Josh King from Avvo just began his CLE presentation called “Ethics of Online Marketing.”

What a wonderful slide to kick off a presentation about lawyer online marketing ethics!

(And then he immediately went into Supreme Court case law…)

Tim Stanley from Justia just gave his presentation called “Cost-effective and Tech-effective Blogs and Websites.”

-    Most of your clients will come from Google.
-     Doing well for one particular term in Google doesn’t necessarily lead to that much traffic.  You should have lots of content to target many terms.
-    Bing focuses more on homepages, so it’s harder to get many of your website’s pages to show up on Bing.
-    Focus on text (Google is still very focused on text).
-    Take keywords you want to do well for and create pages of content for them (3-4 paragraphs per page)
-    Use Google Keyword Tool to find keywords people are searching for.
-    Use Google Trends to check class action keywords.  For example, see if people are still searching for Fen- Phen.
-    There are options for free websites and blogs like Justia, Google Sites and Webs.
-    Most domain registrars like Godaddy also have website builder programs you can use.
-    Spend a lot of time optimizing your homepage, in particular the text – minimal text on a homepage is bad.
-    Title tag is the most valuable text you have—spend a lot of time thinking about them and the keywords you use in them.
-    Use alt text on images.
-    Choose fonts that are readable, not pretty at the expense of being readable.
-    Use separate websites if you do practice areas with very different audiences like business and personal injury.
-    With blogs, think about your audience.  For example, if you’re going after general counsels then you can use dense text and technical jargon.  If you’re going after consumers, then you can use humor.
-    Blogs written to other attorneys tend to do better in search engines because they’re linked to more.
-    For blogs you’re ultimately building content, so even if you’re only blogging once per week, that’s a good amount of content year over year.
-    If I could only choose one thing, it would be blogging.  And if I didn’t have any money, I would go with Blogger.  Get your own domain name whatever you do.
-    Type in “steve” at godaddy.com for a discount when buying domain names.
-    Go to Washlaw, Justia and Avvo for links to your website.
-    Get into Avvo because its reviews are showing up in Google local and they will probably show Avvo ratings in the future.
-    You don’t have to have a conversation in Twitter.  You can use it just to push out your message.

Social media panel with Doug Mandell (Linkedin), Maz Sharafi (Facebook) and Kathy Gill (University of Washington), moderated by Steve Willey of Savitt Bruce & Willey LLP:

-    Kathy Gill: Right now being on Linkedin is more important than being on Twitter
-    Doug  Mandell: I use Facebook because there are some people in my network who are better to contact through Facebook vs. Linkedin.
-    Doug Mandell: If you want to do only one thing, be on Linkedin.
-    Maz Sharafi: Let’s be honest.  Some of this stuff (social media) does not make sense for certain verticals unless you can be very creative.  Criminal defense can be difficult, for example.
-    Kathy Gill:  You will have first mover advantage if you move and actually do something.
-    Doug Mandell: Figure out what makes you good as a lawyer and build a social media strategy around it.  For example, for a prenup lawyer, she could build a whole brand around prenups, have a blog about prenups only, she could use Twitter and Facebook to push out things about her blog, and she could have a very prenup centric Linkedin profile.
-    Kathy Gill: Look at the demographics that visit social media sites and be on those that match what you do.  For example, Myspace is very music/entertainment centric, so maybe it would be good for an entertainment lawyer.
-    Maz Sharafi: A 45 second video can tell me more about your law firm than content on your page
-    Kathy Gill: Use video for the emotional sell.
-    Doug Mandell: Make sure if you’re using video you’re not violating any solicitation rules in your jurisdiction.
-    Kathy Gill: All these technologies are so new, that we’re all kind of making it up as we go along; what we do know is that old marketing tactics like the hard sell do not work in social media; you have to be more conversational.  Tone is very important.
-    Doug Mandell: If I had more time, I would do podcasts.
-    Maz Sharafi: Consumers do not want to digest law jargon.
-    Kathy Gill: On Twitter, it’s very important to say who the person is tweeting.  If there are multiple people tweeting, have each person sign tweets with their initials.
-    Doug Mandell: Employees, with your help, can create your Linkedin profile for you starting with your resume and outlook contacts.
-    Kathy Gill: Tweeting for an organization is intrinsically difficult because an organization is not a person.
-    Doug Mandell: Download the Microsoft Linkedin toolbar and get all the updates about people you care about through email.
-    Maz Sharafi: Social media is literally the future of marketing.  If you don’t engage in the conversation, the conversation will be had without you.
-    Kathy Gill: If marketing messages overwhelm Twitter, then people will leave Twitter.

Kathy Gill from University of Washington just gave her presentation called “Beyond the Fail Whale:  Twitter Best Practices.”

-    Twitter is the real time web, and the real time web is here to stay, regardless of whether Twitter remains dominant.
-     There is no one right way to use Twitter.
-    Twitter is just a tool, which you can use in many ways.
-    Twitter is like a cocktail party – if you don’t already know people, you feel uncomfortable being there.
-    Remember time management on Twitter or you can get lost in it.
-    Mobile internet is the future of how we’re going to be connecting and talking to each other.
-    To listen on Twitter, just watch what people are talking about (like walking into a cocktail party without knowing anyone – you listen for a bit before talking).
-    Use Twitter “lists,” Trendistic or search.twitter.com to find and follow people like you who are already using Twitter.
-    Use keywords in your bio appropriate to why you’re on Twitter.
-    Twitter is a personal medium, so it’s important to have photos of yourself.
-    Use TweetDeck, Gist or Brizzly to manage your time.
-    Rules: be transparent, authentic, relevant and helpful.
-    To measure how well you’re doing with Twitter, use tools like Twitter Analyzer, Twitter Grader, TweetStats or Klout.
-    Use a service like bit.ly to track how many people click on your links.
-    The most important thing you can do is add value, both to your time and to the people who follow you—to do that be yourself and share what you already know.

Doug Mandell from Linkedin just gave his presentation called “Under the Hood at Linkedin.”

-    Linkedin is the world’s largest professional network with over 56 million professionals.
-    Linkedin Q&A good for lawyers asking other lawyers legal questions.
-    Reputation is core to Linkedin.
-    Get client endorsements.
-    If you have at least 100 connections, something good will happen to you.
-    Average profile score for Avvocating attendees = F
-    Low hanging fruit to improve your profile: picture on profile, personalized URL, 26-100 connections, describe what you do, describe what your company does, and have info about their education.
-    Identify your networks and identify top 100 best potential contacts, 20 per network, and then used Linkedin to contact them.
-    Try to find yourself online using keywords on Linkedin and Google.
-    Remember to edit your privacy settings.
-    Joining your alumni group is a no brainer.
-    Everything you put on Linkedin is public unless you change the settings on it.  You get to decide how you present yourself to the world.

Maz Sharafi from Facebook just gave his presentation called “Going Deep with Facebook.”

-    The first banner ad ever had a 78% click through rate.
-    The internet is in the middle of its next revolution, one where it’s all about conversation.
-    Offline and online are merging; people want to be their real selves on the internet.
-    Facebook cares about mapping the social graph more than anything (the real, authentic social graph).
-    Discovery is evolving from search engines to UGC + directory, and then to UGC + social context.
-    18-24 year olds only make up 30% of Facebook users – it’s not a college network.
-    37.5% of all 55+ year olds who are online are on Facebook.
-    Facebook pages are just like profiles, but for businesses (or a celebrity)
-    Once someone becomes a fan of your page, you have a permanent connection with them, and you can have a conversation with them.
-    Whatever you publish on your page will show up in the streams of your fans, so then everyone in their network is exposed to you through a trusted friend. And when someone becomes a fan, all their network sees it. Viral.
-    Facebook has fan page analytics to see how people are reacting on a per post basis.
-    Worried about be annoying? Be relevant, and publish authentic, useful information.  You can do as little as post links to great articles.
-    A lot of opportunities for lawyers on Facebook – not that many using it now.
-    Don’t post every day with something random.  Demonstrate expertise.
-    Photos are great content (ex: holiday parties).
-    You can use hyper-targeted Facebook advertising to promote your Facebook page.
-    If someone clicks that they like your ad, it goes into their stream and can spread virally.

Bob Ambrogi just spoke about “Empowerment Through Social Media.”

-    The internet provides the power, but you need to plug it in – it’s not enough to have a static website.
-    Adult users of social internet sites now at 48%.
-    19% of adults on the internet are using Twitter.
-    Majority of lawyers using social media for personal and professional purposes.
-    Marketing on the net is a conversation, often about value.
-    Consumers expect to shop for legal services online the same way they shop for everything else.
-    Martindale- Hubble now using consumer ratings that look just like Avvo’s.
-    1.2 million lawyers in the USA – your job is to stand out.
-    Consumers want to know who can do the job and whom they can trust to do it well, so marketing is about making yourself stand out and establishing confidence in yourself as THE choice.
-    One of the empowering things about social media for lawyers is that it doesn’t cost much money; you don’t need to be a big firm.  Everyone can now buy ink by the barrel.
-    A blog is the single best way to enhance visibility, enhance search engine rankings, get involved in the conversation and more online.
-    Blogs = social; websites = wallflowers.
-    It’s not enough to just have a profile online; you have to distinguish your ability.
-    Conversation is king in social media; content feeds the conversation.
-    You should make yourself ubiquitous, but fish where the fish are.
-    Nurture your network; one way you can do this is to get involved on groups on Facebook and Linkedin that have to do with your practice area.
-    Be transparent.
-    Lawyer ratings will include price comparisons in the future.

At the Avvocating conference.  Mark Britton just spoke about “core web presence.”

-    Preserving the core is about approaching all your marketing options strategically.
-    These days, if you don’t have a meaningful web presence, you don’t exist.
-    With so many options, some ignore it all and rely on word of mouth; others try to do everything.
-    Any piece of information that can be measured will be rated; web 2.0 will have information transparent and rated.
-    Setting your information free is the price of using all these free web services, so set that information free in a smart and strategic way.
-    Law is a business.  You can either get the business of law or work for someone who does.
-    Your core can be anything where you can contribute robust data.
-    Blogs are good, but be aware that blogs and websites are merging because websites need dynamic content and a website with dynamic content are starting to look like blogs.
-    Your core web presence is the first thing you think about in the morning and the place where you spend most of your money—it’s your calling card.
-    The core web presence cocktail: Avvo, Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter, which all point back to your core.
-    The search engines know what your core is.
-    10% of your time should go to marketing.

Check out Avvocating tweets at #Avvo

The National Law Journal published an interesting article in its December 14th issue, entitled “Is It Worth It.” The secondary caption sets up the article by saying, “A J.D. used to mean a first-class seat on the gravy train. Now? Not so much. Critics say law schools have a duty to warn.” Although a well-written, this article is only a wave in the sea of “end of lawyer glamour” articles that came out in 2009 (and will surely continue into 2010). We have even seen the New York Times jump on the bandwagon (“No Longer Their Golden Ticket”), although they made sure to tie-in the commercial appeal of ABC’s new lawyer show “The Deep End.”

For me, this feels like Groundhog Day. I came out of law school in 1992 when the market was horrible, simply horrible. New York law firms were laying off lawyers by the hundreds (I was in DC where, well, New York “woes” tend to run downhill) and over 50% of my fellow students joined me in taking the bar exam without a job. Every article I read about lawyers during this time spoke to how the Golden Days of the legal profession had come to an end and people like me were suckers for sinking the price of a small house into my legal education. It was all so depressing. I was debt-laden and possibly headed for the golden headset at the Burger King drive-through.

So, when I read any of these “End of Days” articles, it digs up all sorts of complex feelings; so allow me to get a couple of them on paper:

To start, the idea that law schools have a “duty to warn” is ludicrous. People going into law school are big kids; and, if all they are focused on is the money, I can’t think of a better money-related lesson than to not get the anticipated return on their law school investment. Law school has seldom been a “golden ticket” or guaranteed “first-class seat on the gravy train.” If you don’t understand that your early legal career will be determined by, among many other things, supply and demand, your class rank and how much you hustle, then I can’t feel sorry for you. Nothing, and I mean nothing, in life is guaranteed and to hold your legal income to a different standard is silly.

That being said, I don’t see law schools as an innocent bystander in all of this. If they have a duty, it is to give lawyers more tools in the event that that their legal income is less than expected. One area that law schools and bar associations fall woefully short is in helping lawyers become better businesspeople. Marketing for them is a still a dirty word and, even though a supermajority of lawyers will one day run their own legal businesses, there is nary a mention of these concepts in the law school curriculum or ongoing legal education. “We teach lawyers about the law” is common retort; but that is like teaching someone to eat, but failing to let them know that there are these cool things called forks and spoons.

During these difficult times, we encounter at Avvo lawyers that have no idea how to start building a legal practice. They have no clients, no money and no business understanding to help propel them to a higher station. Maybe they are just out of law school, maybe they were just dumped from their firm, maybe they are reentering the work force after a long absence. They can only eat with their hands, and as a consequence they cannot get a date with any potential client. I hope that in my life time I see classes in each law school year focused on the *business* of law. I hope that I see more state and local bars giving CLE credit for marketing- and business-related courses. I hope I see short-sighted state regulation of attorney marketing fade into the sunset. We can only hope.

Successful lawyers are successful businesspeople. Pass it on.

Mark

As the Avvocating Conference kicks off tomorrow, we’d like to extend a big THANK YOU to our sponsors – Perkins Coie and Savitt Bruce & Willey.

In addition to their support, both firms will be speaking at the event.

On Friday, January 22 at 10:00AM, Susan Lyon of Perkins Coie will be presenting on “The Balance of Privacy and Social Networking”.

Susan is Of Counsel with Perkins Coie’s Privacy & Security practice, and Educational Advisory Board Member of the International Association of Privacy Professionals.  Susan advises a broad range of companies and organizations on U.S. and international privacy, data security and online safety issues, including issues relating to social networking services.

Prior to joining Perkins, Susan gained practical experience as in-house privacy counsel for Microsoft and Dell.  Susan tweets from the Bainbridge Island ferries (@susanlyon), links-in from her offices in Seattle and D.C. and posts privacy updates to Facebook from anywhere and everywhere.

At the conference, Susan will discuss the latest privacy issues relating to social networking that all lawyers must know about. Attendees will learn some basic guidelines for engaging online while also protecting your information, your practice and yourself.

On Thursday, January 21 at 3:00PM, Steve Willey of Savitt Bruce & Willey LLP will be moderating the Social Media Panel.

As a partner in the firm, Steve’s practice focuses on complex commercial litigation, with an emphasis on intellectual property matters.  Steve is engaged by social media but has not yet committed himself to challenging Ashton Kutcher’s Twitter crown.

Steve will lead the panel discussion, consisting of Kathy Gill, Maz Sharafi and Doug Mandell, that will explore the latest trends in social media marketing, the issues lawyers face and what they see as the ‘next big thing’ for the legal industry.

Still not signed up for Avvocating? Last minute tickets are still available!