The business and legal worlds have evolved rapidly in the last twenty years. Email, internet access, and online research tools, once novelties, are now considered the most basic of necessities.

In one surprising respect, however, the world remains the same as it was a century ago.  A recent law-firm commissioned study has revealed that a greater percentage of legal service consumers depend on personal relationships to select attorneys than all other methods combined.  Two important exceptions to the rule were noted:

• Survey participants ages 18 to 24 years-old were more likely to search the internet to find a lawyer. In fact, 17.8% of survey participants in this age category said they had retained a lawyer via the web compared to only 12.1% who indicated they had chosen a lawyer based on a friend’s recommendation.
• Survey participants earning more than $150,000 per year were more likely to choose an attorney based on an internet search, than via a friend.

The survey page breaks down the result by age, income, and geography, and is worth a thorough read.  At Avvo, legal marketer Gyi Tsakalakis summarizes the results and offers the following conclusion:

Instead of bombarding people with more law firm advertisements that they hate, try a different approach to communicating the value of your services. Highlight your most important reputation evidence. Think of yourself as a publisher, not a commercial.

Lawyers tend to spend so much time and money obsessing about things like links, rankings and followers. These tend to be the same lawyers who don’t regularly contact current and former clients. These the people who are most likely to send you your next clients. Spend more time doing real law firm stuff.