Social Media Use

The expanding use of social media ' whether it encompasses blogging, a LinkedIn or Facebook page, a Twitter post, or any number of other new iterations ' is perhaps the number-one trend reshaping law firm marketing. Many lawyers can attest that the interactivity on the Internet as epitomized by the give and take between online users of blogs and social networking sites is enriching and valuable on both sides of the virtual relationship. But social media use also vividly illustrates the dilemmas posed by the law's dual nature as a business and a profession.

On the business side, social media can be an effective, low-cost marketing channel ' or a fragmented time-waster if not diligently applied and integrated. As a professional tool, social media facilitates direct engagement among lawyers, clients and prospects ' but also raises the specter of violating the Rules of Professional Conduct through unethical marketing contact and questionable interaction with judges and other counsel. Granted, one of the oldest lawyer jokes concerns the client who wanted a one-armed lawyer who wouldn't constantly temper advice by saying, “But on the other hand ' .” However, social media raises so many “on the other hand” concerns that its promise should not overshadow the need for caution in using its tools.

The Financial Dimension

Social media sites are “broadcasting” in the purest sense of that now-quaint word. They may reach a few potential clients, but they also reach many more people who don't have the slightest interest in a given lawyer or law firm. And the firm is paying for all those disengaged listeners, in terms of the time that consistent online marketing requires.

In measuring benefits, cost has to be taken into account. For the most part, building an active presence on social networking sites does not require a large up-front investment. The main expenses may be such tools as blog-hosting services and standard technical assistance and maintenance offered by outside providers of blog support. Of course, there is also a lawyer time involvement, which makes measuring business gained even more important; and this time investment is the number-one ROI metric for social media.

Making frequent tweets, Facebook or blog posts and answering responses to them can definitely take time. Let's say it's just two hours per workweek. If we assume 50 workweeks per year for ease of calculation, and two hours per week and $200 per hour billable value for an attorney, the calculation is $20,000 of billable time. It's essential for that time to provide a return on investment, as defined by these measures:

• Do constant follow-up by responding to inquiries and incorporating posted material into articles, speeches, client updates, and so on. If you are making the effort, make maximum marketing application of it beyond the social media itself.
• Incorporate social media into your daily professional routine. Occasional posts are simply not effective. Establishing a regular posting routine keeps you engaged with prospects and ensures that your content is fresh.
• Don't give away the store on a blog or Facebook page. The wisest course is to suggest your firm's knowledge and capabilities rather than to fully display detailed information and allow your followers to make full use of it.

The Marketing Dimension

Without measuring social media marketing efforts by specific number of contacts made, clients added and billable time gained, a firm may not be getting an adequate return. Social media results are, in fact, measurable in certain ways ' for example, a follower count on Twitter, the number of “like” designations on a Facebook page, or the range of connections made on LinkedIn. These measurements, however, merely indicate the opening of contact with potential clients. Lead generation and new business secured from those leads are the only valid measurements of whether social media marketing works. Attracting more followers and online connections is worthwhile only if they lead to in-person meetings. Online marketing has to produce new files and new revenue or it is not an effective a business development tool.

It's essential for any lawyer who wants a social networking presence to maintain it and integrate it with the full range of online marketing tools. There are fundamental rules for maximizing social media and Internet ROI in ways that increase social media visibility.

• Make your tools interact with each other; don't build silos. Ensure that LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter content is consistent and feeds into both blogs and your own biographical profile on the firm's website.
• Create LinkedIn profiles that link directly to website bios and are consistent with them.
• Create blog topics that demonstrate thought leadership and be prepared to update posts at least weekly, if not more often.
• Link to others so they'll link to you. Register your blog with blog directories and legal blog lists to increase your exposure to potential clients.

At its most effective, social media used in this way can help you create a reputation as a “thought leader” in your practice area. Establishing an online reputation can become your passport to write articles for local and national publications in your field; write a commercially published book (the gold standard of marketing success) for the equivalent of third-party endorsement (only someone important would appear in a commercial publisher's venue); speak at conferences; create teleseminars; create a video; do podcasts; refine and improve your website; send out an electronic newsletter.

These are only a few of the channels of communication to create client relationships. Law firms and lawyers that make social media interact in this way have far better marketing results, specifically more web visitors, inbound links and indexed pages. The more that your target market sees your name and knows who you are, the more likely they are to call you. And that is the definition of marketing success.

The Professional Dimension

There are many concerns about whether social media activity is freely available information, or is advertising controlled by the Bar because social networking messages are available to the entire world, not just existing clients. The American Bar Association's Commission on Ethics 20/20 Working Group on the Implications of New Technologies raised these concerns in detail in a 2010 working paper and recommended in 2011 that social networking should not be used for “real-time electronic contact” to solicit clients and should be viewed as general communication to educate potential clients.

Ethical concerns about social media marketing strike in other directions also. The Virginia State Bar in 2011 charged a lawyer with professional misconduct for talking about his own completed cases on his blog without adding an advertising disclaimer that results depend upon factors unique to each case and that results in one case do not predict similar results in others.

The lawyer argued that his blog consisted of news and commentary, that the information he posted was disclosed during public trials, was accurate, did not violate any confidences, and was not advertising. The State Bar disagreed, and the lawyer reluctantly posted the disclaimer. However, the lawyer appealed his case and in 2012 won at least a partial victory. A three-judge Virginia court panel, while upholding the disclaimer requirement, overturned the finding that the blog posts violated client “secrets and confidences.” A court decision on the public record can hardly be called a secret, so the panel freed the lawyer to write about it.

Regulating for truth and fairness and to restrict hyperbole in social media use is understandable. But bar associations seek to regulate lawyers in ways that other governing bodies do not attempt for such professionals as doctors and accountants. For example, several years ago the Florida Board of Bar Examiners' Character and Fitness Commission decided to adopt a policy that the investigation of social networking websites be conducted on a case-by-case basis for applicants to the Bar. Facebook pages and sites could be reviewed where there previously was evidence of substance abuse, or even flippant reference to alcohol or drug consumption, as well as evidence of “candor concerns.” As far as client concerns and legal ethics, the quality of legal service should be what is important. But social media stands to add a new dimension to this.

'On the Other Hand' '.

None of the issues raised here, positive or negative, can be viewed as conclusive. As social media use continues to evolve, so too will the business and ethical considerations for its use by lawyers and law firms. On the surface, it would seem that the momentum for social media use in the legal profession cannot be held back. This is as it should be. From blogging to social networking, technology has given lawyers more marketing tools than ever. There is real danger, however, in becoming so infatuated with the tool that the perspective of legal practice is lost or diminished. Your social media activity has to have relevance to clients and prospective clients; remember that marketing legal services isn't solely about speed or worldwide presence. And if there are gray areas of any kind in the marketing you want to do online, seeking an ethics opinion from bar counsel may be the better part of valor.

Edward (Ed) Poll, J.D., M.B.A., CMC, principal of LawBiz' Management and a member of this newsletter's Board of Editors, is a coach, law firm management consultant, and author. His latest book, Life After Law: What Will You Do for the Next 6,000 Days? deals with pre-retirement planning issues. Reach him at 800-837-5880 or [email protected].

The expanding use of social media ' whether it encompasses blogging, a LinkedIn or Facebook page, a Twitter post, or any number of other new iterations ' is perhaps the number-one trend reshaping law firm marketing. Many lawyers can attest that the interactivity on the Internet as epitomized by the give and take between online users of blogs and social networking sites is enriching and valuable on both sides of the virtual relationship. But social media use also vividly illustrates the dilemmas posed by the law's dual nature as a business and a profession.

On the business side, social media can be an effective, low-cost marketing channel ' or a fragmented time-waster if not diligently applied and integrated. As a professional tool, social media facilitates direct engagement among lawyers, clients and prospects ' but also raises the specter of violating the Rules of Professional Conduct through unethical marketing contact and questionable interaction with judges and other counsel. Granted, one of the oldest lawyer jokes concerns the client who wanted a one-armed lawyer who wouldn't constantly temper advice by saying, “But on the other hand ' .” However, social media raises so many “on the other hand” concerns that its promise should not overshadow the need for caution in using its tools.

The Financial Dimension

Social media sites are “broadcasting” in the purest sense of that now-quaint word. They may reach a few potential clients, but they also reach many more people who don't have the slightest interest in a given lawyer or law firm. And the firm is paying for all those disengaged listeners, in terms of the time that consistent online marketing requires.

In measuring benefits, cost has to be taken into account. For the most part, building an active presence on social networking sites does not require a large up-front investment. The main expenses may be such tools as blog-hosting services and standard technical assistance and maintenance offered by outside providers of blog support. Of course, there is also a lawyer time involvement, which makes measuring business gained even more important; and this time investment is the number-one ROI metric for social media.

Making frequent tweets, Facebook or blog posts and answering responses to them can definitely take time. Let's say it's just two hours per workweek. If we assume 50 workweeks per year for ease of calculation, and two hours per week and $200 per hour billable value for an attorney, the calculation is $20,000 of billable time. It's essential for that time to provide a return on investment, as defined by these measures:

• Do constant follow-up by responding to inquiries and incorporating posted material into articles, speeches, client updates, and so on. If you are making the effort, make maximum marketing application of it beyond the social media itself.
• Incorporate social media into your daily professional routine. Occasional posts are simply not effective. Establishing a regular posting routine keeps you engaged with prospects and ensures that your content is fresh.
• Don't give away the store on a blog or Facebook page. The wisest course is to suggest your firm's knowledge and capabilities rather than to fully display detailed information and allow your followers to make full use of it.

The Marketing Dimension

Without measuring social media marketing efforts by specific number of contacts made, clients added and billable time gained, a firm may not be getting an adequate return. Social media results are, in fact, measurable in certain ways ' for example, a follower count on Twitter, the number of “like” designations on a Facebook page, or the range of connections made on LinkedIn. These measurements, however, merely indicate the opening of contact with potential clients. Lead generation and new business secured from those leads are the only valid measurements of whether social media marketing works. Attracting more followers and online connections is worthwhile only if they lead to in-person meetings. Online marketing has to produce new files and new revenue or it is not an effective a business development tool.

It's essential for any lawyer who wants a social networking presence to maintain it and integrate it with the full range of online marketing tools. There are fundamental rules for maximizing social media and Internet ROI in ways that increase social media visibility.

• Make your tools interact with each other; don't build silos. Ensure that LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter content is consistent and feeds into both blogs and your own biographical profile on the firm's website.
• Create LinkedIn profiles that link directly to website bios and are consistent with them.
• Create blog topics that demonstrate thought leadership and be prepared to update posts at least weekly, if not more often.
• Link to others so they'll link to you. Register your blog with blog directories and legal blog lists to increase your exposure to potential clients.

At its most effective, social media used in this way can help you create a reputation as a “thought leader” in your practice area. Establishing an online reputation can become your passport to write articles for local and national publications in your field; write a commercially published book (the gold standard of marketing success) for the equivalent of third-party endorsement (only someone important would appear in a commercial publisher's venue); speak at conferences; create teleseminars; create a video; do podcasts; refine and improve your website; send out an electronic newsletter.

These are only a few of the channels of communication to create client relationships. Law firms and lawyers that make social media interact in this way have far better marketing results, specifically more web visitors, inbound links and indexed pages. The more that your target market sees your name and knows who you are, the more likely they are to call you. And that is the definition of marketing success.

The Professional Dimension

There are many concerns about whether social media activity is freely available information, or is advertising controlled by the Bar because social networking messages are available to the entire world, not just existing clients. The American Bar Association's Commission on Ethics 20/20 Working Group on the Implications of New Technologies raised these concerns in detail in a 2010 working paper and recommended in 2011 that social networking should not be used for “real-time electronic contact” to solicit clients and should be viewed as general communication to educate potential clients.

Ethical concerns about social media marketing strike in other directions also. The Virginia State Bar in 2011 charged a lawyer with professional misconduct for talking about his own completed cases on his blog without adding an advertising disclaimer that results depend upon factors unique to each case and that results in one case do not predict similar results in others.

The lawyer argued that his blog consisted of news and commentary, that the information he posted was disclosed during public trials, was accurate, did not violate any confidences, and was not advertising. The State Bar disagreed, and the lawyer reluctantly posted the disclaimer. However, the lawyer appealed his case and in 2012 won at least a partial victory. A three-judge Virginia court panel, while upholding the disclaimer requirement, overturned the finding that the blog posts violated client “secrets and confidences.” A court decision on the public record can hardly be called a secret, so the panel freed the lawyer to write about it.

Regulating for truth and fairness and to restrict hyperbole in social media use is understandable. But bar associations seek to regulate lawyers in ways that other governing bodies do not attempt for such professionals as doctors and accountants. For example, several years ago the Florida Board of Bar Examiners' Character and Fitness Commission decided to adopt a policy that the investigation of social networking websites be conducted on a case-by-case basis for applicants to the Bar. Facebook pages and sites could be reviewed where there previously was evidence of substance abuse, or even flippant reference to alcohol or drug consumption, as well as evidence of “candor concerns.” As far as client concerns and legal ethics, the quality of legal service should be what is important. But social media stands to add a new dimension to this.

'On the Other Hand' '.

None of the issues raised here, positive or negative, can be viewed as conclusive. As social media use continues to evolve, so too will the business and ethical considerations for its use by lawyers and law firms. On the surface, it would seem that the momentum for social media use in the legal profession cannot be held back. This is as it should be. From blogging to social networking, technology has given lawyers more marketing tools than ever. There is real danger, however, in becoming so infatuated with the tool that the perspective of legal practice is lost or diminished. Your social media activity has to have relevance to clients and prospective clients; remember that marketing legal services isn't solely about speed or worldwide presence. And if there are gray areas of any kind in the marketing you want to do online, seeking an ethics opinion from bar counsel may be the better part of valor.

Edward (Ed) Poll, J.D., M.B.A., CMC, principal of LawBiz' Management and a member of this newsletter's Board of Editors, is a coach, law firm management consultant, and author. His latest book, Life After Law: What Will You Do for the Next 6,000 Days? deals with pre-retirement planning issues. Reach him at 800-837-5880 or [email protected].