Legal Internet Marketing Blog

If you went around asking people what Twitter is, some of them would probably be unable to answer. Others might say something along the lines of, "It's like a status update," or, "It's where you can post links for people to see." However, what many people do not realize is that Twitter can be used, quite effectively, to market one's law firm or business.

While it is true that Twitter is nothing more than a 140-character blurb about a particular topic, the power of those 140 characters often goes untapped.

The best way of thinking of Twitter, just like all social media, is that users on Twitter are like guests at a party. Everyone is mingling together, discussing a variety of topics, absorbing what people say, and then in turn repeating to other people what they've just heard. Guests at a party want to be themselves, but simultaneously want to be interesting. Guests want to be heard, and engage in conversations about topics that they have some knowledge of. Or, guests want to hover around a particular person because that person is an authority on a particular topic that is interesting. Simply put, when at parties, guests are essentially marketing themselves so that others will engage with them. How does this analogy translate into marketing a law firm or business? Well, as an authority in his or her respective field, an attorney or business owner has an opportunity on Twitter to engage potential clients with their expertise, while at the same time establishing a connection with those clients that may ultimately prove profitable.

First and foremost, it is important to remember that Twitter users want to be engaged, typically because they're interested in a particular topic. However, Twitter users don't want to connect with just anyone. That is, one of the most important aspects of engaging an audience is enabling that audience to connect with you on a one-on-one level. If you, as an attorney or business owner, are constantly tweeting about your firm or services, yet failing to interact with your audience on a less business-like level, then your audience is going to grow increasingly bored and seek out someone else who is not only informed, but interesting as well.

Therefore, the second thing to remember when appealing to potential clients via Twitter is that people want to follow tweets of someone who is a real person - not simply some entity in cyberspace who tweets links and nothing more. Get your message across. Be interesting! Word-of-mouth will undoubtedly help spread whatever message you are trying to get out.

That's it! Just two steps to follow and you're done. How you choose to involve your audience is the important thing though, as well as the legal Internet marketing strategy that you set out to apply (both of which will take a considerable amount of thought and effort in order to be successfully utilized). While some strategies are certainly more effective than others, there are relatively sure-fire ways to ensure, at the very least, that your Internet marketing message is being delivered to potential clients. Whether those potential clients choose to engage your message is another matter entirely, but can certainly be accomplished using an intelligent legal marketing campaign that gets to the heart of what customers want and does so in an interesting manner. So tweet away! But remember, no one likes party guests who talk and talk and never really listen to what others truly want ;)

The advent of social media on the Internet has changed the landscape of SEO, search, and legal Internet marketing. It is one of those “game changers” that comes along every so often that makes everyone stand up and take notice. The popularity and frequency of use of websites like Facebook is staggering. According to Facebook statistics – 400 million people actively use Facebook. Of that huge number, 50% visit their profiles ON A DAILY BASIS. That figure is truly staggering.

Utilizing Facebook and Twitter profiles, attorneys and law firms are able to personalize their practice. They can relate to individuals where they gather to interact with friends and acquaintances and by featuring case results, articles about community involvement and an explanation of their firm’s mission, they can humanize their law practice. By publishing links to articles and unique content that the attorney has published, a good Facebook or Twitter account can help educate individuals and establish the firm and its attorneys as authorities in their respective fields.

Lawyers have long maintained that the best source for new business is a satisfied client. When individuals are in need of an attorney, they often ask family and close friends for the name of someone they can trust. A satisfied client is likely to refer an attorney they have had a good experience with. This is where platforms like Facebook and Twitter have changed traditional legal Internet marketing. Many of these word of mouth conversations are taking place online now. Much the way search engines like Google and Yahoo have replaced the yellowpage ads of the past, so too, have Facebook and Twitter accounts changed the way we hold conversations with our family and friends. Sites like Facebook have not only expanded our circle of friends and acquaintances, but they have also changed how we interact with them.

Facebook,Twitter, LinkedIN and AVVO accounts are all integral parts of a sound legal Internet marketing campaign. While it may not be immediately obvious how a social networking account can help your firm gain clients, when you take a step back and look at the fundamental changes that sites like Facebook have had on the way individuals interact, and the way we share and gather information about subjects that interest us, the need for you as an attorney and your firm as an organization to be involved in legal social networking becomes much more obvious.

A national survey from Arbitron Inc. and Edison Research reveals that nearly half of all Americans over the age of 12 have a profile on one or more social networking Web sites. The study also states that 30 percent of Americans age 12 and older, who have a profile on at least one social networking Web site, use those sites "several times a day" compared with only 18 percent one year ago.

With so many people going to the Internet for interaction with their friends and acquaintances, it makes perfect sense that attorneys make themselves available on these platforms so that they can increase the reach of their online marketing. By creating social media accounts for their firms and themselves, attorneys can build and interact with new readership groups online.

Any good Internet marketing campaign has a social networking aspect to it. At SLS Consulting, we offer the service of creating and maintaining profiles on the most useful and established of social networking sites. By presenting information about our clients and their law firms on websites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIN and AVVO, we can help build a trusted readership and following for the firm.

The key to creating successful attorney social networking accounts, especially on sites like Facebook and Twitter are frequency of use, and the offering of unique, valuable content and information for free. By offering informative articles on subjects of law that people are interested in, the firms establish themselves as experts in the eyes of their potential clients. By keeping the content fresh and informative, the social networking portals continue to attract readers and can have the added benefit of creating an online buzz around current events.

This added marketing source helps to keep your firm in front of the new generation of individuals who use social networking as their source for information. While it is true that not all individuals are in the “market” for an attorney at all times, when unfortunate events do occur and a lawyers’ advice is sought, many individuals will turn to the Internet, and their trusted circle of online acquaintances or “online social network” for referrals on where to find an attorney.

Members and readers of social networking sites are adept at sniffing out deliberate attempts to manipulate their thinking, especially when the merits of a product are being reviewed. Members who shill for a particular product or company—particularly members who are posting for the first time—are quickly called out and these social media communities are very good about self-enforcing membership protocols. Starting on December 1, 2009, they are going to get some help from the Federal Trade Commission. Bloggers, twitterers, forum members and others who write product reviews will be required to disclose payment or the fact that they received free merchandise for the items they review.

The new guidelines are an extension of the FTC’s 1980 guide regarding the use of endorsements and testimonials in advertising. The new regulations have drawn mixed reviews from bloggers and other social media writers. Some say it will add credibility to what they do, identify them as serious writers and establish professional standards. This is especially relevant in the fashion blogging community where some bloggers referred to derisively as “cloggers” use their sites or forums as a means of soliciting free samples or gaining invitations to exclusive fashion industry events.

“Cloggers will tweet about how they’d just love a free garment or accessory directly to a brand’s Twitter account,” one supporter of the new rules said. “They brazenly insist on tons of samples even though they haven’t been blogging long enough to build up any sort of readership.”

Continue reading "New FTC Rule Requires Bloggers and Twitterers to Disclose Information on Product Reviews" »

Branding consultancy giant Interbrand released its 2009 list of the best 100 global brands recently. Sysomos, a social media monitoring and analytics firm, looked at Interbrand’s data from the perspective of the top 20 brands’ social media presence on blogs, forums and news sites. This led to some intriguing differences in positioning. For example, Google, which placed seventh on the Top 100 Brands list, ranked first in social media mentions. Coca-Cola, the top brand on the Interbrand list, slipped to eleventh on the Sysomos list.

The Interbrand list put Coca-Cola, IBM and Microsoft as the top three in their list, while Sysomos’ top three included Google, Apple and Microsoft. Sysomos found that the fastest-growing brand this fall was Gillette from a social media standpoint. Sysomos determined that most of the mentions that drove the results for Gillette arose from the marketing campaign for its new Fusion razors. Curiously, 13 of Sysomos’ top 20 brands saw their social media mentions drop over the last two months with BMW down 31%, Honda -25%, and Toyota -24% as the steepest declines. Google registered a 13.45 drop for the same period.

Continue reading "Google, Apple and Microsoft Top Three Brands in Social Media" »

With the explosion in popularity that social media and social networking sites like facebook, twitter, youtube, videojug, and linkedin have recently enjoyed, many attorneys are faced with the question of whether or not to invest the time and money involved in creating and maintaining profiles on these sites. Can tweeting 30 times a day and having hundreds of followers to your profile increase the number of great cases you get? Will it cause your phone to ring more often?

The answer, in most instances, is a resounding ‘no’, but that does not mean that these sites don’t serve a purpose. The real value of these types of sites becomes obvious when you view your name (and your law firm’s name) as a trademarked brand name. A brand name that like any other in the business world, needs to be protected.

While it is true that you don’t have to devote large resources to social media sites, you do have to protect your brand name and trademarks by registering or ‘claiming’ your profiles. Almost all of the profiles that you create on the most popular of social networking sites are free. It just takes time and a valid email address. By taking the time to create profiles for yourself and your firm, you successfully claim your virtual identity online preventing brand and trademark abuse while contributing to your legal Internet marketing efforts.

Another variable here is the potential that some of these social networking sites have for exploding in popularity. Let’s not forget the story of facebook.com, a social networking site that started very small. Originally the site was intended to be a networking tool for Harvard students. As it’s popularity increased, other colleges and high school were allowed to join its ranks as well. It wasn’t until late 2006 that the site actually opened its membership to non-students. Today the site has more than 200 million active profiles. Who knows which social networking site will enjoy similar success? By claiming as many of these profiles as possible you insure that you are well positioned to take advantage of future success.

Additionally, and this is actually the most important factor from an SEO standpoint, social media sites can rank very highly in the search engines, especially for people’s names. If you’ve ever done a search for an individual you know that very often the first page of results can be dominated by myspace, facebook, youtube, and linkedIN profiles. The pages where the profiles are listed can also have very high page ranks, offering valuable links back to your firm’s website.

The most attractive part of this plan of action is that it costs virtually nothing. Any intern or office administrator can log into these sites and create profiles for your firm. The potential benefits far outweigh the time invested, and protecting your brand name on a prime domain can reap substantial benefits to you and your firm’s online identity.

From the people who brought you the social networking sensation twitter.com, comes tweetlaw.com, a Twitter application designed specifically for legal professionals. Why tweetlaw? The webpage explains it like this:

“We believe that sometimes, labels are necessary. So many careers and specialties fall under the legal profession, and we want to give you the opportunity to stand out in your field.”

The site was launched on April 1st, 2009 and as of the writing of this article on May 10th, 2009 has 389 legal professionals tweeting.

Signing up for an account on tweetlaw.com is easy. You login by using your twitter.com username and password. You are then able to make a custom tweetlaw.com profile. Unlike twitter, your tweetlaw.com profile can be as long as you want it to be (twitter limits it to 140 characters). Creating your profile also allows you to specify several URLs to associate with your profile, one for your “personal” site, another for your ‘work” site. You can also add information like your mailing address, phone number, email address, and a bio about who you are and what you do.

Tweetlaw.com also allows you to specify up to 4 “categories” that describe what you do. Currently the site features 40 categories to choose from including: Blawgers, Law Students, Litigators, Paralegals, Family Lawyers, Small Law Firms and Big Law Firms to name a few. These categories feature members tweeting about relevant subject matter.

Like twitter, tweetlaw.com can serve a purpose for attorneys who are looking to effectively market themselves online. A large online legal network is a useful tool when gauging the temperament of lawyers nationwide. It is also very useful for bouncing marketing ideas off of your peers who might otherwise be unavailable, or unwilling, to help you. Rebroadcasting your blog stories on twitter can also increase readership and get your articles read by more individuals, who may decide to link those articles to their own blogs/ tweets (if they are any good).

Since the site is relatively new, the indexing of this information on search engines could take some time, but it is always good to have incoming links from reputable, popular locations on the internet, and tweetlaw.com seems to be destined to be just that.