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The Communication Tool You Should Be Using—Google Hangouts

By Jeffrey E. Kirkey posted 02-25-2015 11:23

  

I am a huge fan of Google Hangouts. I use it routinely for both work and personal communication. Using my laptop, tablet, or smartphone, I can get and send instant messages, make free phone calls (yup, even tablets can make calls with Wi-Fi, not cell towers), and start video chats with anyone around the world so long as they have a Google account and a webcam. I’m impressed by the video quality and the way that Hangouts spotlights whoever is speaking. Skype and FaceTime are fine, but Google Hangouts has powerful tools that those do not.

Here are a few ideas for using Google Hangouts in your law practice.

  • Face-to-face discussions. Easily start a video chat with a regular client or make a great first impression on an out-of-town potential client with a video consultation. Google Hangouts uses a secure SSL connection.
  • Video conference calls. Your conference room is online. Turn any Hangout into a live video call with up to 10 colleagues. Even if someone doesn’t have a webcam, you can still connect by calling their phone number (you’ll hear that person but not see him or her during the conference).
  • Marketing. Creatively promote your practice with Hangout On Air. If you hold marketing seminars, provide training sessions, or video blog, it’s simple to broadcast and record your live presentations as Hangouts. You can even share your screen to show slides. After the recording has ended, you’re able to edit the video and post it to YouTube to reach a wider audience. (Be sure to put links to your presentations on your law firm web page to boost search engine visibility.) You’ve created some great multimedia content without spending a cent!

Of course, you can also give it a try for your family’s next get-together. On Christmas Day I started a Hangout that included relatives in Michigan, Illinois, British Columbia, Ontario, and Germany. We could see and hear each other well, and the Hangout was as festive as if we were all in the same room together!

To get started, visit https://plus.google.com/hangouts. You may need to download a small Gmail plugin, and you’ll probably want the Hangouts app for your smart devices too. If you’ve tried Google Hangouts, what are some of the creative ways you’ve put it to work for you?

 

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Bradley J. Nicoll
04-22-2015 23:33

I am a new lawyer. I started my practice in 2013 in Montmorency County, a very rural area. I have been working to make my office as technologically up to date as possible. With all of these new forms of communication, there is no reason I shouldn't be able to expand my practice beyond Montmorency County. I have been using Google Apps since day one. It offers my own domain name (@bradleyjnicoll.com), has digital storage of my communications (for ediscovery purposes), and I have trained my secretary to upload most of my documents to Google Drive so that I can access them remotely. I also use Google Calendar for just about all of my scheduling needs. It updates automatically to my phone and other devices. I also use Google Sites for a basic webpage that I was able to design and publish by myself (again using my own domain, as I am able to register my domain name with GoDaddy through Google Sites). Google has been a great way to get my business off the ground. I have just recently started learning to use Google Hangouts as well. I am sure I can use hangouts to schedule "virtual consultations" of some kind.

Michael C. Naughton
03-02-2015 16:26

I've become a big fan of the whole suite of Google Apps. I use Google Drive on a daily basis as my cloud storage solution. Hangouts integrates nicely with Google Docs. I'm in a mixed operating system environment as I use OS X, Linux, Windows as well as Android and iOS. Hangouts and the Google Apps suite works great in all of them as all it requires is a browser. I think you can use Hangouts in Safari, by the way. Check here:
https://support.google.com/hangouts/answer/3110347?hl=en

Todd David Lipsey
03-01-2015 00:58

When I became a member of the SBM, I realized that my directory profile listed, by default, my private cell phone number. I wanted to find a solution that allowed me to keep my personal cell phone number private but also allow me to publish a phone number on my SBM profile and on resumes. I stumbled on Hangouts and the companion app, Google Voice. GV allows me to have a separate phone number that people can call and it privately rings to my cell phone. GV also has voicemail. And the best feature: FREE. But GV is not a complete solution. In today's world, texting is as important as voice calls. GV does not support all forms of texting. In comes the solution: Hangouts. The benefit with Hangouts is that it will transcribe (albeit with many errors) your voicemails and will send a text to you of the transcript. One pitfall of Hangouts is (at least on OS X) is that the browser plug-in only works with Chrome and does not work with Safari. Thus, if you want to use Hangouts while on a desktop/laptop and Safari is your default browser, you manually have to download Chrome and launch that browser to use Hangouts.