Legal Internet Marketing Blog

Recently, Bing paired up with Facebook and rolled out its Social Search, which is similar, but not an exact replica, of Google’s system with the same name. While Bing’s search is solely Facebook-orientated, Google’s Social Search system integrates data from Flickr, Google Buzz, Twitter, Quora, and YouTube, in addition to the soon-to-launch +1 Button by Google.

To access Bing’s Social Search, users need to log into Facebook. Search results through Bing are then filtered by what a user’s friends “Like” on Facebook. As in, when a user is searching for something, Bing takes into account what their Facebook friends have liked and returns results based upon that information. Bing has dubbed the practice the “friend effect” and believes that people are more likely to trust what their circle of friends Like on Facebook. For example, if a user is searching airline tickets and finds that many of their friends clicked Like for Southwest, the assumption is that the user is much more likely to book through Southwest rather than United or other airlines.

Additionally, Bing will populate users’ Facebook feeds with search results if a user clicks Like for the results. For example, if a user searches Bing for flights between Los Angeles and San Francisco and clicks “Like” for the results, their Facebook profile will be updated with new offers of flights to San Francisco. While many Facebook users may view this as spam, other users may find it convenient. Many users may also be uncomfortable with linking search results to their Facebook, and it remains to be seen whether Bing will share users’ preferences with Facebook.

Bing’s launch of its own Social Search makes it more relevant than ever for attorneys and law firms to have a quality Facebook page that engages with and encourages users to Like. It is also important to consider finding a way to effectively integrate the Facebook Like button on both legal websites and blogs, making use of other relevant coding and tags in order to appear in search results. And hopefully, by being optimized socially for Bing, it will generate more likes for your Facebook page.

While the integration of social and search continues to evolve, think about what your legal Internet marketing goals are in relation to your target audience and reputation. To find out what kind of plan you need to fulfill these goals, contact the law firm Internet marketing team at SLS Consulting. Call 323-254-1510 today for a free growth assessment.

Source: http://www.searchenginenews.com/se-news/content/are-you-optimized-for-the-new-bing-social-search

Tech Crunch reports that shares of career-orientated social networking site LinkedIn (trading under the symbol LNKD) began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday, May 19, and skyrocketed by 140 percent from its debuting cost of $83 per share, to a high of $122, to close at $93.86 per share. Originally priced at $45, it was expected the stocks would open between $78 and $82. Now, LinkedIn is valued at over $8.9 billion.

These numbers mark the biggest Internet company initial public offering (IPO) since shares of Google became public back in 2004. LinkedIn is one of the first social networking sites to go public, and rumors abound that other social media companies such as Facebook and Groupon are readying their own IPOs.

There are over 100 million users registered on LinkedIn, which was started just eight years ago. The company made only $15.4 million last year, yet was estimated to be valued at about $4.25 billion, which was almost one billion higher than initially estimated. According to Mashable, the new valuation of LinkedIn at $8.9 billion places the company’s worth higher than such established companies as Tiffany & Co., Chipotle, and Expedia, to name a few.

Many are skeptical, however, and fail to see the benefit of LinkedIn. Some have raised concerns that the high prices of LinkedIn’s IPO mirror the tech bubble of the 1990s, and the high values of Internet-based companies may be inflated, signaling another bubble. Others note that many of these companies attract millions of users yet have not demonstrated a business model that is sustainable. However, others are more optimistic, yet cautious, saying it is time for LinkedIn to take action and live up to these high prices.

While it remains to be seen whether LinkedIn will live up to the hype, there’s no denying the relevance of prevalent social networking sites. At SLS Consulting, we create unique legal Internet marketing plans for our clients, based on their goals. One of the important parts of these plans includes becoming involved on social networking sites. To learn how we can help your law firm increase its online presence, call us today!

Source: http://techcrunch.com/2011/05/19/linkedin-closes-at-94-per-share-with-8-9-billion-market-cap/;http://mashable.com/2011/05/19/linkedin-8-9b-valuation/

In our last blog post, we addressed recent discussion on some blogs like BlogWorld.com and Soshable.com about how most bloggers rely on Facebook to promote their blog. Believe it or not, this applies to attorneys, too. Sharing a legal blog post on your law firm Facebook page isn’t a bad thing. However, the opportunity to draw in new visitors to your blawg grows the more you effectively utilize different online platforms and means for distribution.

BlogWorld suggests a few of these tips to attract new readers to your blog and we’ve added additional information to fit the Legal Internet marketing approach:

• Consider having guest blog posts from other attorneys in your field


• Read other legal blogs and leave comments when relevant and when there is genuine interest


• Write blogs that are interviews of members of the firm


• Submit articles to directories about pertinent legal issues in your state and/or city


• Think about linking to old blog posts within new posts


• Include a link to your blawg in your email signature


• Pay attention to whether a press release could be written that is relevant to a particular blog post

If there’s one thing I’ve learned from running a Legal Internet marketing company for over 10 years and working with lawyers for even longer, it’s that so much is happening in an attorney’s world and in the legal world in general. Everyone – every single person’s life is influenced by the law. Needless to say, there are endless possibilities for a law firm to help people in need just like there are endless ways to promote your blawg.

Want to grow your law firm online? Contact SLS Consulting today for a free growth assessment. Call 323-254-1510.

Sources: http://www.blogworld.com/2011/04/27/could-your-blog-survive-without-facebook-and-twitter/; http://soshable.com/a-world-without-facebook-infographic/

It’s difficult to find a law firm without a blawg, or legal blog, in a world where the Internet dominates marketing. It’s even becoming rarer to find a law firm without a Facebook fan page. One of the most fascinating things about Internet marketing is that when all the right efforts are being carried out and in line with one another, a giant web is formed that helps distribute, organize, and link relevant and effective content, thus driving more potential clients to a website.

For some Internet marketing companies, and even for some attorneys, there can be a preference or favoritism towards one type of marketing tool or social networking tactic. However, a recent Infographic on Soshable highlights our dependency on Facebook and a BlogWorld article challenges us to think outside the Facebook box for different ways to help promote our blogs.

This is not to say that you should stop promoting your blog on Facebook or Twitter. The point is that you could be missing out on gaining more readership and visitors to your blog by only sticking to these social media platforms to distribute your blog.

So how can you reach new readers for your blawg? Visit our blog again tomorrow to find out.

At the end of April, Facebook launched a new feature, its Send button, which will render the “email to a friend” button on most websites obsolete. The Send button is very similar to Facebook’s already popular Like button, which celebrated its first birthday recently and is installed on over 10,000 websites every week. However, this new Send button has a few differences from the Like button.

When a user clicks on the Send button, a pop-up box appears which allows them to send the page or article to a friend or group on Facebook or to any email address. A message can be added before sending the page or article to the friend’s Facebook inbox or the wall of the group. Facebook designed the button to make it easier for Facebook users to share content they like or find interesting with their close group of friends, with a focus on private sharing rather than public sharing.

One significant detail of the new Facebook Send button is that Send counts towards the total number of Likes a webpage or article has, according to Mashable. Now, the Like total is calculated by adding the number of Likes, comments, shares, and inbox messages that contain the specific URL. Over 50 major websites have incorporated the Send button, including People.com, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. Anyone who wishes to include the Send button on their website can find the code on Facebook’s Developer website.

Related to Facebook’s introduction of the Send button is the relatively new start-up Likester, which is a database users can search to see what their friends have Liked on Facebook, as well as users across the globe. Searches can be limited to friends-only, or to a certain location. For example, at the time this blog was written, the three top Likes on Facebook for the Los Angeles area were pages for Star Wars, Good Fellas, and swimming. A search can also be done to see what is popular for the current day, as well as to see what people who liked a certain page were more likely to Like based upon their Like history. Results can also be filtered by specific categories. Users can also browse through a “Like log” which lists everything a user’s Facebook friends have liked, and when, which is convenient since Facebook typically hides repeat Likes from users’ newsfeeds. Likester may be the only platform on the Internet right now that gives both users as well as businesses an effective and efficient way of finding trends in Facebook Likes.

While it remains to be seen how effective Likester will be and its impact on marketers, there’s no doubt about the value of Facebook Likes for a business page. With Facebook’s users nearing 600 million, having the chance to connect and engage with these users is an almost invaluable opportunity for law firms and attorneys. Now more than ever, the impact Facebook has on the Internet across the world should be recognized, and if it is not something you or your law firm is a part of, it’s something you need to be considering, as well as joining other social networking sites.

Sources: http://mashable.com/2011/04/25/facebook-send-groups/; http://mashable.com/2011/05/04/likester/

The Daily Beast reports that Facebook has been exposed in a scheme that sought to plant harmful stories about Google in the press, with the help of a public relations firm.

According to the article, Facebook hired Burson-Marsteller, a highly respected PR firm, to pitch stories to newspapers with an anti-Google angle and urged them to investigate allegations that Google was invading people’s privacy.

The PR firm went so far as to even offering to help a high-profile blogger write an op-ed bashing Google, promising it would place the op-ed in such outlets as The Huffington Post and The Washington Post. However, the blogger rejected the offer and posted the email exchange on the Internet, coinciding with a story from USA Today that accused the firm of a smear campaign against Google on behalf of an unnamed client. While people pointed fingers at Microsoft and Apple, The Daily Beast discovered it was Facebook.

On May 11, a spokesperson for Facebook confirmed that the social networking site had hired the PR firm for two reasons. One, because it believes Google is doing certain things within social networking that raise concerns about privacy; and two, because Facebook does not appreciate Google’s attempts to integrate data from Facebook within its own social networking service, Social Circle. In a pitch to journalists, Burson-Marsteller claimed that Social Circle was “designed to scrape private data and build deeply personal dossiers on millions of users—in a direct and flagrant violation of [Google's] agreement with the FTC.” What may be the heart of the matter is that much of the information that appears in Social Circle is content that is actually pulled from Facebook, which Facebook claims is a violation of their terms of service when Facebook member data is used in that manner by Google.

This incident highlights the growing rivalry between Facebook and Google, as the two companies are essentially vying to see who will be able to have the biggest share of online advertising. Facebook uses member data to sell targeting advertising, making the site one of Google’s largest rivals. Last month, it was reported that Google’s CEO sent a memo to employees saying social networking was Google’s top priority, so much so that 25 percent of every employee’s bonus for the year will be based upon how well Google does in the realm of social networking.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/dailybeast/20110512/ts_dailybeast/14045_facebookbustedinclumsysmearattemptongoogle

With the advancement of the Internet and online marketing capabilities, one of the most valued and protected assets a law firm has is their online reputation. Legal search engine optimization (SEO) plays a key role in helping an attorney and/or law firm rank high in search results for specific terms, also known as keywords. Legal Internet marketing campaigns would not go far without the right SEO and a solid plan.

Law firms, just like any other business, especially those that have been around for years, might resist having a website created or launching an Internet marketing campaign. It makes sense; Internet marketing is still relatively new to some, it’s something different, and you have to learn a new game. However, to make sure you don’t miss out on how your competitors are bringing in more clients, consider some of these benefits of legal SEO:

• Emphasizes the strengths of your law firm and areas of practice;


• Establishes and associates desirable keywords for your target audience with your law firm;


• Attracts local clients by focusing on specific names of cities in your area;


• Gives you quantifiable search results and ways to track traffic and behavior of visitors;


• Distinguishes your law firm from competitors.

You can have the best legal website, but how are people going to find it? Search engine optimization is one piece of the Internet marketing puzzle, and it’s a big piece. To find out more about how legal SEO can help grow your business online, call SLS Consulting today for a free growth assessment at 323-254-1510.

If you haven’t heard of Quora yet, chances are you will soon. The latest trend in online social networking, Quora is a Q&A platform that began in 2009 and was made public in early 2010. Similar to Yahoo! Answers, Quora allows users to ask, answer, or edit questions on a wide variety of topics. Users can also invite someone who is not on the platform to answer a question, as well as share questions on Twitter or Facebook.

Mashable recently featured an elaborate infographic about Quora from KISSmetrics, a web analytics company. According to their research, the platform grew an astounding 37,000 percent between January 2010 and January 2011. As of January 2011, Quora had over 547,000 registered users, with approximately 160,000 of them active users. In February 2011, Quora had an estimated 283,500 unique visitors, and that number is expected to continue to grow.

Recently, the company was valued at $86 million. Almost even more significantly, in February, search giant Google announced it was integrating information from Quora (in addition to Flickr and Twitter) throughout the search engine, with the results appearing “blended” throughout each search page rather separate from other content and at the bottom.

At the time this blog was written, under the Law category, there were 409 open questions, with questions such as “How long will a DWI conviction stay on your record in Texas?”, “What is Native American Law?”, and “If a person wrongfully charged for a crime by the state is taken to court and found not guilty, is the government obligated to compensate the defendant for their time, emotional stress, and attorney fees?” (It should be noted that attorneys and doctors are able to attach a legal disclaimer to their answers to legal and medical questions on Quora.) There were 32 open questions under the “Law Firms” category, with questions such as, “Who is the best startup lawyer in Silicon Valley?”

It is also important to note that the Twitter account for Quora regularly tweets links to interesting questions that have been asked on the platform, in addition to sharing intriguing answers. These actions further widen the potential reach a thoughtful, relevant question and/or answer can have through social networking.

While the amount of time and effort an attorney could spend on Quora may yield little results relating to things such as new clients, there is an opportunity to gain followers while building a strong online reputation. Attorneys may find it helpful to share questions and/or their responses to questions on Quora with their audience on Twitter and Facebook as well, and engage with users there. In conclusion, Quora provides attorneys with an opportunity to connect with not only others within the legal community but with people looking for help, which ultimately is what the legal profession is all about.

Sources: http://mashable.com/2011/04/04/quora-stats/, http://mashable.com/2011/01/14/get-more-out-of-quora/, http://mashable.com/2011/02/17/google-social-search-2/