The Write Rainmaker

Make Friends With Social Media

I have worked for a lot of attorneys over the years and I have not seen one attorney in recent years who didn’t use their computer heavily. Sometimes, the computer takes over an attorney’s life.

I remember some years ago when Blackberries were the newest thing and a young attorney in my office dubbed his the “Crackberry.” He didn’t want to miss any messages from his supervising attorney because he wanted to make partner asap.

If you are old enough to have a child past the age of 12 you probably have heard yourself saying “No, you can’t sit at the dinner table with your phone next to your plate. Put it away.” (I have a 17 year old son, so I say this fairly often, unfortunately.)

My point is simply this: if you’re checking messages and emails and on the computer [iPad, iPhone. Etc.] all the time anyway, why can’t you post something on the firm Facebook page, or Tweet, or post on LinkedIn, every couple of days?

Let’s say you are in a small firm and your firm has a Facebook page. After you invite all your friends and your partners invite all their friends to “Like” the page, then what?

Learn to think in terms of Twitter and Facebook and what is going on in the firm and in the world outside. Read a couple of online newspapers every day. Be aware of what’s happening not just with your cases, but in the firm at large.

Look for articles that touch on what your firm does, and post links to the articles on the Facebook page and your Twitter feed.

For instance, if you do family law, post a link to a story about celebrity divorce.

Here are some more ideas: Somebody’s assistant had a baby? Post “Welcome to the world Barney Xavier Smith!” and a photo (with permission, of course).

New carpet in the conference room? Post a photo of it and a comment like “Love the new red carpet and it matches my eyes!”

Just won a big case? Post a brief synopsis and how much the jury awarded.

Make your Facebook page interesting and/or FUN. Yes, even if you do only wills and estates, it is possible to make your page fun.

Example: My dad was a trust banker who did estate planning. He would come home and tell us about his oddball customers all the time. One time, he had a customer who wouldn’t answer her phone, so he got concerned and went to her apartment, only to find she had been dead for several days. In summer. If he had had a Twitter account he could’ve tweeted “Good day to not eat anything else. I need to lose a few lbs. anyway.”

Another time, he had a man come into the bank and say his father had passed away and left a fortune but nobody could find it, or the will. Dad got in the car and drove up to the old shack where the man lived, way out in the country, and found the man’s money, in cash, under the mattress. Dad grew up in a tiny rural town and knew how country folks generally felt about bankers. If Facebook had existed in 1978 he could’ve posted an entry on Facebook like this:

Five Reasons My Bank is a Better Place to Store Money Than Your Mattress

1. Your mattress doesn’t pay interest.
2. There are no pretty tellers anywhere near your mattress.
3. In the bank, nobody will have to use a box cutter to get to your money.
4. No bedbugs in our bank vault, promise.
5. Your crazy uncle Jedediah can’t get to your money when it’s in our vault.

 

There is nothing wrong with using humor to attract attention. Attorneys aren’t generally known as being comedians, but think about it: you want your clients to like you and recommend you to their friends? Then lighten up.

True story: when I worked at my first paralegal job we had a partner who was in his 70’s. One day I was in the breakroom laughing, and he came in and said “This is a LAW FIRM. We don’t LAUGH here.” He was totally serious. Of course, all his clients were insurance companies. You get the picture.

Let’s say you are a real estate attorney. Go volunteer at Habitat for Humanity and actually build a house. Write about the experience. That’s worth a blog post, and a Facebook mention. Maybe even a few Tweets, i.e. “Just learned that a screwdriver is also a tool, not just a drink. Good to know. Didn’t bring any orange juice anyway.”

Charity events like that, or like a 5K Fun Run, are excellent ways to network. Wear a firm tee shirt to the event. Don’t have a firm tee shirt? Get one. Stick some business cards in your pocket.

Get an Instagram account and make photos of yourself at the charity events. Post those on Facebook and Twitter, too.

This is a link to Buzzfeed. There are a million interesting/funny/silly stories on there. Post links to Buzzfeed stories.

Are you a sole practitioner? Post a funny photo of yourself from your younger years. It will make you seem more human and approachable. [Just don't post that one of you passed out at a frat party...]

Still wary of Facebook and Twitter? Ask your teenager how to use those sites. Or borrow the neighbor’s teenager. They can show you everything practical you need to know in 10 minutes.

My point is simply this: there is no need to feel like Facebook and/or Twitter are the enemy. Get your name and your firm name on the internet as much as possible, and watch your rankings in the search engines go up.

...and just to make you feel better, here's my geeky self as a teenager - don'tcha LOVE the glasses?! I could never get my hair to do the 70's side flip either...

Attorney Popularity on the Worldwide Web

Years ago, when attorneys weren’t allowed to advertise, their main form of “client development” was socializing with potential clients, which included time on the golf course. Any associate who didn’t play golf had to learn, or be left behind by the “old boys club.”

Mini golf didn’t count. (That fact alone explains why I never went to law school.)

I know this because I’ve been working in law offices as a paralegal since 1985. I remember being puzzled by the fact that lawyers couldn’t advertise.

The world has changed a lot since I started work in a bad 80’s perm, wearing a dress with linebacker shoulder pads.

When I started as a paralegal I didn’t even have a computer on my desk.  In my last regular paralegal job [before becoming a full-time writer] I had a computer with two widescreen monitors and my own scanner.

The world has changed a bit in the last 28 years.

Whether your potential client is a small business owner or an individual, they are likely on the web, every day. They are Facebooking, and Tweeting, and Instagramming. They are all about LinkedIn and Pinterest.

You may leave work and avoid the computer like the plague the rest of the day, but your typical client probably doesn’t.

Your potential client gets t-boned on Peachtree Street, guess what they do?

They grab their iPhone or their iPad and they Google phrases like “Atlanta lawyer car accident” or “accident attorney.”

What if they need another type of attorney? They still turn to Google or Bing, if they don’t know any attorneys. They may type:

“I need a real estate lawyer in Cumming”

“bankruptcy help”

“Alpharetta divorce lawyer”

“Atlanta attorneys + CHEAP”

Now, who do you think it going to come up first in that type of search? Here’s a hint: if your law firm’s website went live three years ago and hasn’t been touched since, it won’t be your firm popping up first.

Marketing is something most lawyers do only grudgingly.  Let’s say you are a typical lawyer. You pose for a professional photo for the website, and write a brief bio that doesn’t mention anything interesting like the fact you have a bigger TV than anyone on your street, or you can make the best chili in Decatur, nope. It likely says you went to school and graduated 6^th in your class and you have represented blah blah and blah…

Your office manager sends the website guy your photo and bio, and you think whew, glad that’s done. Now I can get back to practicing law.

What most attorneys don’t realize, though, is the fact that they need to market not just their firms, but themselves. They need to be known in the cyber community.

The internet is constantly changing. New websites, new articles, new content is being added all the time, all day and all night.

The attorney who is going to come up first in that Google search? That will be the attorney who has taken the time to study ways to make sure they land at the top of the search heap.

There are lots of ways to make that happen.

Putting up a website and never adding new content is a huge mistake.  Ignoring SEO [search engine optimization] is worse.

SEO = Search Engine Optimization

SEO is critical to being found quickly on Google. Make sure whoever designed your website understands how to put in keywords – “car accident attorney” or “probate litigation specialists” or whatever – on page 1, and in the url, metadata, and page titles. Hire someone who really knows how to do that. Read the site before it goes live, though, and be sure the keywords don’t look awkward or stilted.

Your firm needs to be on Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, Twitter, and any listings of firms in your area.  Don’t know what to put on there?  How about this: Sit down and make a list of ten reasons why your firm is the best source of legal help for your clients. Tweet one reason every couple of days.

Do you read online legal publications? Why not comment on a story? Most commenters on blogs and websites are given the opportunity to put a url for their website.

What about your local newspaper, online? Most newspapers allow comments. Comment as an attorney and be sure to mention your firm. (I would avoid something too blatant like “Yeah, I saw this car on fire and thought WOW! That guy needs an attorney! Call me today at Dewey Cheatam and Howe.”)

Facebook is easy. For instance: you represent people injured in car accidents. Time Magazine runs a cover story on the newest safety equipment on cars and how it saves lives in an accident. Post a link to that story on your firm website, and say something about it.

The more your name is on the web, and the more the name of your firm is on the web, the better you will do in keyword searches.

Spending some time every week online, marketing, may not be as much fun as playing 9 holes and having a few beers afterwards. However, it can really pay off in the long run. Spend an hour online, Tweeting and Facebooking and commenting, then reward yourself with a round of golf.

Tweeting is Easy

There seems to be popular thought among small business owners and lawyers that figuring out what to say on Twitter is difficult. It's not.

You have to remember, it's a blip, a sound byte, an hors d'ouvre. You don't have to be Walt Whitman, or Stephen Covey. You don't have to write a coherent paragraph - that's for a more distinguished and formal space, Facebook...

Let's say you have a small business and you want to promote it on Twitter. First, go sign up for Twitter. It's easy. Then, Tweet.

Here are 5 suggestions:

1. Come in on Tuesday, when everything is 10% off!

2. Follow our business on Twitter and we will follow YOU!

3.  Read this story in the local paper and thought ____________.

4. It's Monday AGAIN?! They keep popping up so regularly. They are a real buzzkill.

5. I blogged! Check it out: [insert link]

Of course, not all of these would be appropriate for, say, a law firm.

Now, attorneys are notorious for being wary of social media. I know there are visions dancing in their heads of them being in court on malpractice charges: "Is it true that you posted a Tweet saying you were in deposition and actually you were at your kid's soccer game?! Hmm?!?"

I link every single blog I do to Twitter. That's worth a Tweet a day for me. Sometimes more than one.

You can also present facts and figures:

"Our firm won 100% of our cases that went to trial last month!" [you can omit the fact that none of your cases went to trial]

"Last year our average case settled for $498,ooo!"

"Our staff turnover rate is .06%!"

Or report the news around the office:

"We welcome a new associate onboard, Ernest Biller!"

"Birthday cake in the breakroom from Piece of Cake. Yum!"

Or go for humor:

"Hey, we not be on the sides of the bus, but we keep marketing budgets low and pass the savings on to YOU!"

"Check out the news story here [insert url] strippers sue for wage and hours issue!"

************************************************************************

Here are some actual Tweets I saw tonight:

"My soundtrack: ♫ "The Kiss" by The Cure" [my friend Scott]

"Working on a reboot of "The Crucible" starring Richie Incognito." [Dennis Miller]

If you ever wondered what it was like to live in Utah: http://dooce.com/2013/11/07/living-in-utah/ … http://fb.me/6l0ABJ9vh [Heather Armstrong a/k/a Dooce]

"True or False: Zombies can't see you if you don't move. My daughter and I are having a huge (and highly worthwhile) argument about this." [Ree Drummond a/k/a Pioneer Woman]

"Spent the day w/ koalas & now my eye is swollen. Can you get eye chlamydia? Or is it more likely a spider has laid eggs?" [The Bloggess]

Giant Burrito To Solve All Of Area Man’s Problems For 6 Precious Minutes http://onion.com/HBbzsp [The Onion]

// As you can see, my Twitter taste runs to comedy...

So go TWEET TODAY!

If you want to follow me on Twitter, I Tweet as Crabmama...

Using Social Media To Your Advantage

When most attorneys or other small business owners think of marketing, they don't even consider bloggers.They wonder if THEY need to write a blog. They don't stop to think about all their friends and neighbors who blog, get on Facebook or Twitter, or use other social media sites.

I've been in the blogging world since 2005. That world has expanded. Now the worlds of Twitter and Facebook and Pinterest are also huge. If you are a business owner and you're not thinking about promoting yourself with those outlets, you are missing out on potentially a huge chunk of the market.

Now, I would've said a year ago that nobody in my age group [40-60] used social media very much. That's not true, though.

According to Brafton, in late 2012 "Twitter saw a 79 percent increase in users aged 55 to 64."

Another source, Search Engine Watch, says Pew researchers found that social media site use is up over 70% in recent years, and that includes all age groups and ethnicities.

I work part-time for an attorney who does wills and estates, Kristy Seidenberg. I was able to blog about her because of our business association, but I could just as easily have blogged about her organizing parties at our neighborhood pool, and linked to her professional website. Here's what that might look like:

Kudos to Kristy Seidenberg for making last week's firepit cookout at the pool a truly fun event! She's great at making potato salad, AND she can draft an airtight will!

Yeah, I know it sounds goofy but hey, that mention might be seen by 976 people and two of them might start thinking about needing a will and call her. You never know.

Kristy was featured in a local magazine months ago and she is still getting calls from new clients who read the article.

So the bottom line here is, think about social media not just in terms of what YOU do with it, but what your neighbor does, or your Sunday School teacher, or your child's tennis coach. They may have Twitter feeds, Pinterest boards, Facebook pages, etc. and they might link to your site there. The more links to your site on different social media outlets, the more Google likes you.