Join the Conversation and Let’s Talk About New Business
Imagine you walk into a ballroom where everyone's talking. All
over there are clusters of people asking about their legal issues and looking
to find a lawyer to help them. Everyone is familiar with you and it's easy to
walk up to a group and join in. There are so many circles of people you have to
pause to decide which to approach.
Of course you have the option of standing by yourself and
not getting any business. You can be a skeptic and walk away. You can even
leave the building and see if there is any business outside. But why would you?
So it is with lawyers and social media. Today there is an
enormous conversation taking place online, and lawyers are joining it to find
new clients and files. How big is the Internet ballroom for this conversation? Three out of four consumers seeking an
attorney over the past year used online resources at some point in the process,
according to The Research Intelligence Group. It's clear that social media
matters.
Lawyers in small firms with one to five attorneys have been
eager participants in social media, with 91% saying they already use social
media for business development, according to a recent Vizibility/LexisNexis survey.
But social media can be confusing to use and lawyers want guidance on how to
use it to generate new business.
You are invited to join me and law firm marketing expert
Stephen Fairley for a webinar this Wednesday, April 25, 2012, "Join
the Conversation: Social Media Strategies For Your Law Firm." Visit www.LexisNexis.com/webinar to register,
and learn the best practices of legal marketing on social media.
Sites like LinkedIn,
Facebook and Twitter emerged in the last decade and today have entered every
corner of American life. The biggest online ballroom is Facebook, with 845
million users who spend an average of seven hours and 45 minutes per month on
the site. It's a happy meeting place for lawyers to have a conversation with
consumer clients.
Blogging, which seemed so new in the 1990s, is still the
cornerstone of any social media strategy. Blogs enable attorneys to showcase
their expertise, differentiate themselves and generate leads. Lawyers can
engage their readers by responding to consumers who make comments on their
blogs. Small-firm lawyers are using blogging for marketing, as well as LinkedIn
and Twitter.
Our webinar will show how to make blogging work for your practice. Be sure to check out LexisNexis'
unique "work-with-you" service that gives lawyers Web
Site Visibility. It's worth discovering, because 60% of small law firms
reported landing new clients as a result of their blog, according to the
American Bar Association.
The key thing to remember is that social media is a
conversation -- not a lecture. It doesn't make sense to blast out information
in a one-way stream or to Tweet selling messages. All the rules of in-person conversation
apply online.
For example, lawyers with lots of followers on Twitter
highlight common consumer legal issues in their messages. Attorneys with many
connections on LinkedIn have joined online groups to meet referral sources and
focus their bios on what they are doing for consumers. Lawyers with Facebook friends
who have "liked" their profiles have researched what's trending on social media
and responded to what consumers are talking about.
Social media begins with a plan to grow specific practice
areas and ends with a daily checklist on online activities to keep consumers
interested. In between is a conversation where you listen to the legal need of
consumers and describe how legal services can solve their problem.
Also check out these previous posts:
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