Social Intelligence = Business Intelligence

Manzama – Social Media; Beyond The Basics

With all the “buzz” on social media, it’s likely to sour marketing professionals when they are unable to ascertain and measure results.  While there’s definitely a growing concern to leverage social media within the legal profession, it’s often tough to translate into a working result for the busy professional and/or business development tasks of those within law firms.  My philosophy is not to sell it, but show and illustrate how others have benefited.   In our society, our natural tendencies are to compete, hence I think it’s more important not to discuss the virtues and potential value gains from blogging, tweeting and participating in social networks such as LinkedIn.  Just give me the testimonials – then I know efforts have translated to value.

On a related note, I hope to share some of these insights as I present side-by-side various clients in a host of social media events over the next several months, please feel free to join us at any of the following events:

Finally, we hope to see you at the many conferences we’ll be presenting/speaking at in the not too distant future:

September 15^th, Law Marketing Association’s Technology Conference/ Social Media Use Case, Peter Ozolin, CEO, to present (SF);

September 21^st, Social Media and Law: Beyond The Basics Panel, Peter Ozolin Panel Member (NY, Hilderbrandt Institute)

September 23^rd, Law Marketing Association’s Southern California Regional Meeting (LA, Manzama a sponsor;

January 18^th – 20^th, Marketing Partner’s Forum: GCs and Social Media Panel , Peter Ozolin, CEO, Panel Member (Miami)

Last week I reviewed with my team the concept of being a “mesh” company.  I think you’ll hear more and more about this developing trend or philosophy for companies to have mesh-type of cultures.  Specifically, the values that I think are of immediate importance can be summarized as such:

• Mesh Companies “Wow” their customers because they have access to information, and thus can anticipate what we want to do next?  They understand data, thus our behavior.
• Value unused = waste (example of why car sharing by neighbors took off)
• Do we have any opportunities to capitalize on waste – waste of time to find stuff, wasted time preparing for a client meeting?;
• Companies have shared failures, can we benefit from these failures – MySpace, etc.
• Make sharing irresistible.
• “Invite” people to share.
• DEFINE, REFINE & SCALE – a new method to develop.
• Make DATA OPEN – allow for multiple ways to access and absorb

Here’s an excellent discussion as to how Mesh companies are becoming a fabric of forward thinking businesses: http://www.ted.com/talks/lisa_gansky_the_future_of_business_is_the_mesh.html

Law Marketing Association (LMA Planning Committee)

This week I had the pleasure of sitting down with a diverse group of CMOs across the country and the organizing body (ACI) of the Law Marketing Association’s Annual Conference.  Having been part of many committees over the years (profit, as well as not-for-profit), I was quite impressed with the level of organization, thought and commitment this group brought to the table.  Some of the folks have been involved with LMA for over two decades and still take an interest in seeing the organization do well and prosper.  Last year was a success by many measures – attendance, satisfaction with program content and overall planning.  It will be a difficult year to emulate, but I think this group is up to the task.  As a company, we are certainly planning to re-up our commitment as a sliver sponsor.

In terms of substantive content, I think the program will continue to expand its CMO track; thus you’ll likely see even more value add in terms of content there.  Likewise, some of the subject matter should appeal to not only CMOs, but Marketing Partners, Managing Partners and the like.