Mediaboss Marketing

Are you focused on the easy when it comes to Internet marketing? Clicks, views, subscriptions, and followers when measuring your marketing success with websites, blogging, and other social media.

Rather than focusing on something easy, widely respected marketer, author, and speaker, Seth Godin suggests that you ask:

What is it that you hope to accomplish? Not what you hope to measure as a result of this social media strategy/launch, but to actually change, create or build?

Focus on the real goal where do you want to be at at the end of the day, not on numbers, per Godin.

An easy but inaccurate measurement will only distract you. It might be easy to calibrate, arbitrary and do-able, but is that the purpose of your work?

I know that theres a long history of a certain metric being a stand-in for what you really want, but perhaps that metric, even though its tried, might not be true. Perhaps those clicks, views, likes and groups are only there because theyre easy, not relevant.

Law firm business development and marketing will always be measured by growth in business. The same is true with Internet marketing.

These goals can be and are measured by the bottom line, revenue. Anyone saying we cant directly measure this type of return from Internet marketing, is just saying its too hard, well chase numbers instead.

Lawyers developing business do not have a hard time knowing where their new business is coming from. Ask them. If they dont know, they probably arent developing new business. Theyll feel comfort in your easy to track numbers.

If you want to look at incremental measurements, look at whether a lawyer is becoming a recognized authority in their niche area of law and building a powerful network of relationships with clients, prospective clients, referral sources, and the influencers of all three.

Rightfully so, law firms and lawyers use blogs and other social media, including Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. These mediums, used effectively, build relationships and build a name, the two linchpins of business development in law.

However, lawyers and law firms take the easy way out in measuring success here. They look at analytics subscribers, web traffic, followers, connections, likes, and comments.

Analytics are the golden calf worshipped by marketers and lawyers spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on websites and other Internet marketing. Its as if their budgets and jobs depend on these numbers they probably do.

Jill Avery, a senior lecturer at Harvard Business School, interviewed by Amy Gallo for a Harvard Business Review piece, says:

Good marketing is not about winning creative awards or telling interesting stories. Its about delivering customers and sales. It puts a bit more rigor on whats historically been much more intangible.

Focus on sales when you establish goals for Internet marketing and when you measure success or failure. What can we do in incremental new revenue? Did we hit that goal at year one, year two and year three.

Every law firm claims to be different, while all are all focused on the same metrics. From Godin:

System innovations almost always involve rejecting the standard metrics as a first step in making a difference. When you measure the same metrics, youre likely to create the same outcomes. But if you can see past the metrics to the results, its possible to change the status quo.

No question there are lawyers and a few law firms measuring the difficult and the real goal but sadly, most measure the easy numbers.

Kevin OKeefe (@kevinokeefe) is the CEO and founder ofLexBlog, which empowers lawyers to increase their visibility and accelerate business relationships online. With LexBlogs help, legal professionals use their subject matter expertise to drive powerful business development through blogging and social media. VisitLexBlog.com.

LexBlog also hostsLXBN,the worlds largest network of professional blogs. With more than 8,000 authors, LXBN is the only media source featuring the latest lawyer-generated commentary on news and issues from around the globe. Visitlxbn.comnow.

Go here to see the original:
Don't Measure The Easy When It Comes To Internet Marketing - Above the Law