The Legal Intelligencer Blog

Measuring a Lawyer's Use of Social Media Marketing

By Gina F. Rubel
Special to the Legal

On the legal marketing and public relations side of social media, the industry is abuzz with trying to determine how to measure the value of engagement. There are a ridiculous number of articles, blogs, conversations and metrics surfacing -- all trying to tell us how to measure the return on investment (ROI) as it relates to an attorney's time spent online networking.

So let's do the math. Attorney A works in the area of business transactions. She writes a blog called BizLawTrends (a fictitious and available URL at the time I drafted this post). The marketing department helps her market the blog. The blog is cross-linked to the firm website and vice versa.

Attorney A blogs about the legal issues facing businesses today. She then shares those posts on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, JD Supra,  Google Reader, etc. There are links added in the firm's electronic newsletter sending traffic to the firm’s blog.

Attorney A receives comments and queries to which she responds. Journalists call for interviews because she appears to be a subject matter expert. Eventually, all this lands two new clients who, when asked how they heard about Attorney A state that they read her blog but have no idea how they got there.

Now, in the first year of the engagements, those two clients are worth $80,000 in billable hours to the firm collectively. How does one go back and measure the ROI? What are all of the touch points and how much time and money was invested to land those two clients? Suffice it to say that we don’t know exactly how they heard about the blog to begin with. Sometimes this can be discerned, sometimes it cannot.

In this scenario, the ROI is virtually impossible to measure, but Attorney A landed two new clients worth substantial revenue in the first year. Those clients then become referral sources because they are so satisfied with the legal services provided. More new clients come in the door. Are you still trying to measure the ROI?

Think of it this way: every time you attend a networking function, do you track every minute of time spent, along with the cost to attend? To some extent you should -- but the question is, do you? Then do you compare that to every person you spoke with and everything that happened as a result of every single conversation? If you answer yes to these questions, you are absolutely in the minority. Again, I'm not saying lawyers shouldn’t track. I'm saying that many don't and many won't.

Ask the following questions. As a result of our social media efforts:
- Are we getting more hits to our website (i.e. where is the traffic coming from)?
- Does our website rank higher (this can be measured)?
- Are the lawyers in our firm being invited to speak at more events?
- Are our lawyers being asked to share their opinions with the media?
- Are others sharing our content via social media (re-Tweeting, sharing, commenting, etc.)?
- Have new relationships formed?
- Do our attorneys’ names come up when typed into a search engine query in places other than our website (I truly hope they come up on your website -- if not, you have even more work to do)?

If your answer to any of these questions is yes, then your firm's time is well spent in social media engagement.

Gina F. Rubel is the owner of Furia Rubel Communications Inc., a public elations nd marketing agency with a niche in legal communications. A former Philadelphia trial attorney and public relations expert, Rubel is the author of "Everyday Public Relations for Lawyers." Rubel and her agency have won numerous awards for legal communications, public relations, media relations, strategic planning, corporate philanthropy and leadership. She maintains a blog at www.ThePRLawyer.com and is a regular contributor to The Legal Intelligencer blog. You can find her on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/ginafuriarubel or follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ginarubel.  For more information, go to www.FuriaRubel.com.

Social Media For Lawyers: Location-Based Networking

By Gina F Rubel

So by now, if you have read my previous blog posts on this website, you know that I am a fan of strategic and systematic social media engagement for lawyers as long as it has integrity and boundaries. I have preached repeatedly about the need for social media policies. I have spoken again and again about the benefits of these tools. But that does not mean that all social networking tools should be used by law firms and lawyers, not to mention parties to litigation.

I am currently a naysayer of social location-based networks for lawyers (and their clients) like Foursquare , Yelp, Facebook Places  and Gowalla which are some of the latest tools in public relations and marketing. Yes, this is a generalized statement and as with the usual legal disclaimer, this does not apply to everyone in all situations.

Location-based networks are driven by GPS-enabled smartphones and applications that allow "geotagging.” Conrad Hall from Social Media Examiner, explains that "geotagging takes advantage of the GPS technology that is built into smartphones to build community at the street level instead of just at a global level."

I find it difficult to come up with measurable ways to utilize these tools ethically and effectively to build relationships online for lawyers. Rather, these tools appear to be better for bricks-and-mortar consumer businesses rather than for professional service providers such as lawyers, accountants and doctors. I would love to hear differing points of view. I can already hear my social networking colleagues within the Legal Marketing Association coming up with ammunition opposing my position.

Still, I have a hard time understanding why people would want to let others know where they are. Really, unless you are attending a networking event, bar association or industry conference or CLE, do you really want to “check-in” with the world and let them know where you are? And even then, do you want the rest of the world to know? It is one thing to Tweet about the great speakers at a business conference. It is another thing altogether to have the world know exactly where you are on the map every five minutes of the day.

I can see how geotagging will someday be useful to me as a parent, though. Our kids are “Millennials” and have been raised with technologies that we never envisioned. And as a parent, I already want to know where our children are at all times (because I am a Generation-Xer and that is what we do, according to the generational experts). But as a business woman, I really enjoy meeting with colleagues and clients at “undisclosed locations” off the beaten track so we can have meaningful conversations without distractions.

There is a lot to learn about geo-tagging technologies. I anticipate that we will be hearing more and more about them. So I leave you with more questions to ponder than actual answers:

 -What are the privacy risks of geotagging?

-Will geotagging start to show up in discovery?

-Will jury instructions be edited to include rules against geotagging?

-Will lawyers research the geo-tagging activities of parties to litigation?

-Will the rules of ethics ever address geotagging (or social media for that matter)?

Gina F. Rubel is the owner of Furia Rubel Communications, Inc., a public relations and marketing agency with a niche in legal communications. A former Philadelphia trial attorney and public relations expert, Gina is the author of Everyday Public Relations for Lawyers. Gina and her PR and marketing firm have won numerous awards for legal communications, public relations, media relations, strategic planning, corporate philanthropy and leadership. She maintains a blog at www.ThePRLawyer.com, is a regular contributor to The Legal Intelligencer Blog and blogs for The Huffington Post. You can find her on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/ginafuriarubel or follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ginarubel.  For more information, go to www.FuriaRubel.com.

Blog Buddies: GC and Outside Counsel Co-Author ACC Blog

By Jaime Bochet

Of the Legal Staff

According to an article posted today on Corporate Counsel magazine's website, a strange waltz is taking place on the Interwebs: a GC and his new outside counsel are blogging about their burgeoning relationship.

The Association of Corporate Counsel is "hosting" the blog, which they call "an in-motion case study that allows you to judge the promise and pitfalls of forming a new value-based client-firm relationship." The hope is that by observing this "case study," readers will learn what they need to do to improve their own connections with the other side, to everyone's benefit.

The article mentions some of the highlights of the blog, which is on it's 10th post since its inception in mid-June. The GC (ACC Value Challenge steering committee member Ken Grady of Wolverine World Wide Inc.) and the outside counsel (Lisa Damon of Seyfarth Shaw) hit it off well from the beginning, understanding that open communication about their common goals would be key to success. Their biggest challenges so far have been "the time commitment, the openness required and fee structure."

It's an interesting article, and just by scanning some of the blog posts they seem well-written, engaging and detailed. My questions for you, readers, is two-fold: Will you tune in, and if so, will the blog have its intended effect? Will you attempt to introduce certain aspects of this new relationship into your own offices? We're curious to hear what you think, so send me an e-mail or discuss in the comments below!

Social Media for Lawyers: Legal Updates on LinkedIn Expands JD Supra Reach

By Gina F. Rubel

A few weeks ago, the social networking site LinkedIn and legal content distributor JD Supra announced a new partnership that helps legal professionals to increase marketing exposure. The idea is that by posting and sharing their legal writings on JD Supra, the posts also get shared directly on the 70-million-member LinkedIn.

I wrote about LinkedIn and JD Supra  last year in my “Social Media for Lawyers” series on this very blog. I have recommended that lawyers use both platforms to increase their visibility online. That recommendation still stands. In fact, even more so.

LinkedIn is no longer just a professional profile-resume that does well in Google when people search your name. Although that is still a huge benefit, the days of the website being used only for human resources purposes are long gone. Daily, LinkedIn grows as a source of relevant business news and information from within your network and, increasingly, beyond your network. In fact, this new partnership received a good amount of positive coverage at time of launch – with Robert Ambrogi on his Lawsites blog , going so far as to call it a potential game changer for lawyers on LinkedIn.

But I want to focus on one particular aspect of the collaboration. This partnership is especially valuable for lawyers who are using written materials to showcase their professional skill and promote their services online.

A Targeted Audience of Professionals on LinkedIn

JD Supra has always allowed any lawyer or law firm to post and distribute their written work online: a great online vehicle for public relations. Covering many industries, information on JD Supra includes everything from analysis of the latest legislative developments, to guidance and legal commentary for business owners and consumers, to favorable court decisions, and marketing for lawyers (something I am quite passionate about). The core of the service is targeted delivery which is exactly why I think the partnership is such an exciting development.

According to Adrian Lurssen, vice president of strategic development at JD Supra, “We have real estate content for real estate professionals, employment law updates for anyone needing to stay informed about workplace legal issues, banking and finance content with its own audience – insurance, IP, tax law, the list goes on.” Lurssen added, “The partnership was a no-brainer.” They are now able to deliver content to subscribers/readers in the very fields their contributors are writing about.

The basis of the partnership is a new application called Legal Updates, (freely available to anyone in LinkedIn’s directory.

(Kudos to JD Supra for the exclusivity of this deal; there are only 16 applications on the LinkedIn platform.)

The application allows lawyers to include a portfolio of their content directly on their LinkedIn profile and to be found in the site’s first and only searchable, browsable collection of legal information — a new development. But what really sets Legal Updates apart is that anyone on LinkedIn who installs the application now receives a custom feed of legal information matched to their professional interests and needs.

“We provide legal content to a person based on the industry noted on their LinkedIn profile,” said Lurssen. “Insurance professionals get insurance work, financial services professionals get banking and finance work, etc. And beyond that, Legal Updates can be customized with any subjects the user wants.”

This is a significant offering for any lawyer who is looking for an audience of people in the industry (or industries) they serve. Legal Updates has been created not just as another “app” for lawyers looking to promote themselves online. It is has been created, and is being marketed, as something valuable to all professionals.

The offering is in line with what we hear from LinkedIn these days about the company’s role as a “dashboard for business intelligence” for everyone on the site. (For more on this subject, listen to veteran journalist Kara Swisher’s recent interview with LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner.)

Every document in Legal Updates includes the ability to add the lawyer who wrote or uploaded it to your own LinkedIn network, with the click of a link. What starts as a legal update continues as a new network connection, the beginning of a relationship.

But, with the arrival of Legal Updates as a means for lawyers to connect with people in the industries they serve, what’s more important are the segments such as insurance, real estate, tech  and  financial services. JD Supra appears to understand the value of targeted delivery. One month into launch, the job over the long haul will be to get professionals to install the application. The social network’s sheer size and exclusivity are bound to help.

Gina F. Rubel, Esq., is the owner of Furia Rubel Communications, Inc., apublic relations and marketing agency with a niche in legal communications. A former Philadelphia trial attorney and public relations expert, Rubel is the author of Everyday Public Relations for Lawyers . Rubel and her PR and marketing firm have won numerous awards for legal communications, public relations, media relations, strategic planning, corporate philanthropy and leadership. She maintains a blog at www.ThePRLawyer.com, is a regular contributor to The Legal Intelligencer Blog and blogs for The Huffington Post . You can find her on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/ginafuriarubel or follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ginarubel.  For more information, go to www.FuriaRubel.com .