Today, every law firm increasingly relies upon being able to prosper online to succeed – or even to survive – competitively. What this means is that every law firm needs to invest at least some resources into a specific goal: becoming a more “social” firm.

1. Working Social:
Becoming a Collaborative Firm Webinar
David Blumentals
Director CRM/xRM Strategy
xRM4Legal.com

2. Agenda
• Introduction
• What is working social?
• Why collaboration for law firms
• Examples
• Becoming a social firm
• Launching the community
• Adapting the firm
• Takeaways

3. About me
• Founded Client Profiles Asia Pacific in May 2008 (Microsoft
Professional Services Industry Partner of the Year 2009, 2010, 2011)
– changed name to A/P Dynamics in May 2010
• 20 years’ experience in IT and Professional Services (legal and
accounting). With a background in economics, finance and insurance
moved into marketing and business development in 1989
• Since 1997, focused on the successful delivery of Client Relationship
Management (CRM) systems, often integrating with Practice,
Financial and Document Management:
• xRM4Legal for Marketing & Business Development
• xRM4Legal for Enterprise Matter Management
• xRM4Legal for the Legal Call Centre
• xRM4Legal for Corporate Administration & Compliance

4. What do we do?
We use technology to help law firms achieve better
client outcomes – to increase client billings with
less effort
• What we believe in is that it is no longer just enough to be
good at what you do. You must also be good at winning
new clients and have systems in place to retain them
• We can help coach people to become systematic,
organized, disciplined, innovative and tenacious in their
business development activities
• Why use us? Track record – We are more focused on
change, not just systems and software

5. What is working social?

6. What is working social?
A definition
It’s not what it is, but what it
allows
Working social is a means to
an end, not the end itself.
Working social is all about
collaboration, creating
connections, in which typically
large and diverse groups of
people pursue a mutual
purpose that creates value
In other words, it’s about
getting people working together
on the same page

7. Common misconceptions
• Working social doesn’t deliver real
business value and can waste a lot of
employee time
• Working social poses unacceptable
risks to privacy, IP protection, regulatory
compliance, HR infractions, client
service, and more
• Working social is just another marketing
channel. Get a Facebook page, open a
Twitter account, give your CEO a blog,
and maybe load some cool videos on
YouTube and you’re done
• All you need to do is provide social
media technology and the rest will
happen on its own. After all, that’s how it
happens on the Internet
• You don’t need a business justification
for working social because it’s so cheap
and you can’t anticipate or measure the
benefits anyway

8. Components of (mass) collaboration
• Social media is an online environment
created for the purpose of (mass)
collaboration. It is where collaboration
occurs, not the technology. For
example, Facebook is a social media
environment built on social networking
technology, and Wikipedia is a social
media environment built on wiki
technology
• Communities are collections of
individuals who come together to
pursue a common purpose
• Purpose is what draws people together
into a community (business, sports,
politics, SIGs etc). It is the cause
around which people rally, the link that
turns individuals into members of a
community

9. Becoming a social firm
• A firm becomes a social firm when it discovers the power of
collaboration and develops the necessary skills to address
challenges by readily and repeatedly working in a connected
way, creating collaborative communities (internal and external)
• To do this requires a new and different mind-set. The people in a
social firm no longer think entirely in terms of hierarchy and
traditional management. They don’t automatically respond to a
challenge by assigning its resolution to some person or group or
by creating a structured process to deal with it. Because they’ve
integrated community collaboration into the way they work and
think every day, they ask instead: “Can a community do it better?
Can we form a community to deal more effectively with this?” If
the answer is yes, it takes that approach

10. Why collaboration for law firms

11. Who is searching for your services?

12. More time spent online

13. Why social for law firms?
NEW IMPROVED REDEFINING
ECONOMICS ACCESSIBILITY PRODUCTIVITY

14. The mobile, social cloud is Your firm must be able to know
Social technologies, processes
already here. Most of your how it is being perceived and
and practices are already
colleagues, clients, business discussed online and how best to
influencing how you collaborate
partners, prospects and key respond in order to remain
and do business internally
influencers are already there competitive

15. Working social makes you money!

16. Examples

17. Grow your firm
From the perspective of:
• The partnership
• Clients & prospects
• Marketing team / business development
Growing the firm
• Return on investment (ROI)
• Brand building / reputation
Key clients
• Client acquisition (new clients)
• Online & offline marketing activities…
Engaging with clients:
• According to their expectations, and
• Via their preferred channel (email,
website, social/business network)

18. Client communications

19. Messaging, content & thought leadership

20. Collaboration platforms – SharePoint

21. Partner portals – web and mobile

22. CRM turns social into clients for life

23. Integrate LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter

24. Public website with integrated CRM
Phone Number
Engaging
Contact Form
Statement
Call to Action Contact Form
TotalLiveChat

25. Google promotes mobile search

26. Becoming a social firm

27. Suitable for small and large firms
It is imperative that your firm be able to answer
these questions in ways that are easily
understood and readily actionable by
whomever is asking:
1. What is being said about your firm online?
2. How can/should you and your colleagues
respond?
3. What can you and your colleagues learn
from the mobile, social cloud?
4. How can you use what you learn to make
your firm more successful?

28. Questions to ask
1. People: Are you and your colleagues already
using social media, either personally and ad
hoc or under guidelines provided by your
firm?
2. Processes: Do key processes at your firm
(especially those that “touch” clients,
business partners, prospects or influencers
or that support collaboration) already
address or embrace working social?
3. Tools: Do the tools used for collaboration,
client care, marketing and/or business
development at your firm include working
social features or integration that you and
your colleagues also use?
4. Providers: Do the providers of solutions,
advice and influence regarding your
business and technology infrastructures “get”
working social and your firm?

29. Building your (social) plan
Evaluate what will work for
Direct Contact
Industry you and then commit to it
Functions
and engage regularly
Marketing Business Development
Newsletters Blog articles
Public
Blogs
Speaking
Events  Get your story out!
LinkedIn/Facebook
 Tie traditional and online
marketing together
Twitter
Keep The Conversation Going!  Build followers and keep the
conversation going

30. Launching the community

31. The Internet, cloud and working
social = a world of opportunities
Look what’s at our fingertips
News
Blogs • A way to communicate with
colleagues, clients, prospects,
partners, friends, family
• Access to business applications
– use anywhere, anytime
• A means to learn, meet
people, connect and collaborate

32. The winning formula
Qualified Successful
Relevant Retention
Connection

33. The winning formula – part 1
WHAT IS Email Website
Integrated External
Relevant? Marketing Social Media Advertising

34. Is your social web a billboard in a desert?

35. The winning formula – part 2
Email and
WHAT IS Instant Phone Web Events
Great Engagement
Qualified Website Number
Connection? (LiveChat) (ReachSearch) Working
Social

36. The winning formula – part 3
Email and
WHAT IS Lasting Web Events
Remarketing
Phone
Successful Impression Number Working
Retention? on the Client Social

37. Know your desired outcome
What do we want out of working social?
• Increase revenues and profits?
• Get better information about our clients, referrers, staff, alumni?
• Manage marketing investments better?
• Track business development opportunities?
• Measure performance of our practice areas?
• Gain consistency/repeatable processes across practice areas?
• Reduce IT costs by moving to the cloud?
• Improve time to market through outsourcing and offshoring?

38. Know your firm and critical processes
What makes our firm tick?
• Do we have a defined, documented strategy?
• Is the partnership wholly supportive?
• What can be – or shouldn’t be – collaborated on?
• Will we have to change our firm to take advantage?

39. Know when to connect with an expert
What do we need help with?
• Assessing firm needs/wants and knowing about working
social, and what solutions are most worth considering
• Determining if working social is a fit for our firm?
• Learning from the experiences of other projects?
• Adapting approaches to our firm needs?

40. Working social technologies
General Specialized Supporting
Social networking Idea engine Alerts
Wikis Prediction market Tagging, badging
Blogs Crowsourcing Social analytics
Microblogs Answer marketplace Subscriptions
Threaded discussions Web reputation Social status
Social feedback Viral campaign Mobile
Social publishing Social learning Context aware
CRM xRM Outlook
Search Re-marketing Web/email events

41. Adapting the firm

42. Guiding the firm
 Make the firm safe – reduce potential
competition and conflict
 Create interlocking leadership structures
 Recognize that working social is not cost-free –
it requires time and work
 Ensure staff behave appropriately
 Evaluate and reward performance
 Work with IT to create the right experience

43. Takeaways

44. Working social can be overwhelming
 Working social is about collaboration and connecting
both internally & externally – get everyone working
on the same page
 Social media is only one part of working social
 The primary purpose is building community –
attracting new clients; engaging & retaining existing
ones
 Working social can make you money – and save
you cost
 We are here to help!

45. Special offer to ALPMA members
 Free “working social” health check

46. Thank you!
For more information:
David Blumentals
Director, CRM/xRM Strategy
Email: DBlumentals@xRM4Legal.com
Office: +61 2 9571 4853
Mobile: +61 409 245 354