Page 66 - Leaders in Legal Business and The 1000 Leaders and Influencers - Draft 1
P. 66
Relationship Building
There is no doubt that these tools can help peel back the layers of unfamiliarity that often
exist for quite a while with clients and potential clients. When you take the time to get to know
others online, it makes your offline, or face-to-face, communication that much easier and richer
because you have already dispensed with the pleasantries and issues that often fill the initial few
meetings you have in person. I have experienced this first- hand many times. When I get to know
someone online first, by the time we meet face-to-face, we both feel as if we had already met and
that we know a great deal about one another. This lessens the barriers to forming strong
relationships, which is a definite goal of networking and business development.
One to Many vs. One to One
You also have the ability to form connections with more people at the same time, thus
making your networking efforts much more productive and efficient. When you interact with
others via social media, there is the potential for the friendly exchange to be witnessed by tens,
hundreds, or thousands of others who are also getting to know you at the same time. This is not,
of course, the exchange of legal advice, but rather conversations that help break the ice. Being
able to communicate one to many is one of the gifts of social networking that you should be
taking advantage of in your daily routine.
More Control Over Your Messages
Another very important aspect of social media involves controlling your messages in
public spaces, in media, and in the marketplace, which has been and always will be critically
important to communicating your brand. I remember my days as an in-house director of
marketing at a law firm and the frustration I, our department, and many lawyers often had when
we would work to place a story in the media, finally earning a mention in a story, and then
discover that neither the firm’s name nor any sufficient information about the attorney involved
were included in that story. All that work for no mention! We understood why this happened, as
journalists often shared that it was not their job to promote our law firm, or any firm. Their job
was to tell the story.
Given all of that, one of the most important and most powerful reasons I can give you to
spend time learning how to use social media is that you can now take better control of the
messages that you and your firm need to send. No longer do you have to rely solely on
publications to write and speak on your behalf, hoping that your 30-minute interview ends up
with more than a five-second sound bite, or a sentence, or even a blind mention in an article.
When you do get those, that will be gravy, but you can now craft those messages, and decide
where and how you would like them to distribute them on self-owned media. You get to control
the message and the medium much more than ever before. You become the publisher of your
information, your brand, and your message.
The Process of Implementing a Social Media Plan for Your Firm
In the perfect world, your social media plan should fall out of a larger marketing plan,
which then gives birth to a content marketing plan, which then helps build your social media
52
There is no doubt that these tools can help peel back the layers of unfamiliarity that often
exist for quite a while with clients and potential clients. When you take the time to get to know
others online, it makes your offline, or face-to-face, communication that much easier and richer
because you have already dispensed with the pleasantries and issues that often fill the initial few
meetings you have in person. I have experienced this first- hand many times. When I get to know
someone online first, by the time we meet face-to-face, we both feel as if we had already met and
that we know a great deal about one another. This lessens the barriers to forming strong
relationships, which is a definite goal of networking and business development.
One to Many vs. One to One
You also have the ability to form connections with more people at the same time, thus
making your networking efforts much more productive and efficient. When you interact with
others via social media, there is the potential for the friendly exchange to be witnessed by tens,
hundreds, or thousands of others who are also getting to know you at the same time. This is not,
of course, the exchange of legal advice, but rather conversations that help break the ice. Being
able to communicate one to many is one of the gifts of social networking that you should be
taking advantage of in your daily routine.
More Control Over Your Messages
Another very important aspect of social media involves controlling your messages in
public spaces, in media, and in the marketplace, which has been and always will be critically
important to communicating your brand. I remember my days as an in-house director of
marketing at a law firm and the frustration I, our department, and many lawyers often had when
we would work to place a story in the media, finally earning a mention in a story, and then
discover that neither the firm’s name nor any sufficient information about the attorney involved
were included in that story. All that work for no mention! We understood why this happened, as
journalists often shared that it was not their job to promote our law firm, or any firm. Their job
was to tell the story.
Given all of that, one of the most important and most powerful reasons I can give you to
spend time learning how to use social media is that you can now take better control of the
messages that you and your firm need to send. No longer do you have to rely solely on
publications to write and speak on your behalf, hoping that your 30-minute interview ends up
with more than a five-second sound bite, or a sentence, or even a blind mention in an article.
When you do get those, that will be gravy, but you can now craft those messages, and decide
where and how you would like them to distribute them on self-owned media. You get to control
the message and the medium much more than ever before. You become the publisher of your
information, your brand, and your message.
The Process of Implementing a Social Media Plan for Your Firm
In the perfect world, your social media plan should fall out of a larger marketing plan,
which then gives birth to a content marketing plan, which then helps build your social media
52
