New Spice for My Social World

The social media I travel in for my day job, the legal industry, has been buzzing for the last few days with a change that could be a fundamental shift in strategy for many of us. And I'm not talking about "Old Spice Guy", although many have been across the blogsphere: here, here, here and here, for instance. BTW, congrats to Wieden and Kennedy for their creativity!

No, I'm referring to the introduction into LinkedIn.com of the JDSupra.com channel for "Legal Updates", now available as a tool to any LinkedIn user. Here's the news release. From my standpoint, it addresses almost all the issues I've had with other online publishers.

First, because of the prominence of LinkedIn and its growing membership in the legal business (an estimated one million lawyers among it's 75 million members), activity in LinkedIn gets picked up by the main professional organization in the US, the American Bar Association. That distribution is additional to the large LinkedIn and JDSupra audiences notified of the news. And the channel we support in JDSupra gets all of its content carried in the sections of Legal Updates, thereby assisting me with distribution in LinkedIn, which was, until last week, restricted manual input previously to the groups and contacts for the lawyers in our firm.

Second, because it is a tool available to anyone in LinkedIn, we get around the subscription model of sites like Mondaq and their brethren. JDSupra makes the content more like passing a news article around the office, a contact or friend just shows up with it or emails it to you. In LinkedIn, you'll get an updates message about your contacts every so often, and they will have subscribed to the Legal Updates. The tool makes it easy to distribute specific articles to specific contacts, but the whole stream is visible on your profile.

No need to describe the system, it's pretty easy to use and my friend Jayne Navarre has a wonderful outline of its benefits and a case study on the Virtual Marketing Officer blog. But I think the social utility world has just changed permanently for the legal business.

Do you agree?

Hey, Verizon Wireless: Can You Hear Me Now?

Verizon Wireless puts up some clever commercials and spends a ton to get noticed. Just how long did it take the 2002 "Can You Hear Me Now?" campaign to become integrated into the popular lexicon? A year? Two? It's ubiquitous now.

Hey, I'm a Verizon Wireless customer, even. In fact, I have the Verizon total communication package: HTC Android phone on the Wireless side, FIOS TV/internet/phone number on the home side, VW blackberry on the work side. Verizon wall to wall.

Even used to own some Verizon stock. Sold it a while back out of frustration: the communication giant has no idea how to communicate with its customer base. Strong technical chops. Powerful ad creative and media buys. Stellar customer service for customers, if you're willing to use the automated phone system or Web site. Want to let the company know you're bring treated poorly by customer service or see an error in their processes? Take a hike.

There is no choice on the Contact Us pages to lodge a complaint or send a suggestion. There is no email address to petition, no phone number to call. The marketing message is crystal clear: If your need doesn't fit into the technical support for an existing service or the selection of a new one, they simply have no reason to listen to you.

And the evidence of their cluelessness and disdain is actually being send to their customers regularly. Take the Android upgrade I ranted about in my last post. This took effect in May and the rollout was completed May 16. Then, on July 16, at my Verizon.net email address, this message arrives:


Hey, Verizon. Been there, done that.

So, what's the progressive marketing angle? Just this: the fundamentals still count. Communication must be two-way. Marketing may send the message through mass and online media channels that Verizon Wireless has the service array and customer support everyone needs. But it also must offer their audiences a feedback channel to monitor how the company is actually delivering their promises and have the opportunity to benefit from their mistakes.

Communication => Feedback => Restatement => Feedback.

Recognize that? Public Relations 101.

Now, to give some credit where it's due, my wife recently upgraded her wireless phone and actually got a call post-purchase to ask if things were going well. She received information at the sales desk that cause her to look into a possible discount on wireless service. When she made that call, the rep let her know that the FIOS side was running a special deal on premium channels on the TV for three months. Now, that's what I'm talking about!!

And a week later, they sent me a notice on an upgrade that was two months ago. Sheesh.