At our LegalTech New York 2013 panel — "Taming the Wild West of Social Media: The Secrets of Social Media Success in the Legal Profession" — moderator Steve Mann, chief marketing officer of the Research & Litigation Solutions business at LexisNexis, pointed out that roughly one-half of all law firms are now using blogs as a way to reach potential clients. He asked our expert panelists to weigh in on how firms can assess whether blogging is a good marketing strategy for them.

"If you're going to get started in social media, a blog should be one of the cornerstones of your marketing efforts," said Larry Bodine, Esq., editor in chief of Lawyers.comSM and martindale.com®.

You can view a five-minute video segment of this piece of the panel discussion. Stay tuned next week for more details from the session.

The LexisNexis Law Marketing Blog quoted me and included a clip from the recent LegalTech New York 2013 panel.  Below is a snippet, but you may view the original blog post here.

At our LegalTech New York 2013 panel — "Taming the Wild West of Social Media: The Secrets of Social Media Success in the Legal Profession" — Steve Mann (chief marketing officer of the Research & Litigation Solutions business at LexisNexis) noted that career development remains the leading purpose for legal professionals to use online communities (cited by 71 percent in 2011 and 72 percent in 2012). However, the ABA study found that the number of professionals who used online communities for purposes of client development actually dropped last year (from 53 percent in 2011 to 42 percent in 2012).

The panelists addressed this trend and offered thoughts as to how law firms can use online communities to support business development.

"I can see why career development and professional networking are increasing in popularity because social media lubricates professional networking," said Larry Bodine, Esq., editor in chief of Lawyers.com^SM and martindale.com®. "One of the ways attorneys can convert this networking benefit into a client development strategy is to use social media to get to know people online and then turn that into an in-person meeting."

The LexisNexis Law Marketing Blog quoted me and included a clip from the recent LegalTech New York 2013 panel.  Below is a snippet, but you may view the original blog post here.

At our LegalTech New York 2013 panel — "Taming the Wild West of Social Media: The Secrets of Social Media Success in the Legal Profession" — Steve Mann (chief marketing officer of the Research & Litigation Solutions business at LexisNexis) noted that career development remains the leading purpose for legal professionals to use online communities (cited by 71 percent in 2011 and 72 percent in 2012). However, the ABA study found that the number of professionals who used online communities for purposes of client development actually dropped last year (from 53 percent in 2011 to 42 percent in 2012).

The panelists addressed this trend and offered thoughts as to how law firms can use online communities to support business development.

"I can see why career development and professional networking are increasing in popularity because social media lubricates professional networking," said Larry Bodine, Esq., editor in chief of Lawyers.com^SM and martindale.com®. "One of the ways attorneys can convert this networking benefit into a client development strategy is to use social media to get to know people online and then turn that into an in-person meeting."

At LegalTechNY, Steve Mann, chief marketing officer of the Research & Litigation Solutions business at LexisNexis, posed this question: If we have passed the tipping point for firms to use social media, why are so many firms reluctant to dive in?