If the survey’s results tell us anything, it’s that social media in all forms is the here and now, not really so new anymore, and pretty well mainstream once it’s penetrated the legal industry. Buyers of legal services are consuming social media at an ever-increasing rate, and they are relying on content generated by their (and other) law firms. (Key point there — they could be relying on OTHER law firms’ content…)
Over the past several weeks, since the Martindale Hubbell survey released, and then again at the Marketing Partner Forum in Miami where social media was the hot topic, I’ve been thinking about something an old friend once told me about marketing communications. She said that marketing is the art of getting the right message to the right people by the right means at the right time so that they want to buy from you, and not the other guy. Pretty simple (and something I always kept top-of-mind when I was an in-house legal marketer.) In this scenario, the only thing that’s changed is the means. In-house counsel are telling us that they now rely on this means of communication and that they consider it to be reliable and persuasive. Law firms need to deliver or risk losing potential buyers to the competition.
Finally, while all the survey’s findings were interesting, one quote jumped off the page at me as in many ways it distills what we are doing here at Manzama. It said the “primary utility of social media—at least for this survey’s audience—is as an intelligent filter of useful information.” Fundamentally, that’s what a listening platform does for our clients: it creates an entirely new way to intelligently find, filter, and act on, useful information.
– Allison
I had the great pleasure of sitting alongside as part of a panel that discussed GC’s & Social Media (use of, interest, etc) of several individuals at this year/s MPF conference. Let me summarize the dialogue, starting with the basics:
Adrian Dayton (moderator and well known social media blogger, especially as it pertains to the legal profession) had the following information to share with his opening remarks:
- 114% growth in news blogs year over year across the AMLAW 100
John Corey, Principle and Founder of Greentarget, also provided Adrian and I with a sneak preview to an upcoming survey his group plans to release next week on GC’s use of social media. Here’s what he was able to trickle out to Adrian and I in advance:
Finding # 1: LinkedIn perceived as the “serious” social network
LinkedIn continues to be the most commonly used social media platform for professional reasons. It perhaps is the most dynamic example of older counsel–those between 40 and 65 years of age–increasing their usage of social media, with the majority of counsel of all ages using LinkedIn at least weekly.
In addition, 88 percent of respondents perceive the content they obtain via their LinkedIn connections as credible, which further supports the efficacy of the platform for professional reasons. While I am not prepared to quote the study (just don’t feel like digging through all my past articles, pretty sure it was an ABA study), the trend line in lawyers adopting LinkedIN has been steadily increasing – 57% in 2008, 75% in 2009, probably closer to 90% by end of 2011. As one Partner of an AMLAW 200 firm shared with me, “LinkedIn is more important to our firm that our CRM system?”
Begs the question, does it not? Why? I’ll offer up one simple conclusion – LinkedIn does something for ME and I don’t have that same conviction when the firm’s InterAction administrator ask me for all my contacts? I think to what end? Whether said, or unsaid, it comes down to the belief that a system will benefit me (regardless of what firms say about institutionalizing clients). This said, I do believe firms can (and have) succeed with InterAction as a product/service, but that’s for another discussion.
Other notable findings from the Greentarget study (provided by John Corey, with my comments after the bulleted entry):
- Blogs, Executed Well, Influence Hiring of Outside Counsel:
Seventy-six percent of respondents say they attribute some level of importance to a lawyer’s blog when deciding which firms to retain. Additionally, the percentage of respondents who say a law firm’s blog can influence hiring decisions went up slightly, from 50 percent in 2010 to 55 percent in 2011.
- I expect this percentage to increase considerably over the ensuing years, especially as law firms get more savvy on “what” to blog about (positioning content) as opposed to checking the box, “yes” we have a blog (or two). You need only look to firms that are getting business from their efforts and it will create an interest in learning how can we do better?
- On a related point, there was a lot of emphasis and crowd participation in and around focusing on making sure to have a targeted approach to your blog vs. the be everything to everyone approach.
- New Media Usage (Steadily) Going Mainstream: The generational divide that fueled the 2010 findings is leveling off. This effect is driven by older counsel (40 to 60 years of age) consuming more content rather than a significant drop in consumption among younger counsel (30 to 39 years of age). While the 2010 survey revealed that blogs were read more consistently across age groups than the “big three” social media platforms (LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter), the 2011 research shows a continuation of this trend whereas older counsel are reading blogs with even greater frequency.
- Again, as the content provides more insightful information, I expect this trend to continue. Likewise, blogs are a great source for insights on more granular levels, which is typically what professionals want vs. many of the traditional news sources get disseminated quickly and tells what we already know.
- Wikipedia Important, But Not to Research Law Firms: Very few in-house counsel (7%) are using Wikipedia to research outside firms, but they are using the online encyclopedia for issues-based research (51%).
Look for full release of the findings from John Corey (Greentarget founder & principal) in a survey titled: In-House Counsel New Media Engagement Survey to be released next week (1/23/12, week of).
I am looking forward to seeing the full study!
I recently had the opportunity to review this survey, conducted on behalf of Martindale Hubbell and consisting of 110 responding law firms from around the world, which showed that LinkedIn was the most popular social media platform for law firms to participate in, followed by Twitter and Facebook. Having just recently fought the social media wars in a law firm, all I could think was that there was nothing new or even newsworthy about this result. Reading the following quote by Derek Benton, director of International Operations at Martindale Hubbell, I had a flashback to a presentation I did at the LMA conference in 2008 where I made this same point. “Social networking was once thought to be just for socializing – for sharing your social life with your friends and for making new ones – but it has gone far beyond that. With some notable exceptions, now is the time for law firms to adapt their business models and experiment with social media as part of their client acquisition and retention programs, or risk being left behind.” I am left to wonder how it is that so little progress has been made on this front in 4 years?
Let’s face it, in this day and age, potential clients are on LinkedIn and Twitter and yes, Facebook (although I am hesitant myself to blur the social/work lines with Facebook) and law firms ignore these important outlets at their peril. However. It seems to me that there is lots of talk in our industry about how law firms can be better social media contributors, but not much about being social media consumers. Isn’t it time that law firms focused on mining the vast amount of business and competitive intelligence embodied in those blogs, Tweets and LinkedIn discussions? User-created content, aka social media, is where some of the most important business conversations are occurring today, and I am dead certain that there are important nuggets out there that will lead firms to valuable information that will help them with client acquisition and retention. One of the most important lessons learned in “Sales 101″ is that the seller who listens more than s/he talks is the one who gets the deal. Perhaps the time has come for law firm social media strategy to include the listening part?
–Allison
I recently attended LMA New England’s annual conference, held at the spectacular Moakley Courthouse in Boston. The theme of this year’s conference was Lawyers v. Technology, which was incredibly relevant and timely. The conference’s opening session featured a panel discussion among three practicing lawyers about their use of social media. The panel included two bloggers and one Tweeter (Twitterer?). It was fascinating listening to their perspectives on the relative value of these tools; however, what was consistent among them was their view that their use of social media constituted a conversation with prospective clients. I was also stuck by the amount of preparation each of the bloggers undertakes on a regular basis to keep on top of their practice areas. Most of them are ably assisted by their marketing and business development teams who also spend considerable time making sure their lawyers are fed a steady diet of relevant and timely information.
On the second day of the conference, I was asked to be a last-minute substitute on a panel on Competitive and Business Intelligence: What Really Matters is ROI with Christina Fritsch, President of ClientsFirst Consulting and Patrick Fuller, Managing Account Director at HubbardOne. Our goal was to explore various CI and BI tools, focusing on how a partnership between buyers and sellers can provide real value and help achieve strategic goals. We had a great time discussing some of the internal and external resources (including the Manzama Listening Platform) that we can use to provide actionable intelligence to the lawyers and why we would choose those resources. Some of them were new to me, such as checking AdAge to see if clients have changed branding or announced new products. There was wide agreement that while sometimes we’re looking for something specific, more often than not, we’re panning for gold in the fast-moving information river. We also had a lively discussion about the relationship between vendors and law firm buyers and some of the ways we can work together to facilitate success. Having just made the leap back to the vendor-side, the conversation was particularly relevant for me.
This was my favorite kind of session because everyone got involved in the conversation, and I think we all had fun and learned some new stuff. (It probably didn’t hurt that Patrick was launching prizes into the audience…)
At the end of the day, I was left with one overriding impression: Social media is no fad, and just as firms need to figure out how to effectively contribute to the “conversation”, they also need help learning how to be consumers of the vast amount of information that lives outside traditional news and information sources in ways that help identify and inform business opportunities. At Manzama, we are engaged in creating innovative new ways to help firms cut through the information clutter. This week’s conference solidified for me just how important this is.
– Allison
