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6 Non-Sleazy Ways To Promote Your Law Firm Blog

November 5, 2010 By Jay Fleischman

You can create a law firm blog with real value, but if you don’t let people know it exists then it’s all wasted. How can you promote you blog posts without being sleazy?

We’re uncomfortable with sales and promotion; that goes for the attorney marketing a law firm just as much as any other profession, but I think lawyers are hit particularly hard in this respect. We’ve been trained to behave conservatively, and in our minds the notion of promotion (hey look, I made a rhyme!) is distinctly NOT conservative. Add in years of being compared to hucksters and you’ve got most lawyers believing that promotion of any sort is unseemly.

Done the wrong way, promotion can make you feel dirty. If you look at most of the marketing online you’ll see scads of yellow highlighter and exclamation points that tell you to BUY! BUY! BUY!!! Is it any wonder why some fairly prominent legal bloggers think that marketing is a word to be expunged from the next edition of Black’s Law Dictionary?

But there’s another side to this coin, and that’s the realization that marketing need not make you want to take a bath in lye and burn your clothing. If you’re marketing a law firm you want to be not only ethical, but mindful of your professional standing in the community.

Your law firm blog is a marketing tool, no matter how you slice it. A law firm blog showcases your capabilities, exposes people to your message, and enhances your standing. It informs, inspires to act, and serves as your online face. You need to promote the content in order to gain an audience, and you want to do so without being sleazy.

Send Links to Select People Who May be Interested. If you read an article about the foreclosure crisis and are doing a post about TILA, RESPA or any of the real estate-related “alphabet soup” of statutes, send an email to the author of the other article to let him or her know what you’ve done. Be polite and offer up an invitation to visit the link. Three lines should do the trick, and it will help to gain one more viewer. That viewer may send the link along to others if it’s a good enough post. One thing you need to know, though – do not spam your email address book. I’m talking about sending the article out to 1-3 people who you know will be interested in it. If you spam, you suck.

Post the Article to Facebook. 500 million people are registered on Facebook as of this writing; when you post a link it shows up on the stream of all of your friends. If something interests you enough to write about then it’s probably interesting to the people you know and connect with on Facebook.

Tweet a Link. Twitter is a hive of activity, with people sharing links to content that interests them. Though you may choose to post your links automatically (I do this), the secret sauce is to create a compelling question rather than sending out the title of the post (which should be compelling anyway, but I know sometimes you just can’t make it sexy enough. For example, I recently sent out a tweet to someone else’s blog post. Her title was, “Is Bankruptcy Right for Me?” My tweet was, “Is bankruptcy a good idea or best left to others? Ask yourself these 22 questions.” Which one looks more interesting?

Hit The LinkedIn Group. If you’re a member of a LinkedIn group associated with your field of law then you’re already associated with a bunch of people who are interested in the topics you’re blogging about. When you’ve got a particularly interesting post (not one of those, “who is the Chapter 7 trustee in my area,” ones) head over to the LinkedIn group and post a link with a description. Your colleagues may find the content interesting enough to pass along to others.

Comment On Related Blogs. Blog commenting is an excellent traffic generating tactic for your law firm blog because it gives you exposure to the other blog’s audience. But let’s say you’ve got a meaty post on your site that you’re itching to share. Chances are pretty good that there is another blog out there talking about the same issue. In fact, I’m going to go so far as to say that your article may be yin to another blog’s yang. Go to the other blog and comment appropriately (again, no spamming please); in the area where you enter your URL, paste the URL of your article rather than the main law firm blog URL; in this way, when people click to learn more about you they will be taken directly to your related post.

Ask Your Readers To Share Your Law Firm Blog Content. Using blog plugins such as Sociable, Tweetmeme and the FBLike you’ll make it easier for readers to share and pass along your law firm blog posts to other people. Good content has a way of traveling fast, so if you’re providing real value to readers you should expect the traffic bump.

Your law firm blog isn’t going to take off into the stratosphere overnight. It’s a slow build, but when you consistently use these promotional techniques you’ll have a greater chance of reaching more of the people who may find your content interesting.

Image credit: victoriafee (Flickr)

Filed Under: Blogging For Lawyers, Legal Marketing Tagged With: blog, blogging, facebook, law firm blog, lawyer blogs, legal blogging, linkedin, online social networking, promotion, social media, Twitter

Why Clients Don’t Like Your Law Firm Facebook Fan Page, And Why You Don’t Care

August 17, 2010 By Jay Fleischman

Do you want to have a personal Facebook profile to interact and connect with people? Absolutely! Do you want your law firm to have a fan page on Facebook? Yes. But don’t expect it to have a ton of people on it.

Facebook isn’t just big – it’s huge. More than 500 million active users, 50% of which log on each day. In fact, people spend over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook. Each month, that number grows by leaps and bounds.

Full disclosure – my law firm has a fan page. I set it up when the firm was formed in January, and have actively ignored it since that time. Read on, and I’ll tell you why.

Your law firm provides solutions for people with legal problems. Not many people like to broadcast to the world that they have legal problems, and have sought the help of a lawyer to get them back where they want to be.

When you get someone to join your firm’s fan page, that information is automatically dropped into their profile. It’s visible for everyone to see. And for many people, being publicly outed as a client of your law firm may not be too appealing.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Legal Marketing Tagged With: facebook, facebook features, facebook profile, fan, fan page, law firm, law firm websites, people

How A Real Lawyer Uses Social Media

June 4, 2010 By Jay Fleischman

Can a real, live lawyer use social media for real, live business?

Social media for lawyers – specifically Twitter, Facebook, and Linkedin – has been getting a ton of coverage in the past few days on the heels of this article in Mashable. And it seems to have ignited a bit of a debate on Twitter because there are a few attorneys who question whether the experts quoted are able to speak from experience.

I don’t think there is such a thing as a social media expert. I do believe that there are people who are well-qualified to discuss how to build trust, relationships and communities for business purposes. These are the experts, the ones who teach us how to be more human in the way we conduct business. When these people talk about using the platforms at our disposal, I listen and take notes.

Social media is an all-encompassing term that speaks to platforms, and how they are used to accomplish a particular goal. Those platforms currently include legal blogs, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Tumblr, Posterous, Foursquare, Gowalla, and the list goes on and on. But bear in mind that these are platforms only, and are subject to change without notice. A few years ago it was Friendster. A decade ago it was Usenet. And on and on.

To say that you’re an expert in Twitter means that you know how to set up an account and use the tool. It doesn’t mean you know how to connect with people or businesses who may have some use for your service. When Twitter goes away or, more likely, evolves in ways we can’t currently imagine, the “Twitter expert” will be as useful as a “mimeograph expert”.

The person who’s skilled in the broader skillset of creating and maintaining relationships will continue to thrive. Because that’s not just good marketing, it’s good for life.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, I thought it would be useful to outline how I use the various social media platforms to achieve my goals. Those goals, by the way, are fluid. Sometimes I’m looking for help with something. Other times I’m promoting my expertise as a bankruptcy and consumer protection lawyer, or as a guy who knows a thing or two about marketing a law firm. Maybe I’m going to be a new place and need some recommendations for a good place to have dinner. In all cases, the song remains the same overall (hat tip to Robert Plant and Jimmy Page).

Content Distribution And Promotion

Every time I create content on this or any other platform, I promote it on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Doing so exposes my work to people who find the subject matter compelling, and cements my standing as someone who knows about the fields in which I spend my time.

Information Sharing

I’m a newshound, and read hundreds of blogs each day. When I find something that catches my eye, I share it with people. More information is a good thing, no?

Connecting With Interesting People

Here’s where people say Twitter is a waste of time, right? I mean, why would I spend time typing out 140 character messages to strangers? Well, why would you spend an evening at a networking event filled with a diverse group of people? To meet them, get to know them better, and establish a relationship. Maybe that plumber I meet will never have need of my legal services, but I’m betting that he knows of someone who will eventually need me. The stronger my relationship with Mr. Plumber, the more likely I am to be the name and number (OK, email address) that he passes along to his friend who’s going into foreclosure and needs help.

What if Mr. Plumber is in Oklahoma, far from my state of admission (which is New York)? No worries – I can send the referral to one of my colleagues in Oklahoma. I’ve connected with some of them on Twitter, others on Facebook and some on “old school” listservs. Send a referral to a trusted colleague and I get good karma in return. It’s happened so often I’ve lost count, and it increases the chance that I get a referral in return. Karma’s like that, you know.

Strengthening Bonds Established Elsewhere

Let’s say you meet someone offline – a networking event, a social event, whatever the case may be. You connect with them on Facebook, or LinkedIn, or Twitter or whatever platform you choose. Now you’re exposed to them on a regular basis, and they to you. Share information, keep up with one another, and allow your humanity to continue to unfold before one another. It takes a causal meeting with a total stranger and allows you to make something more of it.

Now you want me to prove that it works, right? Here are a few of the things I’ve accomplished by using the platforms available to me:

coverage in print and broadcast television (Twitter and LinkedIn);
paying clients (more than I can count from Facebook in particular, Twitter less so);
quotes and attendant backlinks from highly-regarded online sources, which has increased the ranking of my own site and resulted in more clients (primarily Twitter, but Facebook and LinkedIn to a certain extent); and
referrals from other lawyers as well as from non-lawyers who deal in consumer finance issues (Twitter).

Of course, none of this speaks to the business my firm has received over the years as a result of a never-ending commitment to content creation through our blog and elsewhere.

Is this list comprehensive? Does it take into account all of the nuances of how a real lawyer can use social media to help his or her practice? No, but it does give you the high notes and prove to you that this isn’t just another time suck.

What do you think?

Filed Under: Legal Marketing Tagged With: facebook, goals, lawyers, Legal Marketing, linkedin, marketing, online social networking, social media, Twitter, web 2.0, world wide web

4 Easy Steps To Syndicating Content On JDSupra

June 2, 2010 By Jay Fleischman

Online legal marketing involves content creation andcontent distribution; doing so enables us to showcase our knowledge and establish trust with our prospective clients.

One of the best content distribution sites for lawyers is JDSupra, run by a team of awesome and smart people who want nothing more than to give you the widest possible exposure for your content. JDSupra is not only highly-trafficked and well-indexed, but the service provides a number of feature-rich Facebook pages and widgets to pump content out far more effectively than would otherwise be possible.

4 Online Legal Marketing Trends Every Other Industry Knows About

May 25, 2010 By Jay Fleischman

Don’t you wish you had a crystal ball to peer into the future? Some way to tell what the next few years would bring? What would you do with that information? Would you put money on the Super Bowl? World Series? Or would you take the opportunity to move ten giant steps ahead of the competition?

OK, it’s no and either-or sort of thing. You’d probably do all of those things and a lot more. But when it comes to marketing your law firm online there’s a certain amount of forecasting we can do without any help. All it takes is a quick glance around to see where the rest of the world is today.

That’s right, we can see the future of online legal marketing by looking around us right now. As a backwards-looking profession, we live in the past. It’s in our legal pleadings, our reliance on precedent, and our education. But the fun thing is that the rest of the world is living in the present.

6 Reasons To Syndicate Your Legal Marketing Content

May 20, 2010 By Jay Fleischman

Legal marketing is only as effective as the audience it reaches. Our goal is to educate as many people as possible with our content – why shouldn’t we leverage the tools available to us?

There’s an old cartoon about a guy who finds a frog in a box. The frog can sing and dance, top hat and all. Elated, the guy begins taking the frog around to theatrical producers in an effort to get the little green guy to put on a show.

Each time, Michigan J. Frog would utter a lone ribbit and nothing more. Seems as if he wasn’t so into the public spectacle, and preferred to perform in private.

Of course, we all know the end of the episode. The guy realizes that his buddy isn’t going to be the ticket to wealth and throws him and the suitcase he came in into the time capsule for a skyscraper. Froggy is found in 2056 and repeats the story.

The frog was valuable only if someone else knew about him. But without widespread knowledge of his abilities, he was … just a frog.

5 Online Legal Marketing Hacks To Get More Traffic Fast

April 21, 2010 By Jay Fleischman

When you’re marketing your law firm online, you need to always look at maximizing the traffic to your website or blog. The more people who visit, the better your raw conversion numbers will be. I don’t take issue with those who say that it’s the quality of the visitor as opposed to the quantity, but if you’re optimizing your content to maximize search engine coverage then the quality thing tends to sort itself out over time.

The beauty of online legal marketing with a blog or website is that you can create valuable content once and let it act as your mouthpiece for months – if not years – to come without any additional investment of time.

So again, the question becomes one of quantity. Especially when your blog is so young it’s wet behind the ears, you need to generate as much traffic as possible.

Why? Because writing great content is useless if you’re not getting anyone to read it. The more people who read your pearls of wisdom, the more likely it is to get passed around. And even if it isn’t getting passed from person to person, more readers yields a greater number of blog subscribers or opt-ins to your email list.

We’re not talking about long-term online legal marketing tactics, these are hacks – quick hits to get a little leverage. Some cost a few bucks, and others are free. But they’re all effective.

Tell your clients. Yes, your clients are already sold on your expertise – but how about their friends and family members who aren’t quite ready to talk with a lawyer? Send a letter to your clients asking them to let people know you’ve got a great online resource for legal information and to tell them to visit it. Totally old school offline referral marketing, but absolutely effective.
Ask a question and post to your social networks. You’re probably on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn – perhaps all of them. Post a link to your blog post with a question, asking people to comment directly on the blog. This social media traffic registers with the search engines – in fact, Google uses social media traffic as one of over 200 “signals” in ranking sites. More social traffic translates into better long-term rankings for your site. Better rankings translates into online legal marketing success.
Give away an ebook or special report. There’s value to putting an ebook behind an opt-in form and requiring people to give up their email address in exchange for your item of value. But if you’re looking to create awareness of your website or blog, you’re looking to garner as much traffic as possible in the short run. Consider removing the barriers by ditching the opt-in form and giving away the ebook or special report to all visitors. Not only will more people come to your site, but that giveaway will get passed around and turn into a long-term client generation magnet.
Hitch your wagon to a star. Something going on locally that you can somehow tie into your practice area? Sports hero busted for DWI? Local business going belly-up? If so, there’s a good chance people in your area are going to the search engines to read the news – and typing in the name of that sports hero or local business. Creating content around that person or business and fitting it into your practice area will yield huge traffic spikes, which is exactly what this online legal marketing hack is all about.
Coffee shop postcards work – really, they do. If you’re a lawyer, you’re a local business. So you’ve got an edge over the multi-national companies marketing online – you can go grassroots without breaking a sweat. Go to your local printer or click over to VistaPrint and get a bunch of postcards printed up with a headline like, “Where Can You Find Answers To All Your Questions About Getting Out Of Debt?” (if you’re a bankruptcy lawyer, that is – if you do divorce work, this headline probably won’t work for you) and the URL for your website or blog. Grab a stack and start putting them in every coffee shop in town. Tack them up on community bulletin boards. Anywhere you can go guerilla, go for it.

As you can see, online legal marketing need not start online – that’s just the platform. Your information is online, so the goal is to drive traffic there. But you need to take off the blinders and realize that people still live offline – they eat, sleep, meet, and communicate in the real world before going online for their information.

Your online legal marketing efforts will get a shot in the arm by looking to the technological edge as well as going old school (just not in the Will Ferrell way).

But remember – this is not a long-term fix for your efforts. It will not serve as a substitute for creating valuable content that keeps people coming back again and again. It won’t fix poorly-converting copy, a bad user experience, or lack of optimization.

What it will do is provide a jolt of energy to your blog or website, exposing more people to the intelligence and information you provide.