I just had the great pleasure of spending the past couple of days at a Zeughauser Group meeting featuring some of the top Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) in the country (approximately 30 in attendance). They traveled from all over the United States for this meeting. For those of you unfamiliar with the Zeughauser Group, they are a well organized group of consultants that are focused on advising, consulting and supporting law firms across the country on a myriad of strategic issues, it’s a very highly respected group. They count among their clients many of the largest law firms in the country/world. The conference was incredibly well run and is intentionally designed to have only between 30-40 members for this annual meeting.
On behalf of Manzama I was asked to share some thoughts as to the state of social media, specifically with a focus on how business intelligence is evolving and changing with the proliferation of content in the public domain. It was honor to be asked to present in this forum and we hope that the members of the group benefited from the exchange. While I am not at liberty to discuss specific firms nor the contents of the program that would be deemed confidential, I’ll share some over-arching themes and messaging that I heard through the two day program:
> All lawyers in firms must be revenue generators. There was a time when the divide between the procurers of revenue (aka rainmakers) and those partners that do the work was an acceptable divide. This is no longer the case. In fact, the divide in terms of compensation paid to the procurers vs. the services is becoming more apparent and growing;
> Most of the leadership acknowledge that lawyers/partners more than ever are open to having others w/in marketing support revenue type of activities, including “selling,” with the expectation that this would become more important w/ each year;
> GC’s interest in social media is growing. This is substantiated with the findings in the Inside Counsel/Green Target report that I blogged about the other week.
> Directories (Chambers, Superlawyers, etc.) are only meaningful to the partners (sometimes merely to reinforce egos), but GCs do not weigh these directory listings as a key factor for hiring a law firm. Again, there was some data shared to support this statement, but I think there are still some other valid data points to suggest otherwise;
> Wikipedia is gaining momentum as an authoritative source of information for GCs to help understand and profile a law firm. However, the group was cautioned to not try and turn Wikipedia into a branding/marketing activity, rather, firms should view Wikipedia as “opportunity to credential” themselves;
> Social Media use is on the rise (blogs, videos, twitter, etc.) in and across all age groups of lawyers and GCs. Likewise, the ability to “monitor” and understand what’s transpiring in and around a law firm’s brand, practice, industries, clients, etc is becoming increasingly important as firms look to differentiate and reflect a deeper understanding of their client and align themselves across various industries, etc. Hence, the reliance on ways to find and locate intelligence and act in a timely manner will become service differentiators in the months and years to come;
Bottom line — great group (approximately 30) and I think the next decade will emerge as the decade of the CMO. In this blogger’s estimation never has this role been more important (I saw the 90s as the rise of the CIO, due to the strategic use of technology w/in law firms, but the emphasis on client satisfaction, business development, positioning, business intelligence have demanded a greater skill set from CMOs than in past decades, and this trend is likely to continue).
Best,
Peter J. Ozolin, CEO
Manzama, Inc.
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!
