Please join us for the 2015 Regional Conference, taking place on November 12 -13 at the Hyatt Regency in Boston. This year’s theme is “What’s Your WOW Factor?” Join attendees as they learn about the best tools and approaches to stand out among the competition, succeed at winning new business and become industry trendsetters. Don’t miss out on the chapter’s most important and popular event, one that saw record attendance last year!
When – November 12-13
Where – Hyatt Regency Boston
Please join us for the 2015 Regional Conference, taking place on November 12 -13 at the Hyatt Regency in Boston. This year’s theme is “What’s Your WOW Factor?” Join attendees as they learn about the best tools and approaches to stand out among the competition, succeed at winning new business and become industry trendsetters. Don’t miss out on the chapter’s most important and popular event, one that saw record attendance last year!
When – November 12-13
Where – Hyatt Regency Boston
I often have clients ask me how frequently they should refresh or update their websites. That is a tricky question. When it comes to content, a website should be updated on an on-going basis – every week is good, and every day is not too much. Frequent content additions will increase the likelihood that your site is viewed often, as search engines catalog content using the keywords users are likely to query and return results based on a combination of the most recently posted content, the closest match to the query and the most highly viewed pages that contain the appropriate keywords. That means the more optimized (good use of keywords) content you post, the more views the content is likely to get.
When it comes to design, a website will begin to look dated in two to three years and should be revisited and updated. This is the perfect time to review the site’s navigation and make sure it has remained user-friendly and consistent with current trends in website design. As with most things in business, having an initial strategy when building a website will reduce the need for changes and make the changes easier to implement when it does come time to refresh the site.
So, what does good initial strategy entail when beginning a website build?
First and foremost, you must think about the foundation the site is built upon. Nearly every website built now has a Content Management System (CMS). A CMS allows for ease in operating the website without a need for knowledge of coding. For instance, adding and deleting content can be easily managed on the back-end of the site with the use of built-in templates. There is no reason for a law firm not to use a CMS. The only questions to consider are which category and type of system to choose. This is the big overall strategy decision, and it will impact the ease of use and updates for the life of the site.
There are two categories of CMSs: Proprietary and Open Source. They provide similar functionality, but they operate very differently. A Proprietary CMS is built and owned by an independent company, and that company “leases” the right for a firm to use the technology. Proprietary was the most used form of legal website CMSs for many years.
Open Source CMSs are built and maintained by programmers throughout the world and are open for anyone to use at no cost. Programmers continually update and add to the code making improvements, which they openly share. This is a newer platform for the legal industry.
Proprietary CMSs generally come with a hosting and maintenance plan, providing a sense of security to smaller firms without the in-house resources to update and maintain the site. Though this can ease the burden of website management for the firm, it also requires a monthly or annual fee to keep the site up and running. In addition, as most licensors will not allow access to their code, a site refresh will entail additional fees whenever upgrades are needed.
With the use Open Source CMSs, programmers are continually enhancing the code and the updated functionality is freely shared. Any firm can add the enhanced functionality to their site free of charge. That said the firm must have the in-house capability to do so or contract with an outside vendor to complete the project. If a firm does use an outside vendor to assist, it’s a one-time project fee as opposed to a long-term commitment.
For the past several years, law firms have steadily trended toward the use of Open Source platforms and ownership of their websites. Long gone are the days of two or three legal power vendors owning the mass market share of law firm websites by using a formulaic, proprietary build approach and charging for site content and technology updates on an hourly or monthly basis.
Not if, but when you do plan for a refresh or new site build, you can reduce costs and enhance site longevity by using an Open Source platform. There are three main options, WordPress, Drupal and Joomla. There have been many comparisons of these Open Source Code options, and I share the main value/asset for each below.
WordPress: This system works best for small- to medium-sized firm websites. (Most Popular)
Drupal: The most powerful Open Source CMS, it allows for efficient upgrades. (Most Advanced)
Joomla: The better platform for e-commerce, it requires some level of technical coding. (The Compromise between WordPress and Drupal)
There is considerable information on the Internet regarding each of the listed Open Source systems. Identifying which CMS to use, whether proprietary or open source, is key to ensuring a smooth and effective website strategy for years to come.
© Copyright 2008-2015, Jaffe Associates
If you’re using Facebook to “sell” your law firm, you are probably disappointed in your results. You see, Facebook is about engagement and anything that smacks of a hard-sell is usually tuned out.
You will get much better results if you simply surrender to what Facebook can deliver, which is an opportunity to meet new prospects and to share your knowledge that may someday lead to new business.
A lot of new business connections occur on Facebook based on people you used to know –old high school or college friends that you connect with there and then educate them naturally on what you do now. In that sense, approaching Facebook as a referral source cultivation opportunity could be a mindset that will pay you big dividends in the future.
That said, there are certain things you can do that research shows leads to more engagement with your Facebook posts.
According to Shareaholic research, social media now drives more traffic (31.2%) to the websites of people and organizations that post on social media sites than any other channel, including search. Facebook dwarfs all other social networks for driving that traffic, accounting for 25% of all website traffic coming from social media!
BuzzSumo recently analyzed 500 million Facebook posts to discover what types of posts create the most engagement. Use this data to plot your posting strategy and you will likely see an uptick in the number of likes, comments and shares your posts get on Facebook:
Schedule evening posts. Posts published between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. ET get 88% more interactions than the average Facebook post.
Use images. Image posts get 179% more interactions than the average Facebook post.
Pose a question. Posts ending with a question get 162% more interactions than the average post.
Use video. Videos are the most shared post type on Facebook, averaging 89.5 shares per video.
Post on Sundays. Posts published on a Sunday get 52.9% more interactions than the average post.
Keep posts brief. Posts with 150-200 characters performed the best, averaging 238.75 shares.
Post directly to Facebook. Posting with a third party tool results in 89.5% less engagement than posting directly to Facebook.
Link to longer content. Posts that link to long form content (2,000+ words) receive 40% more interactions than linking to shorter content.
Just like any social media network, the lion’s share of the attention goes to those who interact frequently – and genuinely – with followers and fans. Knowing how valuable and limited your time may be for social media marketing, you need to make efficient use of it to get the maximum benefit. These tips can help you do just that.
© The Rainmaker Institute, All Rights Reserved
So you have a blog. Great! Everyone – from legal marketers to managing partners – has probably told you that writing a regular blog will establish you as a thought leader and drive business development.
Unfortunately, it’s not that easy. Finding a blog on the Internet is akin to picking out a needle from a haystack.
Just because you write it doesn’t mean they will read it. For your blog to attract readers, you need to give it a push. And that means coming up with a solid distribution strategy.
Let’s look at potential channels that could send readers to your blog.
You can bet that your target audience will be using search engines – Google, Bing, etc. – to find articles and blogs. Understanding topics and keywords that people search for should be the first step in blog writing.
Use Google Trends and Google News to mine for topics. Then research which keywords people are using to search for your topic. Google’s keyword planner provides data on how many searches are conducted every month. For example, if you’re writing about Title IX, are people using search phrases like “title IX discrimination on campus” or “gender equality in education”?
Once you determine the best keywords, integrate them into your blog – naturally. Don’t overuse phrases again and again. Instead, choose five or six phrases and sprinkle them throughout your blog.
Next, give consideration to your title tag. This is separate from the headline on your blog post. The title tag is what is known as a “meta” field and is accessible on the back end of most content management systems (WordPress, Drupal, etc.). Select one prominent keyword phrase that has relatively high search volume, along with high relevancy, to use in your title tag. Search engines use title tags to index your blog posts. Your title tag is also what search engines use to designate your posts in their results pages.
And don’t forget about “domain authority.” Domain authority is a third-party metric that indicates how well search engines will rank a website in search results. Hosting your blog on your firm website (as opposed to building a brand-new site for your blog) will most likely provide higher authority for your blog.
Have a way for readers to sign up for email alerts that are triggered when you put up a new blog post. This type of “opt-in” automated program delivers your blog to engaged readers – that is, potential leads.
If your blog focuses on various practice areas or industries, creating sign-up categories will help you target your readers with relevant content. As an example, Kirton McConkie recently launched a multi-practice blog that provides email sign-up options by category.
Sites like the National Law Review, JD Supra and Mondaq repost blogs on their websites. These online resources are hubs for general counsel, attorneys and reporters to find information on legal topics. Subscribers can join for free, while contributors pay monthly or annual fees to have their content included.
These types of sites have an added benefit for blog authors: They also use social media and email marketing tactics to deliver your content, creating additional visibility.
It goes without saying that social media has the potential to reach an enormous pool of readers. But getting the attention from the right people on social media is a daunting task. Sending out a tweet linking to your blog can be like putting a message in a bottle and throwing it into the ocean. Fortunately, there are a few best practices to help you get additional visibility.
First, decide which social media platforms you’re going to use based on the audience you want to attract. Every social network has a unique culture and demographic characteristics. Don’t waste your time chasing a crowd that’s not relevant – for instance, Snapchat users are not interested in legal blogs.
Once you’ve identified one or two social platforms, search for influencers in your topic area. These influencers will frequently write about and share relevant content and will have high follower and engagement metrics. Start engaging with these people. Don’t bombard them with requests to share your blog, but show interest in their content and join in conversations. Also, sprinkle links to your blog into your social stream. Just be careful not to make it all about you.
Use the LinkedIn “Publish a Post” feature to repurpose your blogs on your profile. It’s a simple way to expand your reach on LinkedIn. Not only are posts searchable on LinkedIn, but they also are pushed out through LinkedIn’s email notification program.
Setting up your blog’s RSS feed to relevant blog directory sites like AllTop’s legal section and ABAJournal blogs will drive readers to your blog. Track visits from these sites in the “Referral” section of your Google Analytics dashboard to measure the effectiveness of these visitors.
I
nvite thought leaders with high online visibility to write guest posts for your blog. These authors will have followers who read their content. If they post to your site, they will help you share their post through their social media channels, which again drives visits to your website.
It may be difficult to recruit guest bloggers. If you find that is the case, try to provide benefits to writers, such as prominent links back to their websites.
Leverage all your digital marketing channels by including a link to your blog in your electronic communications – email signature lines, client alerts, invoices, etc. Add a link to your blog in all your social media profiles – LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+ and Facebook.
As with all digital marketing initiatives, measurement and tracking are key steps for identifying tactics that work and tactics that don’t. Review your Google Analytics or other analytics-tracking platform regularly. Understanding which topics resonate with your readers will inform your content strategy as you go forward.
© Copyright 2008-2015, Jaffe Associates
Google algorithm updates are usually accompanied by much wailing and gnashing of teeth among marketers, and sometimes it’s for good reason. With one flick of a switch, all that hard work to improve search results can be undone if your site no longer complies with what Google considers to be best practices for your website and blog.
Of course, Google’s intention is not to penalize sites — it’s to improve the user experience. Recently, Internet marketing consulting company QuickSprout developed the infographic below with specifics on what to avoid and strategies for ensuring your sites don’t get penalized by Google.
These tips are easy to understand and not too difficult to implement. The reward of not incurring a Google penalty is well worth your time in becoming educated on current best practices in SEO for Google:
![How to Avoid Being Penalized by Google [Infographic]](https://i0.wp.com/www.therainmakerblog.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/383/2015/06/How-to-Avoid-a-Google-Penalty.jpg?resize=600%2C8038)
There is no question that LinkedIn is a powerful networking tool that can potentially turn online connections into real-world clients. That won’t happen overnight, however, and those efforts will only thrive with proper care, maintenance and pruning.
Most likely you already have a basic profile, but one of the biggest obstacles lawyers face is distinguishing themselves online. Bios sound the same from one attorney to the next, and, while they might showcase a long list of achievements, they often don’t say much about the person and how he or she is a problem solver. It’s important to remember that your profile is your front door to the world. Spruce it up, and lay out the welcome mat.
Need some tips when writing your LinkedIn profile? To reach influencers, gain a following and develop a reputation as someone “in the know,” use actionable language, and try to be more lively and specific. Identifying clearly how you provide a solution will make it infinitely easier for potential clients to understand what you do and why you are the perfect fit for their job. If you think revising your online profile will easily drop to the bottom of your “to do” list, schedule it on your calendar.
With a progressive profile in place, you’re now ready to harness the power of LinkedIn. In addition to providing opportunities for connecting with colleagues, friends, and potential prospects; joining groups; and posting, LinkedIn has recently unveiled a new publishing platform. It was designed to provide users with a sophisticated, yet easy-to-use, blogging tool. For those who work at law firms that do not have blogging resources, or if you want to prove the viability of a blog before adding it to your law firm website, using LinkedIn publishing is a good option.
To help you use the blogging platform, LinkedIn provides a built-in template that comes up when you click on the orange “Publish a post” icon at your home screen. From there, it is easy to add a photo, draft an engaging headline, drop in the text and click Publish.
Blog posting through LinkedIn allows you to share quality content on a regular basis with a built-in audience and group of followers. You can share posts with specific groups or individual connections. Another bonus of the LinkedIn blogging tool is that the pages encourage two-way conversation and discussion. Each post is equipped with social-sharing buttons, so it’s easy for other users to share, like, repost and retweet across all social networking platforms. Unlike cumbersome email campaigns or formal alerts, you can easily point and click your way to becoming a thought-leader on specific topic. And, the tool catalogs all your posts in one area for easy reference.
Successful bloggers publish at least twice a month, and more frequently to accommodate new developments or interesting news. Content should be relevant, entertaining, engaging and brief. It should include a call to action. If at all possible, it should tell a story. But most importantly, you should write about topics that affect your clients and help to position you as a valuable resource.
In fact, according to Bloomberg’s Big Law Business Report, there seems to be a sea change among in-house counsel about how to handle client development. Fancy dinners and tickets to sporting events might be nice, but it’s also important to show that you have your finger on the pulse of the market and are watching (and can report on) trends. Blogging ticks this box.
It is also important to note that, as lawyers become more and more proficient on LinkedIn, they also need to be aware of the various state bar rules. While the ABA has not yet published comprehensive guidelines on social media usage, some state bars have, including New York.
In fact, in March 2015, the New York County Lawyers Association Professional Ethics Committee released an opinion recommending that attorneys in New York with LinkedIn profiles that include information about their practice areas, skills, endorsements or recommendations – essentially, anything more than the straightforward biographical information in their profiles – should now include attorney advertising statements at the end of the “Summary” section of their LinkedIn profiles, similar to “Attorney Advertising – Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.”
While this doesn’t mean that LinkedIn should be abandoned as a powerful networking tool, it just will require that attorneys periodically monitor and review the content of their LinkedIn profiles for accuracy and compliance with bar guidelines.
Lawyers and legal marketers seem to have an ever-growing number of marketing tools and tactics at their disposal. Technology has provided us with a number of new avenues to reach our desired audiences, but just using these channels is not enough. They have to be leveraged strategically.
Lawyers should take the time to populate their LinkedIn profiles with quality information that positively reflects their personal brands. They should also make it a habit to continually update their profiles to capture recent successes, promotions, organizational affiliations, pro bono activities and published articles. Finally, with the LinkedIn publishing tool, lawyers can maximize the benefits of the social network by crafting and distributing relevant thought leadership materials to a targeted audience of engaged professionals.
Great overview of successful attorney videos by John McDougall of McDougall Interactive and Justin Parker and Jimmy Craig of MethodLoft in the podcast below.
https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/203761369
John McDougall: Hi. I’m John McDougall. I’m here today with Justin Parker and Jimmy Craig of MethodLoft. Today, we’re going to be speaking about three tips for better law firm videos. Welcome, Jimmy and Justin.
Justin Parker: Hi. Good to be here.
Jimmy Craig: Good to be here.
John: Why is video important for attorneys?
Justin: There are a few factors there. One of the most important is that an attorney is — you’re not only selling services but you’re selling yourself. A video is a great way to let your client know who you are, what’s your body language, how do you talk, is someone going to be comfortable working with you? It’s much more personal than just seeing a stock photo or a still photo of you on the website.
John: Yeah, and too much text, which certainly people read a lot online but video is a booming trend for sure.
Justin: For sure. For a lot of attorneys, you could have a video that doesn’t need to have a lot of views, but one sale from 75 views is really a big deal and can make the whole project worthwhile.
John: And you’ve seen that happen?
Justin: Absolutely, yes.
Jimmy: It’s obviously important for attorneys to be present online. So having video is just a, what we think is a critical piece of that, especially now since videos show up in organic Google search results. Also, YouTube is the second biggest search engine. It’s good to take advantage of that.
John: What is typically wrong with lawyer videos?
Jimmy: I’d say, something we always encourage lawyers to avoid is being too sales y. Video is a really good opportunity to be more personable. Basically, just share knowledge that you already have and don’t try to be aggressive, and not sales y and not stiff.
Again, anytime we shoot a video, we really encourage lawyers to not even use a script. We’ll basically have a loose outline, but we really want them to basically just be them.
John: Yeah, a lot of times, they’re really wondering, “Who’s going to write the script, and how long is the script?” It’s a lot more likely you’ll get a less stiff take if you don’t do that, right?
Justin: Absolutely. A lot of attorney videos, you’re just seeing, like Jimmy said, “Come to our law firm because we do this.” That’s all we’re getting from them, and it’s just blending in with everybody else who does that as opposed to, “I’m just here to share my knowledge with you.” That is just a much better sales pitch, I think.
John: Yeah, so starting with the right approach, a good inbound marketing type of approach. What are the three tips to improve law firm websites using video?
Justin: One tip is just to make sure your production quality is decent. It doesn’t have to be like Hollywood extravaganza, but you probably you don’t want to shoot your videos with the webcam in your laptop. Also, a lot of people underestimate audio quality. That’s a big thing that goes into the whole production process.
John: How do they miss out on that, just using the mic that’s in the camera or is there a way to get around that?
Justin: Yeah. Different microphones are obviously going to have better quality even if they are on the camera, but you could have a boom mic that you can place right next to the subject. That’s definitely going to increase the quality. Just put it up on a little tripod. It’s not really a big deal, not a big setup.
John: Do you often can go into a separate MP3 recorder or…
Justin: Yeah, absolutely. That’s our current process, but that isn’t the only process. Sometimes, you can feed directly into the camera. It just depends on the equipment.
John: But that means you’re going to have to sync it somehow, right?
Justin: Yeah, absolutely.
John: But you think that’s worth doing?
Justin: Yeah, for sure. Again, audio quality, almost more important than video quality. They’re right there.
John: Interesting. What else?
Jimmy: Another tip, I’d say, is to be mindful of the length of the content you’re releasing. Typically, when we do an overview video for an attorney, which is basically their commercial to the world, we stick around one to two minutes, typically. We don’t really want to go too long.
We found that a lot of attorneys want to say everything they’ve done, the history of their firm, and how much money they’ve won, and how long they’ve been in the business and stuff. It’s really just highlight points. Basically, you want to think of it as, this is your bullet list. Again, people online don’t really have the longest attention spans, so we try to keep things under two minutes.
Also, for FAQ videos, that’s another thing we do with a lot of attorneys, and we keep those, typically, I’d say, under a minute, probably around 40 to 45 seconds.
John: With the overview videos, I think some of those value proposition statements, a little bit of, “How long have you been in business?” and some of those stuff is OK but as long as they can do it quick.
Jimmy: Of course. The thing is, that stuff is definitely important. It’s just, sometimes, you can get that across, too, with even a text bulleted list during the video while the attorney is saying something else, maybe talking about a specific case or something like that. Basically, you want to pack a lot of information into a short thing. But you don’t need to go into detail, basically.
Justin: Again, it depends on what kind of video you’re doing. There’s overview videos, and then there’s FAQ videos. With your overview video, maybe that’s more of an overview of your firm. An FAQ video, it’s just, here is a specific question, here is a specific answer.
So as a law firm or an attorney, you have a lot knowledge you want to share, and just figuring out which pieces of that knowledge fit into what kind of video you’re doing.
John: With the FAQ videos, it’s important to pick keywords. So you’ve seen good results with that as well.
Justin: Definitely, another tip that we would definitely recommend is using keywords, and then adding them to YouTube, and then transcribe the text of what you’re talking about in your video, and you can put that text directly into your website for SEO purposes and also take that text and import it into YouTube as the Closed Caption text. Those are other ways to be searchable for sure.
John: Those are great tips. Again, this is John McDougall with McDougall Interactive Marketing, here today with Jimmy Craig and Justin Parker of MethodLoft. See you next time. Thanks, guys.
Justin: Thank you.
© Copyright 2015 McDougall Interactive
Continue reading Three Tips for Better Law Firm Videos [PodCast]
Remaining current is critical to successful litigation. This program is relevant for both in-house and outside counsel who are involved in litigation and the discovery process. E-Discovery is a rapidly evolving field with laws and regulations that are constantly changing. Attendees of this program will gain practical knowledge that may be implemented immediately in day-to-day operations.
Additional Information Institute Brochure
Remaining current is critical to successful litigation. This program is relevant for both in-house and outside counsel who are involved in litigation and the discovery process. E-Discovery is a rapidly evolving field with laws and regulations that are constantly changing. Attendees of this program will gain practical knowledge that may be implemented immediately in day-to-day operations.
Additional Information Institute Brochure
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