INSIGHTS

Who is your audience?

How can you help?

Hurricane Irma recently affected many who now seek relief and normalcy. Those severely affected by the storm are looking to immediately relocate and establish temporary offices to avoid gaps in productivity.

It is true that tragedy momentarily unites. It is also true that trauma leaves an indelible mark and sometimes creates a wedge that cannot be removed. What this really means is that challenges pave the way for you to provide service and value to others.

As soon as we learned Irma posed a threat to some of our clients, we followed up with a contingency plan and agreed on a strategy going forward. Interestingly, some wanted to take advantage of the tactics while others decided to forgo the exercise. It always baffles me when professionals pay for counsel that they are not quite ready to hear. However, I will leave that troublesome observation for another day.

The question is how does a brand fulfill its commitment to everyone? Again, the mandate is to provide personalized services while generating value. Under strenuous circumstances, will you be sensitive enough to explain to a client that you will be late for a call? Or go so far as to reschedule a meeting? Perhaps doing so seems selfish but I submit to you that it may be the only viable option.

We had several clients evacuate entire teams to ensure safety and continuity. We had colleagues battle Irma stoically and communicate post-tragedy, explaining the terrible disruption while promising to reopen and regain normalcy ASAP. We are all indeed trying to stay in the zone. While you do that, consider that clients are people and they respect professionals who honor commitments and safeguard values.

The right approach to dealing with a crisis is doing what works for you and yours. If you are not at your optimal capacity, clients will know it. You owe them your best. Sometimes being your best is saying “no.” When you communicate genuinely and succinctly you can ensure trust and consistency. Doing so will give you the foresight to spot opportunities. For example, I am seeing savvy CPA firms rapidly sharing posts about recovery rules, extensions and regulations so that businesses and individuals can carry on.

After all, isn’t that what it’s all about?

The last U.S. presidential election proves that social media has surpassed traditional media in impact and response. When the Russians sought to influence voting here, they went straight to Facebook and similar outlets to disseminate information. They didn’t take out any ads in The New York Times.

Lawyers, too, are realizing the value of social media. But, the audience lawyers are trying to reach –  the general counsels, other potential clients and thoughtful peers –  are still capable, unlike the general population that the Russians exploited, of separating real from fake news, like wheat from chaff. They have no problem ignoring the chaff in favor of well-cultivated wheat. More and more, these audiences expect to be fed a steady diet of the good stuff.

Lawyers as Publishers

Knowing this, some lawyers are entering the information superhighway with their blog posts, articles and videos. They’re providing some of the content that feeds social media. Remember, content isn’t self-generating, it has to come from somewhere. Shares of stories and opinion pieces by respected media like The Guardian and The Washington Post fill everybody’s newsfeeds. Without them and many other content-generators of all political stripes, the Internet would be an undisciplined babble of streamed consciousness.

Lawyers who write understand they’re not going to win Pulitzers. Still, they strive for at least contributing to the great, mythical unicorn story, as the one who stands out in a crowd of, uh, bulls.

Proven Methods of Attraction

They have good reason to keep practicing their prose skills. A recent survey, cited by Gina Passarella of The American Lawyer, shows that 91 percent of general counsels hire lawyers based on their articles, blogs and speeches. So, general counsel who used to comb through guidebooks for fresh outside talent, now look to LinkedIn. Instead of price lists and rankings in guidebooks, they now study lawyers’ professional profiles and writings on LinkedIn.

Interestingly, the same survey shows that only 7 percent of lawyers share content on LinkedIn. While approximately 70 percent use it, they don’t seem to appreciate that general counsels are reviewing their credentials and written content.

So, LinkedIn, and Twitter by similar accounts, have become effective tools to expand one’s audience, whether lawyers realize it or not. It stands to reason, then, that any marketing plan that leaves out attorney-bylined pieces is incomplete and likely to fail.

Rainstorm Effect

Information flows in many directions. Reporters for traditional media are reading social media to get tips, sources and data they can turn into stories. With everybody looking at everything, a lawyer could start out just writing a blog post and wind up featured in a respected journal. The firm appreciates the result, even more so when the lawyer seeds the cloud that brings a welcome shower of attention.

The opportunity is to go out there and brave the rough seas to expand your core practice area by presenting and writing articles, while seeking independent validation from reputable publications and industry guidebooks.

While you’re busy serving your clients and focusing on the nuts and bolts of practicing law, you may be paying too little attention to taking care of business.

As a result of the digital revolution and a myriad of other factors, your competitors are no longer other law firms, but business-minded service providers, corporate in-house legal departments–even robots.

The legal-services sector is falling behind the pace set by technology and the marketplace. Today’s clients demand legal services that are not only faster and cheaper than ever, but reflect intimate knowledge of the client’s business, Mark Cohen of Clearspire legal consultants recently noted in Forbes magazine. Cohen said these demands have contributed to the proliferation of in-house legal departments and the drop-off in work for outside counsel.

Given the evolution of the legal market, it stands to reason that lawyers and firms that stay flexible and adapt to changing trends will fare better financially than those that cling to brick-and-mortar, traditional approaches.

The better path is for law firms to strategize their own business development the way they develop courtroom strategies for their clients. By articulating a plan that includes a vision, a mission and core values, they can expose and illuminate their own blind spots.

For example, a law firm might call upon a business strategist to vet, draft and pitch a personalized marketing plan for the potential hire of a lateral partner. Partners are essential to a firm’s growth, but moving too fast or without sufficient reflection and discipline can be disastrous. Also, the new partner must be carefully integrated into the firm’s culture. The strategist can work confidentially and closely with the firm’s existing partners and the potential hire to clarify a unique purpose, defining the values and behaviors that are required to establish the true benefits of a partnership.

Fortunately, the need for lawyers remains strong and is growing for many practices. But only those who pay close attention to their clients’ needs and seek the help of dedicated strategists will thrive in this brave new world.