Archive for the ‘social networking’Category

Open Plea to Legal Marketers … little help?

Me Learning to be Humble

Asking for Help ... Hat in Hand

Being the Practicehacker doesn’t mean I know everything. Take law firm marketing for instance.  
In real life I run a 3-lawyer suburban Chicago practice engaged in what I call “Small Business” law; i.e. we do pretty much everything a small business or its owners need their lawyer to do, including:
  • Business start-ups, incorporation, organization
  • Contracts: drafting, review, enforcement, terms
  • Hiring and firing of employees and contractors
  • Commercial litigation, collections, and defense
  • Real estate transaction, liens and construction
  • Business, stock and asset, sale and purchase
  • Divorce and estate planning for entrepreneurs
  • Bankruptcy, reorganization, crisis management
I can’t think of any aspect of practice organization,management, or marketing that I couldn’t improve. In fact, I am absolutely certain that I must learn to do a lot of things better. Of course, if I had to single out one thing for attention at the moment, it would have to be our law firm marketing.
Full disclosure: I’ve never been satisfied with my firm’s online or social media presence. I mean, my name is out there, but the picture that emerges of my firm seems fragmented and weak. Then again, my off-line presence is no better. I’ve prepared and delivered seminars, given talks both locally and nationally, and have had articles published all over. But to what end?
The worst part of the problem is that it feels like my office is being severely underutilized. After a harrowing couple of years in this see-saw economy, I finally have a stable team of trained lawyers and staff, with more becoming available all the time. But if what we have to offer does not reach the right Clients, it’s wasted. That’s the hardest part of the problem: matching the right skills with the right Clients and keeping the process going.
There is one final caveat: I need new marketing initiatives to have a measurable ROI so we can decide whether to stay with it, pivot, or abandon it and start over.  If anyone thinks they can take a crack at evaluating our situation, or knows someone else who can, please get in touch or leave that information in the comments to this post.  
Thanks to everyone who thinks they can help.

17

09 2011


by practicehacker
posted in bankruptcy, Blogging, business, Career and Job, competition, current-events, employment, facebook, Google, law office, Marketing, media, new media, old media, practice, practice management, referrals, social media, social media tools, the business of law, tips, twitter, Video, website, websites, Wisdom of Crowds, work, youtube
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This is you. This is you on Twitter. Any Questions?

What would I look like if I were a Tweet

 

14

09 2011


by practicehacker
posted in infographic, Klout, OneForty, practice, practice management, slideshare, social networking, technology, the business of law, tips, tools, Tweeteffect, Twifluence, Twitalyzer, Twitoaster, twitter
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The Death of the Buggy-Whip Industry, etc.

 

Law_stagnation_here_to_stay_aba

The buggy-whip, stable, leather, tanning, and a hundred other industries became virtually obsolete the day Henry Ford’s first horseless carriages rumbled off the assembly-line. Of course, it was some time before the last industry participants passed away, but the die had been cast. It just took a few years for the news to sink in.

That’s why this piece in the ABA Journal is the most important read of 2011: not because it reveals anything new – God knows we’ve all been told for years that the ship is headed over the falls – but because the authors dispassionately and convincingly document how screwed lawyers are, how we compare to other industries, and why the reckoning that we now face was inevitable.

Turns out the legal industry did not die recently – that happened in the 50′s or 60′s. But its corpse has been carrying on since then like nothing was wrong. That is, until it began to collapse under its own weight. The good news? There’s a fix. The bad news? Law grads for the next 10 years will have to suck it up just like participants in the real estate, mortgage, and financial industries. And most of those new lawyers will never see another boom. Even more ironic is that fact that, for once, they’re not responsible for the fallout. It’s just bad timing.

By the way, anybody know where I can buy a new buggy-whip?

Posted via email from practice (redux)

09

07 2011


by practicehacker
posted in jobs, law office, legal marketplace, outside counsel, outsourcing, practice management, school, social networking, software, startup, technology, the business of law, tips, unbundling, work
1 Comment

Seriously, JD Supra?

Jd_supra

I like JD Supra and admire the cojones with which it shot out of the starting gate 3 years ago. I’ve used it myself and blogged about the experience while waiting for the promised traffic to materialize. I was still waiting when my “free look” expired a year later and JD Supra informed me that if I wanted to keep my profile, documents, etc. I’d have to pay. In one e-mail JD Supra went from Law 2.0 superstar to paid lawyer directory. Fair enough. If JD Supra wants to get paid like a vendor, I get to evaluate their services as a vendor. Let’s see, the company claims that it can

  • promote my firm to prospects
  • connect me with the prospects
  • earn higher search-rank for me
  • earn higher profile on LinkedIn

Can it really do any of these things? Who knows? I spent 40 minutes yesterday talking with a salesperson who couldn’t answer that question or explain why he was calling a 5-person firm to sell a big-firm document posting service. Can’t blame him: there is no explanation.

The fact is JD Supra should be paying for high-quality content, not the other way around. The more content, members, and activity it accumulates the more of a network effect it generates, the higher its search rank, and the more leverage it has to value itself in the inevitable acquisition (Lexis, Westlaw, whoever). So far everything is coming up JD Supra. What about its members? The company promises to put them in front of prospects. But how does it know who and where my prospective clients are? Presumably JD Supra assumes that putting me in the “bankruptcy” category in the “Illinois” bucket on their directory is all the customization I need.

Seriously, JD Supra? Why would you insult my intelligence like that? Your service should cost $0, you should be paying for my content, and LinkedIn is the Dane Cook of social networks. And don’t call me back until you are prepared to treat my content as valuable or you manage to get a grip on reality. Whichever happens first. Posted via email from practice (redux)

14

06 2011


by practicehacker
posted in practice, radical transparency, social graph, social media, social media tools, social networking, startup, tags, technology, the business of law, tools
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GrexIt Take 2

Grexit

A few weeks ago I posted a video introduction to knowledge-management application GrexIt.

Many people apparently want to know more, so here is a synopsis of what this free tool can do. GrexIt works on the principal that vital information is often custom-crafted for each client, then buried in client communications. The application attempts to solve the problem by breaking down your messages by phrase, concept, even by word, then reorganizes those elements into a searchable knowledge-base. GrexIt’s performance has been documented by such high-profile blogs as GigaOm, TheNextWeb, and ReadWriteWeb. Check it out yourself and let me know if you like GrexIt.

Posted via email from practice (redux)

13

06 2011


by practicehacker
posted in beta, Blogging, business, collaborative tools, community, cool stuff, crowdsourcing, current-events, disruptive technology, e-mail, enterprise, free, jobs, judiciary, knowledge management, law, law office, legal marketplace, legal research, management, OCR, practice, realtime, SaaS, search, social networking, software, startup, storage, tags, technology, the business of law, tips, tools, twitter, website, widget, wiki
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Baby Steps to Social Media Awareness

Media_httpwwwsociable_kdurn
via sociablelawyer.org

With his breakthrough performance in Kindergarten Cop, Arnold showed us why he would someday be Governor of California and leader of the free-world. Or whatever. In the meantime, here are some “baby steps” (get it, Kindergarten, baby steps?) to using social media in your practice, courtesy of Sociable Lawyer.

1. Do not be afraid to try
2. Share your knowledge
3. Polish your online rep
4. Strength in numbers

Posted via email from practice (redux)

 

11

06 2011


by practicehacker
posted in collaborative tools, community, conduct, crowdsourcing, de.licio.us, facebook, friend connect, friendfeed, Gmail, Google, google buzz, google docs, Google Places, google wave, knowledge management, law, law office, Lifehacker, linkedin, lists, martindale-hubbell connected, mashable, myspace, practice management, social graph, social media, social media tools, social networking, technology, the business of law, tips, tools, twitter, Wisdom of Crowds, youtube
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