Social Media is All About Being Social

Thom Singer delivered this post yesterday; "Is Social Media Really Social?" He offers great thoughts about how social sites are becoming entertainment outlets and we are starting to sit back, not participating, as we wait to be entertained.

It is true we are entertained and instead of turning on TV many of us are turning on our computers (and smart phones) to veg-out -- but we still NEED to talk and that is evolving too.

I am someone who wants to be a part of a conversation. In my personal social media journey I have migrated from viewing the entertainment to scrolling to the comments segment of a page. On Amazon I pay more attention to reader reviews, on Digg I read the commenter blather, on Twitter I follow thought-posters and un-follow product pushers and on FourSquare I read the visitor log to discover more about where I am currently standing. As soon as any favored social site jumps the shark and becomes a corporate shill I am out the there.

Some of the social sites that started this revolution have become more entertainment than social -- it is bound to happen... but Thom is right about this; Keep being social! It is the conversation that matters.

MC Joins Allen Matkins to Lead Business Development Initiatives

I am happy to report I am now heading up business and client development for Allen Matkins Leck Gamble Mallory & Natsis LLP, a full service business law firm based in Los Angeles, CA (#157 on AmLaw 200).

The choice to return to an in-house position was actually easier than I thought. My good friend Jennifer Skiver called me several weeks back to ask if I knew of anyone that could step up to fill a new position at her firm. They were looking for help where the rubber meets the road -- business and client development. While I have been mostly content as an agency owner these last many months I have to confess I missed the challenge and opportunity that comes from being on the "inside". So I said, "How about me?"

Fast-forward a few weeks and here I am, the new (excited and energized) guy at Allen Matkins. I am certain this experience will produce lots of new thoughts to share here at MC blog.

I am totally charged and cannot wait for what happens next!

In the spirit of full disclosure I have added a disclaimer in the footer of MarketingCatalyst to clarify that this blog is an independent effort focused on my knowledge and opinion about the marketing of law firms and professional services. My employer, Allen Matkins Leck Gamble Mallory & Natsis LLP, does not contribute to the posts on this site.

Lawyers Should Blog for Their Clients, Not Themselves

Would your potential clients want to read your blog?

I had a great conversation with Damian Nassiri of Howard | Nassiri this evening on the topic of promoting his firm through blogging. Damian is an earnest young lawyer with a great plaintiff practice built on good results from hard work... and he's about to launch a blog for his firm.

He's been encouraged to publish articles about developments in legal precident surrounding his area of expertise... which I guess is pretty good if he was trying attract other attorneys as clients.

But his clients are consumers... plaintiff side work. I am certain his advisors are really smart people, but if I was writing to attract new clients for a plaintiff audience I feel certain I would not be writing legalese articles.

Instead I encouraged Damian to post articles that would be attractive to his clients.

Here is what I advised: "When your potential clients use the internet to search for answers, what are the questions they might enter into a search engine box?" And, "Do your blog posts answer their questions?"

I encourage you to do this -- if you publish a blog ask your current clients to review your articles and answer this question, "Would this blog have helped you choose us as your law firm?"

If you actually pose this question to your clients I would love to hear your feedback!

The Long Arm of the Published Word

In a joyful moment I received an email from a fellow legal marketer plying her trade in Florida. One line from her email was especially rewarding, "I appreciate your posts and ideas and share them w/my group of 60 attorneys in Southwest Florida. It has finally motivated some to start moving out of the "old school" way of thinking."

OK, as a blogger slogging away it is exactly this kind of feedback that will keep me at my keyboard -- and it is exactly this kind of comment that should motivate lawyers and marketers to get their footprint on the internet, RIGHT NOW!

Kevin O'Keefe has long been the evangelist of note for lawyer blogging, just one among so many that will instruct lawyers to get their words on the Internet. This series of posts on Kevin's blog should be a rally cry to anyone near or on the fence.

The random email I received with such a wonderful comment is testimony that being on the Internet is a valuable marketing tactic.

So, what are you going to do? It's your move.

Say Hello to Marketing Catalyst, LLC

After looking at several CMO offers at new firms I realize that my reluctance to accept is not based on the nature of the offers, but the lack of personal potential.

I have been blessed with a great run of success leading professional services firms to new thinking in how they approach their markets. At every firm I felt grateful and empowered by individual partners who sought my guidance, agreed to learn and helped my programs work to their own success.

I have determined that I want more of the best of what I accomplished, and the best way to realize it is to launch a business where the success of individuals (lawyers and accounts) is my primary focus.

Say hello to Marketing Catalyst, LLC.

Over the next several weeks, or months, I will be writing about putting my business together. I imagine it will include all the marketing stuff that goes on plus the adventure of recruiting additional professionals to join me and issues faced by clients that will always remain anonymous.

My first pitch: If you are (or know of) a law or accounting firm partner that is challenged to move their practice forward and lacks the professional network or skills to create one -- send me an email. I am ready to help them create their own success.

Marketing Catalyst Named a Top Blog on Law Firm Marketing

Legal Marketing Reader named Marketing Catalyst among eight selected as one of the "best of the best" that they are tracking on their headline gathering website (a one-stop resource for seeing the latest news and information on law firm marketing). Thank you!

A Double Anniversary

Today marks two anniversaries for me. Anniversary One -- I have been the CMO at Rutan & Tucker for two years. Considering that the expected lifespan of the first CMO for law firm is 18 months I am pleased to report, I am still here!

Anniversary Two -- I've been blogging for eight years. WOW! Eight years! When I started in 1999 I was just whining out loud about the state of legal marketing -- I am glad the state of marketing for law firms has changed for the better, AND, that I've stopped whining.

The MC blog has been incredibly productive for me. I share ideas, people respond, and I hope, we all learn along the way.

Happy anniversaries to me!

Tips for Building a Professional Services Career

Thank you to the Maryland Association of CPAs for picking up my series on networking tips. Maybe better for me than the link is finding a blog stuffed full of ideas for building a professional services practice. Their "about me" statement states a ton about their refreshed style of thinking: "Stuffed shirts and bean-counters? Not Maryland's CPAs! The state's most trusted business advisers break the mold. Sure, they know how to crunch numbers -- but they know how to do a lot more, too. They're world travelers, authors, politicians, rock stars, tech gurus, innovators and business leaders -- and they've got some great stories to tell."

AND, in line with their purpose -- KUDOs for tracking the Second Life activities of CPA firms on CPA Island in the SL virtual world.

Marketing Catalyst Blog Featured in The Reporter

Today MC blog was featured in an article "A Blog of Their Own" published by The Recorder. Thank you to writer Pam Smith!

Creating Buzz: A Brief Sidetrip

I ran across a post by Julie Fleming-Brown (a professional and personal coach for lawyers) at her blog, Life at the Bar entitled, "How Can Your Practice Become Known?" Her key points are:

• Blog,
• create a unique experience for your clients,
  
• be active and visible in the community, and,
  
• be clear about what makes you different

Her thoughts behind each bullet are well worth reading. You will find the post here.

MC Blog Featured at Marketing Mix

The great thing about running StatCounter on the back-end of the MC blog is that I can see where readers are coming from. To my amazement this blog was recently one of the topics of discussion at the first Marketing Mentor Coffee Break hosted by the creative minds at The Marketing Mix, the creators of Marketing Mentor and the community that's sprung up around it.

I am always amazed that anyone stops by to read what I've written. This blog is simply a place for me to keep my head tuned and on track. I don't promote this site and yet people come to browse. Thank you to the "Mix Mistress" Colleen, and Marketing Mentor founders Ilise, Peleg. A I appreciate the compliment offered by attention.

Is it a Blawg or is it Just Electronic Collateral

I came across a new blawg (law firm blog) on a link from the navigation bar of the same firm. It had two posts -- both posts were simply statements about why someone would want to use this particular firm. That's not a blawg. That's advertising (at least in my opinion). I don't like the idea of feeling like a blog snob, but where is the line.

I remember using clothes pins to attach baseball cards to my bicycle so that, when riding the bike, the cards would slap on the spokes of the wheels and make this really cool sound -- like the exhaust of a hot rod. Riding that bike and hearing the sound of those cards I felt like I was straddling the coolest Harley in the world. But that didn't make it a Harley. And of course anyone seeing me riding my very loud bike didn't see a kid on a Harley. They saw a kid on a bike.

Blogs have been around long enough that people know what a real one looks like. They're about opinions, daily life, learning, teaching, exploring... They're a journal peeking into a person. Simply spewing sales stuff onto something you call a blog does not make it one. Worst of all, do the whole sales thing and people know it right off. They see the cards in the spokes. Get it?

If you are such a firm, and you read this tiny rant, send me an email. I am happy to explain how you might turn that around.

Slogging Through MC Blog Changes

After making converting other blogs over to the new Blogger Beta and testing things out I've made the leap with the Marketing Catalyst blog. Some things are better, and other things I still need to figure out.

The things that are better include cleaner and faster posting, greater big picture control over the placement of elements on the blog page, and best of all; CATEGORIES! With more than a few hundred posts to review and categorize it may take a bit, but I am jubilent about the change.

What needs figuring out is the new html/XML Google created for Blogger Beta. Placing images for page banners and controlling CSS elements has changed dramatically. Actually, so much so that the HTML view is like seeing a new language. So far not too many people have figured out how to tweak the code. Until that happens the MC blog will sport a generic banner and Blogger Nav bar.

On an entirely different note, someone hijacked one of my email addreesses a few weeks back evidenced by over 40,000 kickback emails waiting for me when I signed into my personal email program. Every night for a week I clicked the "send/receive" button before going to bed to download the latest batch of reject messages for deletion in the morning. My program was able to pull down about 3000-4000 headers a night. What a frustrating HASSLE!

I've been going through my web sites and changing email hotlinks to phonetic referrals (i.e. myname/at/domain/dot/com) as you can read in the my contact information on this page. Oh what fun....

OK, back to creating category links.

Working with Event Venders

This weekend I attended a non-working retreat for the attorneys at my firm. It was a fun weekend hanging out with all of the attorneys and significant others at a fine resort in San Diego. It was doubly fun because the marketing department didn't have to do any of the planning or setup. The partner who did put it together did an excellent job; very few snafu's with rooms, meals happened as planned, everyone had a good time. But, being an event and me the head of marketing I confess that I did do a little running around checking not so obvious details throughout the weekend. Here are some of things I checked on (as a reference list for things beyond the obvious):

Meal Spaces (ballrooms, patios, etc.)

• One hour before the meal I checked table arrangements. Is everything clean and complete? Is there enough moving space between and around tables? Do linens match and are centerpieces fresh.
  
• Is an initial supply of red wines uncorked and breathing?
• Are there adequate servers for the quantity of guests?
• Are their uniforms clean and correctly worn?
  
• Who will be the on-duty dining captain from hotel staff?
• What time will the bar close and will the servers start offering water to drinking guests?
• Do they have enough scullery platters out for guests to set down empty drink glasses and the like?
• What will the room lighting be? I ask someone to change the room lighting from setup bright to what it will be for the meal and entertainment.
  

Event Personnel (retained)

• What time would the band begin and end? When did they break and how long? What ambient music arrangements were in place between their sets?
• What are the photographers instructions? When the main "big" dinner started I stood with the photographer as guests walked in to identify key leaders. We also discussed what time the photographer would stop shooting (to avoid the taking of photos of people who may have diminishing control if they overindulge).

Miscellaneous to be Considered

• Do you have enough cash in-pocket to tip the venue staff, band, photographer, etc. Typically I will tip (for one evening) $50 per entertainer (if it is a local background band or D.J.), $50 to the photographer, and $10-$20 per server that worked the dinner (paid in lump sum to the dining captain).
• Is there adequate signage to direct guests to the correct ballroom or meal space?
• Have arrangements been made to return-ship any special items created for the event. This last weekend that item was specially commissioned champagne glasses. Not every glass left with a guest. The rest are being shipped back to the firm.
• Did you taste hors d'oeuvres before any guest? Did you sample wines to ensure they've not turned?
  

In this short post I am just pointing out a few of the lessor thought of details. Any event is hundreds of little things happening and thankfully, most hotels, having done thousands of events, know every detail backward and forward. At the hotel we were at the staff was impeccable! But no matter how good the hotel staff is, YOU have to be on your toes because if anything goes wrong.... Well, you know the rest.

The New New Blogger

OK... so I haven't pulled the trigger on switching to Blogger Beta. Kinda scary you know. The way it works is that once I say "yes", all of my blogs make the switch; not just one at a time. I'd love to put up a test site just to check before it all goes live. WoW! I feel like a partner facing a new marketing campaign unlike what I'm used to. Little lessons... never enough time to adjust.

MC Blog Switching to Blogger Beta

I can't help myself -- I am a sucker for new tech in any form and Google has pushed that button. The Marketing Catalyst blog is hosted by Blogger and they have been rolling out the newest version of Blogger, "Blogger Beta". Today I learned MC Blog is now eligible to make the switch. Among the many upgrades they've included "categories" as an option. YES!

From this side of the switchover I have no idea how the layout of MC Blog will change, or if it needs to change. But I am going to dive right in. See you on the other side....

Narrow Sight or Tunnel Vision?

I was talking with a new friend today and mentioned that I had an active blog running (well... semi-active according to my recent posting irregularity) and her response was, "I just heard about blogging not too long ago. What is that all about?" Her comments started an interesting conversation; mostly me blathering on and on about all of the wonderful business and personal reasons that a blog is different from a "web site". Now that I think about it I hope I didn't leave the impression that bloggers are a bunch of long-winded techno-geeks wearing blinders to the rest of the non-blog world. In truth she represents a good example of being too immersed within the cocoon of our own marketing bubbles.

Here I am with my firm four months post brand rollout and all of our marketing engines are running at full speed. Feedback from a large portion of our existing audience is tremendously positive and everything says "impact" in a big way. But no matter how big our noise there are plenty of savvy, connected, and important people that may not have a clue about what we are doing. And the reason they have not seen anything yet is simply because they have no reason to see yet.

Until something impacts my 'yet to see me' audience (or blogging has a direct effect or anticipated direct effect) I need to keep remembering that there IS an audience I'd like to reach that does not know me... Yet.

The Strongest Links

Tom Mighell lists a dozen "strongest links" in this month's Law Practice Today, including my own MC blog. Thank you Tom! The others are:

Amazing Firms, Amazing Practices
Associate Marketing Mentor
Creating Dominance
David Maister
Golden Practices
In Search of Perfect Client Service
Larry Bodine's Professional Services Marketing Blog
Leadership for Lawyers
Legal Marketing
Rainmaker Best Practices
What About Clients?

SEO and Marketing Catalyst

What I did right:

• I post almost every day (fresh content)
• I submitted my site to Google search (Jan '05)
• I run Technorati tags on some of my articles
• I ping "Ping-o-matic" every time I post an article

What I need to do better:
Not sure yet, but if I google on my name or legal marketing or professional services marketing I am still far down the list. Far above me are a great group of esteemed marketing colleagues. So there you go. My work is never done!

Ranting Does Not Teach

When I started the Catalyst blog in 2002 I figured this whole blogging thing was going to be a slam dunk. My task, as I saw it at the time, would be to visit law firm web sites, read legal news, and then write bitter diatribes about all of the bad marketing wandering about the industry.

For the most part, that never happened; and I’m glad. It’s way too easy to take pot-shots at the efforts of others and hide behind a veil of ‘expertise’. Do I think some things might be done better or differently? Yes. Am I always right? Yah, in my mind! But that don’t make me the bomb.

I worked for a really good coach and mentor at Brobeck, David Geyer. Now I’ve worked with a lot of wonderful people in my career, but David was a true teacher. When he arrived on the scene I was predisposed to not like him because I thought I was doing pretty good by myself. For a time I would talk with other marketers at the firm and point out all of the things that David was, “definitely doing wrong”. I was an instigator though consensus-building.

Through it all David remained steady and neutral. When I screwed up, instead of telling me all of the things I should’ve done differently, he only focused on what I did that was right, and then offered suggestions for how I could get it even more right. He was steady, mature, and a good marketer to learn from.

So what does that story have to do with blogging? Everything! What I’ve noticed in too many blogs is the sort of shaming and blaming that I had initially thought would be fun and instructive. Well, it’s not. It’s actually rather irritating to have so many people charging about finding ways to point their finger at everyone else. I’ve discovered that I don’t want to be a part of that. I’d like to more like David Geyer.

People and industries grow because there is learning going on. Learning never happens when the lessons we’re given only tell us what’s wrong. We learn because we’re shown new ways of seeing things.

This rant was born of a weekend reading news feeds full of criticism and finger-pointing. I hope that when my posts take on that aura, my readers will quickly put me back on course.