For many organizations, staying afloat in today’s complex legal and financial environment has become increasingly difficult.The amount of data that flows through companies has exploded while compliance measures have increased and deadlines for discovery have shortened. Current economic troubles can overburden IT and legal departments in several ways — not only are companies tightening their belts wherever possible, but increases in lawsuits, regulatory requests, and government investigations invariably accompany financial downturns.

In the current economic climate, organizations are more concerned than ever about the spiraling amount of electronic information generated. Many organizations have not properly developed retention policies, defined information architecture, or prepared methodologies for dealing with requests for specific information from larger data pools. The struggle to manage the exponential growth of electronic information is a major concern from a cost, management, and efficiency standpoint.

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This article was originally published in the April 2010 issue of BNA, Inc.

Guest post by Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk of BBR Marketing

Attorneys are suddenly starting to show some interest in the phenomenon that is social media, much to the thrill of their marketing personnel. But there is still a lot of confusion about this new medium, and objections abound. Below I take on a few of the most common ones.

Recruiters will poach our people. I hear this a lot. And it’s pretty easy to overcome. First of all, if your employees are that easy to poach, you need to look at your policies and see why they are so willing to leave. Secondly, there are many other ways for recruiters to find your people, and don’t think they aren’t getting calls from them on a regular basis. If you create a culture where people want to stay, it won’t matter if recruiters have another way to reach out to your staff.

We don’t have time. This is a valid concern, because if social media isn’t done correctly, it can be a huge time drain. However, if you manage your presence correctly, you can reap the benefits with a minimal time commitment. There are many tools available that can help you manage your various social media outlets. Hootsuite and SocialOomph are two great ones that allow you to schedule your tweets for a future time. So when you read something you think your audiences will find interesting, schedule an update. I find this allows me to maintain a connection with my followers without taking nearly as much time.

We don’t want our employees wasting time on social media. Again, a valid concern, but one that can be easily overcome by establishing a clear social media policy. Social media is like any other marketing tactic – it should be strategic and align with all your other marketing activities. Create a policy that allows you to gain the benefits from it while still maintaining a modicum of control. Train your employees on your policy and have it available for them to reference as needed. If they are busy with work, they won’t have time to spend chatting on Facebook. I personally think that the occasional visit to these sites has become the cigarette break of days gone by. It’s a quick moment to rest your mind and take a breath between tasks.

This is just a phase. Technology is always evolving. The current social media sites may not be here forever, but the concept is here to stay. (See my article entitled, “If the Pope is on Twitter…”) At one point email was considered to be a phase, but now you wouldn’t even think of not having an email address for each of your employees. The beauty of many of these social media sites is they allow you to establish a community of people – clients, prospects, colleagues, press – and create and maintain relationship with them. It simply makes it easier to reach people you’d never have access to through other methods.

LinkedIn is only full of people looking for jobs. There certainly are people who use LinkedIn to find jobs, but there are a lot more who use it to connect with colleagues, prospects and others in their industry. It is a treasure trove of information for anyone in business, regardless of what you are seeking. Don’t fall into the trap that many do and just set up a profile and leave. Create your profile with accurate information, and indicate whether you want to get job requests or not. Use the many tools on the site too. The advanced search feature can help you find business prospects more easily than any other traditional method. Join groups of like-minded people, and watch the connections start to form. It can be incredibly powerful.

In the end, the benefits far outweigh the concerns. You just need to do it in the correct way. Establish a plan and an owner for your firm’s social media presence and make sure you are consistent. I’ve personally reaped the benefits of being on LinkedIn and Twitter, and know you will too.

Let me know what you think. I’m happy to answer any questions you have, help craft a social media policy that will return results, or even come to your firm and train your staff on how to use social media properly. Now jump on in, the water’s fine. Oh, and connect to me on LinkedIn and Twitter.

BBR Marketing is the brainchild of Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk. She has nearly 20 years of marketing experience working with a diverse range of industries and people, most recently as the marketing director for a mid-sized accounting firm in Atlanta. Her creative thinking and distinctive approach allows her to bring unique ideas to her clients that differentiate them from their competition and give them the tools they need to reach their audiences.

Guest post by Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk of BBR Marketing.

Most law firms and other professional service firms make every effort possible to acquire and maintain healthy client relationships. Are you giving the same sort of attention to your staff so they will be your ambassadors instead of detractors? Do you really know what your employees are saying about your firm amongst themselves and with your clients? It’s time to find out.

Your employees are a vital part of your service delivery. Since you don’t sell a tangible product, you and your staff are the face of your firm. Everyone on your staff interacts with people every day, and they all make an impression on the people they meet. This is doubly important for professional services firms since your people not only deliver your product, they are your product.

By engaging your staff in a meaningful dialogue about their role in your firm, how it’s managed, and how it could be improved, you will gain valuable knowledge that will help you continue to deliver the best client service possible.

But make sure you do this in a way that will make your employees feel safe about sharing honest feedback; otherwise it’s an exercise in futility. You can do this in a couple of different ways, and a combination of both is usually best.

Surveys
There are many different free or cheap online survey tools that can use. The advantage is they are easy to deliver and return, and can aggregate the answers for you in a way that can keep the names of the respondents confidential. However, make sure you inform your employees about how these surveys are administered and reviewed, otherwise they may suspect that their answers can be tied back to them. Everyone fears repercussions in this process, so allay their fears as much as you can.

Interviews
These can be done in person or on the phone, and will yield more in-depth results. Nearly all of the time, it’s important to have an outside, trusted vendor help with this process, otherwise, your staff will not feel comfortable being truly open with their comments. The advantage of this is not only more honest feedback, but a skilled interviewer can ask follow-up questions that will delve deeper into issues that need to be addressed. The downside is they tend to be a bit more expensive, but the information gleaned usually far outweighs the financial investment.

If you’ve never surveyed your employees, it’s best to start with a personal interview, so you have a baseline from which to judge improvement initiatives. Then you may want to send out surveys on an annual basis after that. I recommend you conduct live interviews ever three years or so to make sure you are still getting frank feedback.

Make sure you ask combination of open- and closed-ended questions, and don’t make it too long. Ultimately, you want to ask your staff a few key questions, so you can uncover valuable information that will help you create a work environment that is healthy and conducive to growth. It’s really an easy process, and one that always uncovers valuable, and sometimes unexpected, information.

BBR Marketing is the brainchild of Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk. She has nearly 20 years of marketing experience working with a diverse range of industries and people, most recently as the marketing director for a mid-sized accounting firm in Atlanta. Her creative thinking and distinctive approach allows her to bring unique ideas to her clients that differentiate them from their competition and give them the tools they need to reach their audiences.