Legal Internet Marketing Blog

Social media has quickly developed into a key asset for creating a successful business, but shifts in social media trends can often make a business feel as if it is always struggling to stay current with the times. However, there are a few simple steps that every business can take to stay current even as the world of social media seemingly changes from day to day.

1. Set Clear Goals for Social Media in 2012 – Most importantly, every business should understand where they want to go in the span of a year. Setting goals and creating a timeline will inform the rest of the company’s decisions in social media. While strategies may change in accordance with trends in social media, a strong focus on goals will keep a business on track.
2. Integrate Social Media Sites into Your Other Websites – There are a plethora of social media sites on the Internet today, but all companies should have a presence in the major sites (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn). These separate sites must be directly connected to a business’s main websites, with the ability to like, tweet, and recommend individual pages. 2012 will bring even more social media marketing options, leaving behind companies that do not incorporate these aspects into their sites.
3. Consistently Create New Content – No matter what trends have come and gone over the years in social networking, one factor remains the same: consistent new content is king. Without new blog posts, tweets, status updates, and many other content additions, a company’s online presence quickly diminishes, directly affecting their day-to-day business. In 2012, social media presence will be tied into advertising, shopping, and business leads more than ever.
4. Target Your Consumer Base – Never forget who your customers are as well as who you want them to be. Social media output should directly target demographics which will be interested in your products and services. Be aware of the demographics using various forms of social media and tailor your online presence to suit your consumers.
5. Be Aware of Changes – Social media, and Internet marketing as a whole, is consistently changing with updates, new layouts, new search engine algorithms, and shifts in trends and popularity. Every social media site is playing a more important role than ever before and will implement new features in 2012. Companies that are not ahead of the game run the risk of being seen as outdated and out of touch.

Creating compelling and fruitful social media content can be complex and confusing, but it is key to helping your business grow and flourish on- and off-line. For more information on how to integrate social media with your business, contact SLS Consulting’s legal Internet marketing team at (323) 254-1510 today.

For companies looking to create new business opportunities on social media sites, social networking can either be a blessing or a curse, and is often a combination of the two.

In some cases, companies fail to realize what social media is all about: being social. They fail to interact with people via social media, and are merely content to have profiles/pages on the most popular social media sites. The other half of the time, businesses fail to promote their company and its services, instead relying on witty (often non-business related) banter, jokes, and other less professional interactions to help acquire fans and followers. However, this sort of behavior is typically counterproductive, and often yields few, if any, potential client interactions. The trick is to find a happy medium between the two; to be both interesting and fun, but at the same time never loosing focus that your social media presence is for business purposes. Let’s discuss how to accomplish this.

1. First of all, always, always, ALWAYS take a second to think about what you’re posting. Is it appropriate for the workplace? Would you discuss it with a potential client during a meeting? Be sure to take these questions into consideration before every post and you’ll safeguard against inappropriate social media behavior for a business.
2. Next, be sure to focus your discussions and posts on your industry. While many companies post information about themselves, don’t be afraid to post information about others as well. If the information is industry-related, don’t be afraid to post about it. Your fans will appreciate the change of pace and your company’s willingness to talk about something other than itself.
3. Finally, be sure to keep up your profile, particularly where it asks for biographical information, and be professional and not too personal. Photos from your family vacation may be fun to look at for your fans, but they don’t say much about you in terms of your business. Be sure to regularly monitor your online reputation and begin to do so by making sure that your profile is an extension of your business self, not your personal self.

When it comes to legal Internet marketing campaigns, social media is essential these days, and the best way to approach social media interactions is to relate them to real-life situations. Every time you post, tweet, or update your profile, think of yourself as doing so during a business meeting with not only your current clients, but a large group of potential clients. Are you going to tell that crowd about your favorite type of food or what you thought about the movie you saw this past Saturday night, or are you going to display to them that you are a business professional, an authority in your field, and someone whom they can trust and count on for pertinent information about your particular industry. Social media sites call on individuals to be more social, but working professionals should never lose site of the fact that their profiles are being used for business purposes. Being an interesting authority on social networking sites isn’t easy to do, but it is possible. For more information about how to make the most out of your social media presence, connect with the legal Internet marketing team at SLS Consulting. Call (323) 254-1510 today!

One of the most common questions we receive from clients is whether or not social media marketing can result in new clients. In short, the answer to this question is YES, but it needs to be clarified.

Social media can net you new clients, but only if it’s properly utilized. That is, social media should be used to help foster relationships with both past and potential clients, and should positively promote a company and its services. Indirectly, this positive portrayal can (and probably will) lead to new clients, but it must be allowed to do so naturally. Specifically, you shouldn’t push your services on fans, followers, or connections. Simply show that you’re an authority in your respective field, take every opportunity to interact with your audience, and be as interesting as possible.

Social media is where word-of-mouth travels these days. People use social sites to praise products, criticize companies, and help their friends make decisions about purchases. If a company has a social media presence, it is then able to interact with those individuals (both supporters and opponents) who choose to talk about the company while online. Criticisms should carefully be taken into consideration and publically addressed whenever possible. Remember, just because someone negatively reviews your company, it doesn’t mean that your company is or should be viewed in a negative light. Take every opportunity you can to defend your company’s reputation, interact with others, and your company will build a foundation that is respected and paid attention to by potential customers.

Think of it like this: the odds of someone stumbling across your Facebook fan page and retaining your services is very slim. However, if you regularly update your Facebook page with information interesting enough to create discussion amongst your fans, and you engage in conversation with your fans, people are going to view your page as a place where discussion takes place. Knowing this, people may turn to your Facebook fan page for answers, will associate your company as an authority in its respective field, and will begin to place more stake in what you say than they do in what your less social media savvy competitors are talking about. This in turn can lead to positive word-of-mouth, and ultimately may lead to new clients.

Remember, unlike your website, which is a basically a screen shot of who you are as a company and what you are capable of, your social media profiles allow you to thoroughly depict your thoughts, ideas, and feelings about industry-related matters. For lack of a better description, social media allows companies to be more social, and social is what people want to experience these days before entering into a business relationship with a company.

In case you missed our tweetup last week, the SLS Consulting team discussed the importance of Facebook fan pages and how law firms, and businesses in general, can benefit from them.

We started off the conversation by pointing out that a Facebook fan page should be different from your personal, private Facebook page. Why have a Facebook fan page at all? It’s a great way to reach a wider audience as well as a more targeted one. Believe it or not, a lot of discussions happen online now, which is why it’s called “social networking,” and Facebook is first in the lead. If you’re not in the loop, you may miss out. Another benefit of a Facebook fan page is that it gets indexed by search engines, thus increasing your online presence and making your law firm easier to find.

During the tweetup, we also discussed how to get people to “Like” your Facebook fan page. Ultimately, if you put time and effort into your fan page, in addition to participating on other fan pages and profile pages, you will help make yourself known as an authority in your field. If you’re interesting and offer others insight visitors consider to be valuable, there’s a good chance they will want to share your fan page and your information with their friends.

Having a successful Facebook fan page requires you to be consistent and aware of what tools to utilize. Post relevant pictures, links, and videos to engage people more. Update your status regularly and don’t always make it about you. Notes are a great tool because you can use simple html to include links back to your site or other sites of interest.

Deciding to create and manage a Facebook fan page may seem like a giant leap at first, but you’ll get the hang of it. To learn more about how to make the most of your Facebook fan page, read the entire transcript of our tweetup, “Do People LIKE You?”, on our Facebook page. Also, feel free to direct message us on Twitter – our account is @LegalBlogs.

To join the discussion next time, find us on Twitter at 10 a.m. on Fridays. Include #knowSEO with your tweets or send us a direct message for more information.

You may have heard of Klout, a startup that measures the online influence of users of social media sites and generates a score based upon users’ connections and activities. Klout uses an algorithm to determine a user’s “real” social media reach, using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Foursquare, in addition to several other variables. In particular, Klout looks at whether a user is engaged within their respective audience (excluding spam accounts) on these platforms, as well as what happens to the content a user shares; whether its reposted/retweeted, sparks a conversation, or is simply ignored. In addition, Klout also analyzes how influential a user’s engaged audience is, as well as whether a user is influencing other important users.

Recently, Klout introduced +K (not to be confused with Google’s +1 button or the new Google+), which measures social media influence on a particular topic by permitting users to give other users authority on these topics. This initiative allows users to give other users a +K if the user influenced them on a particular topic. Users are limited to five +Ks every day that can be given to any user in any topic.

Klout has also been in the news lately since the introduction of a new Facebook integrating system in which a user’s Facebook influence will determine whether they have access to certain brand pages and other new products such as coupons, movie trailers, or other unreleased information or material on Facebook.

Some have pointed out that it’s possible to use certain tactics to increase a user’s Klout score, therefore making its score irrelevant. While it remains to be seen how Klout will adjust its algorithm to combat such tactics as it continues to evolve, Klout serves as an important reminder to users of social media: it’s all about consistently joining the conversation and sharing relevant and valuable information with other users regularly.

Is your law firm participating in social networking conversations? Contact the Legal Internet marketing team at SLS Consulting to learn how to be successful with your social media endeavors.

Sources: http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/14/klout-expands-influence-scoring-to-professional-social-network-linkedin/, http://mashable.com/2011/06/02/klouts-k-button/; http://mashable.com/2011/07/13/klout-foursquare/, http://mashable.com/2011/06/22/klout-gate/; http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/is-klout-a-good-judge-of-your-social-media-influence/

Mashable has designated June 30 as “Social Media Day,” and around the world, people are getting involved in celebrating the revolution of media becoming social. According to Mashable, the day “honors the technological and societal advancements that have allowed us to have a dialogue, to connect and to engage not only the creators of media, but perhaps more importantly, one another.”

How are people celebrating? By being social, of course! There will be 1,400 “meetups” scheduled across the world, with over 7,000 attendees in six different continents on June 30 to discuss and celebrate the technological advancements that allow everyone across the globe to connect with real-time information and communicate with one another from thousands of miles apart and have their voices heard. Tweets shared on Twitter that include the hashtag #SMday will appear on Mashable’s steam on their website for Social Media Day at http://mashable.com/smday/.

What’s also fascinating is that several cities have come forward and officially recognized Social Media Day. Victoria and Vancouver, British Columbia; Toronto, Ontario; San Jose, California; San Carlos, California; Las Vegas, Nevada; Dublin, Ireland; and the entire state of Arizona have signed proclamations that declare June 30 to be Social Media Day.

Are you part of the social media conversation? It’s no longer something that can be ignored or undervalued; it is an essential part of your legal Internet marketing strategy. Engaging with others across the globe as well as within your local community on Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking sites not only provides you with an opportunity to share exciting things about your law practice and things relevant to your practice areas, but also enhances your social reputation. What are you waiting for?!

Sources: http://mashable.com/2010/06/30/happy-social-media-day/; http://mashable.com/2011/06/29/mashable-at-social-media-day/ and http://mashable.com/2011/06/30/social-media-day-cities/

Mashable recently released the results of a poll conducted in February of marketers in the United States and found that the majority of marketers view social media as an integral part of their marketing strategy for 2011, with 70 percent planning to increase their social media budget and activity by over 10 percent this year.

Overwhelmingly, the primary focus of the marketer’s social media goals was to increase Facebook fans and “Likes.” A whopping 35 percent said gaining more Facebook fans to their business page was their main goal for 2011. In response to the smartphone explosion, the second goal at 22 percent was to increase their business’ presence on mobile devices. The poll also found that 87 percent of marketers believed social media was either important, or very important, to accomplishing their biggest marketing goal for 2011.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that social media will continue to grow in popularity. In March of this year, LinkedIn surpassed 100 million users, and the number of Facebook users continues to increase, with the popular site now close to 550 million users. Whether you are a big name brand, a small startup company, or an established law firm, there’s no denying the power of social media in helping you to reach your target audience.

What marketing goals did your law firm set for 2011? With the year close to one-fourth over, are you on track to reaching those goals? If all this talk of social media marketing has left your head spinning, call SLS Consulting. For over 10 years, our Legal Internet marketing team has promoted law firms and attorneys from all over the U.S. using unique marketing plans, search engine optimization, customized content, and social networking. To learn how we can increase your law firm’s online presence, call us today at 323-254-1510.

Source: http://mashable.com/2011/04/19/marketers-social-media-spend/

On March 21, 2006, Jack Dorsey sent the very first tweet, which simply said, “inviting coworkers.” Now, five years later, the social media “microblogging” site has become an integral part of the world’s culture.

Considered to be an experiment in microblogging since it limits users to writing no more than 140 characters at a time (called “tweets”), Twitter asks a simple, yet vital question: “What’s happening?” And on an almost daily basis, its 200 million users respond, from luminaries in the technology field, to popular celebrities, to the president of the United States.

At first, Twitter’s growth was slow. In 2007, only a year after it had begun, there were only about 5,000 tweets per day. Three years, two months, and a day later, over a billion tweets had been sent in total since the site began. Now, there are over 140 million tweets every day, at a rate of about 1,600 every second, which adds up to over a billion tweets per week.

The power and reach of Twitter is undeniable, and has become a broadcast channel for major news events around the world. Highly publicized incidents such as Michael Jackson’s death and Charlie Sheen’s problems with CBS have set the Twitterverse a-tweeting. However, other important happenings have also found a communications source in the social networking site; during the political uprisings in Egypt, Iran, Moldova, and Tunisia, anti-government protestors used Twitter as a hub for communications, coordinating plans and broadcasting their message to the world through their tweets. Even more recently, Twitter’s importance to worldwide communications was solidified after the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan. On March 11, Twitter says a record 6,939 tweets were sent per second immediately following the earthquake, and over 177 million tweets were sent that day. Twitter has also become a major marketing tool for businesses across the world. Many major companies use Twitter to advertise special deals and get their consumers talking about their products, capitalizing on the power of word-of-mouth marketing.

Last month, it was estimated that Twitter’s worth was between $8 to $10 billion. There is no doubt that Twitter has forever changed the way we communicate online, and it is a powerful force that is here to stay. Using Twitter is an essential part of a legal Internet marketing plan, and if you aren’t taking advantage of the opportunities that this social networking site and others offer, you should strongly consider doing so. Social media provides another way for you to connect with potential clients and others in your field, and also offers you an avenue in which to communicate news about your law firm and other relevant issues within your field. Twitter has shown that the modern consumer desires information that is immediate and transparent, and from a source that is seen as friendly and approachable. If you have yet to create a Twitter account for your law firm, now more than ever is the time to join the conversation.

At this point, you’ve probably heard about LinkedIn, a professional social media website that serves in providing credibility, ways to acquire and give recommendations, opportunities to network, and get referrals.

LinkedIn wouldn’t be one of the “must-have” online social/professional profiles if it didn’t revamp its product and launch new strategies from time to time. The popular and useful professional site recently introduced a new social news product, LinkedIn Today. This product provides a convenient and helpful way for those with LinkedIn profiles to access top new stories and information not only within their own network but also from entire industries.

What makes LinkedIn Today so intriguing and potentially beneficial for attorneys is that it is a quick and easy way to read about breaking news relevant to law, other law firms, and your fellow attorneys, including comrades and your competition. What’s even better is LinkedIn has launched a mobile version of its news product, making it even easier for a lawyer to participate in their own social media marketing while on-the-go.

As LinkedIn finds more and more ways to be ever-present in the workplace and lead the professional Internet social profile world, you may want to jump on this bandwagon. LinkedIn has grown as a credible online source. Having a LinkedIn account, whether you decide to use LinkedIn Today or not, plays an essential role in adding to your online authority and Web presence. The professional site helps users create more of an online community and is designed to make establishing connections efficient, helpful, and simple.

For a lot of attorneys, as well as any other professional, it is vital to do everything that helps the bigger picture, especially when it comes to marketing. If you’re trying to cut out the amount of social networking sites you need, then you may want to readjust your perception. It’s not that more is better; it’s just that all social networking sites offer different benefits. You don’t want to get to a place where you are choosing LinkedIn over Facebook or Facebook over Twitter. Whether you like it or not, all of these profiles, and MORE, go hand in hand towards creating buzz, establishing an online community, and staying informed about the latest legal news and other important information that affects you and your law firm.

At SLS Consulting, we devise specific marketing plans for each of our clients that include social networking account creation and management. To learn more about how our legal Internet marketing strategies can help you get more clients, contact us today for a free assessment!

If you doubt the power and reach of social media, think again. The Washington Post reports that some potential buyers of Twitter have marked the social media site at being worth a staggering $8 to $10 billion. The question that has surfaced throughout the Internet is whether Google or Facebook will make Twitter offers to become its new owner. The article plays with potential new names for Twitter if either of these acquisition deals takes place: Goowit, Twoogle, Twitbook, and Facetwit. While these prospective names could use some work, there also may never be a chance for them to be used at all.

Twitter, Facebook, and Google have become the most dominant and widely used sites on the Internet. This is not to say that other competitors aren’t right behind them, but Google, Facebook, and Twitter serve many purposes for businesses and individuals all over the world. And while these sites often play off of each other and offer similar tools, they are also competitors striving to find ways to knock these sites out of the water.

According to the story, email use among younger generations has decreased by about 59 percent due to an increase in time spent on social media sites such as Facebook that provide ways for users to message one another. The other striking statistic that highlights the prominent use of social media is that 10 percent of page views in the United States are claimed by Facebook.

While it’s not certain whether Twitter will ever sell to Google or Facebook, one thing’s for sure – these sites make waves. If you are a business and do not have a profile on Facebook or Twitter or do not have a Google local listing, these are things you should strongly consider. Social media is an expansion of your website and provides a way for you to spread news about your business as well as main issues of concern within your field. Social media has a reputation for being more casual, but these sites can transfer serious information and bring people all the more closer to the help they are seeking by finding your business. But it’s not just about being found. It’s about making an impression and being approachable so that visitors to your sites become potential clients or new contacts.

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.