The Three Ps: General in their tone, but hard as hell to sustain.
How many of you are truly passionate about your practice area?
“I love what I do.”
Are you willing to act as the Chief Hurdle Removal Officer (“CHRO”) (see The Little Big Things by Tom Peters) to make sure that nothing gets in your way of success (however you measure *it*)?
Do you have a vision, a mission and a direction that no matter what will sustain you in these troubled times?
“I won’t be defeated no matter what!”
I recognise that this is colourful, energetic language and does not chime with the usual hotch potch of billing, WIP, business development and, dare I say, marketing. It almost feels akin to something messianic.
[What’s wrong with that?]
But I am convinced that social media will NEVER scale if you don’t believe in your message. You can have as many connections as you like but you need to e-n-e-r-g-i-s-e your community.
Let’s face it the tools are not difficult (you only have to type 140 characters!) but, give it 6 months, your follower number dips, there have been no instructions and you seem, always, to be talking to yourself and you will need more than a bit of training to sustain your interest.
Stop and Focus.
Passion, purpose and persistence have to coalesce around a vision for your practice.
Do you have one?
What will it look like in 10 years time?
I know there will be many of you who have lost touch with your legal roots but social media is not the answer to restore your faith in what you do. If anything social media will leave you feeling empty if you don’t re-boot it with a sense of purpose.
Think how you can earn attention. Not in the look at me mould but rather the problem solving paradigm.
If you don’t enjoy what you do – going through the motions etc – then your lack of engagement will shine through.
Just remember that social media is a window on the World (your World if you like).
Your clients will want to deal with you because they know you, trust you and like you. But getting to that point will necessitate you adopt the Three Ps message. If you fail to do this, then you will never scale your efforts, and will revert to type.