I spent the last two days with Michigan lawyers at the State Bar of Michigan Annual Meeting and Solo & Small Firm Institute in Dearborn.
It was like old home week for me. I grew up in the Midwest (La Crosse, Wisconsin) and practiced there for almost 20 years. I went to college in South Bend, Indiana at Notre Dame. My parents moved to Indianapolis when I was a junior at Notre Dame.
I made countless trips to Indy with my five kids for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the Indianapolis 500. I get teary eyed each time Jim Nabors Sings “Back Home Again In Indiana” before Mary Hulman George let’s out the command “Ladies and Gentlemen, Start your engines” to get the 500 started.
I am a Midwesterner tried and true. Not for a minute does my wife, Jill, let me forget that we ought to move back to the Midwest one day or at least have a second home there.
I did a keynote at the Michigan Bar on social media for for professional and business development followed by three one hour breakout sessions on Blogging, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
Rather than the large audiences shutting me out like I was a kook from the West coast asking them to drink water from a firehouse, the vast majority of the lawyers were totally engaged. They loved it.
Heck my last session ending at 4 on Friday afternoon was the most packed. A good number of lawyers followed me to the hotel pub to continue the discussion.
The lawyers could not get enough of how they could use social media to become a better lawyer and get good legal work through relationship building, networking, and word of mouth. Blogging, RSS Readers, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, you name it.
These lawyers saw the connection between the use of social media and establishing trust with people and growing their reputation. These lawyers saw the opportunity blogging and other forms of social media gave them to make a decent living practicing law, something many of them had a great passion for. Especially the case for the solo’s.
The lawyers wanted to know more. They wanted to know how to use social media. Which media? Which first? How do I get started? What services? What do I need to spend? Wow! Those are ‘buy questions’ for someone in my shoes.
At the same time, most of the lawyers had no delusions of growing rich through practicing law. Many talked of earning $50,000 to $75,000, some below that. Far below what members of the public think lawyers make.
What these lawyers offered Americans, and in their case, Midwesterners, were reasonably priced legal services for average people. Divorce, bankruptcy, disability/social security, estate planning, workers compensation, small business, real estate, elder law, employment, and more.
The trouble Americans have finding a lawyer is finding an experienced lawyer who they feel has the passion and care to meet their needs. They want someone who they can trust.
Americans don’t necessarily find lawyers they can trust through directories, websites, Google searches, and ads. How does a lawyer demonstrate their care, passion, and expertise this way? They can’t.
Social media and social networking, used effectively, is the answer. Lawyers demonstrate their care for people, expertise in the law, and passion for what they do.
Social media enables lawyers to establish trust with the people who need legal services. Social media bridges the gap for people looking for a good lawyer and for lawyers looking for good clients.
The key for LexBlog, as one if the leaders (if not the leader) in social media for lawyers in the United Sates, is to bring to market easy to use cost effective social media solutions for these lawyers.
There are about 7,000 lawyers on approximately 1,000 blogs on the LexBlog Network. That’s a nice start. But it’s not enough.
We need easy to use and cost effective social media for lawyers which aggregates and curates the knowledge, expertise, passion, and care of good and caring lawyers from coast to coast.
Do this and we’re going to provide real access to the law – through knowledge online and through effective access to experienced, caring, and passionate lawyers who people can trust. We may even improve the image of our legal profession, something sorely needed.
I felt excitement as well as pain yesterday from Michigan lawyers. Excitement that social media was real and that it could help them get work the old fashioned way – by word of mouth and by reputation. But pain in not knowing where to start and not knowing how much it would cost them.
Technology and innovation have brought us great advances. I don’t think we’re facing the impossible here.
Henry Ford, who left his footprint throughout the neighborhood where I stayed, cleared greater hurdles.