It is called "publicness", and where anybody that tries it can open themselves up to ridicule by somebody ... somewhere ... sometime ... it also has some amazing benefits for a cheap cost.
As stated by Jeff Jarvis over at BuzzMachine, publicness can, among other things --
1. Make and improve relationships. This is essential to building a referral-based law practice.
2. Enable collaboration. When the process is opened, you are inviting people to help you improve what is being done.
3. Build trust. Is it not true that you trust those you know (or know of) more than those that you do not?
4. Enable the wisdom of the crowd. It promotes collectiveness.
5. Organize us. It helps us find others that believe as we do.
6. Protect Us. In short, if we know what we do will be public, we tend to mind what we do better.
7. Build Value.
I have a theory about "publicness":
When I lived in California, everyone, myself included, came home at night, drove straight into the garage, and with our automatic garage door thingee, shut the garage door immediately behind us. Most of us were civil, but not terribly friendly.
When I lived in Pennsylvania, I walked to work, to shopping, to everything. I recognized the same people on the street in my neighborhood and they recognized me. Some us even knew each other's name. When I went back for a visit after being gone almost two years, I ran into a few of these friendly folks. Invariably, they greeted me by name and asked me where I had been.
I don't know what kind of business value that is, but it sure makes you feel good that somebody knows your name! And, I'd like to think that if one of my street acquaintances (or, one of their friends or family member) needed a lawyer, they would remember that I am a lawyer and actually quite easy to talk to.
Posted by: Corinne A. Tampas | September 26, 2010 at 07:25 PM