By Margo Pierce
Published: 12 August 2011
The one thing most business people fail to do is plan their social media efforts. This translates into failing to leverage social media effectively. Despite the hype surrounding social media, social media isn’t magic, and will not automatically boost your legal finance company’s bottom line. It’s a tool that requires preparation and planning.
“Plan and be strategic,” says Jeff Ryan, president and CEO of Media Gopher. “The thing about social media is to be social. Consumers today no longer want to be spoken to; they want to engage in a conversation. Consumers don’t want to be marketed to; they want business people to listen to them.”
A social network monitoring provider, Media Gofer teaches their clients how to make the most of a social media presence. They help individuals and businesses understand, utilize and analyze their online presence. Preventing a problem before it occurs is critical to long-term success in the world of social media, according to Ryan.
“A big mistake business owners make is that they only self promote,” he says. “You can’t just broadcast advertisements about yourself. That’s the kind of communication users tune out. The worst thing you can do is end up on an ‘ignore’ list – then nobody will listen to what you have to say.”
The ignore list is an option that allows an individual to block everything coming from a particular user. Once blocked, it’s difficult to regain that person as an interested audience. To prevent people from shutting you down, pause, think and plan. This can be especially important for a legal finance company, where the target audience includes plaintiffs requiring help and compassion. There are many ways legal finance companies can strengthen their social media platforms:
Match marketing goals with the medium
Whether your goal is to find new clients or be viewed by the media as the go-to source for legal finance information, it’s essential to know what you want to accomplish. Then it’s possible to match the target audience with the appropriate message once you find out where those people “live” online.
Research, research, research
Research the various forms of social media. Research the users of that form. Research the etiquette for communications and the expectations of users in that space. All of this is relatively easy to find because data collection and sharing is a mainstay for these sites if they want to promote themselves or sell advertising. All of this work is necessary to:
Orchestrate social media efforts
To get make the biggest impact with online activities, it’s essential to cross-promote, Ryan says. A specific plan should be created and used consistently to make the most of all social media outlets. Ryan recommends that is should look something like this:
1. Put up a new blog posting about legal finance, with substantive comments
2. Link to the new post on Facebook and LinkedIn pages
3. Tweet about the post with an attention-getting fact via Twitter or some other micro-blog account
4. Be sure to add hash tags (such as #plaintiffs, #lawsuits, #financing) to get your tweets going out to people who follow the topics addressed in the post
5. Watch for comments responding to the post. If someone shares a thought, respond; try to add something that expands or continues the exchange
Be involved
It’s not enough to try to start the conversation. People who want to be heard also need to listen and converse with others about what matters to them. Ryan says it’s also important to follow and comment on what others do in these same social media forums.
“You really have to engage people, “Ryan says. “Find communities that are in the sphere of influence that you’re interested in and participate. You have to be seen as engaged, involved, otherwise people won’t bother to listen to what you have to say.”
For legal finance companies, starting online conversations with plaintiffs, attorneys and other legal finance companies can help create this level of engagement. Taking part in guest blog post exchanges with other legal finance companies is also a way to take part in discussions while raising a company’s profile. Making regular and substantive comments on blogs hosted by professional organizations and legal finance trade journals is another way to engage people.
All of this takes time, but it will take less time if efforts are targeted and controlled. A conservative approach at the start can help companies avoid costly mistakes. “There’s nothing quick about it at all, it takes a commitment,” Ryan says. “This is about talking to each other, not promoting.”
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