Nolo's Legal Marketing Blawg

Facebook isn't just for friends anymore.  Increasingly, businesses are using Facebook for marketing, the New York Times reported last month.  And why not?  With 300 million users, Facebook is likely to be home to a substantial portion of a business' prospective and existing customers.  For that reason, Facebook helps businesses find new customers, build online communities to retain and provide perks to existing customers and even to access demographic information. 

Just like businesses, lawyers can also realize marketing benefits through Facebook.  At Inside Facebook, Sara Ines Calderon offers ten tips for ways that lawyers can use Facebook to market a practice.  I'll discuss some of those tips below and throw in a few of my own:

1.  Goals and Target Audience Definition:  Just like there's more than one way to skin a cat, there's more than one way to market a law practice on Facebook.  To figure out which marketing approach (or approaches) are right for you, you need to define your goals and identify your target audience.  For example, if you market to consumer clients, you may want to attract them with direct ads or try to educate them with articles or links to blog posts on relevant topics.  As discussed below, creating a Fan Page would support these goals.  By contrast, if you're trying to attract more conservative corporate clients who don't spend much time on Facebook, direct advertisements wouldn't have much value.  However, you might locate these clients indirectly through referrals from colleagues whom you can get to know personally through a Facebook friends page.

2.  Set Up A Fan Page:    A Fan Page is a Facebook page for a business or corporate entity rather than for an individual.  As a lawyer,  a Fan Page is important because it provides a way that you can interact with clients without allowing them to become privy to personal information and photos that you might share with close friends.   You can use a Fan page for a variety of purposes - to respond to questions about legal matters (in a general way, of course, to avoid any perception that you're giving legal advice), to share links to recent blog posts or to engage "fans" of the site in conversation.  You can also use a Fan page to issue invitations to events or to make special offers available - for example,  free consultations or a discount on certain legal services.

3. Direct Advertising:  With so many users on Facebook, advertisements can potentially attract a large audience.  Moreover, you can very specifically target ads to various demographics, including, country, state and city, gender, age and workplace.  There's more information on Facebook ads available here.

4.  Building Relationships:   Personal referrals are the primary source of business for most lawyers.  And most people prefer to make referrals to lawyers whom they know on  a personal basis.  Facebook offers a way to get better acquainted with colleagues and build a relationship that goes beyond the office or the bar meeting room.  In addition, when you interact with colleagues more frequently, you'll be at the top of their mind if they're asked to refer a matter.

Have you thought about using Facebook to market your practice?  How are you using it? 

Eight months ago, I described the benefits of email and newsletter marketing here.  And even though since that time, the the benefits of social media for SEO have become more widely recognized, marketing via newsletters still remain a powerful tool.  For starters, bear in mind that many of your prospects may not participate in social media, so sending an email newsletter enables you to target a population that you might otherwise miss on social media alone.  As for existing clients, newsletters help you stay in touch long after the attorney-client relationship ends, thus laying the foundation for future referrals or other work.  The Law Gazette offers a couple of examples of how firms in the UK are using newsletters for everything from promoting seminars to simply keeping clients up to date on news.

Newsletters also carry SEO value, as discussed here.  The newsletter can drive readers to a law firm website, thus increasing traffic and online visibility.  And, you can repurpose that newsletter content too.  Many law firms upload newsletters to article archiving sites which can further bolster online visibility.

So if you're thinking about starting an email newsletter or improving the one you have, check out Small Business Trends which provides 30 email marketing applications, ranging from free to fee. 

Social media can be overwhelming, with so many different platforms available.  Truth is, when you examine social media more closely, the platforms mirror many of the advertising and marketing tools traditionally available to lawyers - and those tools never intimidated lawyers.  Moreover, by assigning social media to categories relating to the function that the platform performs, it's much easier to sort through the tools and choose.

That's what I've done with the chart below: organized social media platforms into functional categories, given a brief description and the "old school" analogy.  All you need to do is pick a tool from at least two different categories, preferably more, and start moving forward with a social media strategy for 2010. (click on the chart for a better view)

My blogging mantra has always been:


Most commonly, it's the "often" component of this equation that generates the most discussion and debate.  For example, a recent Portfolio story on lawyer blogs pointed out that:

[...] many are finding that feeding the blog beast with fresh content is a legal challenge unto itself. Lawyers and blog specialists say the best legal blogs generate at least several posts per week.

While it's important to blog often, particularly when getting a blog off the ground, timing is equally, if not more important than frequency.  In other words, you don't need to blog often so much as you need to blog early.

First to press:  One component of blogging early involves reacting quickly to a big news story, getting a post up on breaking news or a recently issued decision before other bloggers come on the scene.  When you post about a new development early, you make your blog indispensable to readers; a go to source of up to date information.  In addition, an early post on a topic ensures that other bloggers or media sources will link to or comment on your blog, therefore giving you more exposure.  A couple of rules about posting early, however. 

First, if there's a hot news story or just-issued judicial decision, don't just throw out a link with a single line like "read this!" or "breaking news!"  To make your post valuable, you must offer some original insight or prediction, even if it's based on a quick first impression.  You can always update the post or write a follow up as events emerge.  Second, you don't need to be first to press with every single news item, or you run the risk of converting your blog into a news feed rather than a source of analysis and conversation.  If you enjoy providing rapid feed on new developments, share your blurbs on Twitter, which offers a  better platform for short form writing than a blog.

Early in the morning:   When I say that you should blog early, I also mean it literally, as in early in the morning.   Many heavy blog readers like newspaper reporters (who can give you more exposure) or other lawyers (who can generate referrals) tend to scroll through their news feeders first thing in the morning in search of fodder for their own blog posts and stories.  If you can get your posts up early in the morning, they're more likely to be read when fresh.  By contrast, if you post on a time-sensitive topic later in the day, by the time your post comes up on an aggregator, it may be yesterday's news.

Early in the week:  Posting early in the week is important for two reasons.  First, (and though the evidence is hardly scientific), based on my experience at several different blogs, readership is generally highest on Mondays or Tuesdays.  A  survey of various design blogs reached a similar conclusion, though Thursdays were a close second.  Tuesday is also the most popular activity day for Twitter, which can also be a source of traffic to your blog if you tweet links to your posts.   Statistics aside, there's a second reason to post early in the week: it will allow more time for conversation to brew throughout the week which will also generate more traffic.

Early adapter:  Finally, if you're just starting a blog, you gain a tremendous advantage if you can establish yourself as first to market on a particular topic.  Indeed, many of the earliest blogs, like Howard Bashman's appellate law blog,  How Appealing continue to dominate not just because of quality but also a strong first mover advantage that helps keep competitors at bay.  Even though blogging is more common than five years ago, there's still plenty of room for lawyers to establish a blog on a  topic that's not yet been covered and benefit from a first mover advantage from that  particular niche.

In short, I can't emphasize this point often enough:  blog early!

Here is another post on this topic (from last year) from Blog for Profit.

 

If Shakespeare were alive in today's Internet-based, search engine optimization (SEO) obsessed world, instead of asking What's in a name, he might well have had Juliet ask  "What's in a [key] word?"  Because when it comes to SEO, keywords matter, as Jay Fleischman emphasizes over at Legal Practice Pro.   But whereas Juliet idealistically believed that "that which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet," her observation wouldn't apply to SEO where subtle differences in terminology can yield less-than-sweet SEO results. 

So how can you determine whether the keywords will be effective in attracting traffic to your site?  Jay's Legal Practice Pro post offers a couple of starting points.  In addition, there's an even more recent post by Marshall Sponder of Entrepreneur that identifies seven free tools for evaluating the potential effectiveness of key words.

One tool suggested by Sponder is Microsoft AdLabs, which can help determine whether your intended service has commercial value based on the words you're using to describe it.  From the post: 

For example, "Ultra-Thin Insoles" is considered to have a 68 percent commercial value while "Comfortable Shoes" is considered by the tool to have a 96 percent commercial value. Finding the right way to describe what you're looking for will help you find it faster and cheaper, and help you monetize your offerings once your products or services are ready.

Other tools include Quantcast Marketing which you can use to obtain demographic information on customers which in turn, can inform keyword selection, and Wordstream Keyword Search, which will generate keyword suggestions.  For example, if you select "bankruptcy law," you'll see that many searches relate to the changes in bankruptcy law.  Since this term drives traffic, you may want to use it as a keyword and also target blog posts or web content to address this topic.

By using free tools to select effective keywords, you can create a rosy presence for yourself online without spending a bundle.  And that is sweet, indeed. 

Call me old fashioned, but even with the recent decline in newspaper circulation, I hold a special place in my heart for the old Gray Lady.  For all the exposure that the Internet offers, nothing quite parallels the reach of a mention in the pages of the New York Times, or rivals the cache of a "quoted in the New York Times" entry on a lawyer bio.

Guess what?  You don't need to be a bigwig to snag a mention in the New York Times, or at least, at one of its online sites.  These days, the New York Times gives readers the ability to contribute posts to its local blogs or to cover local news stories.  And lawyers are already taking advantage of these opportunities to contribute to the local community while gaining exposure for their practice.

Consider Livingston, New Jersey-based new solo, Jodi Rosenberg (whose office, coincidentally, is located in my hometown, right around the corner from where I grew up).  Rosenberg wrote this post for the New York Times' local Maplewood blog about an author's talk that she organized for a working mothers' group.  In the post, Rosenberg shares useful tips on how to locate published authors to speak at events as well as information on Workmoms, a social networking group for working mothers that Rosenberg co-leads.  But Rosenberg also discretely slips in mention about starting her new law firm.  Rosenberg's post thus brings exposure both to her Workmoms group (which can generate membership and lead to increased connections and potential clients) and directly to her law firm.

Former lawyer turned author, writing coach and speaker Ari Kaplan has also posted on the New York Times blog, once about his experience of writing his book at the local library and once about family activities.   Kaplan's articles help build a local following, not to mention that he garnered a nice byline with information about his business.

The Times offers another opportunity for lawyers to get exposure and even meet prospective clients face to face with its Virtual Assignment Desk.  The Virtual Assignment Desk lists local events where news coverage is desired, and then solicits volunteers who are willing to cover those events and file a blog post and story.  Past assignments  include school board meetings, a League of Women Voters' workshop offering tips for citizen journalists and a town board of trustees meetings.  By attending these events as a journalist, lawyers have the opportunity to get to know the key players, and even have a chance to interact with them directly by interviewing them for a story.  Consider a lawyer interested in a niche practice advising bloggers and citizen journalists.  Attending a meeting on citizen journalism and reporting about it can get the lawyer's name out in front of prospective clients. 

Does the metropolitan newspaper in your area offer these kinds of opportunities?  Not only can your effort help rebuild the newspaper industry, but you can help build your own practice in the process.

 

Years before I started blogging here at Nolo's Legal Marketing Blawg, I was an unabashed fan of Nolo for its pioneer work in providing legal resources to pro se litigants at a time when they had no other alternatives.  Flash forward three and a half decades, and though other self-help resources now exist, Nolo remains out in front both in the variety of offerings and more importantly, quality of material.   

It's hard to believe that nearly a decade into the 21st century, 52 percent of solo lawyers still don't have a website, according to the ABA's 2008 Tech Survey.  If you fall into this category, perhaps you figure that a web presence isn't relevant since most of your clients come by way of mouth or referral.   Even so, consider the message that lacking a website (or an alternative web presence like a blog conveys.  For starters, many prospective clients and referrers may conclude that if you haven't bothered to stay current on technology, then perhaps you've let your substantive legal knowledge slide as well.  Moreover, many clients regard a website as a basic convenience; a place where at a minimum, they can find contact information, an address and a photo.  By failing to provide this information online, you give the impression that you're insensitive to clients' needs.

Alternatively, the thought of getting a website up and running may intimidate you.  You've heard quotes from colleagues about $10,000 or even $20,000 sites and that's simply not in the budget.  As I'll discuss below, you certainly don't have to put up that kind of money for a basic site.

At the same time, if you're one of those lawyers who has had a website since the mid-1990s, don't pat yourself on the back just yet.   Though a website loaded with Flash, high graphic images and a couple of static pages may have been cutting edge a decade ago, in a more dynamic Web 2.0 age, it is likely showing signs of age.

So, if you don't have a website at all, or you're considering a face lift, consider these tips below to get you started.

1.  Take a trip around the Internet:  Why not start down the path to building a website with a trip of your own -- around the Internet -- and visit other websites for inspiration.  If you're on a listserv, now's the time to click on the URL in participants' signatures and take a look at what their sites look like, and whether it's something you'd want to replicate.  You can also find collections of lawyer websites online -- there's a terrific bunch here at LexCSS as a start.

Don't limit yourself to lawyer websites, though.  If you practice in a specific industry, like high tech or real estate or health care, you may find common conventions amongst those sites that would make sense to incorporate in yours.   Likewise, consultants and other professionals may include certain features that could benefit your practice as well.

2.  Develop a strategy  This article from Small Biz Trends emphasizes the importance of having a strategy -- a method to the madness, so to speak -- behind a website:

Your first step in creating your Web site is to outline the goals for that online presence. From there you'll be able to identify your calls to action and key content themes so that you can build around them. You want to know how the site will be used so that you can incorporate your navigation in a way that will be intuitive for users. You want to create content that will reinforce what you're trying to accomplish, it should be informative, and it should put people on a path to do whatever it is you want them to do. If you don't create a Web strategy before building the site, you're going to lose your focus and value for users.

How do you see potential visitors using your site?  Will it simply serve as a source of basic information?  What kind of contact will be useful to users?  Potential clients may be interested in educational materials or tip lists, whereas potential referral sources will want to information about your credentials and past accomplishments to determine whether to send you cases.

Also, consider your audience.  A corporate crowd likely won't be amused by a whimsical website while consumers won't feel welcome at a highly formal site.  Design your site with the audience in mind. 
 
3.  Website Features  Once you've looked at some of the other sites, and come up with a strategy put together a list of the features that you'd like to include in yours.   For example, an "About Us" page that describes your firm is fairly de rigeur.  But what about an "About You" page, which is a more effective way to make clients understand how you can help them.

Compare the following two descriptions: 

About Us:  I am a highly qualified business lawyer with 12 years of experience drafting leases, shareholder agreements and other business documents.

About You:  You are a small, mom and pop owned business with a need for cost-effective assistance in preparation of basic agreements to protect your rights.

From a client's perspective, which is more effective?

Other effective features include testimonials (though check bar rules to determine whether you can ethically include them), video, which adds a personal touch, an educational e-book, for download or a newsletter.  These features infuse your site with personality and also give clients a reason to contact you, even if only to get a free e-book or newsletter.

4.  Interaction In the 21st century, a website should be interactive.  You need a way for clients to contact you, whether it's through a contact sheet or through tools like Google Voice.

5.  Educate Yourself:  Once you've decided what kinds of features you'd like to include in yourself, educate yourself about the feasibility.  Many features that seem high-end are surprisingly easy to include, yet often site designers will charge an arm and a leg for them.  For example, you can install auto-responder services like Aweber to capture client contact information and enable them to sign up for a newsletter.  Many site designers will tell you that this kind of feature is costly when in reality, you could set it up yourself.  Likewise, companies will often charge several hundreds of dollars for "site maintenance" or updating pages when there are many tools that allow you to do this yourself.

Realize too, that at the end of the day, as a lawyer, you are responsible for your developer's work.  The Ninth Circuit just held that a small law firm, whose web designer lifted the content from a competitor's site and used it for the small firm's new website could be liable for copyright violations.  So if a developer charges a price that's too good to be true (because maybe he's done the same site before!) or provides professional sounding material that seems vaguely familiar, you may want to check around the web to make sure that the site that your designer presented  isn't already online under someone else's name.

6. Design Yourself or DIY  This piece by Deborah Bruce contains some good information on the range of costs of websites, from the low end do it yourself to retaining a designer.  Bruce suggests two easy and inexpensive do it yourself options, www.SpinSite.com for $12 per month and www.SquareSpace.com for $14 per month.  In addition to do it yourself and high end designers, consider a middle of the road solution, such as contracting a designer through Craigslist or Odesk, where you can generally find a developer in the $300-$700 price range. If you do hire a designer, be sure that you register your domain names yourself.  You don't want to find yourself in a conflict with a developer down the line and lose access to the domain name.

7.  The legal stuff:  No law firm website would be complete without the requisite legal disclaimers about how your site doesn't offer advice, how contacting a lawyer through the site doesn't give rise to attorney client privilege and that the site may be a form of advertising.  Check your bar rules to determine what kind of disclaimer is required.   Copyright notices are important as well to put potential infringers on notice.

There's no need to run a monster disclaimer right on the front page; you can simply link to it on a sub-page.  And you might even consider a somewhat humorous disclaimer like this one to satisfy your lawyerly duties but at the same time, show signs of a real personality.

8.  More Reading:  For more ideas on setting up a website, consider this extra reading:

This article from CNN Money offers a great, play-by-play makeover of a highly ineffective website belonging to a small firm in a small community.  Just because you practice in a small town doesn't mean that your website needs to be bumpkin-like, and the article offers great advice on how the lawyers could redesign the site to make it more user friendly and SEO-efficient. 

Solo and small firm lawyers are small businesses, and so they stand to learn a great deal from this piece on common mistakes of small business websites.  These include poor design, lack of interactivity and failing to give any reason for visitors to return.

Personality will help set a website apart, and Entrepreneur.com gives some quick tips on how to let your unique character shine through.

Jay Fleischman at Legal PracticePro provides seven quick fixes for improving an already existing website.

Designing a website correctly can take time, so why not start now?  A website presence is a great present, both for yourself and for your clients. 

So, how many lawyers use online professional networking and social media tools and which ones do they favor?  Interesting questions to be sure, but you're probably wondering why you should care.  After all, as a lawyer you're probably more interested in where and how potential clients are using social media rather than what your colleagues are doing with it. 

However, turning a blind eye to how your colleagues are using social media is a mistake.  Because social media isn't just a static tool -- like a newspaper ad or a website -- for direct generation of clients.  Engaging social media is also a process that enables lawyers to build meaningful relationships with colleagues, which in turn will produce referrals.

A just released study by Leader Networks shows why social media is critical to generating business in the legal profession.  Of the 1474 lawyers surveyed as part of the study (764 private practice lawyers and 710 corporate counsel), 56 percent identified peer referrals or recommendations as the most effective method for finding business, followed by in person networking events (33 percent) and conferences and seminars (15 percent).  Only three percent believed that blogging, listservs or other social media tools helped to generate business.

But here's the rub.  Despite recognizing the importance of networking with peers to generate referrals, most lawyers said that they simply don't have the time to leverage opportunities to network with peers.  And that's where social media can fill the gap.  Social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, the ABA's Legally Minded, Martindale Connected or Legal OnRamp, serve as a virtual water cooler, giving lawyers opportunities to exchange quick pleasantries, update colleagues on recent accomplishments ("speaking at national conference" or "just won SJ hearing") and share news of current events or developments in their respective practice areas.   As relationships evolve, you might find yourself consulting with a colleague on another matter or eventually passing on a case -- and vice versa. 

So not surprisingly, more lawyers are joining social networking sites.  According to the Leader Networks Study, 78 percent of lawyers polled reported membership in an online social network, up substantially from 59 percent in 2008.  And participation runs across all age groups, with 86 percent of lawyers aged 25-35 belonging to social networks, followed by 76 percent of those 36-45 and 66 percent of those in the 46-55+ category. 

Still, even though social networking can be less time consuming than traveling to a conference four hours away, it can easily become a time-sink unless lawyers are disciplined about participation.  So here are a few tips to engage social media tools efficiently so that you won't begrudge your participation if referrals don't come as quickly as you'd like.

1.  Choose your weapons

If this is your first foray into social media, you may want to proceed with some caution.  You are better off signing up for two sites and creating a robust presence rather than spreading yourself thin on eight or ten sites. 

However, with so many social media tools available, how can you pick the one that's right for you?  The decision depends largely on your intended targets.  If you're looking to build relationships with other lawyers, here's how various social media sites stack up according to the Leader Network report:

Linked-In - (used by 58% private counsel, 52% corporate counsel);

Martindale-Hubbell Connected, reading and commenting on blogs (42 % private counsel,
35 % corporate counsel);

Public social networks (Facebook, MySpace)  (37% private counsel, 25% corporate counsel);

Online Q&A and expert search services (e.g., WikiHow or Yahoo Answers) (13% private counsel, 19% corporate counsel);

Twitter (6% private counsel, 4% corporate counsel)

Other considerations in choosing a site include:

--Your personality.  If you tend to be shy or reserved, a site like Facebook, which is most interesting when colored by photos or light banter, may not be appropriate.  Instead, you may feel more comfortable at a more sites like Linked-In or Martindale Hubbell Connect, where the interactions are more focused on professional matters.

--Your schedule.  Some types of social media - such as blogging or regularly responding to online questions and answers may be too time consuming to fit into your schedule or to justify based on the resulting returns.  If you're busy, choose social media sites that don't require a large time investment.

--Your markets.  Are your competitors engaged in, or gaining stature at certain social media sites?  If so, you may want to dive in if only to keep an eye on them.  At the same time, don't avoid a social media site just because it's not populated with other lawyers from your practice area.  There's something to be said for gaining a first mover advantage.

2.  Recognize the process for building relationships

Because this post is focused primarily on use of social media as a way to build connections and generate referrals and business from other lawyers (as opposed to directly from clients), I'm going to assume that as your goal.  So how do you reach the point where you establish a relationship that encourages referrals?

In many ways, the stages of relationship building on social media parallel those in a traditional office environment.  For example, if you ever worked in an office, recall how you went about establishing relationships with colleagues.  During the first few weeks, you likely exchanged greetings and perhaps emailed each other about work related projects.  As you grew more comfortable, perhaps you went to lunch together or out for a cup of coffee and chatted about personal matters like your vacation plans or girlfriend or kids.  Finally, after more time, you may have gotten together outside of the office for a ball game or a tennis match.  Having established this level of camaraderie, you most likely tried to help your colleague professionally by referring him clients or making sure to sing his praises to management.

The same process takes place in the online world as well.  Initially, you may exchange greetings with a colleague whom you've "friended" on Facebook.  After a few weeks, you may comment on photos she's posted of family or offer some sympathy after she's posted about a bad day.  Finally, if you learn that your Facebook colleague will be visiting your city or speaking at a conference that you plan to attend, you might try to schedule an offline, in person meeting which will solidify the relationship.  Once you've grown comfortable with each other, your colleague will trust you enough to send contacts.  Plus, because you have a personal friendship, your colleague will make an effort to help you out, and vice versa.

3.  Don't dive in too quickly

You want social media relationships to evolve offline, but at the same time, you don't want to jump in too quickly.  Avoid friending 400 people whom you barely know all at once and then sharing 40 items with them daily.  Likewise, don't bombard Twitter with self-promotional posts or you'll just turn off followers.  You wouldn't like it if an office mate barged in to your conversation with a co-worker and began gabbing away, would you?  Turns out, social etiquette in social media isn't all that different.

4.  Set up a social media schedule

Some social media tools, particularly Facebook and Twitter can quickly become addictive.  If you spend too much time online, you won't get any work done - and worse, you'll create the impression that you're not very busy.  A realistic schedule might include (1) blocking off thirty minutes early  in the morning to log on to your social media accounts and return messages, send messages and tend to any updates and then (2) repeating the process sometime during the late afternoon or evening.   Or you might block out three to four 15 minute segments throughout the day to come online.  Of course, during really busy periods, you may not have any time for social media - so try to stick to the schedule when you can to establish a reasonably consistent presence.

5.  Do not outsource your social media! 

You don't need to read any further than my last post here to understand the dangers of outsourcing social media campaigns.

Conclusion:  Increasingly, lawyers are joining social media - but there's still time to get on board.   You just need to keep an open mind about the possibilities that social media holds to  build meaningful and lasting connections with colleagues that will provide both financial and personal rewards.

For more detailed information on how lawyers can use social media, take a look at my ebook on Social Media for Lawyers.  

It's time for another round up of updates on previous posts.  Without further ado, here's a bunch of quick follow up tips from around the blogosphere:

1. Be Careful Whom You Hire As  a Marketer  A few months ago, I asked whether you should hire a legal marketer and warned about some of the potential red flags to avoid in choosing a marketing consultant.  At least one unfortunate attorney failed to read my advice, and now, she's found herself the brunt of serious criticism around the blogosphere. 

Colin Samuels' Infamy and Praise Round Tuit 2 provides the best summary of the sordid affair.  Apparently, a California attorney retained a marketing consultant (well, actually, she bartered for his services) who chose to build her online presence by scraping content from other blogs, including Houston criminal defense lawyer's Mark Bennett's Defending People.  The consultant also set up a number of alias Twitter accounts under the California attorney's name in a lame effort to boost her SEO.  Mark Bennett took the consultant to task  here and here, with the end result of spreading the story around the blogosphere, damaging the attorney's representation in the process.  Two lessons here:  (1) bad publicity isn't necessarily better than good publicity and (2) DON'T outsource your marketing efforts.  Hopefully, this attorney will read my earlier post on guarding your reputation online so that she can minimize the negative commentary.

2.  Recyle and Re-purpose for a Successful Blog In my post on ebooks, I described how you can recycle or re-purpose content you've created for blogs or other publications to include in the ebook. However, the concept of re-purposing or multi-purposing is also useful to understand if you're trying to build a successful blog, a topic I've covered here. Over at Blog for Profit,  California Defamation Law Blogger Adrianos Facchetti describes how he multi-purposed his blog content to gain visibility in his niche of Internet defamation in just six months time.  Facchetti explains:

This is the "hub and spoke" strategy.  This is how it works.  Let's say I write a really great post and I want to make sure a lot of people read it. The first thing I would do is to upload it to as many websites as possible. So, I would upload the post to several bookmarking sites like social median and digg. Then I would upload it to JDSupra. Then I would tweet about it.

I also made sure that my blog posts updated automatically to my LinkedIN profile and to my Facebook profile via RSS feed.
My goal was to get my content in as many different places as I possibly could, which I did.  Use this strategy. It works.

There's similar advice over at the Baby Boomer Entrepreneur, which in addition to Facchetti's suggestions recommends (1) recording blog posts for podcasts or videos and (2) circulating blog posts to Ezinearticles.com, a heavily trafficked site which will rock your SEO.

 

If Prince Charming had been a potential client, then Cinderella's evil stepsisters had the right idea.  When the Prince embarked on his mission to find the owner of the glass slipper and make her his bride, the stepsisters made sure that they didn't miss out on an opportunity to marry into royalty.  So when the Prince and his entourage galloped by, they invited him into their house, touted their virtues and even kept the competition away by locking Cinderella in a closet.  But came the moment of truth, neither stepsister could close the deal because the shoe didn't fit.   Likewise, even if your marketing strategy succeeds in bringing clients into your office, like the evil stepsisters, they'll walk away without signing your retainer letter if the shoe -- or in your case, the price -- isn't a perfect fit.

Price is a critical component of marketing strategy, and which that many lawyers overlook.  Of course, in some situations, you may not have much leeway in setting price.  In some practice areas, such as social security benefits, lawyers are not allowed to charge clients up front, while in other practice areas, such as personal injury, prevailing practices (such as fronting the costs of case) make it difficult to deviate (such as requiring personal injury clients to pay a retainer up front).  Likewise, for some prospects, the only price that fits is "free;" they're more interested in squeezing free advice out of you than hiring and paying for you. 

Exceptions aside, the majority of lawyers retain significant flexibility on pricing services.  And particularly now, at a time of less than plenty, you may find that tweaking what you charge for services may help you close more deals.  Below are some examples of pricing trends in the legal profession as well as some innovative pricing strategies from the retail world to inspire your imagination:

Flat fees and alternative billing:  As the Wall Street Journal reports, increasingly, large corporate clients are demanding flat fees and alternative arrangements.   A major benefit of flat fees is that it keeps costs down.  Those clients quoted in the article report an average 15 percent cost savings from flat fees, making flat fees the "glass slipper" for many clients in a down economy.

Though from a lawyer's perspective, you may not be interested in taking a 15 percent bath on income, bear in mind that flat fees may also enable you to make sales that you otherwise wouldn't.  Consider air carrier Jet Blue's recent variation of a flat fee strategy: a $599 flat fee ticket entitling customers to fly to any of Jet Blue's 57 national and international destinations, so long as all travel takes place between September 8 and October 8, 2009.  Attorney Jay Shepard highlights the benefits of Jet Blue's strategy at his Client Revolution Blog:

Now let's play law-firm lawyer: "But what if someone takes advantage of JetBlue and flies twice a day, every day during that month? That's 60 flights for $600? How can JetBlue make a profit on ten-dollar flights?"

Dumb question. First of all, no one's going to do that. Or at least not enough people to make a difference. (Maybe one guy, hoping to get on the "Today Show.") Who the heck wants to fly that much, even on a comfy JetBlue plane with individual TV screens? To be sure, some people will take an unusually high number of flights, lowering JetBlue's average revenue per flight for those passengers. But it's just as likely that some people will take only one flight (or even none), increasing the average revenue per flight. And even if it doesn't come out even, it's a safe bet that JetBlue will attract enough new customers to make up the difference -- and some of them will become raving fans of JetBlue. And they'll tell their friends and relatives. (Or get on the "Today Show," attracting more publicity and more passengers.)

Are there ways that you can incorporate a flat fee structure into your law practice?  If you're nervous about losing money, you could offer a flat fee for a limited period of time to limit any adverse effects.  Or not.  Because you might discover that the flat fee that fits your clients' needs is comfortable for you as well. 

Freebies:   No one wants to work for free.  But offering freebies as part of your service makes clients more likely to recommend you to others and come back themselves.  At Duct Tape Marketing, John Jantsch writes about a restaurant he tried out which sent him home with a free pint of soup.  That little freebie made enough of a difference to inspire Jantsch to write about the restaurant and most likely to return.

What can add on to your services to give clients incentive to return?  For example, what about a voucher for free "check up," where you'll review an estate plan or incorporation or terms of a custody agreement at some time in the future at no cost?  The voucher gives clients something of value as well as incentive to come back to your firm.  Plus, if it turns out that something has changed -- perhaps tax laws that apply to estate plans or the make up of a client's LLC -- you'll get some extra business as well.

Premium Pricing - The Five Dollar Slice:  It may be hard to believe, but even in a down economy, premium pricing may prove the right fit for some clients.  As this New York Times story highlights, charging five dollars a slice for a piece of pizza hasn't hurt business at Brooklyn-based Di Fara's pizzeria one bit.  As one customer quoted in the article exclaimed,

"It's [the pizza] is unbelievable...you're going to pay for quality."

Incidentally, this customer, an off-duty policy officer, waited an hour and twenty minutes for two pies. 

As relevant to your law practice, perhaps there are small touches that so greatly improve quality that you can justify charging more.  For example, in a down economy, many clients are nervous about keeping their jobs and are hesitant to take time off from work to meet with a lawyer or even to use a work phone or computer to communicate with an attorney.  If you offered routine weekend and evening office hours, clients might readily pay more for this convenience, particularly if it would enable them to avoid jeopardizing their day job.

In addition, premium pricing is also matter of context, with one client's high-end price might be another client's bargain.  As Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg remarked:

 "The real question, relative to the local economy, is whether people are trading up from a $2.75 slice or down from a $25 entree."

For some clients accustomed to paying bloated rates large firms, transitioning to a solo or small practice, even when they charge premium prices is a welcome surprise.  In fact, if you market to dissatisfied biglaw clients, you may need to raise your rates a bit or your target clients might disregard your prices as "too good to be true."

Serendipitous Pricing:  Lawyers are analytical and want to reduce pricing to a science.  But just as the fairy godmother's magic made Cinderella's foot a match for the glass slipper, there's a serendipitous element to setting prices in the real world.

The Washington Post describes the role of luck and serendipity in pricing houses for sale.  For example, one real estate agent uses prices ending in "944" for her listings -- it's the model number of the brown Porsche that she drove around town when she started selling houses.  Moreover, there's actually evidence that houses that appear more accurately priced (as opposed to ending in zeros) sell more quickly.  From the article: 

About two years ago, Redfin analyzed the list prices of all the homes in one county in Washington state and found that properties with a list price ending in "500" sold for more than slightly more expensive properties whose price ended in three zeroes. They also spent slightly less time on the market, an average of 69.72 days, compared with 70.25.

Redfin's findings were backed up by academic research published in March by Cornell University professor Manoj Thomas....After examining home sales in Florida and New York, [Thomas] discovered that houses with more precise list prices tended to have higher sale prices. In Florida, homes listed with fewer than three zeros at the end resulted in a sale price boost of about 0.2 percent. And for every extra zero added, the sale price fell about 0.09 percent.

Since most lawyers don't use flat fees, these pricing strategies might not transplant as well.  At the same time, using any edge to set your prices apart from competitors can't hurt.  (Just remember, that lawyers are ethically obligated to charge "reasonable fees" so naturally, make sure that any prices that you set will pass muster under ethics codes).

Conclusions:  Tools like SEO, blogging, client newsletter and the myriad of others which I've discussed at this blog are only part of the marketing equation.  Using these tools effectively will bring clients to your door, maybe even convince them to pay for a consultation.  But ultimately -- and also like a wicked stepsister -- prices that don't fit your customers needs will sabotage your best marketing efforts.   

When it comes to Internet marketing, there's no one size fits all solution.  The effectiveness of any of the tools that I've discussed here at the Legal Marketing Blawg, such as blogs, Twitter or video depends not just on whether your current or prospective clients spend time online but  also where and how they use the Internet.

To understand the importance of how clients use the Internet to your online marketing efforts,   consider the results of an April 2009 study by the Pew Internet Project released last month.  According to the study, 56% of those polled said they have at some point used wireless means for online access - a figure that's significant enough to convince most lawyers to either start or step up marketing measures online.

But the 56% figure doesn't tell the whole story about wireless use.  Turns out that even though African American Internet use via traditional means (such as home or office computers) is much lower than for the general population, African Americans represent the most active users of the mobile internet:

48% of Africans Americans have at one time used their mobile device to access the internet for information, emailing, or instant-messaging, half again the national average of 32%.

29% of African Americans use the internet on their hand held on an average day, also about half again the national average of 19%.

Based on these use rates, you'd be justified in engaging in any type of generic online marketing activities, such as putting up a website or purchasing online ads, if you wanted to attract and serve African American clients.  But given that nearly a full third of African Americans access the web through a hand held device, your online marketing campaign would be far more effective if you invested in those tools which are most compatible with hand held devices.  For example:

-Internet access through handheld devices is usually slower than through broadband wireless and a direct connection.  So a fancy, flash-driven website that may look impressive on a large screen might be clunky and frustrating to someone trying to view it on a cell phone. 

-Blogging can be an effective Internet marketing tool.  But lengthy tomes in small font don't mix with a hand held.  To keep a hand-held based audience engaged, either opt for shorter snappier posts that can be digested in a cell-sized screen or make sure that your blog is mobile compliant.

-Many mobile users frequently access YouTube.  For that reason, video may be an effective marketing option.  Likewise, Twitter offers several different mobile-accessible applications and could also serve as an effective medium to connect with mobile-enabled clients.

Depending upon what kinds of clients you intend to target, there are a myriad of other small tweaks that can make your online marketing more effective.  As I wrote in another context, you need to imagine your audience, or in this case, your clients:

What I mean by imagine your audience is to visualize the individual readers, from those who stumble across your site online to those who dutifully read your updates daily. Where are they reading your blog - in a Starbucks? Their office? At a basement computer after the kids are in bed? Are they dressed in stiff work clothes or wearing pajamas? Using an news reader or catch all site like Alltop to catch up on posts - or do they physically visit the site to get the information?  Printing out your posts in a public library because they don't have a printer at home, or scrolling through them casually on their iphone while riding the subway to a suburban mansion?  By imagining these details, you can refine the form of your post to match your audience's circumstances - for example, enlarging the font or brightening the page if you suspect folks are reading in dimly lit areas, or including an easy print or PDF option if your audience prefers hard copy.

Most lawyers would like to believe that online marketing begins and ends with search engine optimization, that by hiring a good consultant and driving traffic to your site, you'll generate clients.  But all of the SEO in the world isn't going to make a difference if prospects leave the destination once they arrive.  It's not until you understand how your target audience is reaching you online that you can make sure that their experience is pleasant (as opposed to frustrating and confusing) once they arrive.  That way, they're guaranteed to return, or even better, to stick around long enough to decide to give you a call.

Every fourth Friday of the month, for more than a decade, the Washington D.C. area contingent of Solosez, the ABA's online listserv, has had a standing lunch date at an area restaurant, thanks to  Terry Berger, the Maryland solo who started it all.  Over the past ten years, the location and time of the lunch have changed just twice (the restaurant that played host for the first seven years closed down).  The agenda never deviates: fifteen minutes for informal mingling, then it's time to be seated and go round the table with introductions -- name, jurisdictions where licensed, and a quick elevator speech on practice areas.  Then the floor opens for discussion and questions on any topic, from an aspect of law practice to recommendations on different law products and services. 

Each month brings a diverse mix of anywhere from a dozen to forty lawyers of different genders, ages, and races.  The lunch group includes forty-year veterans to new grads and the occasional law student; corporate specialists who represent large clients to general practitioners who deal with only consumers.  Yet the conversations flow more smoothly than any other bar event I've ever attended because we all share the common goal of running a successful law practice and serving our clients' needs.  But perhaps one of the best kept secrets of this informal monthly lunch is that it's been responsible for the exchange of tens of thousands of dollars in referrals as well as the creation of longstanding business relationships and personal friendships.

In the Internet Age, it's all too easy to forget the value of personal, face-to-face interaction when it comes to building and marketing a law practice.  I'm equally culpable.  Most of my posts here at the Legal Marketing Blawg focus on 21st century concepts like search engine optimization, social networking tools, or video. 

But even these seemingly magical, modern-day tools have their limitations.  For starters, many lawyers still aren't engaging social media, which means that if you rely exclusively on those tools, you miss out on meeting older lawyers who can serve as mentors or a source of referrals.  In my own case, I've met several older lawyers through Solosez lunches who have helped me with my law practice but whom I would have never met if I'd limited my marketing efforts to social media tools.  Second, personal meetings can solidify online relationships, making them more likely to produce referrals or other financial opportunities.

There are myriad opportunities for lawyers to interact with other lawyers in person, from bar association meetings to business networking groups to pro bono activities.  All of those activities are worthwhile and should comprise at least a part of a lawyer's marketing portfolio. Yet as far as I know, none of these organization-sponsored events have consistently produced the same number of referrals and personal friendships as the Solosez lunches that I frequent and other similar, "organically-grown" networking groups with which I'm familiar.  So below are some simple but foolproof steps for creating a good old-fashioned regular get-together which provides a respite from the online world and can prove lucrative opportunities besides.

1.  Choose An Event and Location That Caters to A Broad Spectrum of Preferences

Don't try to be original in arranging an event or choosing a location.  You might think that hosting a monthly happy hour at a local punk rock or hip hop club is an original idea, but that kind of event is likely to exclude many older lawyers.  Ditto for holding a monthly lunch at a costly, five-star restaurant which may deter financially strapped new solos from attending.  Instead, focus on locales which cater to the greatest common denominator in terms of prices and menu choices. 

Location is also important.  Try to choose venues with access to parking and public transportation.  If you can't find a convenient location, encourage potential attendees to carpool.

Finally, if you're choosing an eatery with table service, be sure that the establishment will provide separate checks (if attendees are brown-bagging or purchasing food at the counter, a separate check isn't needed).  Nothing puts a damper on a companionable meal than trying to equitably settle up the check afterward.

2.  Make It A Regular Event From the Outset

Don't just organize a single lunch event because the event may take time to gain traction.  In addition, many times, potential attendees won't be able to attend the first event, so having a second event planned will help hold their interest.  You can start out with a few pre-scheduled quarterly or monthly breakfast or lunch events and refine the frequency depending upon interest.

3.  Open Up Your Contact List

Once you've decided on a location and a couple of dates, decide who you want to invite.  Do you want to reach out to all solo and small firm lawyers or your area?  Or limit the event to a certain sub-category, such as female lawyers or family lawyers?  Once you've come up with the group you want to include, invite everyone on your personal contact list who meets the criteria as well as those whom you know virtually through social media.  If you think that attendance may still fall short of what you'd like, ask your contacts to pass the invitation along to others who might be interested.

4.  Maximize Networking Opportunities

One reason why most networking functions fall short is that they do not offer any meaningful opportunities for attendees to get to know each other.  In planning your event, take care to structure to facilitate networking.  For example, when you send out invitations, remind attendees to bring business cards.  Allow time for attendees to mingle informally, but be sure to provide time for formal introductions and elevator speeches.  In that way, attendees can easily single out those whom they'd like to get to know.

5.  Relax and Have Fun

Too many networking events can feel awkward or tense, particularly if participants have spent a lot of money and feel pressured to come away with contacts to "get their money's worth."  But since folks need to eat breakfast or lunch anyway, they're less likely to feel that they've wasted their time by sharing a meal.  So encourage people to simply relax and have fun.

Marketing with Web 2.0 tools may be the current trend, but getting together for breakfast and lunch is a networking technique that never goes out of style.  More importantly, in an era where we increasingly spend more and more time online, getting together for a meal satisfies our all-too-human appetite for personal connection.

Are ethics rules keeping lawyers offline?

Perusing the summary results of the ABA 2008 Technology Survey, I noticed a tremendous disconnect between lawyers' use of the Internet as a source of information as compared to their use of online tools for marketing.  According to the survey, 79 percent of lawyers receive information through news websites, while 59 percent subscribe to email newsletters.  By contrast, substantially fewer lawyers blog (just two percent) or participate in social networks (15 percent).  In fact, barely more than half of solo and small firms -- just 52 percent -- even have a website.

On one level, the disparity between lawyers' use of the Internet as a source for news on the one hand and for marketing and online relationship-building on the other might be attributed to lawyers' lack of time.  After all, blogging or actively engaging social networking consumes more time than scanning a few newspapers online.  But increasingly, I'm convinced that fear of sanction for marketing conduct deters lawyers from truly exploiting the potential of online marketing.

In addition to the statistics that I've just discussed, several anecdotes corroborate my theory.  In a recent listserv discussion, several colleagues shared that they would not use Twitter because of concerns that their participation could inadvertently breach client confidences or expose them to a potential grievance or malpractice liability (for example, an offhand tweet reading, "The judge was really a jerk" might lead a client to complain that the lawyer should have filed a motion to recuse the judge).  And in response to my post on blogging from several weeks back, a few readers expressed the concern that they might face a grievance under their state bar rules, or possibly even criminal liability, for blogging.

The spate of well-publicized lawsuits against commercial companies involved in lawyer marketing further fuels lawyers' fears.  For example, earlier this year, a lawyer filed ethics complaints in 47 jurisdictions against Total Attorneys, arguing that the company's performance-based online marketing lead generation system was tantamount to an imperssible for-fee referral service.  Likewise, Avvo and Superlawyers, two companies that rate and list lawyers and allow lawyers to post the resulting ratings at their website were the subject of lawsuits or ethics complaints, charging that these ratings systems are misleading to consumers and thus violated proscriptions on deceptive advertising.  Though Avvo and Superlawyers eventually prevailed, their victory offers little comfort to solo and small firm lawyers contemplating online marketing who lack the resources to serve as an ethics test case.

Still, lawyers must not allow the hype surrounding these isolated cases deter them from engaging in online marketing.  By familiarizing themselves with applicable ethics rules, understanding some of the best practices outlined below, and consulting with bar regulators when uncertain, lawyers can inoculate themselves against grievances and, more importantly, exploit the enormous marketing and relationship-building potential that the Internet offers.

Best Practices

1.  Read the bar rules.

It is absolutely imperative that you personally take the time to read and familiarize yourself with your jurisdiction's ethics rules governing advertising.  All too frequently, lawyers tend to rely on rumors that certain conduct is not permitted, when in fact, the other situations involved conduct in another jurisdiction, were distinguishable on their facts -- or the rumor was just plain wrong.  A recent ABA Teleconference on Ethics in Web 2.0 Marketing emphasized the importance of reviewing ethics rules (see call summary at The Lawyerist) since each jurisdiction takes a different approach.  The ABA conveniently provides links to each state's advertising ethics rules to make it easy for lawyers, particularly those licensed in several jurisdictions, to check them.

2.  Understand the categories of conduct that may raise red flags.

You'd go crazy trying to memorize the specifics of every ethics rule.  And I certainly can't summarize the crazy-patchwork of ethics regulations for fifty different jurisdictions in one blog post.  As a first step, what's more important than the specifics is the issue spotting -- the ability to recognize those categories of conduct that may raise ethics red flags.  Once you encounter an activity that you think may raise an ethics issue, you can review your ethics rules and any related ethics opinions to determine whether the activity is permissible.

To help with the process, I've listed most of the most popular online marketing tools and the corresponding ethics issues that they may implicate:

1.  Websites.  In many jurisdictions, a law firm website is considered "advertising," just like a newspaper ad or a law firm brochure.  As such, a website may be subject to certain bar regulations that govern print ads, such as prior review or a requirement that the site contain a disclaimer or notice stating that the site constitutes advertising.  Likewise, the same types of communications prohibited in print ads or brochures such as: (1) deceptive and misleading statements (such as guaranteed results) or statements that cannot be factually substantiated (e.g., "We are the best lawyers in town!"), (2) claims of specialization may also be prohibited, or (3) use of monikers or prohibited logos (such as "The Heavy Hitter" or a  pitbull logo, which isn't allowed in Florida). 

In contrast to print ads or brochures, websites also present special ethics considerations.  Because websites are viewable anywhere in the world rather than just a specific geographic location, they can give rise to potential claims of unauthorized practice of law (UPL).  Accordingly, websites should specify the states where you are licensed to practice and can handle cases.  Also in contrast to brochures, websites open the door for readers from anywhere to contact you by email, so be sure to include a disclaimer that sending an email does not trigger an attorney-client relationship to prevent a user from claiming that you never responded to her email and caused her to miss the statute of limitations on her suit.

2.  Blogs.  If you publish an article in a journal or newspaper, you typically aren't required to include a disclaimer that your article is advertising.  That's because many bars treat articles as educational tools rather than communications intended to attract paying clients.  Under some bar rules, this same reasoning might apply to blogs which merely provide commentary or discuss case law rather than solicit business, thus exempting blogs from regulation as lawyer advertising.  Again, check your bar rules because some specifically include blogs within the definition of "advertising" or define advertising in such a way that blogs fall within the scope of the definition.

So what types of issues do blogs raise?  In addition to the considerations that apply to websites, one concern about blogs is that readers may rely your advice and then try to hold you accountable if they relied to their detriment.  Include a disclaimer on a blog that the posts address general matters and should not be relied on by readers or considered legal advice.  Lawyers who blog should also avoid discussing "live" cases to avoid running afoul of court gag orders or inadvertently disclosing a strategy to opposing counsel.  Finally, a recent law review article suggests that blogging can raise ex parte concerns, though others disagree (as do I).  

Though not necessarily an ethics issue, for the sake of transparency, lawyers who blog disclose whether they have a personal interest in one side of an issue or not (for example, if you blog about a client that your firm represents, you ought to disclose that to readers).  And if lawyers makes a recommendations about a product where they retain a financial interest (such as affiliate fees), they should be wary of proposed Federal Trade Commission rules which may crack down on undisclosed blogger endorsements.   For more best practices on blogging, see this piece by Ed Poll.

3.  URLs.  A website's URL or web address can raise ethics issues in some jurisdictions.  For example, some states that prohibit use of phrases like "State X Law Clinic" or "Jones Legal Aid" because of the potential for confusion with bonafide legal aid organizations, and likewise prohibit use of these names for a website address, e.g., statexlawclinic.com.  However, don't assume that all states apply the same rules to law firm names and and website URLs.  In New York, law firms are barred from using trade names (e.g., BlueSky Law Firm) but may use a trade name for a website or blog (so BlueSky Law Firm as a firm name is prohibited, but www.blueskylawfirm.com as a website name is not is not).  Many states also allow lawyers to use descriptive names for websites -- such as NewYorkCollectionsLawyer.com or MadisonWisconsinTrustsAttorney.com -- so long as the names are not deceptive or misleading.  

Most state ethics codes offer fairly clear guidance on trade names and website names.  Take the time to review them or you could potentially miss out on a desirable name because you mistakenly assumed that your ethics rules wouldn't allow it.      

4.  Rating  Sites.  As already mentioned, sites like Avvo and Superlawyers rate clients.  While lawyers won't be subject to an ethics complaint when a rating is performed by a third party, lawyers may be prohibited from using those ratings in ads and on websites in some jurisdictions.

5.  Testimonial Sites.  Testimonials and endorsements are ethical red flags in advertising because they can may create an expectation of success or discuss matters that cannot be factually verified (e.g., "My lawyer was the best!").  Websites like Avvo or LinkedIn allow clients and lawyers to post endorsements or testimonials and where a third party outside the lawyer's control posts the testimonial (as opposed to the lawyer himself), it's doubtful that the bar would have the jurisdiction to require a take-down. 

The real ethics question arises where lawyers want to link to testimonials posted at a third-party site or put those testimonials up at their websites.  Check whether your bar's rules permit use of testimonials in advertising, but again, read the rules carefully.  Some states ban testimonials by clients, but still allow endorsements from lawyers or colleagues.

6. Social Networking Sites.  Social networking sites like Facebook or MySpace allow users to upload photos and exchange personal information.  Though there's certainly plenty of opportunity for stupidity in this regard (such as uploading photos of yourself drunk or wearing a skimpy swimsuit), stupidity alone won't necessarily trigger an ethics complaint.  When it comes to social networking sites like Facebook, lawyers and even judges run into trouble when they attempt to use the site in a deceptive manner or engage in ex parte communications.  Earlier this month, a North Carolina judge was reprimanded for "friending" one of the lawyers in a case before him.  And in May, the Philadelphia Bar Association ruled that a lawyer could not ask a third party to "friend" a potential witness in a case in order to gain access to the witness' Facebook page.    

7.  Twitter.  At first blush, Twitter, a micro-blogging tool which allows users to exchange 140 character sound-bites (and described in more detail here) seems harmless enough.  After all, how many ethics rules can you violate in just 140 characters?

Plenty, if you're not careful.  A lawyer who tweets about a bad day in court ("Bad day. Case is a dud and we will lose.") may inadvertently convey client confidences or private deliberative work product to opposing counsel.  Similarly, if a lawyer asks a follower who tweeted about a car accident whether she needs a lawyer may run afoul of bar rules prohibiting solicitation.  Ethics rules don't prohibit lawyers from participating in Twitter, but neither does the limited scope of a tweet absolve lawyers from adhering to ethics requirements.

8.  Listservs, Chatrooms and Q&A Fora. The Internet affords lawyers many opportunities to interact with lawyers and non-lawyers in a variety of settings.  When engaging in chat rooms or responding to questions, lawyers avoid giving specific advice or they run the risk of potential UPL claims or exposure to liability where another party relies on the advice.  

Conclusion

State bars developed ethics rules to prevent the public from predatory lawyers who engage in deceptive advertising.  Unfortunately, stringent regulation of online lawyer marketing has the unintended consequence of deterring lawyers from using online tools like websites or blogs -- which can provide valuable information to consumers -- or engaging in social networking sites where clients can learn more about lawyers whom they might want to hire.  Ultimately, instead of protecting the public, strict oversight of online advertisement has left consumers with fewer options and less information about lawyers and the law.  Not only do we lawyers owe it to ourselves to engage in as much online marketing activity as is ethically permissible to build profitable practices, but we owe it to the public to disseminate as much information about our practices as possible so that consumers can make informed decisions when they hire a lawyer.

Ah, the tagline -- that memorable phrase that pithily encapsulates the tone and premise of your brand or service.  No short string of words has ever proven more  frustrating to compose, or produced such satisfying results when it hits the right note.  After all, a terrific tagline (like solo David Kaufman's We Do Business Brawls or David Fuller's Lawyer for Tough Times) simultaneously conveys what you do while letting you stand out, while a clunker (We Care Because You Pay Us To) draws groans.  Perhaps the worst, however, is the the litany of utterly non-descriptive, generic taglines ("Committed To Your Success"; "A National Law Firm Creating Solutions") that run common to law firms and don't generate an iota of memorability.

Importance of a Tagline 

Creating the right tagline for your practice is a challenge for several reasons.  First, a good tagline begins with self-knowledge -- what makes your law firm unique and how that uniqueness benefits your clients.  So tagging your firm as "Compassionate, caring attorneys" addresses only one, the "uniqueness" part of the equation (and to be honest, compassion and caring isn't all that unique), but doesn't share how these characteristics will benefit clients.  An improvement on this tagline could be "Compassionate, caring attorneys who fix your credit problems, not criticize you for them."  It's not a great improvement, but the new tagline has some alliteration and more importantly, tells clients who may be ashamed about their financial situation -- that you'll help, not judge them.

The other tough part of a creating a tagline is making it sing -- finding the right rhythm and clever phrasing -- so that it sticks in people's minds.  This task is particularly difficult for lawyers accustomed to writing briefs and memos in thudding prose that lacks the light, bright precision that makes for a great tagline. 

Below are some ideas, from posts around the blogosphere, on ways to create your own unique tag line.

1. Take the tag line seriously.  Set aside some real thinking time to develop a tagline rather than just attempting to toss one out in an offhanded matter. You don't have to devote weeks or months to creating a tagline, but you should allow yourself six to eight hours over the course of a week to come up with some ideas.

2. Don't get caught in perfection-paralysis.  Some lawyers get too bogged down in creating a tagline, trying to anticipate all of the directions that their practice will take so that they can achieve nirvana with a tagline, when nifty would serve just as well.  The point is that taglines aren't set in stone; if your practice takes you down another path -- as it invariably will -- just change your tagline. 

Even major corporations' taglines evolve over time.  Growing up, I associated McDonald's with the tagline, "You deserve a break today," but now I'm accustomed to hearing my daughters' chanting, "I'm loving it" from the backseat as we go through drive-through.  In fact, according to Wikipedia, McDonald's has changed its slogan 23 times over the past 45 years.

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