Developing trustworthiness in a post-truth era

Developing trustworthiness in a post-truth era

Most people know that false information runs free on the internet. However, revelations about the sheer volume of misinformation, and the cultural influence of fake news specifically, have shocked and outraged many in the months since the U.S. presidential election in November.

What distinguishes fake news from the plethora of speculation and conspiracy theory discussions online is that it sells itself as professional journalism. Fake news tries to make itself look real, as do fake ad hosting sites, when...

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Six ways to enhance your firm's responsive website performance

Six ways to enhance your firm’s responsive website performance

Mobile devices have forced designers and developers to rethink how they approach building webpages. Smaller screens demand layouts that are lean, simple and scalable. Designers must identify the most critical content first and design around that content. This changes the way pages are created for all screen sizes, encouraging more streamlined experiences from mobile to desktop.

Today, over half of all digital media consumption is done on tablets or smartphones.

People expect seamless transitions as they access websites across a variety...

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How to write a professional attorney bio people will actually want to read

How to write a professional attorney bio people will actually want to read

Nobody said writing an attorney bio was glamorous. But it is necessary. Unfortunately, it is a task that is often given too little attention, resulting in a boring bio page that is just a thinly-veiled rehashing of an old resume.

Your attorney bio page is important. In fact, it is probably one of the most important pages on your law firm's website. According to HubSpot, about pages are the second most visited pages on a website. Attorney...

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7 ways to hold visitors' attention and keep them on your site

7 ways to hold visitors’ attention and keep them on your site

Two metrics that are often used to determine a website's performance are time on site and bounce rate. Bounce rate is the percentage of times a user clicks on a page and leaves without visiting any other page; in other words, the percentage of single-page visits. A high bounce rate can indicate that your landing pages are not providing visitors with the information they need. However, a high bounce rate paired with high conversions can indicate that people are...

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Speak to client needs by turning features into benefits

benefitsAttorney marketing is tricky in many ways. You must sell a service that only a certain percentage of the population will ever need, and you do not have the same ability to manufacture demand as large retail companies like Nike or Apple. Attorneys are also restricted in many different ways by a variety of recommendations unique to each state bar's interpretation of best marketing practices. Lawyers must even approach marketing...

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How to use negative space to enhance user experience

white-spaceOne of the challenges of website design is combining many disparate items like text, pictures, links and illustrations into a harmonious page. If a layout is not well thought out, even the most beautiful design elements will suffer from poor display.

Some websites succumb to the misconception that visitors must be given as much information as possible as soon as they land on a page, which leads to an attempt to...

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How to Write Content that Captures Your Readers’ Attention, Part 2: Email

This is part 2 in a series of posts about how to write content that people actually want to read and share. Part 1, which you can read here, focused on legal marketing article titles.

email subjectMarketers have been trying to invent new ways to get people's attention since the invention of the profession. This is particularly true online, where visitors' already short attention spans are even shorter. Email marketing is...

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How to Write Content that Captures Your Readers’ Attention, Part 1 – Headlines

typewriterThis is part 1 in a series of posts about how to write content that people actually want to read.

Some tried and true marketing tactics are no longer effective, especially when speaking to online viewers. People have been hit with so much hyperbole, so many empty, information-free articles, and so many offers that seem – and are – too good to be true that they have simply begun ignoring...

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Overuse of acronyms in your writing is BS

Overuse of acronyms in your writing is BS

Every industry has its jargon, acronyms and language that is shared only by those within the profession. Such shorthand is necessary and understandable; people, particularly those who deal with highly technical information, benefit from methods that help them quickly communicate ideas among themselves. Sometimes acronyms spill out into the general population and become so widely used that they can be comfortably employed by writers in any industry with the understanding that most people will be aware of their meaning....

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