Time is running out to save on your tickets for Avvocating 2012: Legal Marketing in the Era of Social Media. You have five days left to register for our third annual online marketing conference for lawyers and legal marketers.

Join us for two days in Seattle (May 3rd-4th) and you’ll receive the opportunity to:

• Hear from technology leaders, web-savvy practicing attorneys and digital media experts.
• Learn how to create and implement an integrated marketing program.
• Network with peers from across the legal industry.
• Meet one-on-one with Avvo executives to maximize your profile on the site.

Register today and save $100. We look forward to seeing you in Seattle in May!художник на икониИкони на светци

We’ve had two great guest webinars in the past couple weeks. For those who were unable to attend here are the video replays from Mark Merenda and David Lorenzo.

Four Ways to Grow your Law Practice in 2012:

Five Simple Systems to Boost Your Productivity, Improve Your Client Relationships and Save You At Least an Hour a Day:

When we launched our health Q&A and directory last year, many dentists asked when they could participate.  I’m pleased to announce that today we have launched a new dentist directory, as well as the ability for dentists across the country to participate in our expert-only Q&A forum.  I speak for everyone here at Avvo when I say how excited I am to expand Avvo’s proven platform to dentistry.

With the addition of dentists, we are providing a 360 degree approach to total wellness.  Extensive research has been done around the correlation between dental health and overall wellness.  Here are some interesting facts:

• 120 disease symptoms can be detected in your mouth by a dentist.(1)
• 1 out of every 2 people in the U.S. has some form of periodontal (gum) disease.(2)
• More than 75% of people over age 35 will be affected by some type of periodontal disease.(3)
• Periodontal disease has been associated with a higher overall rate of heart disease.(4)
• Treatment of periodontal disease has been shown to improve the control of blood sugar levels in diabetics.(5)
• Pregnant women with periodontal disease may be seven times more likely to deliver preterm, low-birth-weight babies, but the right dental treatment may cut their risk by 70 percent.(6)

There’s also an important correlation between dental care and the cost of healthcare.  A two-year study (7) by the Columbia University College of Dental Medicine found that patients who received early periodontal treatment had medical care costs that were lower by 16 percent annually for patients with heart disease, 11 percent annually for patients with stroke, and 9 percent annually for patients with diabetes.

This clear link between oral and overall health creates new opportunities for dentists and physicians to work together to help improve the health of their patients.  By bringing together experts across a broad range of medical disciplines, Avvo provides better information and an even more valuable experience for our customers.

Please keep in mind that we are taking a phased approach to rolling out our dentist directory.  While starting today dentists from across the country are on hand to answer questions, we are introducing rated dentist profiles in seven states:  California, Florida, Illinois, New York, Washington, Ohio and Pennsylvania.  In the other states, dentists may claim their profile and their Avvo Rating by searching for their name in the dentist directory. We expect to have all 50 states represented with rated profiles by the end of the year.

Further, as with any new online service that relies on user engagement, the quality of information we provide is only as good as you – our customers and professionals – make it, and we need your help getting started.  Go ahead, ask a question.  Take a look at our dentist directory and provide a review of those you know.  If you’re a practicing dentist, claim your profile and make sure it’s current and complete.  And most importantly, give us feedback.  We want to hear from you what we can do to make Avvo the best source of medical and legal information on the Web.  That was our commitment when we launched Avvo in 2007, and it continues to be our commitment today.

To celebrate our dentist launch, we are running an awesome “Kids Smile” photo contest.  Submit a photo of your child smiling in anticipation of a visit from the Tooth Fairy and you might win a $500 Amazon gift card.  Sadly, Amazon is not yet selling orthodontics, but $500 is nothing to sneeze at.  Just click on our Facebook page and follow the contest instructions.

Smile!

Mark

(1) Oral Health in America: A Report of the Surgeon General, 2000.
(2) ADHA, Dealing with Gum Disease, A Life-Threatening Health Risk, 2004.
(3) M.P. McQueen. “Health Plans Expand Dental Benefits,” The Wall Street Journal, 2006.
(4) “Periodontal Diseases – What you need to know.” The American Academy of Periodontology, 2006.
(5) Ibid.
(6) Jeffcoat MK, Geurs NC, Reddy MS, Cliver SP, Goldenberg RL, Hauth JC. Periodontal infection and preterm birth: Results of a prospective study. J Am Dent Assoc. 2001 Jul; 132(7):875-80 / Lopez NJ, Smith PC, Gutierrez J. Higher risk of preterm birth and low birth weight in women with periodontal disease. J Dent Res. 2002 Jan; 81(l):5 8-63 / Jeffcoat, MK, Hauth, JC, Geurs, NC, Reddy, MS, Cliver, SP, Hodgkins, PM, Goldenberg, RL. Periodontal disease and preterm birth: Results of a pilot interventional study. J Periodontol. 2003 Aug; 74(8):1214-1218.
(7) The Columbia University Study involved over 144,000 insureds with medical and dental coverage; M.P. McQueen.  “Health Plans Expand Dental Benefits,” The Wall Street Journal, 2006.

This week we are hosting our free legal marketing webinar tomorrow Tuesday, January 24th at 10:00AM PT. We’re also looking forward to having a new guest joining us: David Lorenzo, the leading business strategist to attorneys, and Chairman and Founder of Rainmaker Lawyer Consulting.

Here’s what attendees can expect: 

Five Simple Systems to Boost Your Productivity, Improve Your Client Relationships, and Save You At Least an Hour a Day

In this 45 minute talk, Dave Lorenzo shares five of the most powerful practice management systems he teaches to his clients.

Lawyers who attend this webinar will learn about:

- How to eliminate the dreaded email overload plaguing 80% of practicing attorneys
- The three key questions a client must answer before he meets with you
- How to quote a fee and have the client cheerfully pay it, even if it is higher than other lawyers in your practice area
- The little-used attorney/client communication strategy that helps keep your conversations with clients productive and focused
- Three ways to eliminate interruptions during your work day
- The best way to politely decline business and not feel guilty
- Why spending more time with your family and friends actually increases productivity

Sign up here!

There’s still time to sign up for our free guest webinar tomorrow with Mark Merenda, president of Smart Marketing. Mark has been a guest before, so we’re thrilled to have him back, and know he will provide attendees with great ideas. Here are the details:

Thursday, January 19, 1PM ET/10AM PT:
Four Ways to Grow your Law Practice in 2012 with Mark Merenda

Mark Merenda, president of Smart Marketing, reveals the four keys to earning more revenue this year. His presentation will cover such subjects as branding & image; growing a professional referral network; marketing directly to the public; Internet marketing; and pricing your services.

Sign up here!

Here at Avvo we often receive questions from physicians who want to engage with patients online, but have concerns about HIPAA.  (And legitimately so!) In response to this, Leigh McMillan, VP of Marketing at Avvo, compiled 5 steps for physicians and health care marketers to create fully compliant digital media programs.The article was recently published on Ragan’s Health Care Communication News blog and highlights are included here:

5 steps for physicians and health care marketers to create fully compliant digital media programs

One of my all-time favorite movies is Caddyshack. With Rodney Dangerfield, Chevy Chase and Bill Murray, it’s 98 minutes of cheesy comic gold. And one of the best parts is Murray’s Carl Spackler, the unhinged greenskeeper who embarks on an increasingly-insane campaign against a gopher that is spoiling his handiwork.

In Spackler, I see a stunning resemblance to the RIAA, MPAA and other opponents of online piracy who have embraced a “solution” to their problem that will prove far more damaging than the problem itself. Carl’s answer to his gopher problem is plastic explosives; in our online setting it is the embrace of legislation that would crater much of the internet in an attempt to stop piracy.

Others have provided a comprehensive rundown of the many problems that “SOPA/PIPA” (the “Stop Online Piracy Act” in the House and the “Protect IP Act” in the Senate) would cause (here’s a deep look at some technical issues, and here’s Lawrence Tribe’s take on why SOPA is unconstitutional), but these are the most obvious impacts:

• Government agencies would have the ability to force “intermediaries” to stop providing access to, linking to or serving ads upon “foreign infringing sites.” Such sites can be merely those that “facilitate” the infringing of IP rights. Many devices and websites – think VCRs, disc burners, YouTube – may “facilitate” the infringing of rights despite having clear non-infringing uses. Think about what this means for Google, Wikipedia and a host of other sites designed to provide users with access to a wide range of information.

• The current balancing of rights embodied in the DMCA – which allows sites hosting third party content to do so without concern over third party liability, as long as they honor the DMCA notice and counter-notice provisions – would be upended. IP rightsholders would have the ability to target a website’s financial resources, by sending notices of infringement to financial intermediaries (like payment processors and ad networks) and forcing them to choose between continuing to do business with the site in question or risk liability.

If you think these concerns are overstated, you haven’t been paying attention. Viacom continues to fight a court battle to make Google liable for copyright infringement for content posted on YouTube. Rightsholders have consistently overstated their rights and ignored fair use, forcing the courts to read into the DMCA an obligation to at least consider fair use before firing off a takedown notice. And for a preview of just how far government agencies and rightsholders may take the open-ended language in SOPA, like look no further than the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Originally designed to counter foreign espionage and hacking, its uses have been grossly expanded by government prosecutors and private parties alike seeking to bring criminal liability to such everyday issues as using a workplace computer for non-work activities or violating a website’s Terms of Use.

What’s more, SOPA/PIPA is a solution looking for a problem. Like the gopher, who offends greenskeeper Carl’s sensibilities but does little to disturb the pristine fairways and smooth greens of the golf club, online piracy is not a major problem. Yes, the RIAA and MPAA throw lots of numbers around about the billions of dollars and millions of jobs lost to piracy, but these fancies have all been thoroughly, completely debunked.

And just as Carl’s nemesis has a vast network of underground tunnels in which to escape to, thus thwarting even his most extreme efforts, online piracy can easily route around the roadblocks thrown up by SOPA/PIPA – leaving collateral damage, with nothing to show for it.

Every society has to make choices about which evils it chooses to address via regulation. And it must always be careful to ensure that the costs of regulation don’t outweigh the benefits.

Because who in their right mind would blow up a golf course in a vain attempt to kill a few gophers?

[n.b. - yes, in a more rational work of copyright, I would be able to embed higher-quality video clips]

Lawyers and legal marketers: it’s time to register for Avvocating 2012!

We’re thrilled to have the conference back in Seattle for two days (May 3rd and 4th) to cover everything there is to know about integrated online marketing and digital media for the legal industry. Our lineup of speakers will enlighten, educate and entertain you – and the opportunity to meet practicing attorneys and legal marketers in attendance from around the country will be of tremendous value. We also hope to have some sunny Seattle weather!

Tickets are on sale now for the early bird price of $525 – that’s a $100 savings. Register now before the discount expires on January 31st.

For those who have not experienced Avvocating, here’s a video our friends at New Epic Media put together:

New Epic Media – 2011 Avvo Conference from New Epic Media on Vimeo.

Hope your New Year is off to a great start! Here at Avvo we’re looking forward to a stellar lineup of free legal marketing webinars this month. We’ll cover Google Analytics (always of great interest – still time to sign up for tomorrow!) and you’ll also hear Mark Britton, Avvo Founder and CEO, discuss social media marketing and blogging.

In the second half of the month we’ll have two guest hosts: Mark Merenda, President of Smart Marketing and David Lorenzo, Founder of Rainmaker Lawyer Consulting. All the details and registration information are included below. Hope you can join us!

JANUARY 5, 10AM PT: Website Analytics for Lawyers

Do you know how many people visit your website? Where those visitors come from? Which marketing efforts are sending you the most referrals? Or how to measure the quality of those referrals? Questions like these can be answered with website analytics, which allows you to track the efforts of your online marketing. Luckily, Google provides a free and easy to use tool, called Google Analytics, which sheds light into your website’s performance. Don’t be a part of the 90% of lawyers who are flying blind without analytics or who are using antiquated hit counters.

Lawyers who attend this webinar will learn about:

- What is Google Analytics and how to get it
- How Google Analytics can help you market your practice more effectively
- Beginner and Intermediate tips

Sign up here!

JANUARY 12, 10AM PT: Working the Social Networks for Lawyers

Social media marketing and blogging are all the rage, but many lawyers are drowning in the sea of options. Avvo’s CEO, Mark Britton has designed this webinar to help attorneys and legal marketers better understand their options and develop a strategy regarding social media and blogging.

Lawyers who attend this webinar will learn about:

- How social media and blogging can generate clients and influence
- How to strategically engage social media, including preserving your “Core Web Presence”
- Which social media tools are most popular with lawyers, and why
- Common social media marketing and blogging myths
- How social media marketing and blogging compliment traditional marketing

Sign up here!

JANUARY 19, 10AM PT: Four Ways to Grow your Law Practice in 2012 with Mark Merenda

Mark Merenda, president of Smart Marketing, reveals the four keys to more revenue this year. His presentation will cover such subjects as branding & image; growing a professional referral network; marketing directly to the public; Internet marketing; and pricing your services.

Sign up here!

JANUARY 24, 10AM PT: Five Simple Systems to Boost Your Productivity, Improve Your Client Relationships, and Save You At Least an Hour a Day

In this 45 minute talk, Dave Lorenzo, the leading business strategist to attorneys, and Chairman and Founder of Rainmaker Lawyer Consulting shares five of the most powerful practice management systems he teaches to his clients.

Lawyers who attend this webinar will learn about:

- How to eliminate the dreaded email overload plaguing 80% of practicing attorneys
- The three key questions a client must answer before he meets with you
- How to quote a fee and have the client cheerfully pay it, even if it is higher than other lawyers in your practice area
- The little-used attorney/client communication strategy that helps keep your conversations with clients productive and focused
- Three ways to eliminate interruptions during your work day
- The best way to politely decline business and not feel guilty
- Why spending more time with your family and friends actually increases productivity

Sign up here!ikoni