Legal Marketing & PR

Social media

By Edward Poll, J.D., M.B.A., CMC

LMA LA presented a program today on social networking. It was well attended and the speakers were all outstanding. Those in attendance, like me I'm sure, felt like someone had just turned on the firehose and spewed forth a whole lot of knowledge. Now our trick is to implement the ideas expressed.

What does "social media" mean? How does it differ from "social networking"?  I'm not sure I understand the difference, but Sally Falkow, president and senior strategist of Expansioin InternetmarketingPR, had as broad a definition as any. If I am paraphrasing her correctly, it's using the internet to communicate with clients and prospective clients. It's not relevant which technique or application you use, just that you use the internet. I like this broad definition. It goes along with my definition of "marketing." Marketing is every technique you use to communicate your ideas to another. Looked at it from this perspective, lawyers even market in their presentations before a judge and a jury, though I know few would agree with me.

Jonathan L. Handel, an attorney with Troy Gould, told how he used social networking to expand his base, starting from just 14 months ago. There is just too much to say about Jonathan in this short space. So, I will suggest, instead, that you go to Google and search on his name. You will be surprised at how many times his name will appear. Suffice to say, Jonathan is a regular contributor to many of the major newspapers in the nation as well as blog sites pertinent to his field. Congratulations must be given to Jonathan.

Kevin O'Keefe of LexBlog was the moderator who, as usual, did an outstanding job of explaining the technology and asking the right questions of the panelists. Kevin has taken his business from the beginning stages of entrepreneurship to a spiked growth rate. I've know Kevin since the time he was practicing law in Wisconsin. In fact, he was one of the first subcribers to our audio series, Law Practice Management Review: The Audio Magazine for Busy Attorneys. That series has now morphed into our podcasting that can be heard both here and at our web site.

An outstanding program and its coordinator, Cheryl Bame, is to be congratulated. "This baby has legs" and just may go on the road to other LMA chapters.

This topic is now so exciting that LawBiz will be hosting David Nour, an expert in the field who just had his new book, Relationship Economics, published by John Wiley & Sons.  Go to our site and sign up for your FREE registration!

www.lawbiz.com

Full post as published by Law Biz Blog on October 21, 2008 (boomark / email).