Where's the balance between sharing relevant, important information which someone should really care about and well, just indiscriminately blasting information at people? How do you reach the nirvana of a juicy, rich conversation laden with engagement, facts and potential for follow-up? It is definitely in the content and absolutely in the delivery. The tension to share information is on my mind as I'm both a recipient and sender of content through social media channels. And this week I saw an uptick in information flow from one of my former firms. My initial thought as I saw the stream of information was "hey guys, if I wanted to sign up for a client alert, I would have done so!" I hadn't asked for the information, I hadn't heard a peep from the firm in a number of months - now this? Where's the engagement, the "how are you, it's been a while", the ice-breaker, conversation starter...something (anything!) to engage me, the audience, the recipient before I rush to hit delete or archive.

To reach your audience you need to engage. Great content is essential but not enough. Without conversation, you're simply pushing out information, "shouting" out content or "showing up at a reception with a script and a bullhorn" as my friend Kevin O'Keefe would say. And as Kevin noted in his blog "Distribution of law firm content is not what social media is for" about how the legal industry (poorly) uses social media:

"Being social means engaging other people. Engagement requires listening first and then entering into a conversation. It's how we as people build relationships. Relationships drive client development in the legal industry."

Social media tools like Twitter, Facebook, are not tools to avoid contact, or limit communication. Used effectively, guess what, they should lead to more conversations and interactions (crazy thought!) - and a really scary thought for the blasters, announcers and door-to-door sales folks using social media! If you don't enjoy listening to and participating in real conversations, hey- we'll create a new venue for you - Blast Away! a press release, client alert nirvana, no engagement allowed. Now don't expect anyone to take notice, regardless of what you have to say. Great content, without conversation falls completely flat - on deaf ears, one may say. To quote Kevin O'Keefe:

"Being social for client development purposes means identifying your target audience, going to where they are congregating, listening to what they are saying, engaging in the conversation by referencing what others are saying, and offering information and insight of value to others."

Share your information by sharing in the conversation.

http://kevin.lexblog.com/2009/10/articles/social-networking-1/distribution-of-law-firm-content-is-not-what-social-media-is-for/