A Sure-Fire, 100% Premonition For Legal Marketing In 2012

As December winds to a close, we’re bombarded with predictions for the upcoming year.  Everyone wants to sound off about what’s going to happen next year.  Blogging will be hot, Twitter will be super-hot, Google+ will be on fire, Foursquare will explode, and somehow Yellow Pages advertising will make a comeback.

The reality is that nobody can reliably predict what’s going to happen.

Case in point (and stay with me to the end, please).

There’s a musical group called Girls’ Generation, and they’re one of a growing number of South Korean pop bands hitting the U.S. and the rest of the world by storm.  I’ve been listening to their music for the past year, and I’m betting you think I’m the only one who’s heard of them.

Not so.  On October 23, 2011 SMTown, a South Korean entertainment company, sold out Madison Square Garden with their SMTown Live ’10 World Tour.  Fluke?  The L.A. stop on the tour, held at The Staples Center, was a sell-out as well.

Girls’ Generation’s YouTube video for Gee, a disposable enough tune that sticks in your head and makes you want to dance around the living room like a maniac, has been watched 60 million times.  You click the insights bar next to the number of views and you’ll see that it’s been watched as much in the U.S. as in Asia.

Never saw THAT coming, did you?

Here’s the video. I don’t understand Korean, but suspect the lyrics aren’t all that deep.

My point, and I do have one (aside from getting you to watch the video and have the hook stick in your skull), is that our predictions are informed solely by our existing worldview.

We walk around with blinders, thinking that everyone in the world is just like us. I drink Coke Zero, so I assume you want one if you come to visit my house. You’ve been advertising in the Yellow Pages ever since you opened up shop 20 years ago, so you can’t wrap your head around the possibility that people in your area are getting their answers by asking friends on Facebook or interacting with lawyers on Twitter.

We can’t predict.  Doesn’t matter what infographics you look at, or who you listen to.  It’s an educated guess at best.

So here’s my premonition – not a prediction, but a lock-solid guarantee – of what’s going to happen in 2012.

2012 will continue the evolution we’ve seen for the past decade or more, as communication channels open up and consumers of legal services demand more of their service providers.

You never know what will be the next big thing. All you can do is keep watching the trends, learning every new skill you can pick up and soaking it all in.

Get cracking, folks. To channel Margo Channing, fasten your seatbelts – it’s going to be a bumpy year!

Got your own predictions for 2012?

Image credit:  PiYe -