Apr 11
20

Key Lime Pie Law Firm Marketing Strategy

17 Comments

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Key Lime Pie

An important slice of any law firm's marketing strategy?

Earlier this month I was in Marks & Spencer and a Key Lime Pie caught my eye.

I can’t recall ever eating a Key Lime Pie before but I had seen Scott Greenfield twit (he does not tweet) about such pies. He is rather partial to them and sometimes waits by his mailbox for Key Lime Pie deliveries.

So I was tempted to purchase the Key Lime Pie from Marks & Spencer and sample this desert that our American cousins are more accustomed to. I quite liked it. Mrs BI, on the other hand, thought it a bit sickly.

What, you may ask, does this have to do with law firm marketing?

Well I think it perhaps demonstrates that by lawyers revealing a little bit about themselves in social media posts they are more likely to imprint themselves on your subconscious mind.

When I saw that Key Lime Pie on the shelf it was Scott Greenfield that came to mind. That evening when I tucked into the Pie it was again Scott Greenfield that came to mind. I tweeted to Scott: “Eating Key Lime Pie. You came to mind.” Scott responded “I do that to people.” I then sent Scott the tweet that was to inspire this blog post: “Your Key Lime Pie Law Marketing Strategy obviously works wonders.” Scott responded that this was AV rated:-

RT @BrianInkster: @scottgreenfield Your Key Lime Pie Law Marketing Strategy obviously works wonders. #LMA11 <It's AV Rated, you know.

Well I think it warrants AV® Preeminent™.  It has been said that 10% of your tweets should be personal/hobbies and that people will remember you for your personal interests (Source: Donna Seyle tweeting from the #mylegal Conference – 21 October 2010).

I think this is very true. When I met Joanna Goodman for the first time she started chatting to me about my tango dancing. She knew about this from my tweets. When I met Paul Hajek for the first time I asked him how his holiday to Croatia was. I knew from his tweets that he had recently returned from holidaying in Croatia. The other night when walking home from my local train station I saw a fox and thought of Victoria Moffat. She mentioned a few days ago in a tweet having seen a fox from a train. Whenever I drink Rioja then Charon QC springs to mind. If it is a cocktail, or indeed mention of Winston Churchill, then Chris Sherliker is there. When the sun shines then I know that the weather in Langside is matching ‘sunny Partick‘ where Michelle Hynes stays.

By placing themselves in my mind when least expected these lawyers are (probably without realising it) achieving much more in marketing themselves by those personal tweets than the many lawyers on Twitter who are holding back on revealing any personal information. The lawyers that achieve that top of mind awareness on a regular basis are more likely to be top of mind the day I need to seek their advice or make a referral to them.

What do you think?

Have you experienced the Key Lime Pie effect? Should lawyers reveal a little bit about their personal self on Twitter? Where do you draw the line? Can a Key Lime Pie Law Firm Marketing Strategy result in business for lawyers or will it just be Marks & Spencer who will benefit from it?

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This entry was posted on 20/04/2011 at 8:02 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Posted in Marketing Twitter by Brian Inkster 17 Comments

17 Responses to "Key Lime Pie Law Firm Marketing Strategy"

  • Julian Summerhayes says:
    20/04/2011 at 8:14 am
    Reply

    If there is anyone out there who likes Devon scrumpy then it’s all yours. It gives me a dirty rotten headache. As to dropping the veil, I think for smaller firms it is or should be much easier. However, if you work inside a magic circle firm, you will want, and in some cases need to, control the messaging and there humanising things may be difficult. In terms of earning attention for you or your firm’s brand, I agree that we need to see that you are human, but I would hope that Twitter is just the first stage in the engagement process.

    Regards
    Julian

    PS I don’t like Key Lime pie but I am partial to rice pudding.

    • Brian Inkster says:
      20/04/2011 at 10:59 pm
      Reply

      Thanks Julian

      Now scrumpy and/or rice pudding will bring you to mind!

      The magic circle firms need to relax a bit and give their lawyers some freedom.

      Agreed that Twitter should be a stepping stone to greater engagement.

  • Victoria Moffatt says:
    20/04/2011 at 8:26 am
    Reply

    Hello Timeblawg…

    Nice post, I think it can be difficult to get the balance right on Twitter. Too much personal information and you can lose credibility, insufficient personality on the other hand and you can come across as a pushy salesperson type – which completely misses the point.

    You are right about the ‘subconscious’ effect of memorable tweets. Although i don’t watch Dr Who – every time i now see a mention, i also think of this blog and twitter account. Clever!

    • Brian Inkster says:
      20/04/2011 at 11:24 pm
      Reply

      Thanks Victoria

      Yes… balance is important.

      Pleased to hear that The Time Blawg is already implanted in your subconscious ;-) It will no doubt come to mind more often over the next few weeks as the next series of Dr Who begins on the BBC :-)

  • Gavin at LawCloud says:
    20/04/2011 at 10:46 am
    Reply

    Look up at a cloud and what comes to mind? Just kidding – stretching things a little there.

    Great educational post Brian!

    Best wishes
    Gavin at LawCloud

    • Brian Inkster says:
      20/04/2011 at 11:32 pm
      Reply

      Thanks Gavin

      Having spent the evening being entertained by Denovo Business Intelligence, with iPads in the Apple Store, their Intelligent Cloud for Lawyers might just come to mind first ;-)

  • Tom Valenti says:
    20/04/2011 at 12:58 pm
    Reply

    Great post! I think we are professionally all to often remembered for our biggest success or our biggest failure, but in reality we should be remembered for what we do consistently. The Key Lime effect allows the readers memory to reshape its view and remember something more tasty!

  • shg says:
    20/04/2011 at 4:33 pm
    Reply

    The irony is, I don’t actually like key lime pie all that much. I was just trying to see if I could shame Brian Tannebaum into spending the $40 to ship me one.

    Now if the discussion is about about driving my 1964 Austin Healey BJ8 down to the mailbox to pick up my key lime pie, well then we’re talking about things that matter.

    • Brian Inkster says:
      20/04/2011 at 11:40 pm
      Reply

      Thanks Scott

      Interesting marketing point: You might not actually have to like something to be associated with it. You just need to twit about it!

      I don’t see a 1964 Austin Healey BJ8 very often (not sure if I ever have seen one) but now you will be top of mind when I do.

  • Miriam Said says:
    20/04/2011 at 8:12 pm
    Reply

    Excellent point and strangely, I am now a kind of brand on Twitter with the key words of Penguin, awesome, crime fighting and solving murders as well as strange and occasionally Ninja.

    I am not, however some king of penguin costumed super hero, but the brand is building itself and it has taken on a life of it’s own.

    Perhaps it’s because I engage with a wide spectrum of people on Twitter and that engagement is very highly personalised and people remember the little things you do for them, even if it is a kind word or a question you ask about them that no one else has asked them before.

    Collaborative Social Media, is how I see Twitter, it’s something more than just media, it’s something more than just social, it’s where the awesome things happen.

    • Brian Inkster says:
      20/04/2011 at 11:51 pm
      Reply

      Thanks Miriam

      You are indeed such a brand and growing stronger by the day with all the blogging you are now doing.

      You are in effect doing very well what I espouse in my talk on the importance of personal branding for young lawyers:-

      http://www.inksters.com/itandmarketinginthelegalprofession.aspx

      I recently received a spam comment on my Paper.li post that read:-

      “It’s practically impossible to look at a penguin and feel angry.”

      You came immediately to mind and I am sure the next time I see mention of a penguin you will also be top of mind.

  • Michelle Hynes Legaleaglemhm says:
    20/04/2011 at 10:21 pm
    Reply

    Hi Brian
    Thank you for the mention in this very relevant blog post. Many lawyers cringe at the thought of showing their ‘human side’ yet it is often exactly this quality that clients remember when drafting their testimonials.

    There is always a very fine line and one which i try to judge carefully in every post I send on twitter – I try to keep it real ( but not so personal to effect or compromise myself, my University or the firm I work for)

    The key to building a ‘brand’ for either a person or a firm is of course persistence , a one off tweet can be lost in the stream of media blurb but if you are persistent and consistent then eventually something will be remembered.

    As I enter the world of law as a trainee solicitor in the area of criminal law my tweets , I hope reflect both my passion for Law and for people and what better qualities than a ‘sunny outlook’ after all who wants a doom and gloom lawyer?

    Whilst the ‘sun’ does not always shine here in Partick in Glasgow’s west end, I hope that when people think of Legaleaglemhm they will know that even when its dark or snowing , my approach is always that of a sunny disposition.

    As communications change and the legal profession try to keep up we will no doubt see many ‘false’ tweets with companies trying to create the ‘image ‘ of being that caring family lawyer who sits in the oak lined office having been the family lawyer for years.
    This will not work as engagement will fail , for once you pull away the veil what you might find is a 3 party tweeting on their behalf.

    A GREAT POST Brian and very relevant to all lawyers on twitter and of course to new lawyers too.
    signing out and looking forward to a day at court tomorrow
    from SUNNY Partick, in Glasgow’s west end.

    Michelle Hynes
    aka @Legaleaglemhm

    • Brian Inkster says:
      20/04/2011 at 11:57 pm
      Reply

      Thanks Michelle

      It came as quite a shock to learn that the ‘sun’ does not always shine in Partick. I don’t need to move from the South Side to the West End then ;-)

      Your sunny disposition does indeed shine through whatever the weather. A refreshing change from the many doom and gloom lawyers out there. Although I don’t think any of them are using social media yet!

  • travisthetrout says:
    20/04/2011 at 10:58 pm
    Reply

    Enjoyable post and very true. My brain retains the odd facts (or should I say personal insights) about the people I tweet with forming a more personal connection. Those people are much more memorable. I have found that many twegals share my love for notebooks and often get asked for recommendations despite trying to keep my two blogs separate.

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