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Website vs. Blog: Which is Better for Attorneys?

Could a blog help the consumer-oriented law practice?  Absolutely.  I would even go so far as to say that most solos and small firms should have a blog … if the attorneys have the time to do all of the work that is required to make a blog work.  This point is sometimes glossed over by the blogging advocates.  The blogosphere is awfully noisy these days.  It is becoming harder and harder to be heard. Just having a blog — even a frequently-updated blog with great content — isn’t the panacea it may have been 5 years ago.  To reach your goals, your blogging should be combined with commenting, content curation, and social media strategy.

via www.falconberg.com

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Pinterest NOT for Law Firms

Over at 3 Geeks and a Law Blog, they say "yes" to Pinterest for law firms, with this:

Pins: any image or video can be pinned and descriptions can be added. For law firms, one way to use this feature would be to post images of your attorneys.

WRONG. No one wants to see images of law firm attorneys on Pinterest - those should remain on the law firm profile pages on the law firm website. 

Pinterest cautions against blatant self-promotion, so why pollute the stream with profile head-shots. Bad advice.

Preparing For A New Era Of B2B SEO

At the core of what we as B2B marketers promise in organic results is relevant content to answer the intent of a query.

When we do this well, we are rewarded with greater rankings and increased traffic by the search engines. But it is important to remember that what customers are all looking for when a search is performed is information. In some form or fashion, we type keywords and find the information/content to answer our query.

In order to be found and rendered in the SERPs moving forward the value, relevance, and timeliness of your content is of paramount importance.  This is becoming even more critical as Google rolls out important updates to its algorithm to ensure that fresh content is being served.

via searchengineland.com

Social Media in the Legal Sector

A "survey found that a clear majority of participants consider social media an important part of their overall marketing strategy, with nearly half (48.5%) reporting that social media is “somewhat important” while another 31% believe the tools are “extremely important” to their total marketing efforts."

via vizibility.net

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Law Firms and Social Media: A Match Not Yet Made in Heaven - Law Blog - WSJ

Hughes said that lawyers he had spoken with seem interested in using social media, but remained cautious about liability, client confidentiality and the potential embarrassment of posting erroneous statements online.

Here’s the snapshot of the findings:

• 77% of firms surveyed had profiles on LinkedIn
• 31% used Twitter
• 29% used Facebook
• 10.9% used YouTube
• 8% had official firm blogs
• 7% used social media widgets to integrate firm web sites

via blogs.wsj.com

Should Lawyers Worry About Virginia State Bar Crackdown on Firm's Law Blog? - News - ABA Journal

Richmond, Va.-based criminal defense attorney Horace Hunter, who blogs about cases he’s worked on (and national and local criminal justice issues) at Richmond Criminal Defense News, has been charged with misconduct by the Virginia State Bar.

The charge comes amid concerns by bar authorities that Hunter’s blog on his firm’s website is actually an advertisement, rather than an informative news and commentary website as Hunter claims, a move that could make other lawyer-bloggers wary, reports the Washington Post‘s Capital Business blog.

“Hunter’s case has some lawyers—for whom blogging has become commonplace—as well as free speech and social media law experts questioning whether the bar is overreaching in its regulation of online speech in the social media age,” wrote the Post’s Catherine Ho.

LexBlog’s Kevin O’Keefe says it’s the Post’s particular analysis of the event, not the actions of the State Bar, that could have a chilling effect on lawyer-bloggers who do a service to the profession by making the law more accessible to consumers and businesspeople.

via www.abajournal.com

Lawyers: Don’t Be Late to the Google+ Party

Google+, the search engine’s recent entry in the social networking sphere, is set to make a big impact on the legal-web ecosystem. You would be wise to jump ahead of the curve and begin testing now, rather than wait to see how things pan out.

Why? Because this time it’s different. This isn’t Google Buzz, Google Wave or Google’s other social network, Orkut, which remains popular in Brazil. And it’s not just Google trying to compete with Facebook or Twitter, as some have speculated. This is an all-out offensive push by Google to reinvent itself, and it will work because billions of dollars in Google advertising revenue are at stake.

via www.attorneyatwork.com

For the record: Google+ is the next big thing

what truly makes it different and will make it most appealing to lawyers and other professionals is the Circles. Google+ makes it east for you to group the people that you share with into circles. So when you post something, you can make it visible only to your chosen Circles of users.

This arguably solves the dilemma that many lawyers have encountered in regard to interacting with clients on social media. It also makes it easier for lawyers to share more "lawyerly" posts, which can be too technical for most followers, with only others in the legal profession. It's the perfect solution for lawyers.

via nylawblog.typepad.com

Google Plus for lawyers : First impressions : Real Lawyers Have Blogs

The people I see all over Google Plus today are early adopters, if not the bleeding edge. That's not an all together bad group for you as a lawyer to network among. Lawyers are too fast to dismiss social networking solutions because not all their clients are there. It doesn't matter. If you know what you are doing in using social media, you know that connecting and building relationships with the influencers and amplifiers (this group of early adopters).

via kevin.lexblog.com