Live blogging from Avvocating conference in Seattle – Mark Britton from Avvo
Mark Britton from Avvo just finished his presentation called “Maximizing Your Avvo Profile.”
- Free Avvo profile: one of the most robust resume landing pages you can have on the web.
- Avvo Pro is $49.95/mo; it gives you a “Pro” icon next to your name, lets you customize your tagline; lets you pick client reviews to highlight, and allows you to track phone calls and emails through Avvo.
- Avvo Pro lets lawyers see exactly how many people are viewing your profile, legal guides, answers, etc. You can see how well Avvo is working for you, and you’ll be able to record calls soon.
- Firm claim option: you can claim the profiles of all attorneys in your firm at once. It’s free and saves firms time. 100+ firms participating.
- Profiles with photos 6x more likely to be viewed.
- 85% of client reviews are positive.
- A human at Avvo reviews every single client review before it goes up.
- Ways to deal with negative reviews: respond on Avvo, push them down with positive reviews, or work with Avvo if the review violates Avvo’s terms of use.
- Client reviews are most important to consumers (word of mouth is moving online).
- Consumers see some negative reviews (outweighed by positive reviews) as a sign of credibility.
- Client reviews and contributor points do not impact Avvo rating; peer reviews do.
- Maybe biggest value of participating in Avvo Answers is showing up in Google.
- Avvo Advertising works because you’ll be at the top of search results (clearly separated from organic results and labeled as an ad).
- Syndication options: easily add your legal guides and Avvo badge to your websites/blogs.
- Use Avvo for publicity: appear in the media by participating in lawyer surveys and giving quotes; email megan@avvo.com if you’re interested.
January 22nd, 2010 at 1:02 pm
Unfortunately, many Avvo posters are nothing but spammers who post advice that is worthless at best, and downright dangerous at worst.
Alan Brinkmeier, the perennial leaderboard fixture, is one of the most obvious, but more recent contender Theodore W. Robinson of New York is vying for the title. After being repeatedly called out by California criminal defense attorneys for posting inaccurate answers, he’s taken to padding his Avvo rating by waiting until a California attorney (often one of those who took him to task in the past) has answered, then adding an empty “I agree with the prior answer” post.
The situation has become so bad that someone has actually started a Pimp My Avvo Rating blog (a takeoff on Pimp My Ride, the MTV series where a viewer’s hooptie is customized into an over-the-top pimpmobile).
http://pimpmyavvorating.blogspot.com/
This kind of misuse of Avvo is lowering the credibility of the site. I’m seriously reconsidering my participation, as are some other dedicated, ethical attorneys who don’t want to be seen among the pimps.
February 11th, 2010 at 5:31 pm
I join in the comments of my colleague Robert Marshall. As you know I have complained about the uneven quality of Avvo answers from the beginning. The level of no content answers has now risen to the almost farcical, with attorney totals for spam and incorrect answers approaching 400 answers per attorney per week. I am also re-evaluating my position in Avvo as well as my small advertisement. If you won’t police the quality of answers then you are supporting a large number of pimps, a company that I don’t wish to be a part of.