Friday, June 26, 2009

Thoughts on Twitter, Web 2.0, and legal marketing

By Tom McLain

Depending on who you listen to, a presence on Twitter is either an absolute must for businesses and law firms or it is a complete bust and waste of time. Twitter, along with other Web 2.0 and "social networking" tools, has been a big part of the buzz in among marketing experts for quite some time and businesses and law firms have been struggling to determine if it makes sense for them to jump in. Not long ago, I embraced Twitter wholeheartedly in an effort to understand if and how it might help me develop new clients. At least for now, I am backing off from my commitment to Twitter and, operating on the assumption that my experiences may be helpful to others, I decided to write this blog entry.

The importance and usefulness of Twitter as a method for marketing legal services is hotly contested as of this writing. In May, 2009, Larry Bodine, a respected law firm marketing expert, articulated the case against Twitter in his article, Twitter Not Effective for Law Firm Marketing, and concluded: "For business development purposes, it’s time to give Twitter the bird." Interestingly enough, just a few months earlier, in his January 2009 article Attorneys Flocking to Twitter for Marketing, Bodine predicted, "From where I’m sitting, 2009 will be the year Twitter becomes the major business development trend" and articulated the case for the use of Twitter. Not surprisingly, Bodine's sudden position reversal on Twitter had its immediate detractors and many quickly stood up to defend Twitter including, Peter H. Berge,Web education director of Minnesota CLE, who wrote Response to Larry Bodine on Twitter. A well reasoned point by point analysis of Bodine's article which agrees in part and disputes in part Bodine's conclusions can be found at Twitter for Law Firm Business Development and features comments from a number of people I know and respect like David A. Barrett and Stephen Fairley. Finally, Legal tweeters respond to recent barbs at Twitter, comments on the controversy and points out that Twitter has proven to be successful for certain lawyers, singling out solo practitioners as an example.

Before recounting my own Twitter experience, I must confess that I have my own serious reservations about Internet-based marketing of legal services which I suspect are not dissimilar from the reservations held by many others. The first reservation is best summarized as a general disbelief in the notion that anyone would actually make a decision to hire an attorney based on something found on the Internet. The second reservation is best summarized as a concern that anybody willing to hire an attorney based upon what they find on the Internet may not be the sort of client that I want to represent. While these reservations may have some merit, my suspicion is that my resistance to social networking as a business development tool is quite similar to the distrust that all of us who are old enough to remember had of the concept of having a webpage at all. In short, I think the day is probably coming when a lawyer who has no presence in social networking will be viewed as somehow irrelevant in much the same way as we currently feel about law firms with no webpage today. So it is simply a matter of choosing when and not if to climb on board. (Since I believe that Web 2.0 and social networking tools are here to stay, look for a future blog entry from me on policies that businesses should adopt).
Insofar as my own use of Twitter is concerned, I suspect that my experiences on Twitter could be viewed as many observers as a success, which may make my decision to pull back even odder. I opened my Twitter account on April 24, 2009 and have been fortunate enough to have attracted many of the sorts of followers that I hoped for (and, ironically, over half as many followers as Larry Bodine). More importantly, earlier this month, I was privileged to be the subject of a live interview on Twitter (known as a "twitterview") conducted by Lance Godard, a legal marketing expert with whom I have since had productive conversations. I have also been featured as a "poster child" in an blog entry called The Anatomy of a Twitter Tweet - Twitter Basics for Lawyers. Many of my tweets seem to have caught the eye of other members of the legal community and of people that could be viewed as prospective clients who have, in turn, republished my tweets (called a retweet) so that my tweets have been literally viewed by over 20,000 people.
So why is it that, after less than two months with apparent Twitter success, I have decided to back off on my commitment to Twitter. The answer is time. The beginning of the end for me can be traced to some of the questions that I answered in my twitterview. Those questions caused me to focus on my overall marketing plan and just how things like Twitter fit into it. Both sides of the debate over Twitter for lawyers recognize that it is vitally important to remain true to proven core marketing principles such as face-to-face meetings and other forms of personal interaction with people and that Twitter and other Web 2.0 tools are a poor substitute for "good, old-fashioned" client development. I do not think that I am alone in my belief that the marketing efforts should be focused on, in order, face-to-face interaction, maintaining a good website that is visible in Internet searches, maintaining a good blog that generates attention, and Web 2.0 tools. Of the Web 2.0 tools, my personal preference is LinkedIn, followed by Twitter. A fair assessment of my own marketing practices is that my priorities have been wrong and I was spending too much time on Twitter and not enough on higher ranking methods. In short, my balance was off or, in the words of Larry Bodine, I had allowed Twitter to become a "powerful distraction from getting real marketing work done." I simply need to create more time to focus on face-to-face marketing and blogging. In the words of my dear friend Chris Kimbel, sales director at Womble Carlyle, my marketing plan lacked proper balance and was skewed in an unhealthy degree in the direction of the least productive marketing methods.

So, while I work to achieve marketing balance, Twitter must necessarily take a backseat to the other best practices mentioned above. This does not mean that I consider Twitter to be a lost cause - particularly if three new matters show up on my doorstep from clients who say, "I found you on Twitter." My partner John Watkins will remain on Twitter and my law firm will maintain its twitter account. In fact, I suspect that some of the things I find important and my blog posts will wind up as tweets by John or my law firm.

In closing, I want to continue one of the wonderful Twitter traditions that occurs on Fridays. On Fridays, it is customary to provide the names of people on Twitter that you believe are worth following. In that spirit, I will provide my #FollowFriday list and include many of the lawyers, paralegals, legal marketing experts and other consultants whose tweets I have found to be interesting and/or helpful over the last two months. Everyone of them is worth a follow and none of them will disappoint.

http://twitter.com/TradeSecretLaw
http://twitter.com/fredabramson
http://twitter.com/lancegodard
http://twitter.com/taxgirl
http://twitter.com/nikiblack
http://twitter.com/barrettdavid
http://twitter.com/legalninjaKris
http://twitter.com/woodlandslawyer
http://twitter.com/gtiadvisors
http://twitter.com/constructionlaw
http://twitter.com/AdvertisingLaw
http://twitter.com/London_Law_Firm
http://twitter.com/nancymyrland
http://twitter.com/johnlwatkins
http://twitter.com/anthonymfreed
http://twitter.com/GrantGriffiths
http://twitter.com/JDTwitt
http://twitter.com/Bill_Warner
http://twitter.com/BlawgTweets
http://twitter.com/adriandayton
http://twitter.com/stephenfairley
http://twitter.com/Legal_Alerts
http://twitter.com/fpileggi
http://twitter.com/TrendTracker
http://twitter.com/22twts
http://twitter.com/joshuamking
http://twitter.com/downtownlawyer
http://twitter.com/AnnEvanston
http://twitter.com/AdLawGuy
http://twitter.com/dianelevin

9 comments:

  1. I am one of your followers, and I will miss your high-quality tweets. I totally understand your reasoning, and I hope it works out for you.

    For an alternative point of view, I would offer that Twitter (or any other Social Media marketing) has the potential for greater leverage than face-to-face meetings, and can be found long after the original tweet.

    Meaning, it can (and likely will) pay dividends when you least expect it.

    In any event, I wish you continued success in your practice, as well as with your current health challenges (which I am only aware of due to your tweeting!). :-)

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  2. Tom thank you for the Twitter shout out! And I think how Twitter combines with a marketing plan is critical not only to lawyers but all business people. A targeted, focused approach is key, and that can be hard! But Twitter allows for education based marketing on a whole new level for all businesses, including lawyers.

    I hope you will not completely leave the twitterverse!

    Ann Evanston
    The Warrior is Within You
    http://Warrior-Preneur.com

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  3. Tom, thanks for the FF. And thanks for the many interesting articles you tweeted links to. I would encourage you to keep using Twitter, but on a scaled-back basis. In moderation (and using tools like Tweetdeck) it can be useful w/o being a time-sink.

    As you may or may not know, I've spent most of my career as an in-house M&A lawyer or deal guy. Absent twitter, I would not know about Tom McClain, Atlanta M&A lawyer. I'm happy that Twitter made that connection possible.

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  4. Tom, thanks for including me in your list - I was stunned to find my name there at the end, and I feel honored to be included in such august company. Thanks also for a thoughtfully written post on Twitter's limitations and for sharing so candidly your decisions for pulling back.

    I will miss your high-quality posts on Twitter and also your collegiality and kindness - you were one of the first people to welcome me to Twitter. I wish you success and contentment in all your endeavors, Tom - you deserve the best that life and work can offer.

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  5. I have enjoyed looking forward to you Twitter posts Tom - perhaps you would re-consider a limited participation role...

    Thank you for including me in your FF list, I am honored.

    As Josh indicated, I would not know Tom McClain if it wan't for Twitter facilitating a new relationship; and I agree with Ann - "...Twitter allow for educatin based marketing on a whole new level for all businesses, including lawyers.

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  6. Tom

    I certainly agree with your post and my experience with Twitter appear to mirror yours. Like you, I was subject to a 22 Tweet interview. I have also spent an inordinate amount of time networking mostly with Twitter with little success. Networking on Twitter is expremely difficult.

    That being said, Twitter has had some utility for my practice. The most important aspect being learing and applying information disseminated from those whom I follow. From information gleaned from my Twitter feed, I have gained two new clients.

    Anyway, hope you still find the time to occassional tweet.

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  7. While I agree that Twitter can be extremely distracting and take up too much time, I have gained a great deal of value from my Twitter presence. I have met and formed relationships with other colleagues in areas that interest me: green construction and value billing. I have been referred to numerous articles on marketing, green construction, construction developments and value billing that have enhanced my knowledge and kept me up-to-date in my field.

    Have I gotten a client from Twitter? No. Do I also need to re-prioritize and cut back the time I spend? Yes.

    However, I will not abandon Twitter entirely, because the value is there. I also know that like all marketing, there is a long lead time between the efforts made and the ROI.

    My blogs have brought in numerous clients because they give readers the opportunity to get to know me and provides them with information that is valuable to them. When I first started writing a blog, I never expected to get a client from the internet. Now 40% of my clients come from the Net.

    So, I think we all have to wait and see what comes about with Twitter. It is certainly not a total waste of time.

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  8. While I understand where Tom is coming from, I also agree that I would not have met him or his firm, or many of the people that I now know, if it were not for Twitter. As for whether Twitter is helpful for business, I've been on since Jan or Feb of this year (have to check) and I have 3 clients off of there, sooo...it speaks for itself.

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  9. Prof Morton argues that lawyers have a duty to represent every client, even those who are unpleasant, as every person is entitled to justice. It is hard to find anything to say against that.

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    ReplyDelete