While I was at the National Association of Minority and Women Owned Law Firms (NAMWOLF) Business meeting in Washington, D.C., I had the opportunity to meet with large-firm general counsel, communications directors and small firm members from across the country.

I really enjoy talking to lawyers in person about  social media, mostly because it gives me an opportunity to discuss the importance of on-line networking tools and how they can directly impact their business, face-to-face.

One attorney I spoke with said, “One of the reasons lawyers aren’t really going for social media like Facebook, is because it started with young people using it, kids really kind of playing with it.”  Unfortunately, she’s right.   Many legal professionals have antiquated ideas about how to generate business and technology has always been a challenge.

So,  they’re really suffering when it comes to understanding and developing new online tools for business development.  That makes the fast moving development of online communication all the more challenging for many in the industry.

During the NAMWOLF business meeting, the importance of staying in communication was an ongoing theme for the panelists.  We all know that for generations, lawyers have built their business through personal relationships.

It’s time to expand your “Comfort Zone” and learn new communications tools!

Facebook is the perfect tool to help lawyers have deeper conversations and relationships with acquaintances so they can become friends, and potential business contacts.

Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, JD Supra, Martindale.com and Avvo are fast becoming primary tools for generating new business for legal marketers going forward.

An article in the Lawyerist elaborates on the usage of Facebook and it’s intense growth among users between 35 and 55 years old.  The precise demographic legal marketers are targeting…

As of August 4, 2009, there were about 78 million users on Facebook, 40% of them over the age of 35. Facebook’s users in every demographic are increasing, not decreasing, with certain demographics like those over the age of 55 increasing by 514% from January through July 2009.

If you are not actively using social media in your marketing efforts, your firm’s business is missing out on some incredible opportunities.

Other articles you may be interested in:

Legal Marketers – Now is NOT the time to give up on Twitter

Legal Professionals Who Are Not Social Media Savvy Can Jeopardize Their Cases

Listening, monetization, and ethics are key for successful social media campaigns and your legal marketing reputation

Kara works with legal marketers to create a more clearly defined focus and distinctive business strategy that will provide them with a competitive advantage for new business, higher reputation recognition, and enhance their ability to attract, win, and retain the clients they really want.

You can reach her at 917-856-5410

The National Association of Minority and Women Owned Law Firms (NAMWOLF) 2010 March Business Meeting, was held on March 4 – 5, 2010, in Washington, DC at the Dupont Hotel.

This free conference for in-house counsel, featured the launch of an exciting new initiative, as well as sessions for in-house counsel and NAMWOLF law firm members.

Attendees participated in an informative session presented by Stephen Hanas, Senior Counsel, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation; an In-House Best Practices Session presented by Jason Brown, PepsiAmericas and Andrea Clark-Smith, American Airlines; annual meeting planning; and many networking opportunities.

Registrants of the meeting included:  Accenture, Time Warner Cable, PepsiAmericas, Prudential, American Airlines, FDIC, ALM Media, Choice Hotels, Ocwen Financial, Banco Popular, A. O. Smith, Amtrak and Sodexo.

I was first introduced to NAMWOLF last year, via a Direct Message Tweet I received from a graphic designer, whose sister was affiliated with them.  The organization is committed to providing opportunities for minority and women-owned law firms, so is indeed a privilege for me to support this year’s Business Meeting.

Karasma Media is also a member of NAMWOLF’s  Corporate and Public Entities Partnering Program.

Members of the program have a committed to set a goal of eventually expending a minimum of 5% of your outside counsel budget with certified minority and women-owned law firms.

Kara works with legal marketers to create a more clearly defined focus and distinctive business strategy that will provide them with a competitive advantage for new business, higher reputation recognition, and enhance their ability to attract, win, and retain the clients they really want.

You can reach her at 917-856-5410

I have been a verbal proponent of legal marketers cross branding your personal and business profiles on Facebook for more than a year.

Over the last two weeks, both my God-mother, Mildred Ricks, and her son, Franklin Delanore Kinder, passed away.

I know that many in the legal field are leery about sharing their personal lives via social media; and in the midst of being profoundly saddened by their passing, I wondered if including who Millie was for me would be appropriate here on this blog. I also now that you have a vibrant, busy life and are surrounded by many people you love dearly, without whom doing your chosen profession may not have been possible.

So, I’m choosing on the side of generosity.  It would be incredibly selfish and impersonal for me not share one of the most important people in my life with you.

“Millie” was hired by my mother to take care of me when I came home from nursery school, more than 40-years ago. She fast became best friends with my mom, and second mother to me, and over the years our families spend numerous dinners and vacations together. I can honestly say, I didn’t have a more diligent, loving supporter of my dreams and aspirations.  I already tearfully miss our late-night pep-talks…

Millie Ricks

Without Millie’s never ending compassion, strength and support, it’s very unlikely that I would have finished college, let alone have an advanced degree and my own business in New York City. Her generosity seemed endless, as my family’s experience of her was duplicated countless times with the multitude of children she cared for over the years. Her care-taking even extends to the off-spring of the kids she originally cared for and some of their children, so she deeply impacts more than 4-generations of a wide-spread extended family.

Randy, Ummuna, Azeb, Almaz and Randy III — much  love to you.

My advise to legal marketers…

Never cease doing what you love to do and sharing yourself generously. If you continue to follow your passion and stay aware of who you’re talking to, you’ll find the right words to say — not to worry.

Other articles you may be interested in reading:

4 JD Supra Applications For Your Law Firm’s Facebook Page and Accentuating Your Personal Brand

Keeping Creativity Flowing on Your Legal Marketing Blog

Are you a Legal Marketer looking for help with Facebook? Here’s A Free Guide!

Legal Marketers: You Can Create an eNewsletter from your Facebook Fan Page

Legal Professionals Who Are Not Social Media Savvy Can Jeopardize Their Cases — Legal marketers, what you don’t know is hurting you

Kara works with legal marketers to create a more clearly defined focus and distinctive business strategy that will provide them with a competitive advantage for new business, higher reputation recognition, and enhance their ability to attract, win, and retain the clients they really want.

You can reach her at 917-856-5410

I’ve been working at my “media” career for more than 25-years now.  That’s a surprise to a lot of people.  It could be because they think I make doing what I do look “easy”.  But, it’s more likely because they’ve never heard of me…

I was talking to my aunt about what it takes to stick to a venture and keep making it run, particularly when surrounded by folk who don’t quite “get” the internet or how entrepreneurship is a good idea.

Thanks to the writing of many, many successful folk, my belief that fortitude, stubbornness and lots of kindness are what it takes to become successful at anything, is constantly being reinforced. As I’m watching newcomers enter into the realm of legal marketing social media, I’m watching a multitude of them make a common mistake:

They show up

Invest a few hours on the networking being really aggressive with people an then shortly –

Disappear — Most likely disgusted because “it didn’t work.

Becoming “Famous”  really isn’t any different.  Web or no web – it still takes ten years to become a success.  The frustrating part is that you’ll see your tactics fail right away. The good news is that over time, you’ll get the satisfaction of watching those tactics succeed.

A lot of old thinkers want to see overnight success, mostly so they’ll have someone they can tear down later.  For those of us who are using social media to build our business and are doing it the way it’s designed to be done, it’s important to remember to listen to our real customers and to our inner vision to make what we’re doing last the long haul…
It may just take that…

Seth Godin is one of the start-up & go-get-em authors I referred earlier and it was his elaboration on these points that inspired this post.  There’s much value in reading the original …

The secret of the web (hint: it’s a virtue)

Other articles you may be interested in:

Keeping Creativity Flowing On Your Legal Marketing Blog

Does Social Media End Cold Calling as a New Business Tactic For Legal Marketers?

Seven Sites That Will Keep Legal Marketers On Their Toes and Up to Speed With Social Media Marketing Rules

Kara works with legal marketers to create a more clearly defined focus and distinctive business strategy that will provide them with a competitive advantage for new business, higher reputation recognition, and enhance their ability to attract, win, and retain the clients they really want.

You can reach her at 917-856-5410

Change is happening faster than EVER…

Five years ago, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook,  JD Supra and the iPhone didn’t exist. Today Facebook has 350 million members; Twitter -  30 million; and Hulu having surpassed Time Warner Cable, is the second largest “channel” in America.

We all know technology has profoundly impacted consumer behavior.  Smartphones brand loyalty is a prime example. Smartphones empower us to comparison shop on the basis of price at the point of sale.  Not to mention a shopping experience at any Apple Store is just a “Tech & Customer Care Heaven”…

As legal marketers, we are already witnessing how technology can  alter how potential clients  purchase our services and  give  third-party influencers are having effect.  Paid media’s “management” of our target audience’s purchasing cycle is have a transformational shift on our brands.

Ironically, while consumers and retailers are embracing these innovations, legal marketers are significantly  lagging behind the rapid technological evolution of our marketplace.

Considering that ten years ago consumers spent about 30 minutes online per day. Today, it’s four hours, according to Media Metrix, (twice as much time as they watch TV — and that time spent does not include e-mailing!)

In this decade, broadband expanded from 3% to two-thirds of American homes. Yet legal marketers barely adjusted their approach.

Change is always difficult, but legal marketers need to be  more aware of the new marketplace or run the risk of consumers disengaging themselves completely and rendering their marketing programs irrelevant.

The legal marketing narrative needs to be rebooted and the architecture of legal-brand building re-engineered.

Several important points to note:

• Legal CMOs must recognize that the speed and scope of change are so overwhelming that they need to dramatically revamp their marketing ecosystem.

• Transparency is the new black, making public relations and social media essential elements in a successful marketing strategy.

• CMOs must demand that all of their agencies, and not just the digital shop, be technologically savvy.

• “Traditional” agencies, and other disciplines play supporting roles, but if you spend 90% of your budget with traditional agencies, it makes integration all the more difficult.

In an interview I did with BlackEnterprise.com, I talked about the necessity of companies hiring people who are inclined toward technology and accept change as a given. That does not necessarily mean that those people are IT experts, but rather that they are curious, adapt easily and are inclined toward collaboration and social media.

As the landscape changes, the digital agency, the PR firm and especially the media agency should play an equal role in brand creation.
This time of change may mean that outside sources,  fluent in effective legal social media PR,  are necessary to achieve the best ROI.

Article referenced:  Why Brands Should Embrace Technological Change, Avi Dan,  Advertising Age, 1/11/2010.

Other articles you may be interested in:

Developing a Social Media Hiring Strategy: How To Use Networking Sites To Find Employee

How Social Media Impacts Advertising and Marketing for the Legal Industry

A Legal Marketing Revolution Is At Hand

Kara works with legal marketers to create a more clearly defined focus and distinctive business strategy that will provide them with a competitive advantage for new business, higher reputation recognition, and enhance their ability to attract, win, and retain the clients they really want.

Maisha Walker of Inc.com wrote a brilliant blog post on the Top 13 Ways to Drive Blog Readership.

Since you probably have a blog or are at least thinking about having one, you already know that your biggest challenges are creating content and generating readers. Maisha points out that there’s no magic wand to be waved in order to solve these issues and outlines some of my best techniques here.

I know better than to “recreate the wheel” when it’s being turned by one of the best in her field. Thank you Ms. Walker.

Other articles you may be interested in:

13 Must Have Blog Techniques & Tools

My Typical Morning Routine — Using Social Media Tools For New Business

Using Twitter to Keep and Grow Your Law Firm’s Client Base

How to Be the King (or Queen) of Social Media At Your Firm

Kara works with legal marketers to create a more clearly defined focus and distinctive business strategy that will provide them with a competitive advantage for new business, higher reputation recognition, and enhance their ability to attract, win, and retain the clients they really want.

Arianna Huffington, co-founder and editor-in-chief, The Huffington Post, and health care industry whistleblower Wendell Potter held a post-keynote press conference at the PRSA’s (Public Relations Society of America) 2009 International Conference

Arianna Huffington

Wendell Potter

They truly provided some “keys to the kingdom” for public relations professionals that I feel are exceedingly important for legal marketers working with social media to note and impart:

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST ON PRSA

• Too much breaking news that is not breaking news
• What is PR’s greatest potential that we’re missing
• PR has it’s own PR Problem that prohibits practioners
• Pros need to take the time to know your org and be willing to call your clients on unethical behavior.  “If your clients do do something that is unethical — Call Them On It!  Your reputation is all you’ve got and if you don’t protect it, then “that’s that”…
  
• Listen to your community and monitor your online conversation
• Keep track of your online messaging
• Comments on your blog  are necessary: Keep your commentary interactive with your audience with moderation, not to avoid criticism, but to keep the language “clean”
• Rather than building a wall around your content and  wanting to be the only source, monetization is key.  You want to monetize and have your content EVERYWHERE

Other articles you may be interested in:

My Typical Morning Routine – Using Social Media Tools For New Business

Twitter’s Just Getting Started For Legal Marketers

Seth Godin’s 7 Tips for Startups in a Down Market — Solo Practioners & Small Firms, You Don’t Want To Miss This

Protecting Your Legal Marketing Brand From Social Media Bad Buzz

Kara works with legal marketers to create a more clearly defined focus and distinctive business strategy that will provide them with a competitive advantage for new business, higher reputation recognition, and enhance their ability to attract, win, and retain the clients they really want

The Chief Executive of WPP, the world’s largest advertising holding company and now 4th largest research firm, (coming in behind only Thomson-Reuters, Bloomberg and Nielson), has taken a strong interest in the cost cutting by large marketers across the globe.

AdAge covered a recent Ad-Tech conference in New York, Martin Sorrell warned  about the long term results of today’s “draconian cuts”  in marketing budgets.

Some of Mr. Sorrell’s key points:

• After 33- years in business, he  has never known clients to be focused on cost as they are now.  Very few people are increasing revenues except for the Apples and  Googles of the world, the rest are lowering costs.
  
• Other companies, like accounting and consulting firms, invest in their brands at times like these.  You will come up on top as we come out of the recession if you invest.
• Most companies say they maintain their standards, but that cant be true because markets are down 23%

Personally, here’s my list of “marketing expense enhancements” over the last 2-months:

• I hired a terrific web technician to redesign my blog and re-gained focus on my marketing efforts — with social at the core of course!
• I bought in an MBA consultant to re-work my now 3-year old, antiquated business plan
• Continue to work with a business coach
• Re-established my memberships and involvement in The Legal Marketing Association, Public Relations Society of America, and  NY Women in Communications, the organizations that support my efforts
• Re-created the importance of healthy food and exercise for myself
• Enhanced my wardrobe
• Changed my hair-do

I look forward to hearing what you and your firms are up to.

Another article you may be interested in reading:

Seizing the Opportunity of Recession Downtime with Social Media

Kara works with legal marketers to create a more clearly defined focus and distinctive business strategy that will provide them with a competitive advantage for new business, higher reputation recognition, and enhance their ability to attract, win, and retain the clients they really want

Here’s a definition from Wikepedia:

Cold calling :   the process of approaching prospective customers or clients, typically via telephone, who were not expecting such an interaction. The word “cold” is used because the person receiving the call is not expecting a call or has not specifically asked to be contacted by a sales person.

I’m writing this post that specifically addresses the value of cold calls legal marketer’s new business in the wake of a conversation about Twitter’s lack of value to lawyers being generated on Martindale Hubbel’s Social Media for Lawyers site in the article, “The Light and Dark Side to Twitter”

Since a  multitude of legal marketing professionals are still struggling with the idea that what worked in the past should still work if I they do it “right”.  In this case, for them, the traditional methodology of cold calling is the way to go.  Needless to say, these calls aren’t working as well as they used to…  So in response to “Twitter Negativity”, in the legal marketing world, I say it’s time for social media (including Twitter) to replace the cold call.

Honestly, I’ve received dozens of calls from potential clients as a result of my posts on Twitter, and I don’t cold call — EVER.  Similarly, I’ve received quite a few calls from legal marketers I don’t know, attempting to sell me their services.  My background in public relations, marketing and film production, for the majority of my career, has been spent in the area of new business of one kind or another. I never had difficulty making cold calls.

You may even say I have a gift for it, i.e.: “A natural ability to be persistent without being a nuisance”.   Even so, cold calling in order to generate new business for legal marketers is not an efficient method.

Legal marketers, with every industry from car manufacturing’s Honda to network television producers moving to social, isn’t it time for you to stop wondering if it works, and bring on specialists who know how to maximize your ROI by using it effectively?

Many folk charged with the responsibility of new business for your firms are forced into a dependency upon cold calling as a new business tactic. It worked fairly well in the past, so there’s the expectation that it should work today.  Honestly, cold calling is only necessary if your firm or agency’s principal(s) refuse to differentiate the themselves from its competitors and create an appealing position for a specific target audience.

Cold calling is often necessary if your firm or agency doesn’t have a consistent new business program.

Tim Williams, founder of Ignition Consulting Group , and author of the book, Take a Stand for Your Brand: Building a Great Agency Brand from the Inside Out, tells it like it is in his recent article “The End of Cold Calling“:

“Ask any agency principal what he or she dislikes and avoids the most and the answer will almost always be the same: cold calling new business prospects. Not only is this the most dreaded activity among C-level agency executives, it’s also among the least effective.

Cold calling has always produced only modest results and today’s avoidance-enabling technology only makes it easier for prospects to hide from your phone calls and ignore your e-mails. I routinely hear from agency principals how traditional new business prospecting methods are becoming less and less effective.”

We are in an amazing paradigm shift in legal marketing and also in the way marketers acquire new business. Cold Calling has never been the best way to do it.   Cold calls generally only produce modest results from lots of effort, and are even less effective today with the growth of social media.

In my opinion, social media is equating to the death of cold calls for new business.

Other articles you may be interested in:

Twitter’s Just Getting Started For Legal Marketers

Seth Godin’s 7 Tips for Startups in a Down Market — Solo Practioners & Small Firms, You Don’t Want To Miss This

Protecting Your Legal Marketing Brand From Social Media  Bad Buzz

Kara works with legal marketers to create a more clearly defined focus and distinctive business strategy that will provide them with a competitive advantage for new business, higher reputation recognition, and enhance their ability to attract, win, and retain the clients they really want

Rex Gradeless on ABA Journal’s Launch of Legal Rebels Project With Social Media

Kara works with legal marketers to create a more clearly defined focus and distinctive business strategy that will provide them with a competitive advantage for new business, higher reputation recognition, and enhance their ability to attract, win, and retain the clients they really want

The rules governing how legal marketers disclose reimbursement for their online content are about to change.

Beginning on December 1, 2009, the new FTC rules on endorsements and testimonials in marketing will become effective, and all of us online content writers who review products and services are going to have to disclose the receipt of free merchandise or payment for the items we write about.

For legal marketers, it’s more important than ever to be connected to the online world, stay connected to the latest news and trends around your clients and the legislations that govern this platform.

For example, in a conversation I had with Rex Gradeless last night, he mentioned that law school students are blogging for the institutions they attend, under the guise of the institution’s marketing/communications departments.    If students are doing so due to “added incentives”, then the schools may be on shaky ground come 12/1.

The guidelines are an update of the F.T.C.’s 1980 guide concerning the use of endorsements and testimonials in advertising.  They will particularly affect many in the beauty and fashion blogging community, where freebies are rampant.

As leaders in the legal community, it’s more important now than ever before to b aware of  rules that reflect the commission’s concern about how advertisers are using bloggers and social networking sites to pitch their products.

The daily process I work with with legal marketers to engage,  enables them to keep track of news from multiple platforms that affect them.   Writing, tweeting, and newsletter distribution are all important elements of an effective social media campaign, and equally important is being cognizant of the regulations we’re beholden to .

You may also be interested in these articles:

New Rules: Endorsements & Testimonials in Marketing

FTC’s Proposed Plan Would Hold Bloggers Liable for False Brand Marketing Discourse

Copyright And Libel In the Twitterverse – A Question for Copyright Legal Pros

AP’s Quest to Outlaw Search Engine Links – What Will This Mean For Legal Marketers?

New F.T.C. Rules Has Bloggers and Twitterers Mulling

Kara works with legal marketers to create a more clearly defined focus and distinctive business strategy that will provide them with a competitive advantage for new business, higher reputation recognition, and enhance their ability to attract, win, and retain the clients they really want.