Lawyers Should Pick up This Resource About Twitter

Social media is obviously huge and significant. Certainly a lot of people use social media very successfully for marketing. Using social media can be fun, which means it holds the potential to be a huge time sink. By now most family law practitioners have had a case involving damaging statements or inappropriate photos posted to Facebook. But many lawyers feel they are too busy to use social media for marketing and some feel that it is a bit unseemly for a legal professional.

Let me be clear that I am now reviewing a book that I have not read. But I know the subject matter and I know the author. I have long believed that Twitter is very important for lawyers, particularly solos and smaller firms. So I would encourage all of you to preorder Twitter in One Hour for Lawyers by Jared Correia. Jared is a very entertaining and knowledgeable writer.

The nice thing about Twitter is that if you skip a week (or two) posting tweets, it is not as obvious as when you do not post to your blog for a month and every visitor can scroll down and see that. For solos and small firms, Twitter is like a free public relations agency. You set up an account for your law firm. Solo lawyers will want to use their real name, if available. If it is not, maybe you can add Esq or Atty to your name. You then put your Twitter name with a hyperlink in your email signature block. Do a few inital tweets about your law practice or the subject areas of law that you primarly handle. Then e-mail all of your buddies telling them you are on Twitter with a link to your Twitter account. That's less than an hour of work. You may be surprised that people quickly start following you.

The next time you have an hour or so to invest, do a few searches for lawyers in your area and follow them on Twitter. Then do another tweet or two, pehaps linking to a really interesting online article or two about law. Follow lawyers in other states who tweet about your practice area and retweet (RT) them occasionally. Then (and this is the really important step) follow all of the media outlets in your area, along with their writers and broadcasters who have Twitter accounts. And you may be surprised that several follow you back. Today's journalists get many story ideas from Twitter.

Try to tweet every week. But don't worry about doing many tweets each week unless you come up with really good material. At least twice a month check the Direct messages and Connect areas to see if anyone you do not follow sent you a message. If someone posts about you, using your Twitter name, you should get an email notification.

You may get a call from a reporter sometime as a result of this, but the real payoff is when you publish a story in a publication for lawyers and can tweet out the link to the article in seconds. You should send out tweets when you teach CLE programs, when you are mentioned in the media in any way or when you publish an update to your law firm web page. My view is that you will probably want to keep your tweets mainly about you or the law, but others disagree. There are tools to help you manage and automate this. I'm sure Jared will inform you all about those in the book. When you have big news to share, do not worry that you only have 200 (or 50) followers. Many of them will RT interesting items.

OK, it won't be just an hour. It will be more like 3 or 4 hours to get started and an hour or half hour per month. But Twitter is free and having your own press release distribution service can be pretty amazing. Many tweet from their smart phones using the Twitter app. Do not "hard sell" your legal services. Twitter users really do not like that and may unfollow you or block you. But unlike many other ways of increasing your visibility online, this is something that a lawyer who is inexperienced in marketing can do effectively in a small amount of time each month.

The final point is do no harm. Do not post tweets when you are angry at someone and want to tweet back at them. Do not drink and tweet. :-)  Watch your language. I recently heard from someone who followed a lawyer on Twitter and the first several tweets from the lawyer all contained obscenities. She unfollowed him immediately. Have fun. Be light hearted--at least part of the time. Don't expect huge results, but pay attention when you get them.

So preorder this book right now. Don't wait for any "real" reviews. The book is inexpensive at $39.95 and you can get a 15% discount for preordering. (In addition, some state bar memberships provide an additional discount. The discount code for Oklahoma Bar members discount code is PAB9EOKB.)

Time management tips for social media

Your ABA, the American Bar Association's e-newsletter summarized an article that Catherine Sanders Reach and I co-authored for GPSolo magazine and titled it Time management tips for social media. I do like their heading a lot -- Technology Translators. If you are not aware of social media management tools, this should be worth your time. Our original GPSolo magazine article can be found here.

Marketing Story: The Patch

I often tell lawyers that it is a great idea to join organizations and be active in your community. These activities can help you build your reputation and build your law practice. But I also caution them that they should not join organizations for the purpose of marketing their law practice. If you are committed to a cause or activity, the time invested is fun and beneficial. If you are just in the group to sell yourself, it becomes obvious to everyone much sooner than you might think. Lawyers tend to be busy people. So if you are not really committed, it can be easier to let a project or deadline slide. The last thing you would want is to invest your time in an organization and then for people in that organization to tell others that you did not get your assignments done. Demonstrating competency and helping with a worthy project will bring benefits to you. It is better never to have participated than to leave a bad impression.

I was reminded of this principle as I read a recent blog post by Rick Horowitz titled The Patch. This is not a marketing concept that most readers will specifically follow. Rick is a motorcycle rider. He's not a member of a motorcycle club, but as you see from his post, he knows a lot about the culture of motorcycle clubs. He participates in charity "poker runs," and when others learn he is a criminal defense lawyer, he is sometimes asked for business cards. He details how he decided to create a patch that would promote his practice when he was riding with groups. Of interest to me was his lawyer's attention to detail as he determined his plan. (And some of the considerations were quite serious!)

The point of this post is not to convince you to buy that shiny new motorcycle you have been lusting for. The point is for you to think about what is meaningful to you. For Rick, it is motorcycles. For you, it may be water gardening. There may be a service opportunity out there that will let you work on something you enjoy and also allow a whole new group of people to learn who you are and how competent you are. Thanks to Rick for sharing his "Patch" story with the rest of us.

Don't worry if you don't understand social media. Many media pros do not have a clue either

Today's observation and rant is inspired by the Columbus Dispatch, a newspaper that quite literally changed a man's life and whose management then couldn't figure out how to leverage that accomplishment to its own advantage without looking petty. Have you heard about the homeless guy with the golden voice? Well, sure you have. Most everyone has by now: young people, old people, people without Internet connectivity, people who couldn't name the current Vice-President. It was an incredible feel-good story that saw a guy go from homelessness to appearing on most of the national news shows and signing lucrative voice-over recording contracts. I am one of many hoping that he makes best use of this opportunity.

And this all happened because a reporter from the Columbus Dispatch posted a short video of the man, Ted Williams, on YouTube that went viral. Millions of people watched it and the national media pounced. So after, this huge rush of attention, how did the Columbus Dispatch make use of its position in this hot media story? The Columbus Dispatch has issued a takedown order demanding YouTube remove the video, which it has apparently done.

I am not claiming to be an expert on social media. In fact I am generally wary of the term "social media expert." Too many times this applies to someone who lost a job and had lots of time to play around on Facebook and Twitter while collecting unemployment or someone who is convinced that old media rules can simply be applied to social media. Here's your tip for the day. Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and the rest didn't get where they are today because they were complicated and challenging to use. Give them a try. Sure there are nuances and right/wrong ways to use them. But if you have a question, before you write some expert a check for ten grand, call your aunt who posts to Facebook ten times a week and see what she has to say. (She's been dying to hear from her nephew, anyway.)

And here's my non-expert advice to the Columbus Dispatch. I wouldn't know of your paper's name and Ted Williams would still be panhandling if not for YouTube. Dance with the one that "brung ya." Instead of making the paper look like an old media company that just doesn't get it, leverage your fifteen minutes of fame. Reach out to advertisers with "we made a homeless guy world famous, what can we do for your business?" See if Ted Williams will take your phone calls and keep doing follow up stories about how your reporter has changed this guy's life. Link to the YouTube video. Don't try to monitize it or move it exclusively to your site or whatever silly plan you have in mind.

It's a good lesson to lawyers and their clients. Sometimes the legal remedy is not the best plan. There may be a back story, but so far today the Columbus Dispatch went from having a warm place in many hearts to looking a bit sillly.

One Firm's View of Client Expectations

I think one of the most important practices for lawyers is discussing client expectations and making sure that new clients have reasonable expectations. A client with unrealistic expectations is probably not going to end up as a happy client, no matter how good the results. Lawyers want to achieve good results and also produce satisfied clients who will return for more legal work in the future and perhaps refer other potential clients to the lawyer.

But one South Carolina law firm has decided to use its web site to make certain their potential clients have realistic expectations about the firm before they even schedule an appointment. Check out the Client Expectations (Realistic or Unrealistic) section of their web page. Some people may be put off by the blunt language with statements like "We do not work on the weekends and do not provide emergency numbers for the weekends" or "Do not think we are perfect.  We make mistakes."

But if you read the entire expectations page, there is a good deal of good general advice about family law. It seems like they have made a strategic decision to say "If you are going to a high maintenance client, you're probably not going to be happy with us and we're probably not going to be happy with you."  Read it and judge for yourself. But one thing is certain. They have achieved the distinction of not having the same content of every other law firm's web site.

Follow Me On Twitter @jimcalloway (and stop by LexTweet)

In preparing for an American Bar Association online webinar on social media, I stopped by LexTweet. LexTweet is a service of LexBlog that aggregates and ranks lawyers and others associated with the legal profession who use Twitter. I was impressed by how the number of lawyers who tweet and the number of their followers has exploded since the last time I visited. In particular, I was really impressed that TheJusticeDept holds the number one spot with sports figure or celebrity type of numbers at 341,974 followers. (I'm sure that will increase after this post. J )

There were 79 people listed with 10,000 or more followers. Now, not all of these were lawyers or had their followers based on the law. There were pundits, political activists and a Congressman included. But if you have a Twitter account, it might be interesting for you to go review the list on LexTweet and see if there are some there who you would like to be following.

As I noted I hadn't visited the site in a while and I have to publicly note that in the early days I used to have a decent ranking there, but my 772 followers on Twitter have me clear down on page 58 ranked at number 1372.  So, while I'm not usually overly competitive, I did decide to change this blog post headline. (Sorry, Kevin.) You can view my Twitter page at www.twitter.com/jimcalloway without even signing up for Twitter if you have never tried Twitter. Meanwhile, I'm aiming to move up to ranking number 1350 this month with a little help from my friends!

A New Year's Resolution: Do more speeches next year.

One of the easiest ways for lawyers to both do a public service and give their firm a little marketing boost is to give speeches to civic organizations and community groups. If you haven't done that in a while, think of how you can gain some exposure doing this during 2010. Contact someone you know who is a member of a group to ask who arranges for presentations at their meetings. You can talk about the legal system generally or a topic within your area of expertise. I note in our Oklahoma Bar Journal such diverse persentations as Edmond lawyer Courtney Davis Powell driving out to Elk City, Oklahoma to discuss wage garnishments with a group of human resources professionals and Tulsa attorney Leah Farish speaking to the United Nations' Special Politcal and De-Colonization Committe earlier this year at the United Nations. Not every speech will bring your new clients. But the mere fact that the attendees get to meet you and hear from you may make it likely they would feel comfortable calling on you if they need legal services in the future.

Online Reputation Management: First Rule is to Avoid Self-Inflicted Wounds

A lot of people are concerned about online reputation management. They are worried about things posted online about them or their families. Lawyers in particular worry that unhappy former clients will post untrue things about the lawyer online that are difficult or impossible to refute.

Our Rules of Professional Conduct say a lawyer may reveal information relating to representation of a client "to establish a claim or defense on behalf of the lawyer in a controversy between the lawyer and the client" or " to respond to allegations in any proceeding concerning the lawyer's representation of the client." ORPC 1.6(b)(5)

OK, who thinks that applies because you didn't like something a former client said on Twitter or Facebook? Yeah. Me neither. Well, maybe if it libels the lawyer. But proving the fact of libel as a defense to an ethics complaint is not a road most of us would choose to travel.

So to me, the key to online reputation management is to put lots of positive information about you online and to tell your story. Just overwhelm any critics.

As we have seen with many well-documented Facebook and Twitter stories, the biggest potential danger area for damage to your online reputation is you. We saw it happen with flame e-mailing when angry and now you can post your anger or missteps online for the entire world to see with social networking.

Today's example is from a lawyer who uses Twitter. This lawyer is one of those who tweets many times a day and certainly has more followers than I do. I'm not going to identify that lawyer because I do understand if you do that many tweets a day not all will be award-winners.

But here's what he posted on Twitter as a "rule," not just an offhand remark: "If your lawyer's email address ends in hotmail.com, gmail.com or yahoo.com (or aol.com), find a new lawyer." Now don't bother searching. His identity is not the point. And the rule was apparently reprinted from a national publication.

But that jewel coming from a lawyer insulted a lot of people and made a lot of them angry. He's already had one blogger today react negatively. When I read those words, even now hours later, my reaction is "You judgmental self-important jerk. How dare you tell people to fire their lawyers because of the e-mail service they use?" I recognized this person's name as a lawyer whose Twitter posts I had read before. I had a neutral, leaning positive opinion of him. But now for a long time, this is what I will think of when I see his name.

The ironic thing is I don't disagree with his general thinking. Lawyers in private practice representing clients should use an e-mail address that includes the law firm domain name in most cases. But failure to do so is not a firing offense. So the point gets obscured by the message. A few minutes ago a very, very techno-savvy sent several of us an e-mail using his Gmail account because of temporary problems with his primary e-mail account. (That's OK, Erik. None of us can fire you.) One of the most techno-savvy lawyers I know uses a Yahoo address and has for well over a decade. Right, Dan?

In fact, every techno-savvy lawyer I know has a GMail account!

Still somewhere, some person will search Twitter for "find a new lawyer" and learn that someone thinks they should fire their lawyer because of his or her e-mail address. If they are searching for that, they obviously aren't happy and maybe that will be the tipping point to fire their lawyer. Maybe they will even file a bar complaint.

So why am i going on about this? Because it is an unneeded, serious self-inflicted wound. It would be one thing entirely if this person sold e-mail services or was writing a paper on e-mail services. I have heard lawyers make the case that Gmail should not be used for confidential client e-mails because of Google's Terms of Service. That's a defensible opinion. But even the most jealous advocate of that theory knows it wouldn't be smart to insult the audience.

We've all been there. I have one rather infamous e-mail in my past I'd still like to have back. If you tweet multiple times per day, you are going to hit a few foul balls. I'll probably anger some people with this post. But, I think I am trying to make a point, which is let's all be careful out there on the Internet, OK?

By the way, three people subscribed to my blog e-mail alert service today. One used Hotmail and one used Gmail.

Site of the Week: Larry Bodine LawMarketing Blog

Larry Bodine is well-known in the legal marketing field. His blog is a great source of marketing information. Just scroll down and see his posts on the Yellow Pages, Twitter, controversial Internet marketing and a guest post on marketing a small firm on a shoestring budget. If you have never visited the blog before, check out the past posts in the archives section. Marketing is an activity that must continue on a regular, consistent basis. It is always good to pick up pointers. So check out the Larry Bodine LawMarketing Blog, this week's Website of the Week.

10 Ways to Make Your Business Card Your Calling Card

Jared Correia of the Massachusetts Law Office Management Assistance Program brings us Carded!: 10 Ways to Make Your Business Card Your Calling Card  Jared has some interesting and cutting-edge ideas that will certainly make you think. And why don't lawyers typically have their pictures on their business cards anyway? Tradition?

Well, way back in 2001, I wrote an piece called The Lawyer’s Business Card. I was reminded of it because Jared mentioned the back of the business card and for that article, a Tulsa lawyer shared with me an interesting idea about the back of his business cards.