Law Technology

One Size Fits All Snake Oil Targets Lawyers

By Rex Gradeless

There?s no doubt that 2009 marks the year when lawyers, law firms, and legal professionals are realistically considering using web 2.0 technologies within their business. (Arguably, these tools have been around for over half a decade.)

This was the year that almost every law school signed up for Twitter. Judges, lawyers, law students, paralegals, legal professionals – everyone has started using these tools causing an increase in demand.

Typically, with an increase in demand, next comes a flood of people who claim they can supply that demand.

2010 Prediction: Droves of people are going to try to sell legal professionals their product, gimmick, ?next best thing?, social media strategy, eBook, webinar, and who knows what. Anything for a quick buck.

Those of us who have been online for awhile, and you know who you are, have the responsibility to protect other legal professionals from these people.

Thus, comes the motivation for this post.

As I was surfing the Internet, I came across an article: ?Attorney Marketing Top 5 Social Media Strategies?. Typically, I won?t click on these types of posts because they rarely, if ever, actually know what they are talking about. But, unfortunately, I clicked on this one. Here?s what I found:

As you watch this video, do not be fooled by the fancy rental car or the classical music playing in the background. In my opinion, no honest salesperson would take you to a “secret location” to tell you about how to use social media tools. Furthermore, and as more evidence this man is clueless on social media in the legal profession,  lawyers don’t use MySpace as this man suggests.

The video is laughable and is merely a gimmick targeted at…well…EVERYONE! You’ll notice on the right side (see image above) this person uses the SAME video for Jusuru Internationl, Dental Advertising, Internet Dental Marketing, Marketing for Small Business, and Marketing for Newbies.

The video is also scary in that someone in the legal profession may be persuaded to pay for these services.

Beware of these on-size-fits-all snake oils, they will be increasingly avaiable in 2010.

Tips: 1) Ask friends to recommend someone they trust within the industry. 2) Do some research to make sure you find the right people.

And now, for the show…

Related posts:

1. How to Get More Blog Hits
2. Nike: Social Media and Lawyers
3. How Can Lawyers Use Twitter?

Full post as published by Social Media Law Student on December 09, 2009 (boomark / email).