With our latest update to Avvo, we made some changes to Avvo Answers to improve the experience for both consumers and lawyers. Namely, we now close questions after 5 days, ensuring consumers get the answers they need quickly and increasing the likelihood that an answer will convert a questioner into a potential client. This video will walk you through how to find questions on Avvo to answer and how to sign up for e-mail alerts of new questions in your practice area:

As always, if we can help in any way let us know.

Last year, an article observed that “the media continues to portray MySpace as a seedy stomping ground for pedophiles and Facebook as a ‘utopian savior.’”

My, how times have changed.

Looking at recent headlines and discussions, the portrayal of Facebook has gone from utopian to Orwellian:

“Facebook’s Gone Rogue; It’s Time for an Open Alternative” – Wired Magazine

“A Visual Guide to Facebook Privacy Changes Over Time” – Huffington Post

“How Facebook Pulled a Privacy Bait and Switch” – PC World

“We all hate Facebook. There are enough programmers among us, can’t we create a Facebook clone, the way it used to be, without apps or pages and that is actually private?” – Reddit

“More Reasons Why You Should Still Quit Facebook” – Gizmodo

“Facebook Deactivations Gaining Attention” – InformationWeek

“Creating a Network Like Facebook, Only Private” – The New York Times

The list goes on…

You can’t help but think the web’s relationship with Facebook has flipped from friendly to adversarial.  People, or at least tech-savvy people, are talking about Facebook like it’s a virus that must be quarantined.

Is this history repeating?

I’m getting a strong sense of déjà vu here – 5 years ago Myspace was the dominant social networking site.  News Corp acquired it in 2005 for $580 million, and Viacom was so angry it lost Myspace to News Corp that it fired then CEO Tom Freston.  Two years later the sky was the limit, and News Corp’s Rupert Murdoch looked like a genius for snatching Myspace for “only” $580 million.

And then the everything went to hell.

All of a sudden people didn’t like Myspace anymore.  Now it’s a website relegated to children, what’s left of its traffic is declining, and News Corp is admitting mistakes.

So why did Myspace fall?

Everyone has theories, ranging from an influx of pedophiles to white flight.  People will speculate about this forever, but in any event, for whatever reason, having a profile on Myspace became something with a negative connotation.

And just like that, Myspace, once the darling of the media and corporate America, became passé.

Myspace’s openness hastened the ascent of Facebook.

Facebook rose to prominence largely because it was a college-only alternative to Myspace, when Myspace was increasingly seen as full of children, low-lives and garage bands.

Shortly after capturing a critical mass of Myspace refugees with a more exclusive alternative, Facebook then let everyone in, not just college students.  And, now, they’re aggressively prodding (or tricking) people into exposing all of their friends, interests and photos to the world, not to mention trying to integrate Facebook with every site on the web.

Is this a brilliantly executed, step-by-step plan for world domination or greed destroying the very thing that made Facebook successful in the first place?

The fate of Facebook

Myspace never had this much backlash due to privacy specifically, but if you zoom out, the reason Myspace sunk is that people came to view it as a place they’d rather not be associated with, especially when there were better alternatives.

Facebook’s current path leads right to a “place you’d rather not be associated with,” albeit for different reasons than Myspace.  But unlike when Facebook siphoned off Myspace’s users, there are no alternatives to Facebook at the moment.

I’m not going to try to predict whether Facebook will ultimately thrive or fail, but if a competitor were going to steal Facebook’s thunder, now would be a great time.   Because, after all, in the short time that social networking has existed, if we’ve learned one thing, it’s that people are always willing to switch to the next best thing.

Interested in raising a little JD?  Selecting an appropriately lawyerly name for your kiddo may be important.  We just published an exhaustive analysis of lawyer first names going back to 1808 across all 50 states on Nameberry, the best baby name website.  Nameberry is the online accompaniment to the books (try Beyond Ava and Aiden) from naming trend experts Linda Rosenkrantz and Pamela Satran whose insightful commentary has been guiding the names in nurseries for years. 

Following the rise of the internet, a cohort of once-dominant industries, including newspaper, music, and film companies all scrambled to adapt to emerging internet culture.

Now, the question for lawyers is: how will you adapt?

Over the past few years, a group of lawyers and law professors has answered that question by creating a community “blawgosphere” that continually shares legal news, opinions, and humor.

Kevin O’Keefe, the CEO of the LexBlog Network and author of Real Lawyers Have Blogs, for one, has championed this transition from old-world representation to internet-savvy lawyers. But, quoting popular author Doc Searls, O’Keefe warns that lawyers can go too far when it comes to building a personal brand. As Searls advises, “build a reputation by doing good work. Put that work where others can judge its value…Never promote for its own sake.”

I suspect that the lawyers yet to join the online community hold back for two reasons: computer incompetence and/or a fear of appearing to violate Searls’ advice. Fortunately, those fears can be assuaged by following a few key guidelines, and updating state laws that regulate lawyer marketing.

Last November, the American Bar Association’s Commission on Ethics released a report on “Preliminary Issues Online,” which warned that “the accelerating pace of technological innovation and the increase in globalized law practice raise serious questions about whether existing ethical rules and regulatory structures adequately address the realities and challenges of 21st Century law practice.”

Later, addressing lawyer accountability on the state level, the ABA asked “should all state lawyer disciplinary agencies and/or state bar associations make information about public lawyer regulatory actions available on the internet?” Avvo’s general counsel Josh King responded with an emphatic yes. “Every state should make public disciplinary decisions publicly available,” he wrote.

Recognizing the overwhelming exodus among lawyers toward greater online presence, states like California and Maine have developed progressive regulations governing marketing and client interaction online. Other states, like Florida and New York, have been less internet-friendly. Florida, for example, considers sending friend requests on Facebook unlawful solicitation, and says that attorney websites cannot disclose past results on their websites without a disclaimer. Both practices are expressly permitted in California.

That the public is critical of lawyers is nothing new. In movies, television and daily conversation, people relish jokes about the supposedly greedy, deceptive nature of the legal profession. By using social media to share interesting information or connect with others interested in common subjects, lawyers can begin to distance themselves from this misconception. But, if social media is misused, as the one-sided echo chamber designed to drive profits that Searls criticizes, lawyers will end up affirming every stereotype in the book.

The key to ethical online interaction is pretty clear. First, check your state’s guidelines to ensure that it doesn’t view social media use as unlawful. Second, go out of your way to separate your firm’s online advertising from its social media presence. And finally, if you blog, tweet, or use Facebook, do so to share information, not preach about your firm’s greatness.

As the next generation of lawyers joins the online community, they’re sure to be accompanied by an entirely new generation of online resources that will further complicate the line between online marketing and ethical use of social media. But as long as states are clear about what is and is not kosher, and lawyers remain conscious of their own ethical standards, the internet won’t force the profession to suffer the newspaper’s online fate.

About the Author: Ben Buchwalter is Director of Client Outreach for GJEL Accident Attorneys in northern California. Before joining GJEL, Ben studied political science at Haverford College and worked as a writer and researcher for Mother Jones Magazine and Talking Points Memo. Ben enjoys skiing, public transportation, and television detective dramas. Find GJEL at www.gjel.com, the blog at www.gjel.com/blog or on Twitter as @GJELblogger.

Mark your calendars! Over the next eight weeks, in addition to the regularly scheduled Avvo marketing webinars, we’ve put together an awesome line up of guests that will speak on a range of cutting edge legal topics.

And best of all – they’re free!

May 13: 7 Strategies to Recession Proof Your Law Firm with Stephen Fairley

A nationally recognized law firm marketing expert and CEO of The Rainmaker Institute, Stephen Fairley will discuss strategy – how to attract top performers to your team, track and measure your marketing efforts, improve client relationships and implement successful systems. Register

May 26: Marketing in the Age of Google with Vanessa Fox

Vanessa Fox, search engine guru, creator of Google Webmaster Central and author of the new book, Marketing in the Age of Google: Your Online Strategy IS Your Business Strategy, will talk about how lawyers can use the easily accessible data from search engines to increase qualified traffic and better target their clients. Register

June 10: Find Info Like a Pro – Mining the Internet’s Publicly Available Resources for Investigative Research with Carole Levitt and Mark Rosch

Instead of first turning to private investigators, skip tracers, experts, and consultants, learn how to become your own Cybersleuth by attending a webinar presented by nationally acclaimed Internet trainers and ABA authors, Carole Levitt and Mark Rosch (www.netforlawyers.com). Straight from their new book, Mark and Carole will show you how to unearth factual and investigative information FREE on the Internet using advanced search techniques and exploring various investigative Web sites. Register

June 17: The Four Keys of Marketing Your Legal Practice with Mark Merenda

Mark Merenda, President and Founder of Smart Marketing, will explore tactics lawyers can implement to achieve a successful and cost-effective marketing presence – both online and offline. At Smart Marketing, a marketing firm for attorneys, law firms and professional financial services, Mr. Merenda provides the strategic vision and creative campaigns that drive business for his clients. Register

1) Norman Victorino of Lake Zurich, Illinois

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2) Alan James Brinkmeier of Chicago, Illinois

3) Ekaette Patty-Anne Eddings of Atlanta, Georgia

4) Steven Alan Fink of Newport Beach, California

5) Gary C. Furlong of Seattle, Washington

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6) Dennis Keith Pflug of Seattle, Washington

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7) Tracey Keith Dewrell of Atlanta, Georgia

8) Okorie Okorocha of Los Angeles, California

9) William C. Kerns of Kirkland, Washington

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10) Margery Ellen Golant of Boca Raton, Florida

There are a variety of ways to get started blogging, some more expensive than others.  If you don’t feel like breaking the bank, here’s how you can quickly setup and host your own WordPress blog for only $25/year.

Why WordPress?

Arguing about the superiority of WordPress, Blogger, Typepad, etc. is futile.  It’s like Coke vs. Pepsi.  Suffice it to say millions of people use WordPress because it’s extremely easy to use, expandable and customizable.  In fact, we use WordPress to power this blog.

WordPress’s popularity means there are tons of free skins available for it, as well as free plugins to do everything from integrate Twitter to send out newsletters.  If something ever goes wrong or you need custom programming, it’s easy to find programmers who can do what you need inexpensively.

Why pay anything for WordPress?

If you’ve heard you can get a completely free blog from WordPress.com, you might be wondering why you would pay anything for it.  The answer lies in the difference between self hosted vs. hosted WordPress.

Here’s an explanation — WordPress is a piece of software, which happens to be open source (i.e., it’s free and you can modify it however you like).  Just like any piece of software, you have to install it and host it somewhere before you can use it.  To host it you have two options: (1) pay for your own web host and install WordPress on it yourself or (2) go to WordPress.com where a company called Automatic will handle the hosting and installation of WordPress for free.

Free comes at a cost

When people refer to WordPress “for free,” they’re referring to hosted WordPress at WordPress.com hosted by Automatic.  Automatic does a wonderful job, but they’re not in the charity business.  Their business model is to hook you with a free WordPress blog and then get you to pay for added features (like removing ads from your blog).

If you have zero time or inclination to do anything yourself, hosted WordPress is a good idea.  But by using this “free”  service, you give up some control over your blog.  You more or less run into the same dilemma with any “free” blog service.

By self hosting your own WordPress blog, you don’t have to pay extra for added features like removing other people’s ads from your blog.  It’s your blog and you can literally do whatever you want with it.  However, you are responsible for installing it, hosting it and maintaining it.

How to install and host your own WordPress blog for $25/year

If you decide you want complete control over your WordPress blog, you’ll need to self host it.  Here’s how to do it cheaply and easily.  This does not require any programming knowledge or even tech savvy.

1) Buy a web hosting package if you don’t already have one

If you already have a website, then you already have a web host.  If this is you, just ask your web host for the info you need to login to your control panel and skip to the next step.  You won’t even have to pay $25.  This really is free (as in no incremental cost).

If you don’t already have a website, then the first thing you’ll need to do is sign up for a web hosting package.  There are tons of web hosts out there, and many of them charge you a lot of money for stuff you don’t need.  A Small Orange is a great no-frills web host that I’ve used for years.  Their hosting starts at only $25/year and they’re awesome.  If you need a domain name, then you can also buy it through A Small Orange for around $10/year.  The odds of you needing anything more than the “tiny” package are, well, tiny.

2) Login to your web host’s control panel

When you sign up for a web host, you’ll get an email with directions for how to login to control panel.  Here’s what your control panel will look like:

3) Click on Fantastico De Lux in your control panel to easily install WordPress

Fantastico is a neat piece of software that comes with most web hosts.  It will install popular software like WordPress on your host in minutes without having to do anything technical.

4) Click on WordPress once you’re in Fantastico

5) Click on “New installation”

6) Fill out the questionnaire and hit “Install WordPress” to setup your WordPress blog

The settings below will install a blog on yourdomain.com/blog.  Once this is completed, go to yourdomain.com/blog/wp-admin to login to your WordPress administrator panel (this is where you write blog posts and manage the blog).  Use the username and password you entered in the questionnaire.

7) You’re done!

That’s it.  You’re done.  As you can see, there is nothing technical whatsoever about this.  You can literally do it in minutes.  This is your blog forever and you can do as much (or as little) as you want with it.  To change its appearance, login to your WordPress admin panel and click on “add new themes” in the appearance tab.  Browse around for themes and when you find one you like, just click “install.”  There are thousands of free themes to choose from.

Go forth and blog

Your WordPress blog is setup and ready to go.

Now comes the hard part: filling it with content people actually want to read.

Conrad and I were at the WSBA offices yesterday and found ourselves standing in front of a board announcing who had passed the February bar exam.  Congratulations to everyone on the list.  Whether you took it once, twice or three times, passing the bar is quite an accomplishment.  I took a picture of the board (below) but it is poor quality.  [Note to Apple:  Instead of suing Gizmodo, please work on a better iPhone camera.  Not that anyone has a better PDA camera.  But we hold you to a higher standard.  Thank you.]

Why did I feel compelled to take this photo?  Well, first, Conrad told me to and, second, I recall waiting for my bar results – twice – like it was yesterday.  The only thing worse than taking the bar is waiting for the results.  I went through this process twice because I had to take both the Virginia and Washington bar exams.  When I came to Seattle in 1997, Washington did not have ANY reciprocity.  So, even though I had been practicing for five+ years, I had to once again be subjected to BARBRI books, bar review courses, an excruciating 3-day written bar exam and roughly two months on pins and needles contemplating whether I sufficiently explained the Rule Against Perpetuities in Question #4.  Crazy . . . and painful.

But, alas, I did pass in both instances and it was a wonderful feeling.  Surely the new lawyers on this board are feeling the same.  Revel in it my fellow lawyers — but just make sure to track it on your billing sheets as six minutes of personal time.

Mark

Last month Avvo launched our first major design overhaul of the site.  Looks like we were so successful, Google has followed our example.

Google launched a new UI today aimed at bringing much of their latest search functionality to the masses. The layout of the search results pages has been refined and (gasp!) the Google logo received a polishing.  But the major update is providing one-click filtering functionality based on a user’s intent.  In plain English?  Let’s say I search for “iPhone” – the previous (and new default) result is a mix of all sorts of information around the iPhone.  Search engines have trouble understanding the user’s intent – do I want late breaking news about the iPhone, do I want to buy an iPhone, do I want to see a video of an iPhone, do I want to read blog reviews about the iPhone? So Google has added simple one-click filtering icons to help users further refine their results:  Shopping, News, Blogs, etc.  There is also additional functionality to limit results by date and even geography.

These changes are a result of traffic pattern analysis that suggests people are constantly refining their searches through the search box – essentially running 2, 3 or even 5 searches to find the content they want.  This pattern is obviously a poor user experience – by providing one click filtering based on the user’s intent, Google can funnel people to the content they want more efficiently. Interestingly, reviews (as in client reviews on Avvo, for example) didn’t make the cut (although has Google tested this extensively in the past.)

For an in-depth review (and screenshots) check out Meet The New Google at Search Engine Land.

Avvo Legal Guides are a great way to increase your exposure, especially if you write one on a topic that’s very popular. If you’ve already written some, then bravo to you! If you haven’t written any yet, you’re missing out on a great opportunity to show you’re a legal superstar and attract potential clients.

However, in order to set the stage to showcase your expertise, your legal guide should follow some basic guidelines. The main thing to remember is that the information you choose to write about should be helpful to any Ordinary Joe with a legal problem.

For example, this means that pasting two sentences together and calling it a legal guide falls short of the mark. Also, using intense legalese isn’t too cool either. After looking at hundreds of guides, I’ve compiled the top three tips for writing a strong legal guide:

1)      Keep it simple. Write like you’re having a conversation with a friend who’s asking for advice. Use plain English.  This means that using terms you’d only understand as a lawyer doesn’t really work. Think back to your days as a 1L. Remember all those writing classes that stressed over and over that your papers should be easy to understand? Try to keep that in mind. Also, keep citations to statutes and other codes to just what’s necessary.

2)      Be informative. This is your chance to shine and set yourself apart from other lawyers. The main goal is to help Mr. Ordinary Joe navigate a legal process to get closer to solving a legal issue. This is where the “write more than two sentences” rule applies. Also, make sure that your content is complete—I’ve noticed quite a few guides where an attorney has obviously copied/pasted from somewhere, but didn’t pay attention to the character limits present in the field, resulting in incomplete content. Presenting a comprehensive big picture that’s easy to understand will leave a customer feeling grateful, which can lead you to snagging another client.

3)      Don’t blatantly solicit. As an Avvo Legal Guide author, you and a link to your profile are spotlighted at the top of every guide you write. There’s no need to list your phone number and/or website ad infinitum in your guide. For the video guides, this also means that creating what’s essentially a commercial for you and your firm while disguising it as a legal guide isn’t going to work. Tricking a customer into clicking your video commercial is only going to frustrate them and waste their time when they’re trying to find an answer.

Are you ready to start writing? Get ready, set, go!