Law Practice Management Section Council, Klevan & Klevan
LLP
In this world of Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, blogs and wikis,
there are quite a few places to turn when we want to know how to
use them. However, there is only one place to turn when you want to
understand how important these platforms are for companies and how
they respond to these various types of media.
Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff's Groundswell: Winning in a
World Transformed by Social Technologies, is much more than a
book introducing the concept of social media to its audience. It is
a thought-provoking tome on understanding that the "groundswell" -
defined as "a social trend in which people use technologies to get
the things they need from each other, rather than from traditional
institutions like corporations" - is an unstoppable force. One need
look no further than to search "United Breaks Guitars" on YouTube
to understand the authors' position. It is the groundswell that is
making organizations change not just the way they do business, but
their actual product, in response to what the people want.
While Li and Bernoff introduce us to the many ways in which the
groundswell is, in fact, an "unstoppable force," the book does not
provide specific ways in which corporations and organizations
interact with the groundswell. However, the book does provide a
guide on how to go about setting up a groundswell strategy. To this
end, they offer us the acronym POST:
- People: Are your customers interacting with social
technologies? Which ones? How do they use them?
- Objective: What does a company hope to accomplish with a
groundswell strategy?
- Strategy: How will those objectives be achieved?
- Technology: Which vendor or technology can help accomplish
these goals?
Although the book is replete with case studies involving major
corporations such as Dell, Mini and Sony, these strategies also
apply to attorneys, from the solo practitioner to the large law
firm. For example, using the POST techniques, how are you
interacting with your client? Have you gone to www.avvo.com to see
what others are saying about you? Have you set up a Google Alert
with your name so you are notified when you are referenced on the
World Wide Web? If you do plan to participate in social media, what
are your objectives? Do you wish to specifically market your
practice, or do you wish to educate? What is your strategy to do
this? Do you plan on answering comments if you blog? Do you wish to
have engaging communication electronically or do you wish for them
to contact you by phone? Lastly, what is your technological
platform to accomplish this? Do you wish to have a blog, which
requires both understanding and commitment, or will you use a
social network such as Twitter, LinkedIn or the like?
Interspersed with the sometimes-redundant case studies are
nuggets of vital information necessary for successfully
communicating with the groundswell. First, obviously, is to know
and understand your audience and what the groundswell means to
you.
The obvious place to start is search engines, such as Google and
Yahoo. It is also important to search the "secondary" engines, such
as Bing, to see what, if anything, is being said or printed about
you.
Second, set in motion a plan to listen to what your customers
are saying about you. Create a Survey Monkey survey for your
clients to complete after the conclusion of a matter. Have them
consider posting a rating of your services on Avvo. Your client may
have a blog and they may have posted something about your work on
it. Listening is the lowest risk/lowest participation aspect of
communication with the groundswell that can produce successful
results for you.
Talking with the groundswell comprises a lengthy chapter in the
book. Basically, there are four ways to accomplish this: 1) post a
video; 2) engage in social networking and user-generated content
sites; 3) join the blogosphere; and 4) create your own social
community. Before contemplating any of these choices, it is
important to review the POST guidelines.
Besides listening and talking to the groundswell, Li and Bernoff
also discuss how to energize your groundswell and continue to
support it, primarily through case studies and stories from
groundswell participants. It is here where the book gets bogged
down with study after study on corporate participation in social
media. However, using the techniques set forth in the book, and
understanding the POST principles, the techniques explained by the
authors can easily be incorporated into any attorney's legal
practice.
The groundswell is a phenomenon that is here to stay. The
traditional methods of seeking information about a product or a
service are waning. Groundswell, while not a "how to"
primer on using social media to communicate with your customer
base, provides a basic and important framework to start a dialogue,
either with your colleagues, staff - even with yourself - on
understanding social media to better communicate with existing and
potential clients, and successfully pursue your goals.