and social networking have created a new pathway for information to be widely communicated that is not owned or controlled by anyone.

Do you remember when the TV networks started syncing their commercial breaks so that changing channels no longer worked? Back then, holding the remote was largely symbolic, because once networks coordinated commercials, there was nowhere else to go.

Well, revenge is sweet. Web 2.0 and social networking handed the people back the remote with a vengeance. We no longer have to court reporters and editors to broadcast our expertise to clients and peers. The internet provides an equal opportunity to demonstrate our expertise in a legitimate and respected fashion.
With Web 2.0 and social media undermining the power of traditional media (think newspapers), understanding the use of Web 2.0 may well be critical to disseminating your firm’s information in the future, be it marketing or otherwise.

Secondly, huge numbers of people in all age groups and demographics use social media. – Twitter posted 32 million users May 26, 2009 (up from just 2 million one year before) with a median user age of 31. As of June 29, that’s 24 million users. – Over one third of adult internet users have profiles online (four times as many as four years ago), making up the bulk of social networking users. – LinkedIn, dedicated to professional networking, has 40 million users with the greatest growth happening in the 35-55 age bracket. – Pope Benedict XVI (and approximately 200 million other mortals) has a Facebook page.

Finally, history has taught us that money will follow a crowd. In 2000, BusinessWeek wondered in print how Google would ever make any money. In 2009, besides being a household institution, Google had revenues of $5.5 billion in the first quarter.

Where money goes, so go the clients of law firms. Even if one believes that Web 2.0 and social marketing aren’t critical to the legal industry, they most certainly are to our corporate clients.

What We Don’t Know Yet

Let’s start with what we do know: People are notoriously inaccurate at predicting the future. Being keenly aware of this, pundits (who don’t want to look late-to-the-party themselves) don’t know how social media will become crucial to business and commerce, but given our previous internet experience, they have a very strong hunch it will.

I do not mean to imply that some people and companies aren’t successfully using social media as a marketing and sales tool today. They are, and those who are successful include a number of lawyers. To begin with, social networking is free (or very inexpensive), it is relatively easy to learn (hey, it’s not brain surgery) and lawyers are building solid reputations as experts in their fields using blogs to credential themselves, Twitter to drive traffic to those blogs and YouTube and iReports to let people experience them ‘personally’. But marketing via social networking is a still a new and evolving field and none of us have yet to uncover its potential.

So in the absence of certainty (and an extra 6 hours a day to stay abreast of your internet reading) what should you and your firm do?

Your Best Strategy

As a staff person on the business side of a law firm, you don’t have to be the life of the social networking party, but you want to show up. Social networking is a huge topic and this is a short article, so at risk of igniting a firestorm of differing opinions, I recommend that marketing and administrative professionals at law firms sign up for and explore these established venues: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, some legal blogs (examples include Justia, abovethelaw.com, lexblog.com, legaline.com. In addition, you should be aware of Legal OnRamp (lawyers and corporate counsel, by invite only) and Martindale Online. Explore legal and client content on YouTube, CNN’s iReports and Reuters Video. Optional sites include Friendfeed (to aggregate your networking sites), Xing & Plaxo (smaller networking sites), Bookmark sharing sites (Del.icio.us, digg, StumbleUpon and Reddit).

One fabulous innovation of the web is how it allows us to ‘listen-in on the conversation’. What are your clients and your competitors saying about your firm? What is being said about your competitors and clients? And what are your competitors and clients talking about? What matters to them? Free market research anyone?

If you are participating rather than listening, these sites can be valuable ways to extend and manage your brand. Social networking has revolutionized recruiting (covered in another article in this issue), but in addition to being a recruiting tool, a firm’s Facebook, Xing and LinkedIn pages are free advertisements, projecting your competitive advantages, unique culture and firm personality.

Whether your firm is currently participating or just listening, an official social networking policy is a must. The simplest policy is, “If you wouldn’t say it in our conference room in front of our most important client, don’t say it online.” However, law firms must also think about avoiding the appearance of giving legal advice and commenting cautiously on matters that could bear on specific client interests, so a more detailed policy may be in order.

Welcome to the Brave New World

Because this new communication channel promises to be important to business, you owe it to your career to set aside some web exploration time and just do it. An easy way may be to invite your kids to teach you — it is something you can share.

From a firm-wide perspective, just like owning your url, you should register your firm name (and/or create a page) on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook.

Finally, remember that there are lawyers right now who are successfully using all of the social networking tools to generate new business. And if I were a betting woman, I would bet that either your lawyers or their competitors will be doing just that in the very near future.

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