Using Facebook Ads to Find Legal Work
Attention Law Students: There's a great post over at One Day One Job abut Using Facebook Ads to Make Employers Hunt You Down that's definitely worth a read. It recaps an experiment where job seekers used targeted Facebook ads to reach people who worked for companies they admired. For Katelyn Hill (below), here's what happened:
Katelyn Hill recently graduated from Abilene Christian University with a degree in Electronic Media. She loves television and movies and hopes to work in the entertainment industry, so she targeted the Walt Disney Company with her Facebook advertising campaign. Her ad received 685 clicks, which garnered 21 e-mails and 4 Facebook messages. She was offered one job interview, but wasn’t quite qualified for the position, so she declined. She also had several e-mails from individuals who offered to forward her resume to their supervisors. Many others offered her general advice on finding a job with Disney or commented on how creative they thought her ad campaign was.
I think this is a brilliant idea. It isn't a reach to take this approach and target attorneys and staff at specific firms you'd like to work for.
It could (though your malpractice carrier may disagree) also work for lawyers targeting specific clients or types of work as well.
One Thousand Dollars an Hour is Dumb.
If you must compete on price, here's a McDonald's billboard that might give your marketing people some inspiration:
Found on Billboardom. Full Story Here.
Blocked? Stop Typing!
The title of this short post from the 37 Signals Blog says it all: Writer's Block is Sometimes Just Typer's Block. If you're having trouble writing, try this:
Record the conversation where you get it out right. When you speak an idea, it engages a different part of your brain than when you write it. You often say it clearer when you’re just riffing aloud. And you get to more gut-level stuff too. You bypass that “should I say this?” filter. You get it straight from your gut/brain instead of your fingers.
As someone who used to dictate all the time, I've gotten away from the think first, type later model of writing, but am going to break out my digital recorder and give it another try.
Your Firm, R.I.P.
Patti Digh talks about Living an Irresistible Obituary, and just started a site she's dedicated to sharing "living obits" sent in by readers. Patti challenges us to live a life that, when recounted in the inevitable obituary, makes people say "wow!" As an exercise, she suggests writing an obituary for yourself of the life you hope to lead before you die. This can be a powerful exercise for us individually, to be sure, but I'm quite certain it would pay some really significant dividends for law firms as well.
If you had to write your firm's "obituary" today, would it be about a firm you're proud to have served? Would your firm be mourned by its clients and employees? Would your local legal community miss the firm's contributions? Would former clients even notice the firm had gone?
If the answer to any of these questions is "no," what can you do to turn your firm into one that matters? Perhaps writing an "irrestible obituary" would be a good start.
What Do Your Clients Think About You?
Here's an exercise I'm working on for a Client Service Workbook that's been an on-and-off project of mine for a while.
There will be several comic strip-like panels depicting scenes of a client interacting with you and your staff. Each will be on a worksheet you can give to yourself and your staff. Everyone will fill in the empty thought-bubbles with what they believe the "client" is thinking in situations like when:
They're in the reception area waiting for their appointment:
They're listening to you give them advice:
They just received their bill:
Once the thoughts are filled in, you compare and discuss the similarities and differences. To make the exercise even more valuable, ask your current and former clients to complete the same exercise.
Let me know what you think. I'm committed to finishing the Workbook by the end of the year, and will be testing similar exercises with my consulting and coaching clients 'til then.
100 Ways to Be More Creative
I found this great list of 100 Simple, Low-Cost, Soulful Ways to Be More Creative on the Job and wanted to share it with you. Next time you're stuck, pick a few off the list at random and give them a shot.
A Social Media What-To-Do
Lots of folks are talking about using Social Media for business, including me. When I speak to lawyers, after the "What the heck is ..." questions come the "How much time will this take me?" ones. Last week, my friend Chris Brogan published his 19 Presence Management Chores You COULD Do Every Day post on his fantastic blog. In it, he shares 19 "chores" one could do every day (or at least every week) to keep one's online presence alive and kicking on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Blogs.
Here are his LinkedIn tips:
- Enter any recent business cards to invite them to LinkedIn (if you’re growing your network).
- Drop into Q&A and see if you can volunteer 2-3 answers.
- Provide 1 recommendation every few days for people you can honestly and fully recommend.
- Add any relevant slide decks to the Slideshare app there, or books to the Amazon bookshelf.
Nobody knows this growing world of "Presence Management" better than Chris, and I'd highly recommend you not only read his full post, but add some (or all) of his suggested "to-do's" to your list.
A Legal Blogging Roundtable
Last month, I participated in a legal blogging roundtable for the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis that was published in their subscription-only newsletter. My partners in crime were Dennis Kennedy (DennisKennedy.Blog), George Lenard (George's Employment Blawg), and Evan Schaeffer (Trial Practice Tips and The Legal Underground). Together, we have combined for more than 20 years of blogging experience.
Dennis took our contributions and republished them to his blog as A Blogging Guide for St. Louis (and Other) Lawyers (and Others). Here's one of our takes on the future of blogging:
Matt Homann: I think we'll see the continued adoption of blogs by legal professionals as much by choice as necessity. The next generation of law firm clients have lived their entire lives online, interact with Twitter and Facebook constantly, and read blogs everyday. They may have never used the Yellow Pages, and instead look to the web before making any major purchasing decision. They'll expect a robust online presence from the professionals they hire, and a blog is one of the easiest and most effective ways to build that presence.
George Lenard: Integration with the surviving remnants of mainstream media into enriched, customized streams of information in manageable chunks for busy readers, plus continuing contributions to the wealth of information available to web users through ever-more-sophisticated search technologies. I was recently told by a web-content distribution company that my posts now have the potential of appearing in a news stream on the Wall Street Journal's law pages amidst conventional sources such as the ABA Journal, if they match the WSJ search criteria, with no distinction in appearance that would suggest that my content is in any way inferior or less professional than that written by professional journalists.
Evan Schaeffer: I don't have any predictions about the future of blogging. If you think of blogging as merely a means of publishing one's writing, which it is, you don't have to be too worried about the future. Get into the habit of writing, and if you like it, you can always migrate to the next technological platform, if and when there is one.
Dennis Kennedy: Among bloggers, Twitter and microblogging is all the rage. That will continue to affect blogging, but blogging still has great potential, especially to cover niche topics. I remain bullish on blogging. As for predicting the future, I still like what Ernest "Ernie the Attorney" Svenson said in an article on the future of blogging from four years ago in Law Practice Magazine: "Perhaps the biggest question that remains is: How quickly will law firms move to develop blogs? It depends on a lot of internal and external factors. But the clock is certainly ticking. For some firms that sound is just loud and annoying, while for others it is stirring and prompting them to act. So when will your firm create a blog? Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick . . . ."
Twelve Truths About Time
In early August, I'm headed to Duluth, Minnesota to speak at the Strategic Solutions for Solo and Small Firms conference. One of the presentations I'm giving is called the Twelve Truths About Time. In it, I share twelve reasons why attorneys should abandon the billable hour. Here's the slide deck for that presentation.
It is still in "draft" form, and I expect to tweak it a bit before I use it live, so please let me know what you think. My friend and artist/designer, M. Jason Robards, drew the clocks. We're working next on a "Real Innovation for Real Lawyers" slide deck. I'll share that as soon as it is done. Thanks!
Ten Rules for Presenters
Lately, I've been giving lots of presentations, and have six more coming up before the Summer ends. I work pretty hard on my speeches (here are a few examples of my slides) and thought I'd share some of the tips I've learned the hard way in this Ten Rules post. Enjoy!
1. The greatest gift you can give your audience is a passion for your material. If you don't care for it, they won't care for you.2. Your audience’s attention is a lot like your virginity. You only get to lose it once.
3. PowerPoint is always optional. A great speech doesn't improve when accompanied by slides in a dark room.
4. If PowerPoint makes it easy to do, you probably shouldn’t do it. Avoid bullet points, clip art and cheesy animated transitions at all cost.
5. The number of words on a slide is inversely proportional to the attention your audience will give it.
6. Your slides are not your script. The purpose of PowerPoint is to help others understand your material, not to help you remember it.
7. Never read your slides. When you do, it suggests to your audience you think they’re incapable of doing so themselves.
8. The average person remembers just three things from your presentation. Great speakers make certain everyone remembers the same three things.
9. Unless your presentation tells a story, the audience won't care about the ending -- they’ll just pray for it.
10. Never underestimate the impact a great presentation can have on your audience or your career. Being prepared serves both of them well.
If you'd like to see more Ten Rules posts, you can check them all out here. If you'd like to read thoughts like these as I have them, follow me on Twitter.
Using Simple Technology isn't Easy
Last week, I was listening to several lawyers complain about how hard it was to convince new associates to learn the technology everyone else in the firm had been using for years. From embracing dictation to using books instead of online tools, newbies "just didn't get it" according the the group of senior attorneys.
As I tried to explain to them that the technology they utilized, though pretty basic, wasn't easier to use for someone unfamiliar with it, I struggled to find a good example. Today, I finally found one in the unlikeliest of places: an article by a teenager who gave up his iPod for a week and replaced it with his father's 25-year-old Sony Walkman.
The article is hilarious at times, but highlights just how older, "simpler" technology isn't actually easier to use for people unaccustomed to it. Some of the best quotes:
My dad had told me it was the iPod of its day. He had told me it was big, but I hadn't realised he meant THAT big. It was the size of a small book.
It took me three days to figure out that there was another side to thetape. That was not the only naive mistake that I made; I mistook themetal/normal switch on the Walkman for a genre-specific equaliser, butlater I discovered that it was in fact used to switch between twodifferent types of cassette.
Personally, I'm relieved I live in the digital age, with bigger choice,more functions and smaller devices. I'm relieved that the majority oftechnological advancement happened before I was born, as I can'timagine having to use such basic equipment every day.
Let Your Clients Pick Your Next Associates
Seth Godin shares how he narrowed down 27 finalists for his "Alternative MBA" program to just ten participants: he let the applicants decide. Here's how he describes the process:
More than 48,000 people visited the page that described the program and 350 really cool, talented people applied. I picked 27 finalists and all of them flew out to New York to meet each other. This was the most fun I’ve ever had at a cocktail party (it helped that it was at eight o’clock in the morning).The conversations that day were stunning. Motivated people, all with something to teach, something to learn and something to prove. I asked each person to interview as many other people as they could. After three hours, I asked everyone to privately rank their favorite choices... “who would you like to be in the program with you?”
After they left, I tallied up the results. It was just as you might predict: nine or ten people kept coming up over and over in the top picks. I had crowdsourced the selection, and the crowd agreed. (It turns out that the people they picked were also the people I would have picked).
On January 20th, the most selective (one in 40 got in) MBA program in the world got started. Since then, they’ve never failed to live up to my hopes.
What if your firm choose its associates this way, by letting the applicants choose the others they'd like to work with? Or be even bolder, and bring your applicants in to spend a day with a mixture of your best clients -- and let the clients decide!
Twitter Presentation for LegalTech West Coast
I'm off tomorrow for Incisive Media's LegalTech West Coast. I'm speaking about Twitter on a four-person panel, so my time will be limited. Here are the slides I'm going to use to support my presentation. I'd love your feedback.
What's Your Type?
I ran across Matthew Butterick's wonderful Typography for Lawyers site today and wanted to share it here. Matthew's a typographer turned civil litigator who started the site to help lawyers write prettier -- if not better.
When you show up to make an oral argument, you make sure that you present yourself as professionally and persuasively as possible. Similarly, your written documents should reflect the same level of attention to typography.
I highly recommend you add this to your reading list. Now, if I could just stop hitting the space bar twice after each period.
Happy Father's Day!
Happy Father's Day, everyone. Here's a presentation full of "Lessons Learned" that uses pictures I've taken of my daughter, Gracie. Enjoy!
Tired of Talking About the Weather?
Here's a great collection of conversation starters from CanTeach. Organized helpfully in categories of "What is..." "What if..." "What do you think..." etc., I'd take a quick look at these next time you've got a get together and want to come up with something for everyone to talk about besides the weather or their occupation.
Meet me in Los Angeles
Heading next week to Incisive Media's upcoming LegalTech West Coast, which takes place June 24-25 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. I'm going to be reprising my role on the Twitter panel June 25th at 2:15 pm with Kevin O'Keefe. Joining us will be Denise Howell and Nina Goldberg (links to their Twitter pages), and the moderator will be the incomparable Monica Bay.
I'm thinking about a Tweetup/PubCrawl along the lines of the one we did at Techshow for the evening of the 25th. Anybody interested?
Ten Rules of the New Web
I just returned from the fantastic Missouri Solo and Small Firm Conference, where I led a session (with Reid Trautz) unofficially titled the New Web for Lawyers. We talked Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Blogs. Here are some of "Rules" we discussed:
1. “Social media" isn’t rocket science. It's just sharing who you are, what you do, and what you think with friends, colleagues and clients online.2. LinkedIn is: "Where are you working?" Facebook is: "What are you doing?" Twitter is: "What are you thinking?"
3. Ever thought it would be cool to be invisible? Ignore Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, and to a vast number of your potential clients, you will be.
4. Want to understand the value of being active online? Ask the guy standing in the corner by himself at your next networking event how many friends he’s made.
5. First impressions are no longer made in person. People want to get to know you before they meet you -- and the place they go is the web. Are you there, and what kind of first impression do you make?
6. Just because you are “friends” with someone online doesn’t mean they’d recognize you in a crowd of three people. Make your online connections the start of relationships, not the extent of them.
7. Unless you measure the value of your real friendships by business you receive from them, it is unfair to hold your online friends to a higher standard.
8. The only thing you’ll get from your online friends are their updates… unless you ask them for more.
9. Before Facebook, what happened in Vegas stayed in Vegas. Now, what happens in Vegas can impact your business. Be careful on Facebook, but ignore it at your peril.
10. The most important social media tool is the telephone. Reaching out to online friends can turn them into real ones.
If you'd like to see more Ten Rules posts, you can check them all out here. If you'd like to read ideas like these as I develop them, follow me on Twitter.
Meet Me in Missouri
I'm headed down to Missouri's Lake of the Ozarks this week for the Missouri Solo and Small Firm Conference to speak about marketing, innovation, technology and the web. There will be over 900 lawyers there this year -- which makes it the largest solo and small firm conference in the country.
If you'll be there, be certain to say hello. If you can't make it, I'll be covering as much as I can on Twitter and will be using the hashtag #mossfc
