Lawyer photo bingo
It’s been fun watching lawyers claim their profiles at Avvo.com. Our research shows that lawyers like to have their photos in advertisements, just take a look at the yellow pages. One feature that we designed, which we hoped would be a fun activity for lawyers, is the opportunity to load their photo on to Avvo.com. I’ve been impressed with how quickly lawyers are updating their profile and uploading photos. By the time you view this search result, all the lawyers may have uploaded their photos. Since this morning, I have seen this search result almost completely filled up with lawyers’ photos. It’s like looking at a bingo sheet and seeing the grey thumbnails fill up with bright, colorful photos. It’s an interesting marketing opportunity for lawyers to differentiate from one another…for now. A lawyer can really standout in our search results if she has a photo. However, in time, if every lawyer has a photo, maybe the next differentiator will be photo composition, or photo background color, or subject matter.
June 9th, 2007 at 10:56 am
Avvo is “social software” site, like MySpace, which makes money by cashing in on banner ads paid for by the lawyers whom it claims to “objectively” rate. Avvo disingenuously claims to be “consumer-focused” and intent on helping lawyers gain clients, yet Avvo has admitted that it did not even CONSIDER providing personal notice (email or otherwise) of the site to the lawyers it rates before it went live. I learned about it in a newspaper story. To me, this lack consideration by those with such acclaimed “legal expertise” at Avvo is highly unprofessional. Avvo knows that a lawyer’s reputation is everything. Avvo clearly has our contact information, so there is no excuse for Avvo’s profile-by-ambush, especially if the intent really is to inform the public.
Avvo went live relying on 7-month old information for WA State. My office had notified the state bar that it had moved, but this was not reflected on my Avvo profile. Avvo admittedly is using a Beta system, which still lacks functionality, such as the ability to merge multiple profiles. If you look at jobs at Avvo you will see that they are seeking IT developers, and of course, advertising/marketing personnel!
Since I do not oppose a well-designed effort to educate the public about selecting a lawyer, I reluctantly entered my information into Avvo, surprised that I had to enter a personal credit card number to do so. As promised, my score did increase. However, my name did not appear on the search result list for my practice area even though my score was higher than many on the result list and it was a greater percentage of my practice than for others on the list. Only after I asked Avvo about this, did my name suddenly appear in the search results. This makes me highly skeptical of the technology and the assumptions behind Avvo.
Avvo has placed a priority on attempting to make profits before fully vetting a product upon which livelihoods are at stake. Again, I find this highly unprofessional given the “legal expertise” behind Avvo. Avvo needs to quickly fix this bugs and make their ratings system and search results transparent to both the public and the lawyers whom they claim to “objectively” rate.
July 9th, 2007 at 1:07 pm
What about putting more than one photo on the Profile?