[UPDATE: Lawyers Weekly published a 'ubscribers only' article on this subject on January 25, 2010]
[A caution regarding law firm tweeting, blogging, “friending” and other cute sounding social media projects.]
Before undertaking any communications strategy you should have a clear goal in mind.
So prior to focusing finite resources on legal blogging and twittering and hourly Facebook status updates, pause and take a deep breath and ask yourself: What is your goal?
Why do you desire an Internet presence at all?
More pointedly, why do desire to be a part of social media --so called “Web2.0.”
Are you trying to get your name out to the public to make up for declining views of your ads in the Yellow pages or the dying local newspaper? Are you trying to create a reputation in the legal community as an expert with a niche practice?
Maybe you aspire to recruit clients directly from the Internet? Maybe you plan to keep existing clients informed of firm news? Maybe you want to become a public voice for some relevant legal issue?
Or maybe you see your Web 2.0 presence as merely a formality? Maybe, in other words, you just consider a firm blog or Facebook page necessary because all the other lawyers are doing it?
Do you have a clear answer to this question? If not, stop before jumping into the social media pool and find your answer.
There is no shortage of hype surrounding Web 2.0. Media consultants and PR types are making a good living giving seminars, Webinars, call-in conferences and awarding CLEs teaching you how to social network.
If you listen to some of these self-appointed experts you could be forgiven if you thought attorneys should focus more on cluttering up the Internet and less on the actual practice of law.
Nonsense.
Let me utter a bit of Web 2.0 sacrilege here: Most of the “social networking” phenomena is ill suited to the communications and public relations needs of a law firm.
You don’t need the intimacy and immediacy of social networking. Clients and the public do not want or need to know that you are a ‘fan’ of sunsets or to get ‘tweets’ from you between deps. No one cares to get daily updates about the status of your Board Room remodeling project.
Moreover, there are unsettled ethical and professionalism issues to ponder when an attorney initiates an interactive relationship with an audience of ‘friends’ or ‘subscribers.’ Are you offering legal advice? Are you soliciting clients in a fashion that might run afoul of rules of professional conduct? Are you inadvertently creating an attorney/client relationship, or the appearance of one? Will you someday face a Discovery request for your blog archives or your Facebook ‘friends” list? Ouch.
Social networking purposefully creates an aura of casual familiarity that is often at cross-purposes to your role as legal counsel. A social and professional boundary is crossed when a client has access to photos of their attorney in flips flops and shorts, or holding forth about backyard BBQ or scrap booking.
We in the legal profession dress in business wear, put effort and money into equipping our offices to create a positive impression, and adhere to an overall air of formality for a reason: the law is and must be about dignity and respect. [Take a look at this blog giving examples of FAILS on that count.]
What is to be gained by gossiping with clients or the public about your vacation to Maui and sharing photos of you and your significant other drinking at the poolside bar?
So stop and think about your goals and your practice before you dive headfirst into Web 2.0.
Unless you have a clear goal and unless you know that a particular Internet presence will help you reach that goal, why dedicate time and effort to a project that might be a waste of time, or even counter productive?
Are their potential benefits to creating a legal or law-related blog? Absolutely [you are reading an example]. Could you create a communication plan that incorporated a Facebook page? Certainly.
But don’t waste your time clogging up the Internet with tweets and photos and gossip unless you have clear goals and you reasonably think a Web 2.0 project could help you reach those goals.
Don’t blog just because all the other lawyers are doing it.
Just to be clear: I am a firm proponent of law firm Websites
Showing posts with label Websites. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Websites. Show all posts
The Paperless Media
“Paperless” has become a somewhat overused catch phrase in the context of clearing out the law office filing cabinets, and the rise of e-filing. We are all supposed to be scrambling to buy scanners and teach our staff to create searchable .pdf client files so we can be paperless too.
But ‘paperless’ in a more literal, media-related sense --the loss of the nation’s newspapers—is not necessarily a sign of progress for the nation, or its law firms.
As word circulated last week that the venerable Boston Globe [with a history longer, and some would say richer, than most American states] dying, practitioners may wish to watch and ponder. The Rocky Mountain News and Seattle Intelligencer are already gone. Others are certain to follow.
In one economically devastated state, Michigan, every one of the state’s largest newspapers are either closing or undergoing the sorts of drastic restructuring that would have been unthinkable even three years ago.
Much has already been written about what a ‘paperless’ news media might mean to communities and to newsgathering itself. If you are interested in these broader topics you can find a riches of such commentary online [irony intended].
For attorneys focused on building or growing a practice the loss of daily papers is a bit more confusing. What does a paperless future mean?
Your relationship with the media
A major theme of this blog is that you need to cultivate and maintain a relationship with your local news media. You want to be the “go to” attorney journalists call for information on legal news. But how to do that as local papers are replaced with ‘news aggregation’ Websites and generic news centers where content is written in New York or Atlanta or L.A. for use in your area?
Reaching the public.
Whether you regularly run an ad in your local paper or just follow advice like that given in this blog to create earned media, the loss of your local paper is going to leave a gap in your ability to communicate with your local community.
In the old fully newspapered world local families saw your ad –or the mention of your charity giving, or your comments on the latest newsworthy holding—as they leafed through the Community Shopper or Big City News looking for pizza ads or high school football scores.
Will locals in the brave new paperless world see your name online among the ads for Toyota and Viagra as they look for the weather or follow the NBA?
Competition.
An ‘online presence” [like a Website] is a necessary part of practicing law these days, but while your Community Shopper or Big City News ad clearly shows you as a member of the community; online your Website is just one of thousands.
Online your Website is competing with out-of-town firms that have six figure advertising budgets. With a paperless absence of local news media, can you keep and build your client base amidst the flood of online “1-800-Law-Suit” ads?
Premature prediction of demise?
But wait. Predictions of the demise of newspapers [which have been declining in number for 100 years as movies and radio and TV emerged] may be a bit premature. After all, the ‘news aggregate’ services that are all the rage merely steal content [work product] created by more conventional news media like newspapers.
Without newspapers and their a crack local journalism staffs to research, track down leads, contact sources, confirm facts, interview key players, and edit the result, how will news be created at all?
What can be aggregated if no one is producing news?
Can ‘online only’ news outlets field the sort of savvy, in-depth investigative journalism that were newspapers’ primary strength?
The answers are still emerging.
It is the emerging questions from our paperless future that you need to ponder.
But ‘paperless’ in a more literal, media-related sense --the loss of the nation’s newspapers—is not necessarily a sign of progress for the nation, or its law firms.
As word circulated last week that the venerable Boston Globe [with a history longer, and some would say richer, than most American states] dying, practitioners may wish to watch and ponder. The Rocky Mountain News and Seattle Intelligencer are already gone. Others are certain to follow.
In one economically devastated state, Michigan, every one of the state’s largest newspapers are either closing or undergoing the sorts of drastic restructuring that would have been unthinkable even three years ago.
Much has already been written about what a ‘paperless’ news media might mean to communities and to newsgathering itself. If you are interested in these broader topics you can find a riches of such commentary online [irony intended].
For attorneys focused on building or growing a practice the loss of daily papers is a bit more confusing. What does a paperless future mean?
Your relationship with the media
A major theme of this blog is that you need to cultivate and maintain a relationship with your local news media. You want to be the “go to” attorney journalists call for information on legal news. But how to do that as local papers are replaced with ‘news aggregation’ Websites and generic news centers where content is written in New York or Atlanta or L.A. for use in your area?
Reaching the public.
Whether you regularly run an ad in your local paper or just follow advice like that given in this blog to create earned media, the loss of your local paper is going to leave a gap in your ability to communicate with your local community.
In the old fully newspapered world local families saw your ad –or the mention of your charity giving, or your comments on the latest newsworthy holding—as they leafed through the Community Shopper or Big City News looking for pizza ads or high school football scores.
Will locals in the brave new paperless world see your name online among the ads for Toyota and Viagra as they look for the weather or follow the NBA?
Competition.
An ‘online presence” [like a Website] is a necessary part of practicing law these days, but while your Community Shopper or Big City News ad clearly shows you as a member of the community; online your Website is just one of thousands.
Online your Website is competing with out-of-town firms that have six figure advertising budgets. With a paperless absence of local news media, can you keep and build your client base amidst the flood of online “1-800-Law-Suit” ads?
Premature prediction of demise?
But wait. Predictions of the demise of newspapers [which have been declining in number for 100 years as movies and radio and TV emerged] may be a bit premature. After all, the ‘news aggregate’ services that are all the rage merely steal content [work product] created by more conventional news media like newspapers.
Without newspapers and their a crack local journalism staffs to research, track down leads, contact sources, confirm facts, interview key players, and edit the result, how will news be created at all?
What can be aggregated if no one is producing news?
Can ‘online only’ news outlets field the sort of savvy, in-depth investigative journalism that were newspapers’ primary strength?
The answers are still emerging.
It is the emerging questions from our paperless future that you need to ponder.
Websites --should you have one?
The simple answer is: "yes!"
But as with everything in the world of media and public relations the full answer is more complicated than that.
Every attorney or law firm that solicits clients from any source should have a good professional, well-kept Website. Such bar members and their firms need a Website not only for direct and indirect rainmaking, but to present a face to the world, and to provide such mundane but critical information as a phone and fax number and business address.
Others may not need a Website. Attorneys who work for the government, or who work in non-law firm environments like non-profits, or others who do not have direct relationships with a public clientele may not need a legal Website. The organization likely has a purpose-built Website and any public information concerning your activities will be included there. For this group the answer is: "it depends."
Still others likely should not have a law-related Website, except in special circumstances. This list would include judges and prosecutors [except during election campaigns of course, and in any event campaign Websites are not "legal" Websites.]. In most circumstances corporate counsel should not maintain a separate legal Website unless, and again, there are special circumstances.
Some judges or government employees may even be prohibited from maintaining a Website that has anything to do with their legal career. When in doubt, find out.
For the vast majority of us a solid professional legal Website is as much a necessity as an office phone line.
Such a Website should accomplish at least these four objectives:
1) Identify your practice or firm, provide complete up-to-date contact information, spell out your client base and practice area, give your location, and list your firm members/employees.
I have gone to firm Websites that did not include a contact email for the firm [only for the Webmaster]. I know of a practitioner Website that listed an outdated phone number that now belonged to --you guessed it-- a phone sex operation. I've gone to law firm Websites that failed to list the city or state where the firm's office was located; evidently those attorneys assumed the Internet only worked in their ZIP code and no one else in the wide world would see their Website.
2) Provide information in a compelling professional fashion.
Tacky, ill-made or hopelessly outdated Websites are a liability rather than a benefit. No used-car-lot gimmicks. No photos of pets or kids [unless they are relevant to your practice]. Do not post dated information if you do not intend to keep it updated.
3) Persuade any who arrive at your Website that your firm is a top-notch professional practice.
Not everyone who arrives at your Website will be a potential or current client. Members of the public who are looking for answers to simple legal questions may end up at your firm Website. Other practitioners may see it. Local judges searching for information may see it. Your state attorney disciple authority may visit as a result of an unrelated complaint. A media outlet might happen upon it. A Website is very much like the marquee sign hanging outside your office: anyone may end up seeing it.
4) Conform to any and all rules of professional conduct including limits or prohibitions on attorney advertising.
Maybe the best way to determine what constitutes a "good" legal Website is to visit the Websites of firms you respect. Along the way you will also likely run across Websites of the bad example ilk and you will learn something there as well.
These guidelines apply whether you are building your own Website for your small town solo practice or hiring a vendor to create linked Websites for your firms multi-state practice.
Your Website is your public face. Once it is available on the Internet almost anyone might see it. Ponder carefully how this public face will appear to others.
But as with everything in the world of media and public relations the full answer is more complicated than that.
Every attorney or law firm that solicits clients from any source should have a good professional, well-kept Website. Such bar members and their firms need a Website not only for direct and indirect rainmaking, but to present a face to the world, and to provide such mundane but critical information as a phone and fax number and business address.
Others may not need a Website. Attorneys who work for the government, or who work in non-law firm environments like non-profits, or others who do not have direct relationships with a public clientele may not need a legal Website. The organization likely has a purpose-built Website and any public information concerning your activities will be included there. For this group the answer is: "it depends."
Still others likely should not have a law-related Website, except in special circumstances. This list would include judges and prosecutors [except during election campaigns of course, and in any event campaign Websites are not "legal" Websites.]. In most circumstances corporate counsel should not maintain a separate legal Website unless, and again, there are special circumstances.
Some judges or government employees may even be prohibited from maintaining a Website that has anything to do with their legal career. When in doubt, find out.
For the vast majority of us a solid professional legal Website is as much a necessity as an office phone line.
Such a Website should accomplish at least these four objectives:
1) Identify your practice or firm, provide complete up-to-date contact information, spell out your client base and practice area, give your location, and list your firm members/employees.
I have gone to firm Websites that did not include a contact email for the firm [only for the Webmaster]. I know of a practitioner Website that listed an outdated phone number that now belonged to --you guessed it-- a phone sex operation. I've gone to law firm Websites that failed to list the city or state where the firm's office was located; evidently those attorneys assumed the Internet only worked in their ZIP code and no one else in the wide world would see their Website.
2) Provide information in a compelling professional fashion.
Tacky, ill-made or hopelessly outdated Websites are a liability rather than a benefit. No used-car-lot gimmicks. No photos of pets or kids [unless they are relevant to your practice]. Do not post dated information if you do not intend to keep it updated.
3) Persuade any who arrive at your Website that your firm is a top-notch professional practice.
Not everyone who arrives at your Website will be a potential or current client. Members of the public who are looking for answers to simple legal questions may end up at your firm Website. Other practitioners may see it. Local judges searching for information may see it. Your state attorney disciple authority may visit as a result of an unrelated complaint. A media outlet might happen upon it. A Website is very much like the marquee sign hanging outside your office: anyone may end up seeing it.
4) Conform to any and all rules of professional conduct including limits or prohibitions on attorney advertising.
Maybe the best way to determine what constitutes a "good" legal Website is to visit the Websites of firms you respect. Along the way you will also likely run across Websites of the bad example ilk and you will learn something there as well.
These guidelines apply whether you are building your own Website for your small town solo practice or hiring a vendor to create linked Websites for your firms multi-state practice.
Your Website is your public face. Once it is available on the Internet almost anyone might see it. Ponder carefully how this public face will appear to others.
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