AttorneySync Blog

There are a host of applications on Facebook that allow you to integrate your blog with your Facebook pages. However, Networked Blogs is one worth using. It allows you to promote your blog to your friends and the entire Facebook community.

You can download the application for you Facebook account here.

Networked Blogs Features Include:

• Works on both: profiles and Facebook Pages
• Import your blog feed to your profile or public page
• A visual blogroll on your profile to promote your blog and blogs you like
• A directory of blogs organized by topic and geographical locations
• Read news and vote articles you love
• A community of like minded people to connect with

We have ours setup to automatically post new articles from our blog on our AttorneySync Facebook Page. It’s worth checking out.

Free Guide: Facebook For Lawyers Want to learn how to utilize Facebook to build relationships and bring more business for your firm? Download AttorneySync’s Free Guide: Facebook For Lawyers.

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Online videos are a terrific way to interact with your potential clients. They provide a level of engagement that is difficult to acheive with text alone. Plenty of lawyers I talk to have spent a pretty penny on professionally produced videos. The videos are up on their law firm site for all to see. However, they are not taking full advantage of the marketing power of these videos.

You should market your videos through more outlets than just your own website

Uploading the videos to YouTube and optimizing them to get found is a great first step. Even better is to distribute your videos to several of the top online video sharing sites. This helps your videos get discovered through Google search results and on the video sites themselves.

Tubemogul.com

Tubemogul is a free tool that enables you to easily load your law firm videos on several video sharing sites from one interface. Another words, you don’t have to manually go to each site and upload your video every time. This can save a lot of time and effort on your part. It also includes analytics so that you can track the performance of your videos. Here are a few of the benefits according to Tubemogul:

• Save Time – uploading videos to each site in your distribution is no longer necessary – upload to TubeMogul and let the Universal Upload tool do the rest. Then you can login to understand your viewership across online video sites in one place.
• Increased Reach – with your videos on more sites at no extra effort, your opportunity to gain viewers multiplies! Users of Universal Upload have witnessed up to 3x more views per video.
• Improved Understanding of Viewer Base – better understand your customer base to create more targeted and relevant content or products and services.

It’s a tool worth checking out.

Free Guide: How To Get Your Law Firm Videos Found In YouTube Want to learn how to get your law firm videos in front of more potential clients? Download AttorneySync’s Free Guide On Getting Your Law Firm Videos Found On YouTube.

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AttorneySync’s newest free guide, How To Get Your Law Firm Videos Found On YouTube, is available for download.

Videos give you a chance to interact with potential clients in a way that text on the page simply can not compete with. You have invested time and effort into creating effective online videos for your firm, now you need to get more people to watch them.

This Guide Will Give You A Proper Introduction To Getting Your Law Firm Videos Found On YouTube Including:

• Why YouTube Is The Most Important Video Sharing Site
• How To Perform Keyword Research For Video
• How To Optimize Your Videos Title, Description, Tags, & Category
• Other Important Factors For Ranking Videos Including Popularity, Links/Embeds, Ratings, & More
• Taking Advantage Of YouTube Insight

Download your free guide: How To Get Your Law Firm Videos Found In YouTube today!

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Twitter recently debuted it’s new Lists feature. According to Mashable:

Twitter lists is a new way to organize the people you’re following on Twitter, or find new people. In actuality, though, Twitter Lists are Twitter’s long awaited “groups” feature. They offer a way for you to bunch together other users on Twitter into groups so that you can get an overview of what they’re up to.

Lists makes Twitter easier to use and engage with. It gives you the ability to follow a topic or group of interesting people, without the need to follow each of them. I think Twitter Lists could have a profound effect on the way people and businesses use Twitter. Here are some links to help you better understand what lists are, how to use them, and some of the implications.

This is a great article by Mashable discussing what Twitter Lists are and how to use them – HOW TO: Use Twitter Lists

For those that want a thorough description and evaluation of Twitter lists, check out the blog at Pistachio. The author co-wrote the Twitter for Dummies guide. She is doing a 3 part series on Twitter Lists. Here are the first 2 parts of the series (the third has not been released as of this post) – Part 1: What Are Twitter Lists, Part 2: Twitter Lists: Developers and Applications

The following article at the Snowcrashing blog discusses 6 Ways To Look At Twitter Lists including:

• A Reputation Tool
• A People Discovery Tool
• A Content Aggregation Tool
• A Corporate Identity Tool
• A Mob Power Tool
• A Crowd-Sourced Targeting Tool

Read the full post here.

Twitter Guide For Lawyers Want to learn more about using Twitter for your practice? Download AttorneySync’s Free Twitter For Lawyers Guide.

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I recently wrote a post about sponsored Tweets and the ethics involved with getting paid to post on your Twitter account.  I was sent a link to an interesting article today, 8 Tips To Make Sponsored Tweets Work.

The article discusses 8 ways to make sponsored tweets work, including:

1. Protect Your Reputation

2. Beware of Systems Based On Pay-Per-Click

3. Clear Transaparency and Disclosure

4. Ads Perform Better On A Smaller Network

5. Go Beyond A Simple Product Pitch

6. Ads Should Be Conversational

7. Beware of Fake Twitter Accounts and Spammers

8. Too Many Sponsored Tweets Will Turn Off Followers

You can read the full article here.

The article does address a few of my concerns including transparency and protecting your reputation.  You don’t want to be known as a spammer.  Take a minute to check it out.

Twitter Guide For Lawyers Want to learn more about using Twitter for your practice? Download AttorneySync’s Free Twitter For Lawyers Guide.

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I heard a story recently about an unfortunate situation between a legal blog designer and one of their clients.  The lawyer had a falling out with the developer and was told that if  she chose to no longer host the blog with them, she would not be able to take the design or the content.  The blog was created on Wordpress, a popular platform that is free for anyone to use.  There was no agreement in place ahead of time, so she was at the mercy of the developer in this situation.  I am not so much commenting on who is right or wrong in this situation, only that it is important to have the answers to a few questions before you have your blog or website developed.  If you have the proper expectations and are on the same page with your blog designer and host, your experience will be that much better.

Here are 5 questions to ask before making your purchase:

1. Do I get to keep the blog design if I choose not to host with you? The answer to this depends on a number of things.  Some companies have proprietary software that the blog is created on.  The software was created by the blog design company and comes packaged with hosting.  If you choose to leave their company, you can not take their software with you.  Typically you still own the content you created, but will have to move it to another platform if you want to leave.  However, some legal blogs are designed on platforms that are free for anyone to use, such as Wordpress.  A company that creates a Wordpress legal blog might offer to host the blog as well for a monthly fee.  Make sure you understand ahead of time what happens if  you don’t want them to host your blog any longer.

2. Do I get to keep the content I produce? You put the blood, sweat, and tears into writing your legal blog.  Just make sure you get to keep whatever content you spent the time to produce.

3. What kind of changes can I make to the layout myself, such as adding elements to the blogroll, etc? Your blog is a dynamic, evolving thing.  You might want to add different elements to your blog as time passes.  Most blogs give you the ability to add links to a blogroll, but maybe you want your Twitter feed on the sidebar of your blog too.  In any case, make sure you understand the extent to which you can add something to your blog yourself or what you need to make requests for.

4. Do I own the domain name? If you go with a personalized domain name, make sure you own the domain name for your blog even if your blog company takes care of registering it for you.  I’ve heard of situations where firms put in the effort to build the authority and get their domain name ranked only to find out later on their designer owned the domain.

5. Can I get this in writing? It’s funny I am even mentioning this to lawyers, but unfortunately I have seen too many verbal agreements between developers and firms.  Better that everyone is on the same page before a problem arises, not afterwards.

Photo by Leo Reynolds

Free Guide: Guest Blogging For Lawyers Want to learn how guest blogging can help build relationships and bring more business for your firm? Download AttorneySync’s Free Guide: Guest Blogging For Lawyers.

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So you finally took the plunge and started a legal blog for your firm or you’ve been happily blogging for awhile. Either way, your legal blog is an important part of developing your law firm’s brand. It’s crucial that you come across professional and actually convey a sense of understanding how to put together a cohesive blog. Here is a list of 5 mistakes that legal bloggers should avoid:

1. Erratic posting. This is an easy mistake to slip into, especially for busy lawyers. Post one day, then nothing for a month. Then write three posts in two days and nothing for another five weeks. It’s important to be consistent with your blogging. Whether it’s a post or week or better yet, two to three posts a week. Take some time to plan out a few ideas for posts. Write several when you get the time and then publish them in steady intervals. The key here is being consistent so your readers stay engaged.

2. Creating a category for every post. Categories are meant to represent broader themes that your blog is about. The categories for your blog should be thought about ahead of time, they are the basis for the material you publish in your blog. It is a mistake to create a new category for each post.

3. Using post titles that don’t let readers know what the post is about. I’ve blogged in the past about writing good titles for your legal blog. Your title should convey to the reader the material they will read about in the post. Take a look at the story titles on CNN or in a newspaper. They are usually intriguing, sometimes creative, but they always let you know what the lead is. This is important for your blog as well. You want to entice readers to check out your article, but at least give them a taste of what the material is about.

4. Spreading yourself thin with your blog material. It’s important to have a focus with your blog. The best legal blogs represent a writer’s expertise in a niche of the legal world. This is what helps brand you as a thought leader in that niche. Trying to cover absolutely every practice area you have ever dealt with, every legal news topic, etc. makes your blog appear unfocused and disorganized. It’s better to appeal to your small segment of devoted readers than to a large swath of people across many topics.

5. Have your blog residing on a generic blogging domain name. You are putting in the time (which you have very little of) to write and maintain a legal blog. You want the blog to come across as professional and put together. Spend the extra couple of dollars and get an original domain name for your firm’s blog. Having your legal blog reside on yourfirm.typepad.com or yourfirm.wordpress.com isn’t nearly as professional as www.yourfirm.com.

Photo by Lady Madonna

Free Guide: Guest Blogging For Lawyers Want to learn how guest blogging can help build relationships and bring more business for your firm? Download AttorneySync’s Free Guide: Guest Blogging For Lawyers.

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AttorneySync is releasing a new guide today: Lawyers Guide To Using Lawlink

The guide is free to download. Lawlink is a social network built specifically for the legal community. We created this guide to give you a better understanding of the Lawlink network and review the benefits and features it provides. We lay out how we feel you can best utilize the network depending on your needs. Download the Lawlink guide here.

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Vivox Voice Chat For Facebook

Vivox, a Boston-based company that offers voice chat services,  is providing a new technology to Facebook and Twitter users that will allow users to have high-fidelity, conversations with anyone on their friends or followers list.   Even non Facebook and Twitter users can participate, as Vivox plans to offer free dial-in numbers that will allow anyone to call into an existing conversation, kind of like a call-in phone conference.

The technology will also be available to third party developers to use in their applications.

I’m curious to see the effect this will have on the way  Facebook and Twitter are utilized by firms, businesses, and lawyers for networking.  This seems to me to be the next big leap for these two.

Free Guide: Facebook For Lawyers Want to learn how to utilize Facebook to build relationships and bring more business for your firm? Download AttorneySync’s Free Guide: Facebook For Lawyers.

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When it comes to creating a presence for yourself or your practice using social media, LinkedIn is one of the most important tools you can use. By using LinkedIn, you can connect to over 43 million professionals in over 200 countries around the world. Whether you run a small firm, are a partner at a large practice, or anything in between, LinkedIn can be an incredible asset for your career.
You might be thinking that LinkedIn is just a virtual resume but in reality it’s far more than that. Instead it is a resume, cover letter, references document, a phone directory and a place where you can professionally interact with others in the legal industry.
The hardest part about using LinkedIn however is there is a lot less upkeep compared to networks like Facebook or Twitter so you may not spend as much time on it as you should. This makes your profile useless and devalues your virtual presence. With that said, here are 8 things to keep in mind that you can do to enhance your brand on LinkedIn and transform your profile into a very effective element of your lawyer-marketing repertoire.

1. First Impressions - Like it or not, first impressions have a huge impact on our personal and professional relationships. Good first impressions can seal the deal and bad first impressions can kill all the potential. Your headline and picture are your first impressions on LinkedIn and they can greatly affect your prospects of building a strong network. So make sure you have a professional looking picture and a headline that represents your current position in the legal industry. If you are looking for lawyers to join your firm, looking to catch on at a firm, or looking for advice on a case then put that in your headline.
2. Be Accessible - Most people are not going to work at trying to find you or connect with on LinkedIn. So if connecting with you is easy and associable it makes you more attractive to others. Most of the time, to “link” with someone you need his or her e-mail address. To make things easy include your e-mail on your profile or at the end of your summary or experience so it can be easily seen.
3. Create A Custom URL - If you don’t have a custom URL for your LinkedIn profile then you’re missing out another critical opportunity for people to easily find you. Furthermore, a custom URL will cause your profile to rank higher on Google. So if your LinkedIn URL doesn’t appear as www.linkedin.com/in/yourname then you should absolutely change it.

4. Promote Your URL - Now that you have a custom LinkedIn URL it is imperative that you promote yourself. Include your URL on your resume, blog, Twitter and Facebook profiles and even on your business card.
5. Keywords – You should inundate your entire profile with key words because other lawyers or other industry professionals will be using LinkedIn as a talent search engine. Find keywords that are in your headline and scatter them throughout your profile so you will have a better chance of showing up on “people searches.”
6. Ask and Answer Questions - If someone in your network asks a question that relates to you or your practice then you should answer it. By participating in discussions like these, you show others that you a valuable contributor with a strong skill set. Asking or answering questions will certainly increase your stature and build up your brand.
7. Add Your Websites and Company Links – On your profile page, you have three opportunities to add websites. I would suggest that you add an official company website, a blog, or possibly a link to another social media network. Moreover, you should customize the names of each link so your experience and affiliation standout more. Google will rank your other websites more often as well.
8. Link Yourself With Yourself - Like I said before, LinkedIn is a very important piece of your social media portfolio, but it is still just that, a piece. You’re going to want to complement your LinkedIn profile with a presence on Twitter, Facebook, a personal blog or website, and other sites that deal with the legal industry. The whole point of building up your brand is to make sure it is unified and concise over all platforms and mediums.

9. Utilize The LinkedIn Groups - LinkedIn offers a wide array of groups you can join to interact with like-minded lawyers and legal professionals.  You can search for groups with the LinkedIn search feature and join relevant ones for your interests.

Photo by 4_EveR_YounG

LinkedIn Guide For Lawyers Want to learn pro tips on utilizing LinkedIn for networking and growing your practice? Download AttorneySync’s Free LinkedIn For Lawyers Guide.

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