The Rainmaker Blog : Law Firm Marketing and Business Development : The Rainmaker Institute : Stephen Fairley : Professional Legal Marketing

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The ABA Journal recently posted a marketing article on social media asking if social media measures up to the hype.  The article – rightly, I think – says that the conundrum is that those on both sides of the argument may be right. 

Is social media overhyped?  Perhaps.  But you can’t ignore the fact that it is the way consumers are communicating these days.  And that big pool of consumers is where the vast majority of attorneys get their clients.

One comment I found spot-on was by Terrance Barkan, who has a couple of websites dedicated to research and discussion about how professionals use social media.  His comments got me thinking about my own observations on why some attorneys succeed and many more fail at social media. 

The fact is that social media is like any other marketing tool – if you don’t use it right, with forethought and follow-up, it is not going to work.  And how you do it right can be gleaned from how so many do it wrong, in what I call:

The 10 Deadly Mistakes Attorneys Make When Using Social Media

1. No clear objectives and specific goals.
2. Too short of a time frame: social media is a long-term play of building relationships it's not a get rich quick scheme.
3. No budget allocated: most social networks are free, but you either have to do it yourself or you have to pay. someone else to do it for you.
4. No responsibility or accountability.
5. No tracking of results.
6. No blueprint of what works and what doesn't so you end up reinventing the wheel by trying to do it yourself.
7. Only using 1 network: most attorneys are attracted to LinkedIn but more consumers are on Facebook. Don’t try to just use one -- you need to experiment with all of them to see where you get the best ROI.
8. Not using social media to build your database: s/he who has the biggest list wins!
9. Not taking your social media contacts “offline”.
10. Hiring a company to handle your social media that doesn't work with attorneys.

While #10 may be a bit self-serving (see below), it is important for attorneys who outsource their social media programs to ensure those executing the programs understand and abide by the rules and regulations attorneys must adhere to in their marketing.

The bottom line with social media is that – like most things in life – your return on investment is directly related to the effort expended.  Or, as most of us heard from our parents growing up: you get out of it what you put into it.

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