[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 Community involvement. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Community involvement. Show all posts
Community involvement projects -fast forward your reputation building.
Nothing will focus people's attention on you and your firm and enhance your reputation quite so well as giving the public something of value.
We all know that providing the best legal representation possible is the real key to long-term public relations, and to success, for your practice.
But building that sort of reputation takes time. There are ways to fast-forward that same positive feeling your great reputation engenders about you and your firm.
Consider a community involvement project. Sponsoring such a project can teach people who you are, link your firm to a good cause in the public mind, familiarize the media with your firm and create a positive aura for your reputation.
What do I mean by a community involvement project? Here some examples: help sponsor a Habitat for Humanity house [great idea for a Construction Law or General Practice firm]; give pro bono seminars for senior citizens [Elder Law practice]; get involved in helping at-risk kids [a Criminal Defense practice]; donate and/or install smoke detectors in needy neighborhoods [Personal Injury firm]; sponsor a "Law Day" or "Constitution Day" essay contest for a local school [any firm might use that idea].
Such a project --if handled correctly-- can pay your firm back tenfold, or a hundredfold, just in earned media. Not to mention public goodwill and plain old getting-your-name-on-the street rainmaking.
Before you run off to grab your checkbook and call the United Way, take a few minutes to think about what you want to accomplish in the context of your long term public relations goals. Who is your client base? What is your desired image and reputation?
Don't worry. You can still do great and selfless things. But you should do them in a conscious and well-planned way so that you are building your firm as you make the world a better place.
Things to consider:
Who do you want to persuade through your efforts? If you have a general practice firm you likely want to enhance your reputation in the local community. On the other hand if you have a boutique practice you will want to enhance your reputation in the industry or profession you service, or among bar members who might send you referrals.
What image do you want your firm to have in your selected community? Based on your practice area, how do you want your firm to be perceived? Pro-family? Pro-safety? Anti-piracy? Pro-immigration? For or against some other issue or problem? Choose a project that builds your reputation on that issue in your community of potential clients.
What sort of assistance is actually needed? It does little good to decide that your Family Law practice ought to become involved in providing temporary shelter for the families of kids who are undergoing life-saving medical care if there is already a Ronald McDonald House right down the street. Better to focus on an unmet need. You will be of real use and you will stand out.
What sort of project will create positive, reputation building media and public interest? Even if your practice focuses on protecting intellectual property rights you might not want to rush out and publicly support RIAA efforts to pursue high school kids and grandmothers for alleged music piracy. That stance is very unpopular with the public. Instead you might think in terms of offering to speak to high school students about the importance of I/P protections and how they protect artists and allow them to make a living providing us with things of lasting beauty.
A community involvement project must accomplish all of these goals or you are wasting your time, at best, and harming your firm in the worst case.
One community involvement project I coordinate for a state-wide organization has proven so successful that it has grown from a single event to 14 events all around the state.
Curious as to how I might judge the value of this project in 2006 I collected as many of our media hits as I could locate [press clippings, radio, TV, etc] for the purpose of figuring out how much earned media we generated. I found that as a very conservative estimate the project had generated approximately $125,000 in great, positive media coverage [feturing needy kids, balloons, local politicians, community leaders, safety, families, organization members in shirt sleeves doing good things, etc]. The event even received honors and Proclamations from city mayors and state lawmakers and local police and firefighters. All this for a nominal investment of about $5,000 in staff time and resources plus donations raised and some volunteer time from organization members.
You very likely don't need a statewide community involvement project with 14 separate events, Legislative honors and Mayoral Proclamations, over 75 volunteers and 40 different community partners that spans two months.
Good. That means your community involvement projects will be easy by comparison.
We all know that providing the best legal representation possible is the real key to long-term public relations, and to success, for your practice.
But building that sort of reputation takes time. There are ways to fast-forward that same positive feeling your great reputation engenders about you and your firm.
Consider a community involvement project. Sponsoring such a project can teach people who you are, link your firm to a good cause in the public mind, familiarize the media with your firm and create a positive aura for your reputation.
What do I mean by a community involvement project? Here some examples: help sponsor a Habitat for Humanity house [great idea for a Construction Law or General Practice firm]; give pro bono seminars for senior citizens [Elder Law practice]; get involved in helping at-risk kids [a Criminal Defense practice]; donate and/or install smoke detectors in needy neighborhoods [Personal Injury firm]; sponsor a "Law Day" or "Constitution Day" essay contest for a local school [any firm might use that idea].
Such a project --if handled correctly-- can pay your firm back tenfold, or a hundredfold, just in earned media. Not to mention public goodwill and plain old getting-your-name-on-the street rainmaking.
Before you run off to grab your checkbook and call the United Way, take a few minutes to think about what you want to accomplish in the context of your long term public relations goals. Who is your client base? What is your desired image and reputation?
Don't worry. You can still do great and selfless things. But you should do them in a conscious and well-planned way so that you are building your firm as you make the world a better place.
Things to consider:
Who do you want to persuade through your efforts? If you have a general practice firm you likely want to enhance your reputation in the local community. On the other hand if you have a boutique practice you will want to enhance your reputation in the industry or profession you service, or among bar members who might send you referrals.
What image do you want your firm to have in your selected community? Based on your practice area, how do you want your firm to be perceived? Pro-family? Pro-safety? Anti-piracy? Pro-immigration? For or against some other issue or problem? Choose a project that builds your reputation on that issue in your community of potential clients.
What sort of assistance is actually needed? It does little good to decide that your Family Law practice ought to become involved in providing temporary shelter for the families of kids who are undergoing life-saving medical care if there is already a Ronald McDonald House right down the street. Better to focus on an unmet need. You will be of real use and you will stand out.
What sort of project will create positive, reputation building media and public interest? Even if your practice focuses on protecting intellectual property rights you might not want to rush out and publicly support RIAA efforts to pursue high school kids and grandmothers for alleged music piracy. That stance is very unpopular with the public. Instead you might think in terms of offering to speak to high school students about the importance of I/P protections and how they protect artists and allow them to make a living providing us with things of lasting beauty.
A community involvement project must accomplish all of these goals or you are wasting your time, at best, and harming your firm in the worst case.
One community involvement project I coordinate for a state-wide organization has proven so successful that it has grown from a single event to 14 events all around the state.
Curious as to how I might judge the value of this project in 2006 I collected as many of our media hits as I could locate [press clippings, radio, TV, etc] for the purpose of figuring out how much earned media we generated. I found that as a very conservative estimate the project had generated approximately $125,000 in great, positive media coverage [feturing needy kids, balloons, local politicians, community leaders, safety, families, organization members in shirt sleeves doing good things, etc]. The event even received honors and Proclamations from city mayors and state lawmakers and local police and firefighters. All this for a nominal investment of about $5,000 in staff time and resources plus donations raised and some volunteer time from organization members.
You very likely don't need a statewide community involvement project with 14 separate events, Legislative honors and Mayoral Proclamations, over 75 volunteers and 40 different community partners that spans two months.
Good. That means your community involvement projects will be easy by comparison.
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