“Customer Service” as we know it is increasingly being linked directly to marketing and vice versa. Participation is much more accessible, trackable and immediate due to Web 2.0 technologies. In this brave new world, how should the legal firm stretch it’s expectations of their marketing and efforts?

The power of online publishing has created exponential challenges in Legal Firm relationship management. Firms must now contend with thousands of additional voices, and so does their their public relations agency . The distinct lack of editorial “professionalism” in the blogosphere has ironically forced PR agencies to increase the genuine professionalism of their outreach.

“E-mail blasts” are on the way out. Consumers are ever more resistant to marketing messages that use the old “one-to-many” approach but are often enthused about marketing programs that are useful, empowering and inclusive.

A quality PR agency must always be able to “get ink” in media outlets that make sense for our clients. And like it or not, “blogger relations” is fast becoming a necessary area of mastery at even the most run-of-the-mill agency. The Public Relations Society of America held a panel discussion with “Meet the Mommie Bloggers”, just last week!

But there’s much more to be achieved than quality print placements. It’s not just about ink anymore. There are many other ways a social media conscious agency can show value and stretch the industry’s standard goals.

Here are some examples of some SHIFT MEDIA’s social media PR campaigns.

• For a Big Pharma client, the are working directly with Facebook Groups devoted to specific disease areas, alerting FB Admins to guide their members to non-branded informational websites.

• For a Rock group, they reviewed some never-before-released video footage of a major rock music icon to a select group of Facebook Fan Groups, that generated a huge grassroots interest in an upcoming DVD release.

• For another Big Pharma client, they created a YouTube channel, in which video content produced on specific disease areas is shared with the larger community.

Todd Deffren spent the long weekend wondering if his company SHIFT PR: “Does this type of work make us a “different” type of agency, and if this type of work means SHIFT in no longer “just a PR agency ?”:

I say, on the contrary. SHIFT is creating a new precedent for public relations agencies and legal firms to catch up to. Not only are some agencies not doing the type of work he does, many public relations reps are just starting to get their technological feet wet, let alone be Social Media specialists.

As I said before, Social Media is public relations, so Mr. Deffren, thank you for paving the road, keeping the stakes high and continuing to share how you make your strides.

Tags: Kara Smith, Karasma Media, Legal Marketing Tactics, Legal Marketing Trends, Public Relations, Social Media