I saw this cartoon and I just had to share it!;)  There’s a lot of truth in humor.  There’s a quote that says “perception is reality.”  As illustrated by the above cartoon, the perception of lawyers amongst business professionals is, well…terrible.  We lawyers have the reputation of planning for the third coming of Christ…  Such reservation does not translate well in boardrooms where all decisions live and die by margins.  So what can we do to fix this perception.  Well, have some proverbial balls.  Be a deal maker, not a deal breaker.  Sure, explain the risks and if the client persists in illegal activity, walk.  But if you’re talking about semantics, life is too short.

Relationships! The key is to get in the prospect’s head at the time of decision, which can only be done if you’ve built up some trust. If you think you lack the time to properly nurture relationships with the masses, Gary Vaynerchuk has a message just for you. Put information on your site that informs your potential clients. Demonstrate that you have a proficiency that fits their need. Sell yourself. What makes you better than the competition? People expect lawyers to act like idiots on TV commercials. But when lawyers come across as competent, personable, and authentic…it fosters trust. And trust is the ultimate currency in today’s world of marketing. So put some of your best stuff out there, free of charge. Flex your muscles to demonstrate your skills. I recently published a 70 page ebook on the changing landscape of the network marketing industry. Prospects now know my philosophy before calling, which has helped generate some business.

I like how Gerry Oginski markets himself. He’s a medical malpractice attorney in New York and he’s constantly uploading videos on facebook. Even if I don’t watch every video, I’m reminded that this guy is a med mal lawyer in New York. Without even knowing it, he’s forming a relationship with me. If I’m injured by doctors in New York, do you think I’m going to flip through a phone book? He even posted a video explaining 3 reasons why someone would NOT hire him. It’s all about trust.

1.  Use Tweetdeck.  Don’t ask questions, just do it.  13% of all twitter users use tweet deck, which is amazing.  It’s a great way to break up the noise into manageable pieces of information.

2.  Use your blog to generate followers.  Be sure to have a “Follow me on twitter” widget on your blog.  Create tons of content, which builds up your personal brand, which drives people to twitter, which leads to more followers, which leads to more traffic to your blog, etc.  It’s a game of numbers.

2.5  Own a niche.  If I were doing your introduction in less than 20 words, what would you want to me to say?  What’s your thing?  If you lack a niche, get one because there’s no room in the Google economy for people stuck on page 2 in search results.  You have to be the best.  Sorry, that’s just the way it is.  Be patient.  My personal brand isn’t worth much, but it’s growing.  With your niche, send twitter updates about your niche and build a base of people with similar interests.  Slow and steady wins the race.  Of course you can post fun, personal stuff, but you need to command a niche.

3.  Avoid spamming.  There’s a difference between permission marketing and interruption marketing.  With permission marketing, there’s a relationship (consent) between both parties.  One agrees to listen to the other i.e. a subscription to a blog.  With interruption marketing i.e. television ads, one hopes to catch a smidgeon of your attention (interrupt you during a ballgame) to influence your decisions.  In the twitter world, most people you “Follow” will Follow you back.  It’s considered good manners.  But, if you follow thousands of people with the hopes that they follow you back, thus giving you tons of followers, which gives you a larger audience for your messages, that’s no different than spamming.

I figured this out after following a bagillion people.  After a while, it didn’t make any sense.  With Twitter, you’re trying to build a “permission asset,” which means you’re trying to build relationships.  If you’re following tons of people you don’t care about, and they’re all doing the same thing, it ends up being a bunch of people sending messages hoping that a few slip through the cracks and get noticed i.e. spam.  I love Tim Ferriss’s approach.  He has an enormous permission asset.  When people follow Tim, they know exactly what to expect.  Recently, he’s added over 5000 followers in a few days.  Thousands of people want to know what he’s doing, which makes twitter a great platform for him.  He’s got a niche.  And unlike most people, he follows less than a couple of hundred.

4.  Slip past the filters–  Or to paraphrase, build relationships.  If you’re like most people, you probably follow more than a few hundred people.  If you follow over 100, you’re really following nobody.  It’s true.  But with Tweetdeck and other Twitter apps, you can create streams of info from people you manually select.  If there’s someone with influence that you’d like to follow on a regular basis, you can separate them from the pack by adding them to a group.  Now that everyone has a filter, you need to make it out of the “everyone column” and into their “preferred list” column.  Get my drift?

Here’s how you do it.  Own a niche.  Post often.  Post quality updates.  Be helpful.  Retweet.  Be re-tweeted.

5.  Measure influence.  The whole point of twitter is to increase your influence.  I mean, be honest.  It’s to network, right?  If you post a message, how many people actually read it?  When Guy Kawasaki posts a link on twitter, he damn near melts down the servers.  If you’ve got a blog and you’ve got Google analytics set up (or something else), link to your blog via twitter and see how much traffic you’re driving.  If you have over 20,000 followers and you get 3 clicks from your link, guess what, nobody is listening.

Oh, and I almost forgot…..you can follow me on twitter at: http://twitter.com/kevin_thompson

Cheers!

With AA, I tried to create features that were relevant for law students that enabled them to collaborate with law students across the country (or globe). In order to students to network on a regular basis, there had to be a compelling reason to return to the site.  Got a question about a case? Find the case and start a discussion thread. There’s ZERO marketing budget so it depends on positive statements from the users. As a relevant service, the network effect kicks in, meaning more users, more value, leading to more users, etc. Positive stories help.

It’s refreshing to see so many bright law students leveraging social media to create their personal brands. You can never start too early! Without a doubt, the universities will eventually get on a board and the entire system of legal education will be changed DRAMATICALLY. With AA, students can now discuss cases, form groups, leave feedback about summer jobs, share outlines, etc. Soon, it’ll a place where interested lawyers and recruiters can find the best and brightest. And it’ll always be free for students.

Lawyers are like the IRS…we’re slow, but not stupid. We’ve never been an industry of early adopters. It took a while for lawyers to grasp email, but, to the detriment of our marriages, we got there. It took a while for lawyers to jump on the blog bandwagon, but we got there. The slowness to change is probably due to the old guard that runs law firms. They’re the last one’s to change their habits to conform to new technologies. Guy Kawasaki says, “The higher up in an organization you go, the thinner the air.” It’s no different in law firms (when it comes to technology, not experience).

And now law students are getting it! They twit, blog, and write articles all over the net. In an article on Social Media Law Student, which is a very impressive site full of cool links and widgets, the author states,

But in all seriousness, it is exciting and refreshing to see a large bureaucracy [universities] willing to change a fundamental line [by allowing blogging and networking] they have been feeding students for the past few years.. . at least a few (albeit very few) institutions are sitting up and taking notice, and hopefully not too late to help America’s future lawyers.

The same author has the following as her tagline on her blog: “belief that legal services should be affordable, accessible, and online.” She also has a link to a virtual law office website, which is something I discussed in my Googley lawyer piece. Are you kidding me? Is there really a law student that’s smart enough to know the old model is broken? Yes! Now imagine five years from now when each student shares this belief. The next generation will be savvy enough to leverage technology. They’ll have a powerful network built up via law school. They’ll be able to work remotely, schedule their own hours, maybe even be happy with what they do. They’ll be a different kind of lawyer entering the market. Much more potent than myself and my peers. Can you see it? I can, and I’m trying to help.

Key points with the keynote below:

Gary is excited.

He talks about the importance of authenticity.  The days of controlling your brand’s environment are over.  People are no longer fooled by old showcases of power i.e. fancy car, clothes, etc.  The key metric: how are you serving your community?  Are you helping?  

LEGACY!  When people makes decisions with their legacies in mind, it creates clarity.  Wanting to leave a significant legacy is the highest form of motivation. If you want to be remembered as an honorable person that stood for virtue, remember that everything you do from now on is being captured on the internet.  When your great grandchild searches your name (probably with google:), they’ll find pictures, videos, blog comments, blog articles, references, employment history, and everything else about you.  It’s pretty sobering, don’t you think?  BUT, it’s a great thing because it puts every decision we make in its proper perspective.  It’s no longer a matter of what we can get away with, it’s a matter of how we want to be remembered.

Now watch this entire video and leave a COMMENT!  Passionate people should stick together.