One Size Fits All Snake Oil Targets Lawyers
Dec 9th, 2009 | By Rex Gradeless | Category: Featured, Practice Management, Social Media, Web 2.0There’s no doubt that 2009 marks the year when lawyers, law firms, and legal professionals are realistically considering using web 2.0 technologies within their business. (Arguably, these tools have been around for over half a decade.)
This was the year that almost every law school signed up for Twitter. Judges, lawyers, law students, paralegals, legal professionals – everyone has started using these tools causing an increase in demand.
Typically, with an increase in demand, next comes a flood of people who claim they can supply that demand.
2010 Prediction: Droves of people are going to try to sell legal professionals their product, gimmick, “next best thing”, social media strategy, eBook, webinar, and who knows what. Anything for a quick buck.
Those of us who have been online for awhile, and you know who you are, have the responsibility to protect other legal professionals from these people.
Thus, comes the motivation for this post.
As I was surfing the Internet, I came across an article: “Attorney Marketing Top 5 Social Media Strategies”. Typically, I won’t click on these types of posts because they rarely, if ever, actually know what they are talking about. But, unfortunately, I clicked on this one. Here’s what I found:
As you watch this video, do not be fooled by the fancy rental car or the classical music playing in the background. In my opinion, no honest salesperson would take you to a “secret location” to tell you about how to use social media tools. Furthermore, and as more evidence this man is clueless on social media in the legal profession, lawyers don’t use MySpace as this man suggests.
The video is laughable and is merely a gimmick targeted at…well…EVERYONE! You’ll notice on the right side (see image above) this person uses the SAME video for Jusuru Internationl, Dental Advertising, Internet Dental Marketing, Marketing for Small Business, and Marketing for Newbies.
The video is also scary in that someone in the legal profession may be persuaded to pay for these services.
Beware of these on-size-fits-all snake oils, they will be increasingly avaiable in 2010.
Tips: 1) Ask friends to recommend someone they trust within the industry. 2) Do some research to make sure you find the right people.
And now, for the show…
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- Social Media Law Student Blog Interviewed…Twice
- How Can Lawyers Use Twitter?
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- How LexTweet Brings Legal Community Together on Twitter
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- Twitter, Fists, Thin-Slicing and the Law
Hi Rex,
I agree with your observations in this post, except your comment about MySpace. Attorneys who serve independent artists, self published writers and others in the entertainment industry should keep MySpace on their radar.
Except the best!
T.C. Coleman
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Rex Gradeless
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December 9th, 2009 at 7:30 pm
I learn something new every day. This sorta makes sense if the people on MySpace only looked for lawyers on MySpace.
However, my DJ friend ONLY has a MySpace account becasue that’s where his industry communicates. (Not becasue he likes MySpace.) My DJ friend would look for an attorney in other places.
Maybe if the attorney was also in a band?
Here’s a list – http://www.myspace.com/civildefenders – are there more?
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[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Christopher Hill, blawgreview. blawgreview said: Those who have been online for awhile have the responsibility to protect other legal professionals from these people. http://bit.ly/5dW0Wm [...]
There is an argument to be made that anyone who can go through seven years of higher education and emerge with a “doctorate” and a license to practice law… and falls for something this preposterous… may as well be flushed out, and fast.
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Rex Gradeless
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December 10th, 2009 at 1:05 pm
One would hope so.
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I would have to agree that there are always these snake oil salesmen who will try to take advantage of new users. However, I think that most lawyers are savvy enough to see through schemes such as these.
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Rex Gradeless
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December 10th, 2009 at 1:11 pm
You don’t think the fancy car or classical music can sway them?
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Always remember, no one can be as PROFOUND as you Mark. I’m just here to learn from the best.
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Scott Greenfield has read Social Media Law Student!
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I wrote about lawyers using MySpace over three years ago at MyShingle – Proof: http://www.myshingle.com/2006/09/articles/marketing-making-money/make-myspace-your-space/
Likewise, I issued my FREE ebook on social media (with a chapter on ethics) in July 2008, way before any of the so-called “experts” started marketing social media to lawyers. Proof: http://www.myshingle.com/2008/07/articles/announcements/new-free-ebook-social-networking-for-lawyers-the-what-why-and-how/
The best thing about the blogosphere is that it’s transparent and it’s easy to document who is out in front.
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Rex Gradeless
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December 11th, 2009 at 3:17 pm
Very cool re: MySpace. I’ve never used MySpace personally.
I suspect droves of other “experts” (depicted above) will be coming out big in 2010. People we’ve never heard of before. I respect your work greatly Carolyn.
And for the record:
My first computer was all DOS.
Also, I am no “expert” in social media. I’m just here to learn and spread that knowledge. I’m not sure I’ve ever claimed to be one? If sharing free information makes me an expert, then I’m an expert. However, I have written no books, sold no webinars, have never been paid to speak, no do I intend to engage in ANY of these activities. I simply enjoy the intersection of law and technology.
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Hi Rex
Don’t you think one major trend will be that we may see new formats of legal advice? What if I could pay a small amount of money to get legal advice as a tweet?
Now apart from that, I think one danger is that if a lot of legal professionals start leveraging social media, the respect and recognition building among attorneys becomes harder. It’ll be hard for a non-legal person to distinguish a real practitioner from some semi-pro.
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Rex Gradeless
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December 13th, 2009 at 9:31 am
You may begin to see more commoditization of legal services similar to the theories in Richard Susskind’s book: “The End of Lawyers”. – http://www.susskind.com/endoflawyers.html
More and more small business sprouting up to outsource services typically done by a “full service” law firm. This is typical after a recession. The speed of the recovery may determine the quantity of these services being commoditized. Slower recovery = more commoditization of legal services.
You will probably never see the tweeting of legal advice for many many years (if EVER). Under most circumstances, long-established ethics rules preclude lawyers from giving away the client’s right to confidentiality.
The means to the end have changed. A legal professional lacking substance will still lack substance online. As consumers become more tech savvy, consumer-generated filtering should assist potential clients in their search for legal counsel. See avvo.com for one example of consumer-generated filtering in practice.
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