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“You can get everything you want in life if you will just help other people get what they want.”
—Zig Ziglar, American author, salesman, and motivational speaker.
Developing a Media System
Of course, we need to begin somewhere. Rather than as a marketing guru, I (Dr. Sase) am a professional economist speaking to attorneys. Therefore, allow me to guide by example and through a discussion of my media mix. Also, I will outline the evaluation process that I use before committing a portion of the ten to twenty percent of my work time that I allocate to professional communications. This commitment of a one-half to one-full workday per week equivalency has been promoted by marketing/public relations gurus such as Zig Ziglar, Tom Hopkins, and others for many decades.
Though social-media work is not difficult, it does require an ongoing dedication of both time and effort.
Many forms of social media—both traditional and nouveau—exist today. Therefore, I search for and settle upon the ones that give me pure enjoyment, and that present a high probability of a worthwhile return for my investment of time. Like most of us, I find that making an ongoing commitment to a particular media form seems to be less of a chore when I enjoy the participation. For example, I like to write about Economics and related topics in a way that educates readers who have a more limited background in the subject. I consider this an opportunity to teach and to share my expertise with attorneys and the community at large. I feel that a newspaper/newsfeed reaching these readers constitutes an excellent vehicle for my writing. As a result, I have been producing this monthly column for The Legal News since February 1999.
Another mainstay in my social-media mix has been my Web site, www.saseassociates.com. This Web site, which I use for my consulting practice, includes text, photos, video and audio files, downloadable PDFs, and other content related to the field of Economics. As it continues to evolve, my site has become a participatory learning process. I learn from the research that I do for my website. Also, I like to share this information with my colleagues to help them with their projects. Currently, any Internet user can build and maintain a substantial Unix site of unlimited pages and more than enough e-mail boxes to carry a practice through years of growth for about $250.00 per year.
Many excellent books, articles, and free videos offer help to get up and running on the Web. Though most hosting sites provide website building and management, I find that the knowledge and skill gained from doing it myself has contributed to my ability to tweak and improve my site with ease and to keep it integrated with my media mix.
Is a Web site essential to market one’s services? I have found that clients discover and retain me by following the ancient path of “know, like, and trust.” First, most of us prefer to know something in advance about those with whom we choose to do business. Second, we are more comfortable working with others whom we like and with whom we share fundamental human values and beliefs. Third, when we consider making a substantial investment of our time, money, and confidence, we seek to work with other professionals whom we trust. So, is a Web site necessary? No. However, it is a very valuable convenience in this day of electronic media. More often than not, we find ourselves going online to locate a business, to find pertinent information, or even to get a phone number. Web sites serve to reduce search time for most users. Furthermore, when used as an integral component of a media mix, a Web page can help us to develop the fundamental attitude of “know, like, and trust” that remains at the core of any professional relationship.
In addition to using the variety of static Web pages, many of us have taken to developing audio and video content on our sites. (Warning: this activity can be a real time-sucker if you genuinely enjoy working with this media.) I (Dr. Sase) started making movies when I was twelve years old. I used an inexpensive 8mm camera that I bought with the earnings from my paper route. Also, I have been recording music and spoken-word since my teenage years. Using such media has become second nature to me. Therefore, I gravitated readily to YouTube as a social media and invested the time to learn my way around that sector of cyberspace. Since I make animated PowerPoint (PPT) presentations for teaching Economics and related subjects, I uploaded these works to YouTube by using some inexpensive software that allows me to convert PPT files automatically to YouTube video formats. Growing more comfortable with the world of YouTube, I have continued to expand my range of productions and have made many available to my client base through my professional Web site and at www.youtube.com/c/videoeconomist.
Analogously, I look at my LinkedIn network as I would a college dorm, one in which I get to invite incoming residents. As LinkedIn exudes the underlying tone of a study dorm rather than a party dorm (I think that Facebook has become the party dorm), all of us have some expectations of the atmosphere and code of social behavior. Recalling my undergrad years, I remember fellow “dormies” with whom I would study regularly. I also remember that the engineering students would concentrate in one dorm and that contingencies of pre-med and pre-law students would band together in other dorms. Liberal arts and business students would carve out safe havens in other residence halls. The most functional dorms were those that were hospitable and friendly, were tolerant of differences, and maintained an air of healthy communication.
As a result of these and other living-learning experiences, I take the time to introduce myself when I send out invitations on LinkedIn. When I extend invites to join my network, I mention something about myself and my interests that I hope are relevant to an invitee. I invest the time to make my invitations personal rather than sending a generic “I’d like to add you to my professional network – [name].” Furthermore, when I have something to share with members of my network, I may make a general posting on my site. On other occasions, I send out a link or some specific piece of information on an individual basis to those who may be the most interested in the topic. It takes more time than “spamming” a bundle of names. However, I consider this personal touch as necessary because I believe that social networking represents an opportunity to achieve
the spirit of “know, like, and trust” with colleagues.
Social media that I have not included in my mix are Twitter, Blogs, and Vlogs. For short messages on the run, I use text-messaging on my cellphone. However, I prefer to work with the fuller keyboard of my laptop for more detailed professional communication. Having experimented with blogs, I find them to be time-consuming and somewhat duplicative of my feature column in the Legal News. I am considering Vlogs as a means of social media. However, with so many poor-quality Vlogs on the Internet, I am waiting until I can achieve the level of quality that I get in my YouTube videos. Otherwise, a Vlog is not much more than a Skype video call.
Using a social media mix has resulted in reaching a more extensive base of clients and colleagues within my field, not only in the Midwestern United States but in various countries around the world. More importantly, focusing on the know-like-trust approach in my communications has helped to strengthen and grow my client base with the kinds of clients with whom I prefer to engage. I find and maintain a clientele that I get to know and like as a pre-condition for having a base of clients whom I trust and who can trust me. I have learned that people will trust you more when they notice that you care more about others than you do about yourself. In effect, they are saying that they do not care how much you know until they know how much you care. These are relational elements that potential clients of attorneys consider when they seek legal counsel. Therefore, social media can provide attorneys with avenues to find clients, to get productive referrals, and to establish a network of trust within their community.
Of course, social media is only a tool. It is the content of the media that gives purpose to the communication. Otherwise, we are just flapping our gums. So, we say this to attorneys: Find the media mix that works best for you and your practice and fill it with content that reflects the best of what you have to offer. This combination should prove to be an effective way to grow your client base, to realize a healthy return on your investment of time and money, and to achieve a meaningful purpose in your professional life. I hope that I have helped many of my readers make a dent into mastering the Post-Pandemic “Brave New World.”
Takeaway
In closing, let us 1. Reflect on developing a focus on ourselves that defines each of us as the “go-to” person in our fields; 2. Create a media-savvy communication network for ourselves and practices with backups that enable us to exist in a purely digital form when necessary as we learn to keep riding the technology waves. 3. Continue to develop multiple streams of income. This task may challenge and require us to step outside of our comfort zones. However, we should not be afraid of failing because trial and error lead us to personal growth and reliance upon ourselves. As an old musician once reminded me, “keep on playing.”
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Dr. John F. Sase teaches Economics at Wayne State University and has practiced Forensic and Investigative Economics for twenty years. He earned a combined M.A. in Economics and an MBA at the University of Detroit, followed by a Ph.D. in Economics from Wayne State University. He is a graduate of the University of Detroit Jesuit High School (www.saseassociates.com).
