For those of you who don’t read Legal Productivity, what is wrong with you? It is a great blog with great information. A recent post caught my attention: Effective Tweeting: A Twitter Checklist. I suggest you go read the whole article, including the explanations behind each of the items in the checklist (there are tips and tricks you won’t want to miss). In the meantime, here is the “checklist” for quick reference:
Tweet when your followers are around
Tweet frequency
Retweet
Tweet great content
Give attribution
Engage
It’s okay to schedule posts
Optimize your Twitter bio
Create Twitter lists
All of those are good suggestions. If you are only going to follow one, make sure it is “Tweet great content.” When it comes to lawyers and other legal professionals (or any professionals), the most important thing you can do is tweet out great content (and then engage with those who ask questions about your great content). This is one of the fundamental keys to successfully using Twitter.
I’ve offered up on my thoughts on how to effectively use Twitter in various other articles. For example, I previous posted: More Twitter Tips for Lawyers, which links to the following tips:
Length. Although you get 140 characters for your beautiful prose, make sure your tweets are sufficiently short that they can be re-tweeted without having to be revised by the re-tweeter. (Remember that RT @[Your Name] will / should be added.) Keep your tweets short enough that they can be re-tweeted in their entirety.
Attribution. If you tweet about another’s article or post (which is basically what all of us always do), take the time to find out that person’s Twitter handle and include it in the tweet. Not only will the attribution be appreciated, but you are also likely to pick up a new follower or get a mention by the person you’ve acknowledged. Use this to help build your network.
Adding Substance. I’ll admit that I am guilty of not always following this tip. But we should all be better at adding a little commentary on our tweets and re-tweets. Include a brief statement of why you are sending the tweet out. It can be as simple as “Found this interesting:” followed by the title of the article or post. Too frequently, I see tweets (and send tweets) that have nothing more than the title of a post and a link. Take time to offer up a few words explaining why your followers should be interested in what you are sending.
Frequency. Except in extreme circumstances, I would not worry about tweeting too often. I know there are many who disagree with this and suggest you purposefully refrain from flooding the twitterstream too frequently. But I don’t see it as a significant problem, especially when you are sending helpful information. Even with re-tweets–don’t hesitate to send out five re-tweets in a matter of minutes, assuming of course
, that all five are worthy of being re-tweeted.
Repetition. When you publish a new blog post, article, or something similar, you most certainly will send notice of it to your Twitter followers. But remember that not all your followers are paying attention to their streams at the same time. Some may say it is bad form, but feel free to tweet about the post or article several times (at different times of the day) so that your followers won’t miss it.
Note that many of the tips overlap. That is not surprising. As you implement this tips, you should find that your experience, your engagement, and the overall impact you are having via Twitter increases dramatically.
I was at a deposition yesterday and, as is nearly always the case, we wen through the ritualistic exchange of business cards. We joked, like we always do, about the fact that business cards are basically worthless these days (setting aside, of course, the court reporter’s need to have everyone’s contact information). We laughed a little and proceeded with the deposition.
After thinking about it a little more, I started to wonder what lawyers are using to replace the “traditional” business card. Nearly everyone has a “bio” page on their firm’s website. And that page usually contains all the necessary contact information (and oftentimes, you can find a .vcard to download straight to your address book). But people like us (meaning you and me) like to be progressive, so we don’t want to rely on the static firm biography page. We want something more. Here are a couple of ideas (based on what I have done). I hope that you will provide some more suggestions (so I can use them).
At the outset, think of this as the online version of the elevator pitch. “How can I present the information I want to present in the fastest, most memorable way pospsible.” That is the goal here. Create an “online business card” that is easily accessible and easily remembered.
First, you almost certainly have your biography listed on LinkedIn, Martindale, Avvo, or somewhere similar. You can always use links to those listings as a business card of sorts:
But those sites are not really designed to serve the purpose provided by the traditional business card. And no one, including you, is going to remember the actual URL, even if the site provides some form of automatic link shortening:
So, what is the solution? Here are the two things I suggest.
First, you can use one of the many free “profile” websites. The two I am most familiar with are about.me and flavors.me but I know there are many others. Signup for an account and in 10 or 15 minutes, you can create a nifty looking “business card” biography:
There are some beautiful about.me and flavors.me websites out there; mine is not one of them. But it did take less than 15 minutes. (And I do plan on making it better.)
I would have gone with tyson.com (but it is taken by a chicken company) or tysonsnow.com (but it turns out there is a pretty good artist named Tyson Snow and he already has it). So I’m stuck with http://tysonsnow.co, which, in my book, isn’t half bad. It is short. It is easy to remember. It’s my name. And it allows me to present the right amount of information in the exact way I want to present it.
While it may look fancy, it is nothing more than a simple WordPress site that turns out to be a great place to send people who may want to learn more about me. It is easy to add to emails, tweets, status updates, or anything else. It registers high in search results. And it is mine. All mine.
You can do the same thing by registering for a free WordPress or Blogspot account and setting it up in a similar manner. But the real value in this approach is being able to choose the domain name; if you are serious about it, setup your own site.
In sum: If you are looking for fast and free, use something ending with .me But if .me isn’t enough for you, you can always do something similar to me.
I recently published an article at Avvo’sLawyernomics blog titled: “Who Have You Endorsed Today? Networking Through LinkedIn“. The post describes LinkedIn’s new feature that allows users to endorse specific skills and areas of expertise of those in their network. More importantly, the post discusses how you can use this new endorsement tool to connect and re-connect with people you want to network with. The following slideshow describes the LinkedIn endorsement feature:
Summarizing from my article, which you should read in its entirety:
Once you have endorsed a particular person, that person recognizes: your name (from your endorsement), your business or industry (from viewing your profile), your location and interests (also from your profile), your mutual friends (from the shared connections box), and much, much more. No longer are you some faceless person on the Internet that is simply trolling for clients; now you are an actual person, with recognized skills and expertise that would like to get together and chat. All it took was a few mouse clicks.
Thanks to Colin O’Keefe and the entire LXBN TV crew for the interviews and coverage of Avvocating 2012. Check out the complete LexBlog Avvocating Wrap Up (including 25 video interviews). Of all the interviews, here is the one my mom likes the best:
Can you tell that I like Twitter?
Be sure to visit the LXBN wrap-up page. It is chocked full of excellent content. Those guys did some serious work between Thursday and Monday morning.
Time to open up Evernote and give you a rundown of all the happenings of Day 2 at the 2012 Avvocating Conference. It’s hard to know where to being. The amount of information that was disseminated today will likely take a while to digest. The quality of speakers and presenters at the conference (sans myself) was nothing other than top notch. I am really impressed with the people that Avvo brought in for this particular conference. So, without further adieu, here are some of my notes from today’s proceedings.
Josh King (@joshuamking) is General Counsel for Avvo. Of all the presenters, I think Josh did the most to assuage concerns that lawyers have about using social media as marketing tools. The key take away from Josh’s presentation was “Attorney advertising rules apply to advertising, not to posts or information about attorneys.” Josh pointed out four areas of potential concern: (1) testimonials; (2) client solicitation; (3) promising results; and (4) bureaucratic requirements. Testimonials are in their early stages and various bar organizations are trying to figure out how to deal with them. Bottom line, you really don’t need to worry about them (unless you have a specific bar rule prohibiting them). But client solicitation was an interesting discussion.
Josh and I spoke after his presentation and I agree with him–the in-person solicitation rules are designed to prevent lawyers from pitching clients on the spot–essentially, situations where the potential client has no choice but to respond. Since us crafty and charismatic lawyers work all sorts of magic, obviously in-person solicitation is problematic because no one can resist us. I agree that bar organizations will have a hard time applying these “in-person” solicitation rules to social media discussions. After all, the potential client can simply stop participating in the conversation. Our wily ways don’t work over the Interwebs. A few other tips from a presentation designed to make lawyers more comfortable with social media and the review process:
State bars can only regulate commercial speech. Definition of commercial speech: “that which does not more than propose a commercial transaction.” Even then, the regulation on commercial speech must be narrowly tailored and advance a government interest.
Don’t overstate your qualifications. Don’t lie. If you are going to talk about your cases, do it in a way that does not imply future results.
Always be professional.
Follow these tips and it is unlikely that you will ever have any problem with your local bar. If you do, call Josh (and he’ll solve it haha). Always remember that clients can say whatever they want–a client testimonial is not an advertisement.
Sachia Bhatia (@sachbhat), Director of Product Management at Avvo, discussed four basic things that every Avvo user should do and then identified three new opportunities to take advantage of. First, the four necessities: (1) Keep your profile up to date–there are few things worse than an outdated, stale profile. (2) Solicit reviews from current and past clients–these reviews are important to your Avvo ranking and also have impact in search engine results. (3) Build out your endorsement network. Find attorneys you can legitimately endorse and request legitimate endorsements in return–the “I endorse this lawyer” line simply doesn’t cut it anymore. Endorsements need to be detailed and descriptive. (4) Answer questions to showcase expertise. Again, answering questions on Avvo helps your Avvo score and it also increases your exposure by exponential factors. Not all of us can be level 20 contributors (some of us have to actually bill hours after all–I’m only a level 10 contributor and no, I don’t have an Avvo rating of 10–who can fix that for me?). But answer questions when you can. Subscribe to immediate email updates for questions in your practice areas and your localities so that you can be a first responder. This will be more important as Avvo rolls out some new features.
Sachia also discussed three “new” opportunities that more Avvo lawyers should be using: (1) Avvo on the go–start getting Avvo updates wherever you are (see the discussion above about “immediate” subscriptions to questions); (2) Bring Avvo Home–make sure that all of the work you do on Avvo and other sites, such as answering questions or publishing guides, pushes users back to your Core Web Presence. Use Avvo to help bring your potential clients to your home turf; and (3) Bring answers back to your site. This is something I plan on implementing immediately. When you answer a question on Avvo, publish that question and answer on your own site. Increase your footprint and show the visitors to your homepage the knowledge you have (and hopefully answer some of their questions along the way).
Panel Discussion: Kelly H. Zinser (@kellyzinser), Linda M. Callahan (@DUIAttyCallahan), Peter Gonzalez (linkedin.com/in/peterjgonzales), Rich Sierra (businesslawyer.biz). As was the case yesterday, it was hard to take notes on the panel discussion–to much conversation going back and forth. The panel continued on the theme established by Sachia and discussed how to best use Avvo and how it was working in their respective practices. I hope the panel discussions make their way onto a Avvo / Lawyernomics video post. The information exchanged in the panels was invaluable.
Ari Kaplan (@AriKaplan), President/Owner of Ari Kaplan Advisors. Ari’s presentation was one of my favorites. His creativity in building networks and a working referral base is unmatched. He spent most of his time focusing on how you should be making efforts to help your network increase their personal business and success. For example, Ari scours the web, including sites such as http://www.helpareporterout.com, and then forwards links to those in his network to follow up on. “Self promotion has very little to do with promoting yourself. It really has to do with helping to promote others.” Absolutely brilliant.
He is creating an extremely loyal network by helping his network succeed. His focus is on his connections, not himself. And my personal favorite tip was to do quick video interviews with “important” people as an icebreaker or a way to open that networking door. I was really impressed by this idea. I think it is brilliant. So I went “Ari” on “Ari” and here is the result (it will play upright, I promise):
Thanks for the interview Ari. Hopefully it will be the first of many more. For whatever reason, this really resonated with me. What a great way to build a network, especially with those who otherwise might not give you the time of day. I was so impressed, I got Ari’s book.
Vanessa Fox (@vanessafox) is a search guru. While her presentation was entitled “Marketing in the Age of Google,” it quickly became apparent that the subject de jure was “How do I convince people to hire me.” According to Vanessa, “Search is valuable for figuring out what people really want.” And figuring out what people want is extremely important because these three steps are necessary to convince people to hire you:
Know who your audience is.
Know where your audience is.
Know what your audience wants.
Figure out what your audience is searching for and make sure that you are found there. Speak their language. Enough with the “Environmental Remediation Litigation Specialist.” How about “environmental cleanup lawyer” or some other layman term that might actually get searched. “Remember to talk about things in the same way that your audience talks about them.” Also remember that SEO “is about solving people’s problems.”
Two bits of invaluable advice: (1) Every page of your site is the home page–you never know where a user is going to land so make sure your important information is available on all of your pages; (2) How to rank well in search engines: Have great content that people love.
Mark Kelly (@chair10 / @mkelly7777), President and Founder of Chair 10 Marketing. I am going to be honest here. Mark gave one of the best PPC presentations I have seen (and I have seen a lot). I’ve requested his slides and I am going to do a full post on PPC once I have a chance to distill all that information. If you missed Mark, you missed out. (I was also fortunate to have Mark help critique my “elevator pitch” at the Avvo social hour on Thursday night.) This is one bright, bright guy. A quick tip for now (and plenty to come later): “Make sure your page headings match your PPC or search terms; when someone searches a key phrase, they want to see that key phrase listed in the page’s title so that they know that clicking the link will likely get them the information they want and need.”
Duane Forrester (@duaneforrester / web: http://www.bing.com/webmaster). Look, when your web address is “Bing Webmaster,” I’m pretty sure you are going to have some important things to say. Similar to Mike Blumenthal’s presentation from Day 1, Duane presented explicit details about the Bing algorithm, particularly how Bing includes social media in its search rankings and results. It is too complex for me to describe here but how about some statistics:
1/4 searches deliver successful results.
42% of sessions require refining.
44% of sessions are lasting more than a day.
And look what happens when “social” comes into play:
90% ask family / friends before making a decision.
80% will delay making a decision online.
People use friends: 2.5x more of than city guides; 4x more often than online reviews; 10x more than check-in sites.
Parting wisdom from Duane: “90% [of social should be] about others / 10% about me.”
Stephen Fairley (@stephenfairley), where to being. He is the founder of the immensely successful Rainmaker Institute and the guy is full (and I mean full) of passion and energy. As @Mark_Britton pointed out, even listening to him might make you tired (haha).
First and foremost, remember “The people run your systems. The systems run your law firm.” Get systems in place, teach people how to use them and let the systems run the show.
Stephen offered up so much valuable information, I’m just going to cut and paste it from my notes. He didn’t mince any words; you’ll get the gist of it from the following:
Lead Generation
2nd most expensive area in your law firm (after payroll).
Never ending process.
Need to continually produce more and more leads.
First Rule of Marketing: You Are Not Your Client:
#1 reason you’re not getting more referrals is lack of your clients’ education. Failed to educate them what a good referral looks like.
Explain why you value and depend on referrals.
Explain what a great referral looks like.
Explain how to make a referral to your office.
Email?
Phone?
Lunch appointment?
Explain how are you going to treat the referral.
Explain what to tell referrals about you and your firm
Explain what information they [your clients] can give:
Business card
White paper, special report, etc.
#2 reason you’re not getting more referrals is lack of client communication.
One tip (very cost effective): newsletter.
Keeps you connected
Builds credibility
Adds fresh content to your website
Helps cross-market your services
Generates more referrals
Works 24/7
Promote website and blog.
Evaluate CPL (Cost per Lead) versus CPC (Cost per Client):
CPL (Cost Per Lead)
How many leads are produced in a given time frame.
How much money did the firm invest in marketing during the same time frame?
Divide $$$ by # needs.
Compare month v. quarter v. annual
Running average
(CPC) (Cost Per Client)
How many clients retained during that time period.
How much money did you invest in marketing during the same time frame.
Divide $$$ by # clients.
Compare month v. quarter v. annual
Establishing a running average.
How much is each of your clients worth? Does the worth of your client justify the amount of money you are spending on obtaining leads that actually turn into clients? Although there is much, much more to Stephen’s presentations (including a multi-day seminar put on by The Rainmaker Institute), here are some final parting thoughts on lead conversion:
Five stages of conversion:
Number of leads in the top of the funnel.
How many leads turn into appointments.
How many appointments actually show up.
Number of appointments sign up at the IC.
Number of appointments who sign up later.
Find the areas in those five steps that are failing and fix them. Now. It will lead to immediate success.
Mark Britton (@Mark_Britton) and Co. Definitely one of my favor parts of Avvocating. 20 cool things in 20 minutes. (It was nice to see that I am already using a lot of the “cool” things that Mark and his cohort identified). For those who missed it, here is the list:
If you want to know what each of these tools does, go check it out. The creators will be much more capable than I at explaining the value of their products. Personally, I’m checking out the Jelly Fish Art first.
And that’s a wrap on 2012 Avvocating Day 2. Once again, I was overly impressed by the speakers, particularly Ari Kaplan.
Look for a post here (and likely on Avvo’s Lawyernomics Blog) covering what I learned at Avvocating and why I think it is important.
Great event. Great speakers. Great organization. Thanks to @MeganOlendorf and her entire team for putting on such a great conference. Megan, send me the names of your crew so I can give them their proper credit and due respect (before I post the video of all of you jumping for your “celebratory” this-is-over picture–yeah, I got that on video).