Legal Internet Marketing Blog

Let’s clear something up. There seems to be a misconception that blog posts, Facebook wall posts, and Tweets are “secret.” Contrary to what they say about Las Vegas, what happens on the Internet, does not just stay on the Internet. It doesn’t even always stay in one place!

Most of us hope that people will share our content online – it’s a way to help spread valuable information while also helping establish yourself and/or your company as an authority in a particular field. But you have to be careful about what you publish online in your name or your company’s name.

Let’s focus on the fact that what you publish online, whether it’s on your website, in a blog post, in a Tweet, in a Facebook photo or even a comment, has the potential to jump off-screen and into a courtroom if at all necessary and deemed ethical and legal for the case at hand. But this isn’t all; under some circumstances, search results that come up for your name and any content you’ve published online can easily be accessed by a potential employer, client, or even by a university reviewing your, or a loved one’s, application.

As an example of just how transparent social media content can be, according to a recent MSNBC article, the Maryland Department of Corrections has been asking job applicants during interviews to log into their Facebook accounts and allow the person interviewing to watch the applicant click through wall posts, photos, friends, etc. While many would argue that this is pretty extreme, a person doesn’t need your Facebook login to necessarily access information about you online; information you may not even realize shows up in search results. That’s why it’s important to be professional, even if lighthearted, with social media.

As a Wall Street Journal report emphasizes, a study evaluating the Facebook profiles of 56 college students with jobs showed a noteworthy connection for characteristics such as conscientiousness, agreeability, and intellectual curiosity with regard to job performance and Facebook profiles. However, there are possible legal issues of using social media to screen individuals applying for jobs, as discrimination lawsuits could surface in relation to religion, gender, and race.

Social media does wonders for an Internet marketing campaign, but it also has the power to negatively influence a person’s job, marriage, friendships, and even their civil, family law, or criminal case, if it comes down to it.

You may be wondering why this topic is being discussed on a blog that mostly addresses legal Internet marketing matters. While most attorneys are on top of their Internet reputation management, sometimes it’s more about what an attorney’s clients are doing online that could come back to haunt them. But then again, we can all use reminders about the obvious from time to time, right?

What makes you trust a company? There are a variety of acceptable answers for this question, but one of the most important answers, particularly from a marketing standpoint, is WORD OF MOUTH. In today’s age of instant access to information, positive feedback from customers can quickly find its way to the friends of those satisfied customers…and their friends…and their friends (the same goes for negative feedback, but this shouldn’t necessarily be viewed as a bad thing). In short, customer reviews can give a potential customer a good idea of what a company and its products are really like from the less biased opinion of a fellow consumer.

In the world of legal Internet marketing, word of mouth is most often associated with customer reviews. These reviews can be found on local listings sites, such as Google Places, professional networking sites, such as Linkedin, or social networking sites, such as Facebook. Regardless of where these reviews are located, they’re important, and for a variety of reasons.

Reviews on Google Places, which are generated on both Google and some third party sites, such as Insider Pages, are important because they are factored into search engine rankings. In short, the more reviews you have, the better. Reviews on Linkedin and other professional networking sites, such as the attorney rating site Avvo.com, are important because they accompany individual profiles that highlight an attorney’s experience and skills. These sites are often turned to by consumers to help differentiate between attorneys when deciding on whose legal services should be retained. Reviews on Facebook are important because they are the most viral of the bunch, appearing on the newsfeeds of friends, which may then be shared by those friends and so on and so forth. Ultimately, in social media, word of mouth is vital to a successful marketing campaign.

People tend to ask their family and friends for their advice when making important decisions. Hiring an attorney is certainly important, so it stands to reason that people are going to talk about such a decision with others. And, seeing that discussion these days has found its way onto the Internet, it’s important for attorneys to remember that online reviews and word of mouth are an essential part of marketing a business.

Remember, reviews, whether good or bad, present opportunity for you to address potential clients, regardless of whether or not you are directly corresponding with them. People see reviews, they read reviews, and they consider reviews. Make sure your legal Internet marketing campaign has them.

Want more clients? SLS Consulting can be the difference you need in your legal Internet marketing campaign. Call us today at 323-254-1510 for a free growth assessment of your law firm.

For a law firm or any type of business, the Internet can be a treacherous place where your competition may jump at the chance to destroy you. A recent blog post of ours addressed online business reputation ransoming in which moving companies were being given false negative reviews on Google Places by reputation management companies who later contacted them for business. Now, people are not only spamming the Google Places profiles of their local competitors with fake, negative reviews, they are also reporting their competitors’ businesses as CLOSED.

A Search Engine Guide article discusses these recent and upsetting events occurring on Google Places. About 97% of consumers use the Internet to find a local business, which is why the majority of businesses create and manage a Google Places account. If business is that slow that a person needs to falsely report their competitor’s business as closed, then this creates a big problem in an already struggling economy. An even bigger problem, however, is why Google has allowed such deceptive practices to take place. Why aren’t Google Places owners notified through a confirmation email that their business has been reported as closed? Wouldn’t this provide an effective and reasonable way for accounts that reported the business closed to be manually reviewed so they can be banned? Sure, you could say that spammers will always find new ways of slipping through the cracks of the system, but shouldn’t every possible precaution be taken, especially when a businesses’ reputation and profits are on the line? We all know how hard it is to get a good Google Places ranking and the hoops Google puts you through to get it… so why is it so easy to get your listing shut down???

As Google works on making false closure reports more difficult to manifest, businesses and marketing companies should frequently check Google Places listings for false closure reports. Equally important is for Google Places users to keep their heads on straight. Don’t give in to the temptations of false reviews and false closure reporting. This will not benefit you. If everyone starts making false reviews and false closure reports, how will people be able to trust Google Places local listings anymore? If your business can’t be found on the Internet, a free perk Google Places makes possible, your profits will diminish.

The potential threat of Google Places sabotage should not deter you from having a Google Places account and it certainly should not stop you from establishing a presence and authority online. In the end, your ethical practices will outshine the unethical approaches to Internet success. In the meantime, you can still be tough and ethical at the same time by arming yourself with knowledge about these events and how to prevent and solve them. If you back down, then the other side wins. The power of knowledge is your first defense.

A recent article featured on Search Engine News (“Businesses Sabotaged by Negative Reviews”) discussed some online tactics that are unfortunately becoming more common, and may become more prevalent should Google not take action soon.

The article summarized the problem a moving company in New York recently faced, after a lot of negative 1-star reviews began to pop up on the Place Page for the company. The business owner repeatedly flagged the reviews as inappropriate to have the reviews removed by Google. Then, the owner contacted others within his industry and learned they were having the same problem with reviews, many of which were quite similar. After a Google search targeting a specific phrase from several reviews was conducted (“NOBODY DO BUSINESS WITH THIS COMPANY”), the owner and his industry friends found that over a hundred moving companies across the U.S. had been hit with similar reviews. Soon after, many of them were contacted by reputation management companies that claimed they could remove the negative reviews, and even add positive reviews about the company for a fee while promising they have a special relationship with Google, which they of course do not have.

You may be asking yourself what actions Google is taking to prevent such reputation ransoming from occurring. The article reports that they are aware of the situation and are working to remove the fake negative reviews. However, it is taking some time for them to be taken down, which can be harmful for business affected by these unfair and deceptive practices. Obviously, Google should explore options regarding what can be done to ensure such false and malicious reviews are not published, and whether or not a review process can be implemented so potential customers and clients do not read untruths regarding businesses.

This story serves as an important reminder that there are many untrustworthy companies out there looking to prey on others who may not be aware of their dishonest practices, which is why you always need to be careful of who you are doing business with. Working with a company that engages in what you could essentially call black-hat tactics can only serve to hurt you.

It is also critical that you pay close attention to your online reputation, as failing to do so can be damaging, as this story shows. You should work hard to make sure you receive actual positive reviews from your clients, and you should never have to pay for them. Simply ask your clients to review your law firm on Places, which should serve to push down the negative reviews, if any are present. You should take any negative review seriously and work to fix any addressed problems. If you believe any review is fake, immediately contact Google.

You should also keep in mind that Google is constantly evolving, and is now more than ever promoting user-generated content (UGC), as a recent Mashable article noted. Customer reviews are being given very high rankings in search results, meaning you should do what you can to increase the quantity as well as the quality of the reviews your clients write about your law firm.

Additional source: http://mashable.com/2011/08/23/ugc-seo-google/