Law Firm Social Media Marketing

In the world of Lawyer Marketing, Avvo has created something great for the consumer to experience in terms of selecting a lawyer to represent their claim or accident.  It highlights great information about each lawyer, how they are ranked amoung their peers in their selective areas, and shows the consumer a great insight about each law firm or attorney.

In the About Us section of Avvo, it explains what the purpose of Avvo was, what they do with their website, and why you would use Avvo in choosing an lawyer or attorney from their website.

Some key information from Avvo:

“Avvo rates and profiles every attorney, so that people can choose the right attorney. Lawyer profiles contain helpful information including a lawyer’s experience, areas of practice, disciplinary history, and ratings from clients. Profile data comes from many sources, including state courts and bar associations, lawyer websites, and information provided by lawyers.

Information meets guidance in the Avvo Rating—our effort to evaluate a lawyer’s background using a mathematical model that considers the information we know about a lawyer. This information is shown in the lawyer’s profile, including a lawyer’s years in practice, disciplinary history, professional achievements, and industry recognition—all factors that, in our opinion, are relevant to assessing a lawyer’s qualifications. ”

The above information about Avvo just goes to show that they actually developed a great system on selecting an attorney or lawyer. If your wondering where the term “AVVO” came from, it orginated from the French word avoocato, which means lawyer.

Lawyer Marketing helps in every single way! Set up your Avvo profile today, and be sure to fill out everything in your profile to see the optimal results using Avvo.

In the world of Social Media, if you do not know or know how to market your law firm on Facebook, you might as well hang up your law degree and say goodbye to your future! Well not exactly, but if your not making a strong move to market to younger generations (even though the major age using Facebook now is 35) you will be left in the dust when the next wave of potential clients come around looking for a lawyer online.

Well to better prepare yourself for the future and your law firm, USE FACEBOOK FAN PAGES! This is a simple and easy way to let people know about your law firm, without doing that cheesy lawyer marketing in your name. With a Facebook fan page, you can update your status with your blog feed, use interesting tools to help feed your other social media accounts into it, all while letting your professional time intact. This means you set it to go on auto pilot and your done! With the exception of just sending out invites to join your law firms Fanpage, that really is it! You can even setup your Fanpage to use a great URL in order to create some good search engine optimization into your page! (Google and other search engines use realtime search features now that intergrate Facebook and Twitter into search engines if you haven’t noticed!).

Set up a Fan Page to market your business.  This is where you will post public thoughts, pictures etc. that promote your product or service.   The reason the Facebook fan page is a powerful marketing tool is because it is open to the public and can be found by search engines. It is also viewable by anyone (even if they don’t have a Facebook.)

Ok so, you ask, “How Do I setup a Facebook Fan Page?” well here is your simple guide on how to:

Step 1:  Set up a Facebook Profile (if you don’t have one) by going to www.facebook.com

Step 2:  Set up a Fan Page, (this is the most difficult link to find so simply CLICK HERE.)

Step 3:  Add a profile picture or logo by clicking.  Upload a picture from your desktop.

Step 4:  If you have a blog, you can add content automatically to your Fan page by importing your blog through the notes

section.

Step 5:  Add a Fan Box to Your Website or Blog to encourage your website vistitors to become fans. 

Its that easy! Set this up and let it fly with clients coming from Facebook! Law Firm Marketing and Lawyer and Attorney marketing made easy for you from EasyLegalMarketing.com!

Lawyers and Twitter -

3 Years ago when someone would have said a Social Media platform with 140 characters or less would overtake the world you would have said WHAT? haha.  Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?

The Basics of Twitter

Setting up your twitter profile is a very simple process but yet the most important. Simply enter your full name, choose a username, and select a password. Use your real name some people can connect with you. In choosing your username, keep it short. You may want to consider using keywords relevant to your law practice like FloridaPIlawyer or something similar to your area of expertise. That way, when people search for those terms, your profile will appear. You should also decide whether this will be a personal profile, a professional profile, or both. To start, I recommend using it for both. Properly maintaining one Twitter account can effectively serve both interests.

Next, think about what you would like to do with your profile. Upload a picture of yourself or your brand. Remember, social media is a conversation. People like to see with whom they are talking so a picture of yourself might serve as a better choice. You should also set up an extended profile. Twitter is very restrictive with regard to the length of your online bio. Using an extended profile will allow you to share much more information about yourself and your firm. You may also want to include a disclaimer on your profile (i.e. this does not constitute legal advice, blah, blah, blah). Also be sure to include a link to your website. I encourage you to leave the “Protect my updates” box unchecked. Protecting your updates will take your “tweets” off the public feed and make it difficult for you to be found.

Remember, social media is about getting found. Check out this primer on more Twitter basics. On following: Once you’re up and running, you will want to seek out other tweeters to follow. Don’t be tempted to follow for the sake of following. Follow those who post tweets that are interesting to you. To get you started, you should, obviously, follow me: @Jesse_Guthrie.

On tweeting: Never, never, never, spam through twitter. No markety, advertisey speak at all! Don’t talk about how long you have been in practice. Don’t talk about how hard you fight for your clients. Tweet interesting things you read on the web. Retweet interesting tweets. Reply to interesting tweets. Think of twitter somewhat like an instant messenger. As with all social media, it is not the forum for advertisements. Build relationships. Talk about what interests you.

Enhanced Tips for Lawyers on Twitter

First, you’ll want to download a twitter desktop client. I use TweetDeck, but there are a host of other options. Once installed, click the magnifying glass to set up search columns. This is a great way to view tweets about specific topics. Always remember that you are limited to 140 characters, so keep your tweets short and shorten your links with a service like tinyurl.

Follow the following blog: http://www.twitip.com/. It’s a great twitter resource. Also, check out Qwitter (which tells you when someone unfollows you), Twitter Grader, and Twitalyzer (to monitor the health of your twitter account). If you prefer not to use a twitter desktop client, make sure you at least use http://search.twitter.com. Check out this resource for a comprehensive list of Twitter tools.

Finally, check out the following resources for finding new legal birds to follow:

http://legalbirds.justia.com/ and http://www.lextweet.com/

Pit-Falls

Don’t let Twitter run your day! Be efficient and deliberate with your twitter time. If you catch yourself staring at your feed, close it! Use the search function to find interesting tweets.

Don’t follow for the sake of following. Make tweeters earn your follows. You will have better twitter health if you are somewhat selective of whom you follow.

Don’t spam. Don’t spam. Don’t spam. I think I have made my point.

Don’t solicit on twitter. Remember, the ethics rules still apply in web 2.0. Check your bar rules.

Don’t use mass follower tools. I am intentionally leaving them nameless.

Great Article at AttorneySync.

With all said above, be sure to update your twitter account now and follow me!

What is the deal with social media? What is Social Media for Lawyers? If you are a lawyer or attorney in today’s modern world of marketing and advertising and have not lived under a rock in the past 5 years of your life, you probably have some idea what social media is.

As a credible source of information about lawyer marketing, Wikipedia has defined Social Media as: Social media are primarily Internet and mobile-based tools for sharing and discussing information among human beings. Well according to that definition of Social Media, I think everything you and I do would be considered apart of that right? Well I think so!

This is a intro into a 3 part segment on Social Media for Lawyers that introduces: Twitter | Facebook | and LinkedIN as well as AVVO.

So what exactly are you looking for in this Segment for Social Media?

-This segment is not intended to be a ”we must all use” on social media.

-This will not be a waste of your valuable professional time or effort.

-It will not help you make millions with the above said Social Media tools for lawyers, but will increase your Social Media footpath.

-This segmented guide is here for you, to learn from, it is not intended to teach you every little aspect of Social Media, but will teach you what you need to know to make it worth your while.

What these segments will do.

This guide will teach you some basic social media strategies that will generate more clients for your firm. We will also share some “expert tricks” that will maximize the effectiveness of the available social media tools. Finally, we will briefly discuss some of the major pit-falls and time wasters of which to be weary. I have the constructed the segments with lawyers and attorneys in mind. While many of the  strategies discussed within have broader application, their effectiveness has been optimized for legal professionals and law firms.

Since the world of social media is broad and time consuming, and constantly expanding, we will focus on one social media marketing tool at a time. We have chosen to include those tools that we have found to be the most effective social media tools for lawyers. We understand that your professional time is extremely valuable to you. Therefore, we have broken down the information to the need to know activities that have proven most successful in my experience as a legal marketer.

Easy Legal Marketing is designed to assist you in your path to marketing for your law firm and this is guide is here to help you for free!

Check back at http://www.easylegalmarketing.com for more information about other Social Media avenues and updates. Features to additional tools will be periodically posted as well.

I constantly update our notes and opinions for lawyers marketing their services. Segment one will “Focus on Using Twitter For Legal Professionals“.

Lawyers NEED to use Facebook. The evolution of Social Media and lawyers is a thing of the NOW, not the past or present. If your law firm is not using social media, read THIS ARTICLE! Here are some statistics pulled from the people at Facebook:

Statistics

General Growth

• · More than 300 million active users
• · 50% of our active users log on to Facebook in any given day
• · The fastest growing demographic is those 35 years old and older

User Engagement

• · Average user has 130 friends on the site
• · More than 8 billion minutes are spent on Facebook each day (worldwide)
• · More than 45 million status updates each day
• · More than 10 million users become fans of Pages each day
• · Over 600 million searches a month – one of the top 20 search engines

Applications

• · More than 2 billion photos uploaded to the site each month
• · More than 14 million videos uploaded each month
• · More than 2 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photos, etc.)

shared each week

• · More than 3 million events created each month
• · More than 45 million active user groups exist on the site

Still think you do not need to be on Facebook? Think again! Still want some good law firm marketing information on why you should be listed and be on Facebook? Some ideas from a great law firm marketer the Lawyerist:

1. Referrals and clients from old classmates, colleagues, and friends through direct contact both formal (messages) and informal (wall posts), events, and interest groups.

2. Strengthen relationships with colleagues by sharing knowledge, interests, and activities and family life, and by offering opportunities to connect through groups and events.

3. Pages allow you to post videos, photos, notes, blogs, and other interactive and communitybuilding applications. Once you have created a Facebook page, you can promote it through Facebook’s Social Ads, although you should make sure to stay within the ethical rules for client solicitation in doing so.

4. Evaluate potential jurors before and during trial. This internet vetting can disclose juror’s associations, interests or past statements that may make a lawyer want to strike them from the jury pool or prioritize keeping them on the case, and can provide a lawyer with insights into specific jurors which may be beneficial in crafting effective closing arguments.

5. Investigate defendants, witnesses, and prosecutors. Evidence revealed from Facebooksearches has been used to prove that a defendant had no remorse after committing a crime, to prove a defendant’s motive, as evidence of the crime itself or of an individual’s participation in a crime, and to show the extent of plaintiffs’ injuries after an accident.

6. Research potential job applicants’ public statements, photos and questionable social activity.

Ok now there you have it. I think your at facebook now and are going to sign up. Part two of Facebook for Lawyers and Law Firms will discuss how to set up a professional Facebook Page.