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Social Networking continues to grow and although there is a lot of trivia being discussed, there are also some serious business discussions and related business information being passed around. We should not ignore this information as it may be useful to our business and I don’t believe the phenomenon (if that is what it is) of Social Networking will go away. If anything, we will see more people joining in the discussions and more products and innovative ways of communicating coming out of it, so if you don’t engage early then you may be in danger of missing out on any opportunities that evolve.
Social Networking is like a search engine/ introduction broker/ discussion board and is about relationships (Who knows who) but it also carries instant information on what’s happening at a moment in time and includes products like:
Engagement with Social networking doesn’t mean you need to start ‘tweeting’ straight away or anything like that but as a minimum you must understand these technologies and track their progress. I would also recommend you consider some minimal involvement if only at pilot level.
What is this business information that might be so interesting? As an example we may see information posted about what our clients are saying/doing, what competitors are saying/doing, changes in the markets we operate in, regulatory discussions, new product launches, strategic appointments, expert opinions and much more.
The difference with the social network world is that it is instant, prolific and often from unknown sources. This means we are in danger of information overload and sifting the information into useful and non useful can be very time consuming. It also gives us some potential concerns as we don’t know how true the information is and whether it is genuine or malicious.
As well as ‘listening’ to this information we should consider putting our own information into the conversations and start to promote our firms.
But remember this is just one more way of marketing your services and should be treated as such. It will also require some effort and some time before you can judge results. In terms of ROI (return on Investment), It may not just be about revenue but also brand recognition and mitigating reputation risk that needs to be considered.
So how can we use these technologies to our advantage as law firms? Here are a few suggestions to hopefully start you thinking:
Listening
We should use tools to search for any mention of our brand in the social networking space. A number of tools exist such as Google alerts which will let you know if your name appears anywhere in Google and Tweetdeck where you can search for keywords in Twitter conversations.
We should also consider using these tools to search for conversations or articles by customer or prospect and look at adding this information to our CRM (Customer Relationship Management) Systems which would provide a more powerful conversation with those contacts, bearing in mind the caveat that the information is potentially gossip so be wary of its accuracy.
Marketing
Using Social networking to attract customers is another method to market and there are numerous ways to do this. Some are more relevant to consumer type business and others to consultative business models. Lets have a look at some ideas:-
The Fishing Analogy
Twitter – The Bait
Twitter is a micro blog restricted to 140 characters which can include abbreviated links to a web site. With Twitter you attract followers and can follow others. You can also re-tweet which means sending a message from someone you follow to your followers and you could therefore imagine how this could escalate.
Blog or Video – The Hook
A blog is an article on a particular subject to which people can comment. Videos can also be used to record a conversation on specific subjects. In this case we may have a lawyer discussing a particular subject via one of these mediums.
Web Site – The Rod
Our Firms web site defines what we do and how and whom to cntact for more information
An example of the method
We have a lawyer write an article on a relevant or topical subject and post it as a blog (or video). We announce the blog with links to it via Twitter. We hope this will get passed around and someone will be interested enough to link to the blog. Having read the blog they want to know more so they link to the web site and hopefully send an email or pick up the phone to start a relationship.
The Linkedin method
Linkedin is a professional niche social networking site where you can connect with professional colleagues, meet new people, find recommended services and find new contacts in your current network. It is a not a mass market broadcasting tool such as described in the fishing analogy. Your network can however be very large as it includes your connections and your friend’s connections etc. You can use it to find customers, increase brand visibility, generate sales leads and increase traffic to your web site so it is worth considering.
Using Linkedin is a big subject in its own right and there are numerous documents detailing how to use it for business but as a starter here are some thoughts:
The Facebook Approach
With Facebook announcing 500 million users globally can you afford to ignore it? The jury is still out but it is one to watch and if you are in the consumer end of the market then you should seriously consider it. You can create a business account and advertise your services with links to your web site.
A lot of US Law firms are using Facebook plus one or two in the UK so the best way forward here is to look at what they are doing and see if it can benefit your Law firm.
The UK Legal market is certainly not a leader in Social Networking but one or two firms are using some of the tools such as Linkedin, Blogs, Twitter and a couple are experimenting with Facebook as a consumer facing marketing tool.
The use of these tools is continuing to grow and they are moving into the mainstream as software vendors are incorporating them into their product line. As an example many CRM vendors now have the ability to take in conversations from products like Twitter directly into their system. Microsoft is building social networking connectors into Outlook. Whatever the worries on security, time wasting etc the new generation of workers are being brought up on this type of communication and will expect it to be available in the workplace of the future.
It is an exciting time and I don’t expect it to stand still for very long so embrace the change and by doing that you can have some control and be in a better position to understand the benefits for your firm now and in the future.
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