Attorneys
Pricing | Writers | Books | Feathers
No republic can hope "to preserve its existence if the influence of lawyers
in its affairs did not grow in proportion with the power of the people."
Tocqueville, Democracy in America (circa 1830).
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TopGraph works with smart attorneys seeking the authority of a relevant and trusted social graph in the 21st century networked economy.
New media is creating a new generation of influencers, and it is resetting the hierarchy of authority.... Engage!
We optimize the influence which lawyers naturally seek in the affairs of their publics.
New media is creating a new generation of influencers, and it is resetting the hierarchy of authority.... Engage!
We optimize the influence which lawyers naturally seek in the affairs of their publics.
Representative Client: Attorney - Randy Barnhart - Trusted Trial Lawyer.
All TopGraph writers for attorney clients are attorneys. A guest post can be a law student or other professional and are identified as guests. Your blog content is thus professional, learned, and mindful of client confidentiality and legal responsibility.
TopGraph writers coordinate the content of all posts with your website/SEO manager's master list of targeted search keyword and keyword phrases.
TopGraph writers coordinate the content of all posts with your website/SEO manager's master list of targeted search keyword and keyword phrases.
SGO (social graph optimization) leverages both SMO (social media optimization) and SEO (search engine optimization).
While good SMO deploys the best SEO keywords and keyword phrases, good SGO means creating and syncing the high quality content of your web and social media nodes, including website(s), blogs and micro-blogs, directory listings, social profiles and online documents repositories, thus engineering a densely reticulated digital presence.
As always, quality content builds your digital presence, your brand, which organically generates good inbound links.
To paraphrase Seth Godin, brand is the set of impressions, memories, and expectations that, taken together, leads a person or business seeking legal services to choose you or your firm over some other attorney or firm. Even if your blog or website is on the first search engine results page (SERP), the prospect still has a choice between you and the other attorneys on that page. A blog in which every post is about your specific practice will not brand you. You and most of the other attorneys on the SERP will be indistinguishable.
To impress a prospect with the sense that you are both an accomplished attorney and a human being with whom a fruitful association is likely requires blog posts and other social media content which generate that impression and expectation.
Yes, many social media gurus proclaim that for professional and business purposes, content should be all buttoned-down business all of the time. That may hold for large enterprises, but for attorneys, and their law firms, the world has changed.
A few social media gurus who are also attorneys and who focus on social media in the legal space recognize the importance of presenting a personable and inviting professional profile on the web: "Social media gives lawyers the tools to provide clients with the kind of in-depth information that they've come to expect online prior to making any kind of decision requiring a significant commitment of resources [not to mention an always risky emotional investment]. ... Social media satisfies our longing for human contact and provides a tool for building trusted, multi-dimensional relationships. Platforms like Twitter and Facebook give lawyers a chance to reveal a little piece of personality." Social Media for Lawyers: The Next Frontier (2010), by Carolyn Elefant and Nicole Black.
{amazon | bn}
While good SMO deploys the best SEO keywords and keyword phrases, good SGO means creating and syncing the high quality content of your web and social media nodes, including website(s), blogs and micro-blogs, directory listings, social profiles and online documents repositories, thus engineering a densely reticulated digital presence.
As always, quality content builds your digital presence, your brand, which organically generates good inbound links.
To paraphrase Seth Godin, brand is the set of impressions, memories, and expectations that, taken together, leads a person or business seeking legal services to choose you or your firm over some other attorney or firm. Even if your blog or website is on the first search engine results page (SERP), the prospect still has a choice between you and the other attorneys on that page. A blog in which every post is about your specific practice will not brand you. You and most of the other attorneys on the SERP will be indistinguishable.
To impress a prospect with the sense that you are both an accomplished attorney and a human being with whom a fruitful association is likely requires blog posts and other social media content which generate that impression and expectation.
Yes, many social media gurus proclaim that for professional and business purposes, content should be all buttoned-down business all of the time. That may hold for large enterprises, but for attorneys, and their law firms, the world has changed.
A few social media gurus who are also attorneys and who focus on social media in the legal space recognize the importance of presenting a personable and inviting professional profile on the web: "Social media gives lawyers the tools to provide clients with the kind of in-depth information that they've come to expect online prior to making any kind of decision requiring a significant commitment of resources [not to mention an always risky emotional investment]. ... Social media satisfies our longing for human contact and provides a tool for building trusted, multi-dimensional relationships. Platforms like Twitter and Facebook give lawyers a chance to reveal a little piece of personality." Social Media for Lawyers: The Next Frontier (2010), by Carolyn Elefant and Nicole Black.
{amazon | bn}
Pricing - 2012
One-Time Set-Up/Design Fee on the Typepad.com Platform: $1000
Recurring Annual Hosting Fee: $150
Total Start-up Cost: $1150
Blog Plans
StartGraph Plan: 4 posts/month = $1000/month ($250/post)
MidGraph Plan: 6 posts/month = $1440/month ($240/post)
TopGraph Plan: 8 posts/month = $1840 ($230/post)
(Upgrade/Downgrade/Cancel Any Time)
Content of Posts by Writers with JD Degrees (guest posts may be by law students)
Keywords for SEO
Comments Moderated
No Advertising
Unlimited Storage
Domain Mapping (annual registration fee for domain extra)
Image and Video Embeds
Spam Protection/IP Banning
Posts Auto-Sync to Twitter Account
Recurring Annual Hosting Fee: $150
Total Start-up Cost: $1150
Blog Plans
StartGraph Plan: 4 posts/month = $1000/month ($250/post)
MidGraph Plan: 6 posts/month = $1440/month ($240/post)
TopGraph Plan: 8 posts/month = $1840 ($230/post)
(Upgrade/Downgrade/Cancel Any Time)
Content of Posts by Writers with JD Degrees (guest posts may be by law students)
Keywords for SEO
Comments Moderated
No Advertising
Unlimited Storage
Domain Mapping (annual registration fee for domain extra)
Image and Video Embeds
Spam Protection/IP Banning
Posts Auto-Sync to Twitter Account
The TopGraph Formula - 3 Post Styles for Maximum Impact
PracticeThis post is about your specific practice areas, such as small business disputes, 15-passenger van accident product liability, medical malpractice, workers' comp, or commercial bad faith breach of insurance policy. Because TopGraph writers are attorneys, posts in this style will be professional and learned, engaging the law of your practice areas.
Profession
This post concerns the legal profession generally and the broader legal culture. Topics here include ethics issues, significant supreme court opinions, new legislation, or controversies in judicial philosophy, for example. With the attorney writers at TopGraph, you can have confidence in the professional substance and tone of your blog.
Persona
This post style is about you personally, about your interests and to what you pay particular attention other than the law. The personal post will reflect your activities in, and engagement with, popular culture, including the arts, science and technology, film and books (including your favorite legal thrillers), teh great outdoors, or any of your hobbies.
Over time, your blog will reflect a mix of styles. Why 3 styles? The answer is simple but important to understand. SEO and keyword density are not the sole criteria for a top social graph. While use of keywords and associated tags are crucial for any post in an attorney blog, the blog as a whole also must impart to your readers and occasional visitors a sense of who you are as a human being apart from your attorney persona. There are tens of thousands of law firm websites and now attorney blogs on the web, but the vast majority of them are clones of each other and the attorneys featured therein interchangeable like so many plastic toy soldiers.
As the attorney/authors of an important new book on social media for lawyers explained: "Social media gives lawyers the tools to provide clients with the kind of in-depth information that they've come to expect online prior to making any kind of decision requiring a significant commitment of resources [not to mention an always risky emotional investment]. ... Social media satisfies our longing for human contact and provides a tool for building trusted, multi-dimensional relationships. [Social media] give lawyers a chance to reveal a little piece of personality." Social Media for Lawyers: The Next Frontier (2010), by Carolyn Elefant and Nicole Black
As the attorney/authors of an important new book on social media for lawyers explained: "Social media gives lawyers the tools to provide clients with the kind of in-depth information that they've come to expect online prior to making any kind of decision requiring a significant commitment of resources [not to mention an always risky emotional investment]. ... Social media satisfies our longing for human contact and provides a tool for building trusted, multi-dimensional relationships. [Social media] give lawyers a chance to reveal a little piece of personality." Social Media for Lawyers: The Next Frontier (2010), by Carolyn Elefant and Nicole Black
Attorney Writers
Ricardo Barrera - Founder/CEO/Editor-in-Chief
JD, The Law School, University of ChicagoProfile
Law Student Writers
[recruiting]
Books
Social Media for Lawyers: The Next Frontier (2010)
by Carolyn Elefant and Nicole Black
ABA publication
Engage: The Complete Guide for Brands and Businesses to Build ... in the New Web (2010)
by Brian Solis
amazon | barnes&noble
The New Rules of Marketing & PR: How To Use Social Media, Blogs ... (2010)
by David Meerman Scott
amazon | barnes&noble
Social Media 101 - Tactics and Tips to Develop Your Business Online (2010)
by Chris Brogan
amazon | barnes&noble
The New Influencers: A Marketer's Guide to the New Social Media (2009)
by Paul Gillin
amazon | barnes&noble
Socialnomics: How Social Media Transforms the Way We Live and Do Business (2009)
by Erik Qualman
amazon | barnes&noble
