Refining your Approach to Social Media

Refocusing social media to add real business value

As social media makes its inevitable march to mainstream business, many small law firms, astutely, are already establishing a strong social media presence before their competitors. Many firms argue that, although all of the benefits of social media have not been realized, staying ahead of the curve will keep them well poised to take advantage of any benefits that may materialize in the future.

The risk, of course, is that early adopters of social media may find themselves still looking for greater benefits to their firm in three years. That, however, does not have to mean there is not real business value in social media. To keep your social media investment productive today, refine your approach by focusing on these three business goals.

1. Listening to your Customers – One of most useful thing that service providers are finding about social media is that they can listen to customer feedback in a manageable way. Prior to social media tools, such as Twitter, customers and businesses alike were frustrated with the lack of any good option for conversing. From a business owner’s perspective, the exorbitant cost of establishing a forum for customer feedback prohibited.

For customers, support lines, e-mails and Web forms generally were frustratingly slow and unresponsive. Now, business owners can listen to what customers are saying about their business and join the conversation. Customers are talking about your business, so you should listen, and perhaps more importantly, join in. For example, engaging customers with Twitter provides an easy, public forum for you to respond to your customers, and it sure beats mass e-mails with a “do not reply” link at the bottom.

2. Increase your Web Presence – contributing to social communities has the peripheral benefit of increasing your searchability. Google indexes your social media content, including your Twitter posts, so Google results may link back to your Web site, Facebook, or LinkedIn profile. Leverage that knowledge to your advantage by making more likely that potential customers will find you when they are looking for your services.

3. Networking and Word-of-Mouth Marketing – Building peer relationships – Finally, think of your social media time as networking time in the real world. You attend real social events to build your personal relationships that may result in business sometime down the line. The same principle applies to social media. Although you cannot measure social media’s ROI in the same way you would traditional marketing, you can still use it to expand your social network and develop your word-of-mouth marketing. So, stick with your Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter efforts even though you are not seeing immediate results in terms of business walking in the door.

Focusing on these three social media benefits will guide you to making smarter business decisions about social media. The obvious pitfall to avoid, of course, is wasting too much time with social media. However, on the flip side, you do not want to fall behind your competitors and lose the opportunity to maximize your social media benefits.

Maximizing Technology Dollars

Using Cloud Computing to Lower your Tech-Spend

Regardless of your industry, it’s likely that you are feeling the squeeze from today's challenging economic climate. In an effort to stay in the black, several small businesses are cutting back on their non-business critical expenses; one of those expenses can be technology. Driven by cost cutting, several small businesses are exploring cloud computing as a way to trim the fat from their technology investment.

What is that cloud computing?

More likely than not, you are using a cloud computing applications already (also called Software-as-a-Service or SaaS in some smaller applications). For instance, Web-based e-mail and online office tools, like Gmail, Google Docs or LexisNexis are cloud applications. Essentially, cloud applications are software programs you use over the Web, requiring less upfront investment and fewer maintenance headaches.

The nice thing about software in the cloud is that it does not cost you maintenance overhead. Think of cloud computing as buying utilities for your home. Analogous to the cloud computing, you would not build a generator in your backyard for electricity. Rather, you let the electric company distribute that cost to all its users. In the same way, cloud applications do not require buying hardware, services or maintenance contracts.

As an added bonus, cloud computing enables you to leverage the same technology muscle as large businesses without all of the costs they incur. For small businesses, this means playing on a more level playing field. Today, cloud computing providers are entering the market for just about every industry, including, health-care, legal, accounting, and sales. The most prominent example of cloud applications today is SalesForce, which provides a Customer Relationship Management ("CRM") tool for Sales and other related industries.

Cloud Computing Adoption

Cloud computing (and SaaS technology) has been around for at least a decade; so, why is cloud computing making headway now? The most important reason is the affordability, reliability and speed of your Internet connection. Being a remotely hosted service, cloud computing requires a fast and stable connection out to the Web to access your data. Internet connections are truly more reliable today. In fact, you will more likely have more downtime with your in-house technology versus downtime with a cloud provider because of a failed connection to the Web.

For small businesses, trusting someone else with their sensitive data can be extremely daunting. But, do not fret. Cloud providers will do a better job securing your data than you can. On your own hardware, chances are you risk hardware theft by employees or anyone else who has access to your computers – authorized or unauthorized. Secondly, you probably do not know much about data encryption. So, to cut your technology-spend the right way, find a reputable provide and begin exploring cloud computing for your business.

Read about Ed Scanlan’s adoption of Cloud computing at Total Attorneys.

What Cloud/SaaS services are available in your industry? What has been your experience with Cloud computing?