Nine types of blog entries to help generate good topic ideas

bloggingMarketers have been telling attorneys to blog for years, since it became obvious that content would rule the online marketing world. Scheduled blogging makes your website relevant to visitors, gives people a reason to trust your expertise and provides a consistent stream of content that is helpful when building organic links to your site.

Good blog entries take time. If you are blogging on a regular schedule, it can seem...

Read More

Six tips for building your blog readership

growplantLawyers blog for a variety of reasons, marketing often being chief among them. Blogging and other online social activity can be both rewarding and frustrating. Every regular blogger has wondered if there is really anyone out there reading their tips and insights. For your professional advancement (and peace of mind), it is good to know that your blog readership is growing. More readers mean...

Read More

Is your firm developing its own voice online?

voiceMost law firms understand that regular online activity helps with marketing efforts. But the formula for success can seem elusive, and frequent changes to search algorithms frustrate some firm's efforts. Your ranking may bounce about unpredictably, making it difficult to determine what is working and what is not. It is clear that blogging and social media can be a force for good, but they may also backfire, harming your reputation...

Read More

Fifteen Phrases You Can Drop (and not lose any meaning)

best practiceGood writing is essential to your ability to communicate with clients, judges, colleagues, and those who read your blogs and social media posts (whom you hope to convert to clients at some point). Whether you are putting together formal articles and briefs or sending a quick email response, your writing can confirm that you are a professional adult... or tell a different story.

Even the best of us...

Read More

New and Revolutionary! Fifteen of the Most Overused Words of 2012

bad wordsEvery year, some words are more popular than others. As fashionable words get bandied about with abandon, you will find some of them begin to grate on you. The more they are seen and heard, the less meaning they retain. You can only read that something is “cutting-edge” so often before nothing will ever seem cutting-edge again. And how many times can you hear the phrase “best practices” before...

Read More

Position your attorney website as a valuable business development tool

updateIn the not so distant past, having a law firm website simply meant slapping up a few pages about the firm and its practice areas and then checking “develop online presence” off the to-do list. Websites were seen as a sort of online brochure – a static presence advertising the firm’s services.

However, the understanding about what makes an attorney website effective is evolving. In recent years, the...

Read More

Content is still king on an attorney website, but pictures are good for sharing

blog picturesThe value of blogging for attorneys lies in creating relevant content. Writing and posting regularly to a blog on your attorney website helps establish you as a trusted resource and creates interest in your work, giving prospects and clients a reason to return to your website and to refer it to others.

Blogging as a part of a law firm marketing strategy does drive traffic. In 2011, Read More

Lessons from LinkedIn’s split with Twitter: Use each social media platform to its advantage

soc mediaAt the end of June, Ryan Roslansky, Head of Content Products at LinkedIn, announced a social media separation. Twitter users will no longer be able to display their Tweets automatically on LinkenIn. Since 2009, users have been able to sync their Twitter and LinkedIn accounts so that anything shared on Twitter would simultaneously post to LinkedIn. Now, users will have to post updates individually to each network.

Of course,...

Read More

Social Media Marketing for Attorneys: Make Your Clients’ Choices Easy

A recent article on forbes.com points out a growing disconnect between what marketing and business executives think consumers want and what those consumers actually want when it comes to interacting with companies online. While business leaders talk of building a community and engaging users, most consumers are just interested in getting some sort of perk or discount for following companies online. Being a part of a community is not their top priority.

This presents a unique challenge...

Read More