Why I start with YouTube as a Patent Attorney
Why I start with YouTube as a Patent Attorney YouTube is arguably the second largest search engine on the Web. It is the third most visited site on the Web. YouTube watchtime is up 60% in Q2 of 2015. In the US, it has more viewers aged 18-49 on mobile alone than any U.S. cable network – with a similar situation in other countries. Currently, there are 6 billion hours of video watched on YouTube per month and 1 billion videos watched over mobile phones per day. Many fields of business such as intellectual property are completely underserved on YouTube. Some of my colleagues say that clients for patent attorneys do not find patent attorneys on social media networks. How wrong can they be? Facebook has around 1.5 billion active users. YouTube has more than 1 billion active users. It is completely unrealistic that clients for patent attorney - or take any other conservative B2B business – are not using social media networks. The goal of my activity on social media may not necessarily be direct acquisition of clients. For me it is much more to be top of mind with my contacts, to be perceived as an expert in intellectual property and a nice person sharing useful content. I have around 5000 Facebook contacts, 6500+ LinkedIn contacts, 11.000+ Twitter followers and 8500+ Xing contacts. My personal experience tells me that just being top of mind with these contacts and being remembered as someone nice and generous with expertise in trademarks and patents brought in tons of business in the last years. As a matter of fact, I would say that at least 60% of my business comes from people who have seen me on a social media channel and asked me for help or recommended me to their friends. And these are e.g. R & D directors, marketing directors, CEOs, and business owners. As an example, a director of intellectual property of a larger jeans manufacturer listened to my podcast IP Fridays and later asked me to take over responsibility of their European trademarks. I also assume that I would not have entered various rankings of intellectual property professionals without my social media activity. Now I will try something new – video. I am starting my own active YouTube channel with weekly new content. I will report regularly about it. Feel free to comment and ask any questions you may have – e.g. questions about equipment, planning, and content. Also – most importantly – subscribe to my new YouTube channel at http://youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=rolfclaessen
