Legal Business Development Archives - Page 15 of 36

How to Get Amazing Attention for Your Firm on Social Media

Human beings are wired for loving the spotlight. When you post something on social media and no one comments or likes, it feels almost like a personal rejection. And when you’re posting to get attention for your business and no one cares what you’re writing, you are wasting your time.

One of the most important ways to get noticed on social media — especially on Twitter — is to make sure your post has a great headline. There are actually very good psychological reasons for using certain words that makes it almost irresistible for people to click. Here are 8 proven formulas to craft your headlines around:

Surprise — using words that surprise or startle captures attention because we love novelty. Words that break the pattern stand out.
Questions — using questions works because a question mark stimulates the human brain to seek an answer.
Curiosity — using incomplete information in your headline to pique curiosity. A famous example of this is the 1926 ad with the headline, “They laughed when I sat down at the piano…but when I started to play…!”
Negatives — using negative superlatives like “worst” or “stop” intrigues us because we want to know if there is something we shouldn’t be doing.
How to — we all want to get better, so using “how to” in your headline makes a promise of improving the reader’s knowledge.
Numbers — because humans dislike uncertainty, we respond well to numbers in headlines.
Reader referencing — using phrases like, “For those who don’t know what to do after a car accident” or just the word “you” are powerful drivers.
Specifics — quantifiable facts and figures that elicit an image in our head are incredibly intriguing.

Here are more than 180 power words to use in your headlines, courtesy of CoSchedule.com:

ARTICLE BY:

Stephen Fairley

OF:

The Rainmaker Institute

Serve Up a Strategic Marketing Approach

Here it is more than halfway through the year and a lot of you who began 2014 committed to changing your marketing approach now realize “wow, nothing has changed.”

Below are ten steps to be more strategic in this year’s marketing planning:

1. Having good intentions in January is not the same as making marketing a priority.In other words, you jotted down some ideas, threw them in a drawer and went about your business. Marketing is often an afterthought. If you do not make building and growing your practice a priority by scheduling it into your daily calendar and then “live and breathe” the concepts, how do you expect progress to be made, by you and other team members?

2. Develop cash flow budgets and projections are imperative so that you would have something to measure progress by. Businesses run with numbers. Law firms are no different. When creating a marketing plan, be as specific as possible. Set concrete goals as such as below:

Increase employment law cases by privately-held businesses cases by 15%
Acquire at least one new client each quarter with billings of at least $90k per quarter.
Increase revenue per existing top five clients by 20 percent

3. Creating metrics to measure the success or failure of your plans and activities against projections developed in number 2 is an ideal way to track your marketing initiatives by results achieved. Items such as response rates, average new billings per new clients, average billings from repeat work of existing clients…etc. Do you have any written metrics and do you constantly monitor them? If not, this is a critical component for measuring success.

4. Assemble the right team. Get the right people “on the bus and the wrong people” off the bus. If your firm is full of worker bees, you will be challenged to produce marketing results. However, if you support and empower those lawyers who are motivated to become a producer, a rainmaker, you are more likely to have a stronger marketing focus and better marketing results.

5. Retain professional training.While many lawyers “think” they know what to do, and they may, most do not know “how” to engage in high impact business development endeavors successfully. Effectively marketing and promoting a law practice ain’t what it used to be. Gone are the days when deals are just a handshake away and a matter of spending the afternoon on the golf course.

Seeking outside support to fully learn, from soup to nuts, the sales process, how to efficiently fill your pipeline AND persistently track your sales (i.e. new client engagements) are things that do not materialize from amorphous. Retain a professional trainer/coach and you will never go back.

6. Set a clear and powerful direction. It is a powerful exercise to have regular meetings with your team to cultivate a marketing culture within a firm and to outline the marketing expectations. Team meetings can serve multiple purposes of parlaying business opportunities, sharing knowledge, and achieving positive marketing results.

7. Turn up the focus dial. Most likely, if you do not focus like a laser on identifying targeted clients, markets and niche areas of practice, you will likely become discouraged and ease up on your marketing commitment. Thus, it is imperative to narrow down exact targets so you know who you are looking for. An example of this for a construction litigation practice may be commercial developers on the East Coast with revenues between $50-150 million a year. That description will narrow the companies you are looking for and are simple to find with basic online market research.

8. Assemble the marketing tools. Having the right tools is essential to ensuring you derive the most out of your marketing strategies. Tools are no longer limited to printed brochures, email and promotional items. Video, social media networking, SMS texting, webinars, podcasts, and creative interactive websites can also be highly effective, depending upon your marketing goals and objectives. The increase in marketing tools equates to greater options in your toolbox. It also means that selecting the right tools is more important than ever.

9.Invest in the right things. Decadent offices, random acts of lunch, and token “shotgun” expenditures in the name of marketing do not attract new clients. Invest instead in strengthening relationships with key clients, communicating to existing clients and prospective clients how you are improving their businesses and/or personal lives.

10. Action, Action, Action. One of themost impactful ways you can be more strategic in your marketing planning is simply to execute on the plan. Marketing must be an integral part of your business, not a “set it and forget it” aspect of your business. In order to ensure that your marketing plan succeeds, you must be actively engaged in working that plan.

The means by which to instill a more strategic approach to your marketing are vast. Reiterating my mantra that marketing success comes with “consistent, persistent massive amounts of action over a prolonged period of time”, all the strategic marketing spokes (Internet marketing; communications program; reputation management, etc.) must be moving forward at the same concurrently. Anything less and the wheels just spin.

Article By:

Kimberly Alford Rice

Of:

KLA Marketing Associates

10 Insights You Want to Gain from Your Social Media Monitoring

If you are participating in social media for your law firm, you should also be monitoring whether or not your time investment is paying dividends.

You should be creating Google Alerts or searching on Social Mention for the name of your law firm and the names of your attorneys at least once a month. Create alerts for the areas of law you practice as well. The social media blog site Buffer recommends you keep these 10 insights in mind when reviewing your results:

Sentiment — Are mentions generally position, neutral or negative?

Questions — Look for questions people may have that you can provide the answers to in your social media posts or blogs.

Feedback — If you see feedback on Avvo or Yelp or some other site that directly affects your firm, you need to listen and respond appropriately.

Links — keep track of who is retweeting or reposting your content and keep track of who is linking back to you.

Pain points — absorb what people are talking about online that is of concern to them and use that information to inform your future posts.

Content — this is where your alerts for your practice area come in handy. Use these to mine for topics of interest to your target market.

Trends — recent court decisions or trending news in your practice area should be included in your posts so it is clear you are on top of all the trends.

Media — journalists spend a lot of time online so pay attention to the areas they are covering that might provide you with an opportunity to reach out as a spokesperson on those subjects.

Influencers — are there certain individuals who keep popping up in your feeds? They may be someone it would be advantageous for you to know as an industry influencer.

Advocates — monitoring is a great way to find and recognize those people who are talking positively about you online.

Article By:

Stephen Fairley

Of:

The Rainmaker Institute

Making These 3 Errors in WordPress Makes Your Law Firm’s Blog Less Effective

Here are three common WordPress mistakes that will make your legal website less effective than it should be:

Posting content that is not unique, engaging or well designed. Unstructured information, filler materials and overly general articles do not motivate a user to interact with the site. Your goal should be to create content that users want to share or bookmark or research further by following your in-text links.
Getting caught up in finding the perfect WP template and design. Many inexperienced website authors expend all their energy before even considering content development. A lot of sites use generic content that reads like it was added as an afterthought. It is hard to schedule time to generate good content but when most people say, “Oh, I’ll come back to improve that later,” they never do.
Failing to design each page for its intended purpose. Out-of-the-box WordPress themes use similar forms and sidebars on every page. It is important for the design (as well as the content) to serve the page’s purpose.

Article By:

Tanner Jones

Of:

Consultwebs.com, Inc.

Tips for Growing Your Fan Base on Facebook

One of the biggest challenges for anyone seeking to have a large social media following is growing your audience to a healthy level. Sometimes it almost feels like we’re back in grade school, looking for other kids to like us!

Inbound marketing firm Hubspot has a number of informative presentations on Facebook marketing, but this quick slide guide with five tips on how to grow your audience is particularly useful since it visually walks you through the steps you need to take on your Facebook page to reap the rewards from each tip:

Inbound marketing firm Hubspot has a number of informative presentations on Facebook marketing, but this quick slide guide with five tips on how to grow your audience is particularly useful since it visually walks you through the steps you need to take on your Facebook page to reap the rewards from each tip:

5 Quick Tips For Growing Your Facebook Audience from HubSpot

Article By:

Stephen Fairley

Of:

The Rainmaker Institute

The Power of Professional Presence

Transitioning from school – – college, law school, grad school, etc. can be a shocking and confusing time for a young professional.

Until now, you may have gotten up, thrown on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt and been good to go. Transitioning into the professional world and the manner in which you present yourself every day can either strengthen your reputation or detract from it. And, in some extreme cases, ruin it.

Understanding that it may seem frivolous to be so picky on how you dress and how you present yourself, let me assure you, it is not. It matters, every day. The manner in which you “show up” speaks volumes not only about how you feel about yourself, but the respect with which you regard those around you and your position.

If you have not heard this before, and I hope you have, below is a list of “best practices” to use as a reminder for those items to be attentive to any day you may interact in a professional setting:

For Women:

DO

Make up. Apply at least a little foundation as it provides a smooth finish on your skin. Just a smidge of blush, a whisper of lip gloss (not the super shiny kind that blinds us), a bit of mascara and brow pencil to frame your face, and you’re good. I understand some women have no interest, patience, or time for make-up but it matters in the overall professional presence. Not to go overboard on too much color in the office, but rather to enhance your natural beauty.

Be mindful of:

Skirt and dress length. To the knee is appropriate in a workplace so as not to create any awkward situations should you bend or stoop down.
Blouse and top necklines. Though you may be proud of your well-endowed chest, the office is not the place to show it off. Believe me, the fellas won’t mind but “the” fella who is in charge of your professional progression, will notice that you appear a little “loose”…not in a good way.
Shoes– yep, women love shoes, but the stilettos and ankle breakers are not for the office. Leave them for the Saturday night clubs. Invest in a couple of pair of boring pumps (black, navy and neutral) and you’ll be good.
Hair – it is not an accessory. Fix it and let it be. It is distracting to see women lawyers constantly with their hands in their hair, tossing it, curling it, flipping it around. If you are nervous, then doodle. Messing with your hair in the office around others does not speak well of you. Don’t do it.

Putting one’s best foot forward (literally and figuratively) will get you noticed and heard quicker and more positively than showing up on shaky group in connection with your professional image.

I’ve addressed some helpful hints for guys below to take note of for a stronger professional presence.

For Guys

Shave before coming to work. Maybe that rugged look is in for young guys, but the workplace is not Abercrombie & Fitch, and you need to be well shaven.
Be well groomed – no long fingernails, no super gel hair, etc. It matters and others in roles of authority are noticing how you present yourself in the office.
Tuck shirt neatly into pants. The “shirt-tail out” look may be appropriate for many occasions, but definitely not in a professional environment.

Be mindful of:

Socks. Match socks to your pants (not to your belt or tie) to provide a continuous monochromatic presentation from your pants to your shoes.
Shoes. Keep shoes in good shape. No mis-matched laces on the tie ups, or wearingany type of shoe which may resemble a sneaker, golf shoe, running shoe, etc. Invest in a sturdy pair of lace ups and a pair of “cordovan” (burgundy) loafers, and you’ll be well covered with most suits.
Suits. Be measured for your suits, even if you have only one. Wearing an ill-fitted suit negates the professional image you are trying to portray.
White Undershirts. There is a reason they are called “under” shirts mainly to keep guys warm in the winter months…with one exception. If you wear a white dress shirt, depending upon the fabric weight, it may be advisable to wear a white undershirt under the white dress shirt. Provides a more professional image than being able to see chest hair under the dress shirt or, worse, poking out of the shirt…eeew.

Along the professional journey, there will be plenty of times that “best practices” may elude you of feeling secure in your professional image. Easy to understand as there are rarely any “classes” in how to most effectively present your professional self. One way to allay some of the uncertainties is to look around and observe others more senior to you whom you respect and regard highly. How do they show up? Do they appear polished and refined?

Another option to “find” your professional style/image is by engaging the services of a professional stylist/consultant. Many of the higher end department stores (like Neiman Marcus and Lord & Taylor) offer these services. We also maintain a resources list of highly specialized experts who can also put you on the right path.

Regardless, remember, we have one shot at making the best first impression which may materially impact your professional success. Harness the power of professional image now to get and keep you on the right track.

Article By:

Kimberly Alford Rice

Of:

KLA Marketing Associates

The Importance of the First Impression For Attorneys

It is often said that a first impression can be a last impression. For attorneys, especially Personal Injury Attorneys who have to fiercely fight for business in such a highly competitive market, making a great first impression is essential!

Studies have shown that it takes approximately 3 seconds for a person to evaluate you based on appearance, body language, demeanor and mannerisms. This first impression sets the tone for the relationship to follow. Just as you are judging whether they are a good fit for you as your client, they too are judging whether you are the type of attorney they see fit to represent them in their case.

Although many first impressions can be misconceptions, they are almost entirely irreversible. As you know, trying to grow your firm and acquire good clients with strong, lucrative cases, can be very difficult. Putting in the extra effort to make the best impression possible, can give you that edge many of your competitors don’t have!

As obvious as it seems, not only should you present yourself physically professional with appropriate clothing, grooming and hygiene, but you must also present yourself conversationally with excellent manners. As simple as this is, these small things are what “makes-it or breaks-it” when signing a new client. If you appear to be too casual, you may give the impression that you will approach their case with the same casual attitude and not with the urgency and concern they feel is needed.

We are all guilty at times for forgetting to put our best foot forward. Sometimes we are having a bad day or have other things on our minds and it can come across negative. In order to cultivate a good relationship and maintain a high standard of service, here are some tips we can all use for making a great first impression and leaving behind our other daily stresses:

Show interest in their case immediately
Be confident
Demonstrate knowledge and competence
Be positive
Have a smile on your face and in your voice
Be courteous and attentive to their needs
Be reliable

You are being judged from the moment a potential client reaches out to you. Bringing in new cases is what keeps your firm in business and you cannot bring in new cases without clients. Your first impression is the key to your success.

Article By:

Anush Alexander

Of:

RW Lynch Company, Inc.

Social Media Ethical Guidelines: What Lawyers Need to Know

Don’t let your online activities land you on the bar discipline docket.

The New York State Bar Association’s Commercial and Federal Litigation Section has published a set of Social Media Ethics Guidelines that provide useful guidance for all lawyers (not just New Yorkers) on the use of social media. While the Guidelines set forth a broad outline for dealing with social media, lawyers will still need to think hard about their particular situations. Below are some of the guidelines that lawyers and law firms should keep in mind.

On-Line Advice: What should you do if a Facebook friend posts a legal question? Answer it? Have you created an attorney-client relationship? Do you owe a duty to all of your friend’s Facebook friends who will see that advice and possibly rely on it? The New York Guidelines suggest that you should keep any reply broad and general. “A lawyer may provide general answers to legal questions asked on social media. A lawyer, however, cannot provide specific legal advice on a social media network because a lawyer’s responsive communications may be found to have created an attorney-client relationship and legal advice also may impermissibly disclose information protected by the attorney-client privilege.” (Guideline 2.A). Great social media advice, but the Guidelines do not say when a “general answer” becomes “specific advice.” A good rule of thumb would be – if the request is specific and includes specific information about your friend’s situation – do not answer the question on Facebook.

Advertising: The Guidelines also say that if you use your social media profile primarily for your law business – think LinkedIn – it is subject to the rules governing attorney advertising and solicitation. (Guideline 1.A). When using Twitter to market your practice, the Commentary to the Guidelines says that you may “utilize commonly recognized abbreviations for information that is required in attorney advertisements.” The Guidelines thus suggest that you will need to devote some of your 140 characters to complying with advertising rules, but they don’t say exactly what content would make for a compliant Tweet.

New York’s Rule of Professional Conduct 7.1(f) requires all lawyer advertising to say “attorney advertising.” Presumably, then, attorneys can say “Att’y Ad” or something similar in their Tweets. The Massachusetts Rules of Professional Conduct do not require “Attorney advertising” but do require that any advertising “include the name of the lawyer, group of lawyers, or firm responsible for its content.” Mass. R. Prof. C. 7.2(d). Thus, Massachusetts lawyers may have a few extra characters in their advertising Tweets than New York lawyers, though they should Tweet under their own names – not a clever screen name.

That said, the Massachusetts rules could still raise compliance issues for lawyers who use social media – particularly concerning Rule 7.3 which governs solicitation of professional employment. For example, the Office of Bar Counsel has previously advised that “bulletin boards, which display information in cyberspace and allow people to post and respond to messages, … do not involve real-time, live interaction between lawyers and prospective clients” and are thus in-bounds for lawyers to advertise and solicit clients. On the other hand, “solicitation through … interactive computer-accessed chat rooms is prohibited as in-person solicitation” where the chat rooms “offer conversation that is live, interactive and conducted in real-time or near real-time.” On this rationale, a lawyer who finds herself in a “real-time” Twitter or Facebook conversation could unwittingly breach Rule 7.3(d) (prohibiting “in person” solicitation).

Among the other useful tips from the New York Guidelines:

If someone posts a statement to your social media profile that does not comply with advertising guidelines, you may have an obligation to remove the post. (Guideline 1.C);
“A lawyer may view the public portion of a person’s social media profile or public posts even if such person is represented by another lawyer,” including in situations where the person’s account tracks the identities of the viewers. (Guideline 3.A);
A lawyer may request permission to view the restricted portion of an unrepresented person’s social media website or profile. However, the lawyer must use her full name and an accurate profile, and she may not create a different or false profile in order to mask her identity.” (Guideline 3.B);
The situation is different if the person is represented. “A lawyer shall not contact a represented person to seek to review the restricted portion of the person’s social media profile unless an express authorization has been furnished by such person.” (Guideline 3.C);
You can advise a client to “take down” a post, although the client may have an obligation to preserve the information removed. (Guideline 4.A).

The Guidelines are not universal, however, and the drafters caution that there are numerous conflicting opinions and rules around the United States. For example, a recent New Hampshire ethics opinion has a different take on Guideline 3.B, finding that a lawyer must disclose her involvement in a matter when sending a “friend” request to an unrepresented witness to view restricted portions of the witness’ profile. “[S]ending a Facebook friend request in-name-only constitutes a misrepresentation by omission, given that the witness might not immediately associate the lawyer’s name with his or her purpose and that, were the witness to make that association, the witness would in all likelihood deny the request.” N.H. Bar Ass’n Ethics Advisory Comm., Op. 2012-13/05.

As you incorporate social media into your practice, you must research the law, understand the capabilities of the social media platforms you use, and carefully consider your online activities in connection with the Rules of Professional Conduct. In Massachusetts, if in doubt, you could contact the Office of Bar Counsel’s ethics hotline and ask. The hotline is available between 2 and 4 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Fridays at (617) 728-8750. Ultimately, your best defense against stepping into a social media ethics landmine is to stop and think before you click.

Article By:

Thomas W. Kirchofer

Of:

Sherin and Lodgen LLP

The One SEO Rule You Need to Know About Alt Tags for Images

Wikipedia says alt attributes (alt tags) are used in HTML documents/Web pages “to specify alternative text (alt text) that is to be rendered when the element to which it is applied cannot be rendered.”

To optimize your website’s content for search, remember one simple rule for image alt tags: An image’s alt attributes should describe the visual. Including keywords in alt tags is a good practice as long as it’s not spammy. Alt attributes used to have a larger SEO impact in Google searches before the company changed its Google Image search design. Traffic has decreased considerably from image search since then.

Article By:

Tanner Jones

Of:

Consultwebs.com, Inc.

One week until the LMA P3 Conference, June 12-13 in Chicago

The National Law Review is pleased to bring you information about the LMA P3 Conference to be held in Chicago June 12-13, 2014.

When

Thursday – Friday, June 12-13, 2014

Where

Hyatt Chicago Magnificent Mile
633 N. Saint Clair St.
Chicago, IL 60611

Dig deeper into project management, pricing and process improvement.

The 2013 LMA P3 Conference set the bar high with fantastic breakout sessions, partner presentations and networking opportunities, but this year’s conference looks even more promising.

Join us for P3 – The Practice Innovation Conference, where pricing, project management, and practice innovation experts will discuss the use of various tactics to explore solutions to real issues face by law firms today.

This execution-focused conference will have attendees roll up their sleeves and collectively work out solutions. Click here to view the full conference schedule.

There is still time to register! Register now!

Category: Legal Business Development

Serve Up a Strategic Marketing Approach

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