Online checkin has become increasingly popular for NetGen users recently, with Foursquare leading the way. But now that Facebook has added this capability for its half a billion users, the dynamics of this market suddenly change.

Research shows that consumers trust recommendations from friends 2-3x more than other forms of online advertising. What this means is that there is an opportunity here for smart professional services firms to tap into Places for marketing purposes: Each time someone checks in at your business they are telling their friends about you. That’s free advertising for you!  So, think about how you can encourage that behaviour – perhaps you can just ask, or perhaps you could provide special offers to clients willing to do that. Then the next time someone exchanges contracts on their dream property, you’ll know that they have told all their Facebook friends about you!

(*) At the time of writing Facebook Places is a US only service, but Facebook has plans to roll it out globally as soon as possible.

The Facebook Places Opportunity is a post from: Connectegrity providers of SharePoint Solutions for legal, accouting and professional services

Competing with the Emerging Legal Brands

I think there is an opportunity to fend off competition from the emerging legal brands by creating a tie-up with local businesses. Let me explain…

Big corporations like to offer lots of on-site services to their employees. When I was at Microsoft there was a creche, dry cleaning service, DVD rental, IFA, doctor and masseur on site.  Inside the confines of many other corporate offices you will find a Starbucks or Costa Coffee, a hairdressers, gym, bank and much more. What’s the point of all that? For Big Corp it’s about keeping people at their desks longer. For employees it’s about convenience.

So how about onsite legal services?

Maybe next time your are negotiating terms with one of your corporate or small business clients, and they are pushing back on fees or asking for alternative billing arrangements, part of your negotiation could be about access to their employees in some way. Maybe you could offer monthly free legal advice clinics in the client’s offices, or perhaps you could offer special discounted rates to their employees. There are probably lots of other ideas you could come up with, just make sure that your offer provides value to both you and their employer in some way.

What do you think? What other opportunities are there for going to the client rather than waiting for them to come to you?

Legal Opportunities #3: Go Where Your Clients Are is a post from: Connectegrity providers of SharePoint Solutions for legal, accouting and professional services

Well, this all seems rather apt given, the recent Panorama expose on will writers…

This photo was taken in my local shopping mall a little while back… A company offering wills for £49, complete with a freephone number and a home visit to complete the paperwork. Now as it turns out, the home visit is where Panorama alleges the hard sell happens – and that low initial fee can turn into something very different if you are not wary.

But that’s not the point I want to make here. Instead I want to focus on what these companies are doing right: giving the consumer convenience.

Legal Opportunity #2: Convenience

These days consumers are used to 24-hour telephone banking, 24-hour supermarkets, and the instant gratification of MP3s purchased and downloaded in seconds. Convenience is a time-proven strategy for business success:

• Lastminute.com created a travel business by specifically targeting cash-rich, time-poor people who had left booking their vacation to the last minute
• Ocado has won legions of raving fans for its home delivery service segmented into handy 1 hour slots
• And don’t forget how Amazon shook up the book world by delivering almost any title to your door in 24 hours

The Three Strands of Convenience

• Anywhere: Deliver your services wherever the client finds it most convenient. In their home, in their office, at your office.
• Anytime: Make your services available when it works for the client. How about offering appointments in the evening or early morning? Could you use your website to provide 24-hours a day service? What about late evening telephone consultations?
• Anyhow: Can you deliver your service, or parts of it, over the web or via an iPhone app? Could you deliver some of your services through a partner… an account, IFA or HR consultancy for example?

So, which law firms and solicitors are out there breaking the mould and providing convenience to clients already? Let me know in the comments.

Legal Opportunities #2: Convenience is a post from: Connectegrity providers of SharePoint Solutions for legal, accouting and professional services

Most law firms would admit they are not very good at it. But might that be about to change?

Here’s a stand from our local town fete this weekend. Shoosmiths were there promoting their new Access Legal brand. What was interesting that there was no selling going on. They were simply there collecting names and email addresses in exchange for a chance to play a motorbike game and win a prize… that is, they were there to build their CRM database and mailing list.

This is the sort of low cost, face to face marketing that any law firm could participate in. But how many do?

I wouldn’t have expected this approach from a national brand, but it shows they mean business in working from the ground up, at a local level, to build personal relationships, and their new operation. And I don’t expect them to be last.

How do you intend to compete against aspiring national brands?

Shoosmiths AccessLegal – A brave new world of law firm marketing is a post from: Connectegrity providers of SharePoint Solutions for legal, accouting and professional services

Today News International unveiled their new web designs for The Times and Sunday Times, prior to them disappearing behind a paywall later this year. Murdoch is banking that a traditional subscription business model will work in the internet age.

Meanwhile Guardian Media Group has launched its Open Platform – the complete opposite of the Times approach. The Guardian and Observer are providing their content for developers to reuse and repurpose in whatever applications they want. Some types of reuse are free, others require registration and licensing or revenue sharing. Just to be clear – that means The Guardian will pay you to republish their content!

The Times wants to wall its content off from the rest of the internet. The Guardian wants to see its content (re)used as widely as possible.

Which model will work?

In an age where information is a commodity you need three things to operate a paywall: unique content, great reputation and niche, targeted information from which readers can derive value. That’s real value as-in money saved, or money earned. That’s why the Financial Times can operate a paywall, as can Tessa Shepperson. But the Times? I’m sceptical.

The Guardian on the other hand is embracing the idea of a sell-through business model where revenues are shared with distribution partners. This is a proven internet business model similar to the Amazon Affiliate and Google Adsense programmes that helped cement both of them as dominant players in their markets. I am certain this will lead to The Guardian having more online readers than The Times. Could it lead them to a dominant position?

What can we learn for the future of the legal profession?

Two very different approaches. One embracing all the opportunity (and risks) of the new technology, and one betting that old models still work. Which one wins will likely provide an interesting thesis for MBA students in the future, and an interesting reference for law firms.

My take?

• If you are a large national firm, your objective should be to commoditize legal information. Give it away for free, share it as widely as you can, and use the mind-share you gain to sell services. Real services that provide real value.
• If you are a small firm of solicitors, work to build your brand as an expert, then figure out how you can provide a subscription service that provides real value to the fans you have gained.
• If you are a midsize regional law firm, you’d better decide which way to jump, because the average middle will be squeezed.

What do you think? Am I wrong? And what do you think it means for the legal profession… if anything?

What Will be the Business Model of the 21st Century Law Firm? is a post from: Connectegrity providers of SharePoint Solutions for legal, accouting and professional services

‘It’s almost impossible as a consumer to be able to differentiate one law firm from another. I can’t tell you the number of websites I’ve looked at which describe the firm as “modern with traditional values, forward-thinking with a focus on customer service…” .’ That sort of stock phase was ‘repeated ad infinitum’. ‘If you’re a member of the public it’s almost impossible to choose between firms and that is why they start thinking: “If I can’t tell the difference, I might as well just get the cheapest.”’

Craig Holt – QualitySolicitors.com, The Big Bang Report.

How can solicitors stand out from the crowd to build a distinctive and thriving business? In this first post of a series I am going to look at opportunities for law firms to create a distinctive niche for themselves, so that they can compete effectively in the post Legal Services Act market.

Opportunity #1: Speed

Countless of successful businesses have been built on the premise of doing things more quickly than the competition:

• DHL took international parcel delivery and guaranteed next day delivery
• Snappy Snaps took photo processing from days to hours
• Kwik Fit built a brand out of being fastest for tyre changes

The nice thing about all these is that time pressed customers will typically pay a premium for rapid service. If I were a law firm I might be thinking about offering 30-minute wills, 15-minute lunchtime speed appointments, and for businesses, maybe things like contract reviews with guaranteed same-day turnaround.

What do you think?

Legal Opportunities #1: Speed is a post from: Connectegrity providers of SharePoint Solutions for legal, accouting and professional services

I’m placing my bets now:

• Four or five big players dominating the retail market. Some will have a high street presence. Some will be virtual-only operations, serving clients via the Internet and telephone. Most will provide 24-hour service, and there will be an almost exclusive focus on legal products, as opposed to one-to-one consultation and hourly billing used primarily today. There will be a huge range of products at varying price points to suit every pocket.
• The middle market will be decimated. The midsize, generalist, regional law firms of today will be hit savagely. Most if not all will be gone. Any that do survive will be struggling along, fighting for a diminishing client base of OAPs and technological refusniks.
• A booming market of boutique law firms – niche players that have found an area in which they can become ‘famous’ as experts, or areas of law too small, or too risky (from a brand and image point of view) that will make the big players avoid them. Some smart firms are starting to head down this path today. Lots more will spring up as many laid-off ex-middle market lawyers use redundancy payments to start their own boutique firm.

Do you agree? One thing is for sure – the future will not be boring!

Legal Services 2020 is a post from: Connectegrity providers of SharePoint Solutions for legal, accouting and professional services

Who will save book publishing?

What will save the newspapers?

What means ’save’?

If by save you mean, "what will keep things just as they are?" then the answer is nothing will. It’s over.

We need to get past this idea of saving, because the status quo is leaving the building, and quickly. Not just in print of course, but in your industry too.

This recent Seth Godin’s post struck me in sharp contrast to the Legal IT Show last week. where the mood seemed to be ‘if we ignore the Legal Services Act, maybe it won’t happen’. Indeed at least a couple of people I spoke to seemed to be pinning their hopes on a future Conservative government changing the legislation. Really? Since when have the Tories been in favour of less competition and against free markets?

The similarities between legal and publishing industries have been pointed out before. The publishing industry is in disarray. But law firms have an advantage… they can look back at what has happened to the publishing industry, and learn from their mistakes.

The reality is that the Legal Services Act is coming. More competition is coming. And there will be both winners and losers.

Seth finishes his post:

Every revolution destroys the average middle first and most savagely.

How will you avoid being average? What can you learn from the publishing industry? How will you make sure your firm is a winner?

Who Will Save Us? is a post from: Connectegrity providers of SharePoint Solutions for legal, accouting and professional services

Not one.

Interesting.

Reflecting on How UK Lawyers are Using Social Media is a post from: Connectegrity providers of SharePoint Solutions for legal, accouting and professional services

These are our notes. Enjoy…

Making Connections… Building Relationships

Chris: Twitter is a process in which you engage… It’s about building relationships… We have found clients from Twitter including a major client who then went on to became a supplier… They then also referred us to a large telecoms client

Adrian: It’s a giant cocktail party, and it requires you to step into the circle to engage

Brian: We haven’t received any direct client work, but I have been interviewed by the press several times as a result of being on Twitter, including today… Was interviewed by The Metro on topic of social media and property. This of course can raise the profile of the law firm, and it’s not impossible that tomorrow we could get enquiries after people read the Metro article

Adrian: Twitter is about instant real-time conversation… You can join any conversation internationally and make international connections

Chris: Our firm is active in the USA, but not Turkey, and through Twitter we have met @turkish_lawyer, got to know him, and as a consequence have referred work to him and received referrals from him

Adrian: This is the death of the cold call… There’s no reason to make them any more… You can build relationships first

Making Time for Twitter

Brian: It is called social media. I tend to do it in the evening or first thing in morning.

Chris: It fit it into my normal routine… 95% of tweets are from my iPhone… e.g. while waiting for taxi. It makes use of moments where I wouldn’t be able to do much else

What About ROI?

Chris: I think of Twitter as a way of finding people to provide services to, and people to provide services to me… It’s a very time efficient way to sell. We have benefited from that, but equally have met people who have since provided professional development services to our firm, and people who are building our blogs

Brian: Taking the relationship outside of Twitter is what really brings the benefits… But don’t forget it’s fun… It’s social media.. . It’s fun for me… If business comes out of it, great, but that’s not the key priority

Chris: When people talk ROI, one of the things they should also remember is that Twitter is completely free. And that effectively I have had something like 7,000 free adverts. The only investment you have to make is time and you don’t have to spend ages in Twitter

Adrian: I find it useful to organise meetings through Twitter ahead of conferences… So I have a jump start on other people attending

Getting the Mix Right

Adrian: Twitter is a great way to meet other fascinating people… But the perception in the US is that UK lawyers are more serious…

Brian: Not a huge number of UK lawyers using Twitter yet, and between those on the call, we probably know all of them. Firm accounts don’t work in the same way as personal ones, and you really need individuals or groups of individuals to make the interaction work on Twitter

Chris: I send out a mix of tweets from serious legal matters to how to make the perfect cocktail… and that seems to work well for me

Brian: We originally started with a company Twitter account, but switched to personal account… Going back to the cocktail party analogy, I realised you need to be a person to go to a cocktail party

Adrian: No one wants to hire a law firm; they want to hire a person they like

Getting Started

Chris: When you first register, it asks you the question what are you doing right now? I quickly realised no-one wants to know. People are more interested in getting to know people. There is a marketing adage that people only buy from people the know, like and trust. Otherwise they are not going to instruct you.

Rory:  People need to get connected then listen and learn. In the modern age listening is reading, and speaking is writing… When you first join you should spend more time listening than speaking… When I first joined Twitter i spent first couple of weeks ‘listening’ before joining the conversation

Chris: It takes a while to convince others to use social media. When I first started everyone thought I was mad. Now we have four partners using Twitter in the company

Adrian: It’s important to find right champions in your firm. Companies often leave it to juniors, and this isn’t always the right thing to do. Chris is using the tools better than many younger professionals… You need more experienced attorneys that add value… It’s about growing relationships and then taking them to the next level such as lunch or coffee

What Does the Future Hold?

Chris: With the upcoming Legal Services Act, and hence non-lawyers and institutions coming in, lawyers will need to use these tools to get work from elsewhere… It takes a while to build up followers so they had better get moving

Rory: Agreed. Growing competition means that people need to get involved

Footnote

These are our notes from the call, and focus on the things that grabbed our attention. Leave a comment below if there is something important you feel we missed.

And finally, Adrian has promised to make a recording available for on-demand playback for anyone that want to listen to the whole call.  Keep checking his website for that.

How UK Lawyers Are Using Social Media is a post from: Connectegrity providers of SharePoint Solutions for legal, accouting and professional services