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	15 Business Blogging Mistakes & Easy Fixes Your blog should be one of the key components of your law firm’s marketing strategy. Regularly updated content attracts new visitors, all of whom may be possible clients. But are you making mistakes with your blogging strategy? HubSpot offers a free ebook outlining the most common blogging mistakes and their easy fixes. Learn more ...
	Basics of RSS for New Bloggers It’s possible to have a loyal readership that rarely—or ever—visits your blog. How? Through RSS technology, which allows fans to follow your blog from afar, using technology like Google Reader™ (available in both Web and app form). If your blog doesn't offer an RSS feed, it should. BloggingTechnology.com offers an RSS primer for new bloggers. Learn more ...
	One Simple Way to Plan Great Posts, Step by Step You’re a lawyer, not a professional writer. But as a blogger, you still want to deliver great content to your readers. Writing coach Ali Luke outlines six simple steps to help you organize your writing. Learn more ...
	21 Tactics to Increase Blog Traffic If you want to increase your blog’s readership, you’ll have to spend time creating great content and promoting your site. SEOmoz, a site that attracts more than 1 million visits a month, shares 21 of its top tips for growing traffic to your blog. Learn more ...

Colin O'Keefe interviewed me about how lawyers use social media (pardon my laryngitis). Points we covered include:

• The point of social media is to get to know people, not to collect connections or followers, but to meet people "IRL" -- in real life.
• The one network I like is Google + -- which has 90 million users. I've had more interaction on Google + than on other social media.
• The more frequently you post, the more visits you'll get and the more files you'll open.
• Your blog should focus on the challenges that your readers face.
• Adopt the approach of Google when it comes to making decisions. Let data make the decision, in this case, your web traffic reports and analytics.

Business development trainer Stephen Fairley reported from his recent Rainmaker Retreat that he grows heartened at each successive session at how the interest in social media marketing for attorneys is growing. 

"One of the biggest stumbling blocks that busy lawyers have is learning about the individual social media networks and what each has to offer then in terms of generating leads for their practices," he says.

"The clever folks at Flowtown released a Small Business Social Media Cheat Sheet this past week, and although it doesn’t include LinkedIn (hopefully it will be updated to include it; this, to me, is a BIG exclusion), it does provide social media newbies with some great guidelines and attributes of the most prevalent social media networks:

In a recent study of more than 5,000 businesses, Hubspot found that traffic from LinkedIn generated the highest visitor-to-lead conversion rate at almost 3 times higher than both Twitter and Facebook.

So why might LinkedIn be the most efficient social channel for lead generation, and how can you use that to your advantage? Less content is generally posted to LinkedIn than to other social networks, which is probably because people almost exclusively post marketing-related content as opposed to their children's photos or social "chatter," according to Hubspot.

This means there is less clutter on LinkedIn, making a person capable of viewing more of the content that's active on LinkedIn at any given time. In other words, a business' marketing posts are more likely to be noticed on LinkedIn than somewhere else.

For more, see:

Business Development with LinkedIn and Blogs for Lawyers

5 Ways to Tell If Your LinkedIn Company Page Sucks

Top Ten Tips for Lawyers to Attract and Retain More Clients Using LinkedIn

It is appropriate that social media evangelist Adrian Dayton and marketing consultant Amy Knapp met on Twitter. This led the duo to write a terrific, practical book LinkedIn and Blogs for Lawyers: Building High Value Relationships in a Digital Age.

LinkedIn and blogs are the two most effective means of online marketing for lawyers, and the book delivers dozens of practical tips in 130 pages, plus an index.

Blogs

Dayton wrote chapters 14-23 about blogs, which feature a 39-point checklist of ways to come up with ideas for your blog. Point #1 is solid business development advice, "what challengers are your potential customers facing?" Chapter 18 outlines five simple steps to writing a blog entry.

I like the style, which opens each chapter with a personal anecdote, presents the information in list of bullets, and concludes with an assignment.

He answers how much you should spend on your blog ($300 to $400), and the pros and cons of a group versus a personal blog. Dayton explains how to tell which of your blog content is most popular and other metrics that show your blog is succeeding, including subscribers to your blog, feedback , phone calls and new clients.

There are 6,379 lawyer blogs, according to Blawgsearch, and the author of each one will benefit by reading this book.

LinkedIn

This business social network has more than 135 million members in over 200 countries and territories, and it is a Happy Hunting Ground for Lawyers. Knapp wrote chapters 1-13 and notes correctly that introductions are worth their weight in gold, and LinkedIn makes them simple. The purpose of meeting people online is, of course, is a bridge to doing business "IRL" -- in real life, face-to-face.

After a lawyer has built a network of connections, Knapp says it's time to maximize your present with the Events tool and posting updates to you are viewed as an information source for articles and commentary.

There are 870,000 groups on LinkedIn and business development is facilitated by joining several and participating in the discussions, and using the Follow feature to track a person's LinkedIn activities. LinkedIn enables lawyers to target potential clients strategically, by identifying five companies who exemplify the perfect client and looking up the people at those companies.

Knapp offers a neat tip on how to send an email to up to 50 of your contacts.

I've been writing blog entries since 2004 and enjoyed reading this logical and pragmatic book. No matter how experienced you are, you can still learn a trick or two from LinkedIn and Blogs for Lawyers: Building High Value Relationships in a Digital Age. Dayton and Knapp are a top-notch writing team and this book should sit right next to your folder of blog ideas.

According to WebMarketing123’s 2011 State of Digital Marketing Report, which surveyed 500 B2B and B2C marketing professionals, SEO makes the largest impact when it comes to generating leads. 

Hat tip to my friend Stephen Fairley who spotted this statistic.

53 percent of all survey respondents said SEO makes the largest impact on generating leads, followed by 28 percent for PPC and 19 percent for social media. Not surprisingly, 75 percent of the B2C marketers are most active on Facebook (75 percent), while B2B marketers are more active evenly across the three leading social networks – Facebook (34%), Twitter (26%) and LinkedIn (25%).

Here is an infographic outlining the findings from this survey:

In a report that contained no new surprises, Greentarget found that blogs influence the hiring of lawyers, LinkedIn is the online network of choice for lawyers, and that social media use is going mainstream in the legal profession.

For example, 76% of 334 in-house lawyers surveyed said they attribute "some level of importance" to a lawyer’s blog when deciding which firms to retain. [This isn't really saying much...]

Confirming what we know, the study reported:

• Survey respondents indicated they read blogs written by firms slightly more often than they read blogs written by journalists. In-house counsel also perceive blogs as credible (84%).
• LinkedIn leads all other social networks in professional usage and perceived credibility (88%). [We knew last June that LinkedIn Seen as Most Important Social Network and that LinkedIn is a Happy Hunting Ground for Lawyers]
• New media usage is going mainstream: the generational divide among in-house lawyers is leveling off. "This effect is driven by older counsel 'consuming more content' rather than a significant drop in consumption among younger counsel," the report says. [See 81% of Large Law Firms Use Social Media for Marketing]
• In-House Counsel Largely ‘Invisible Users’ of Social Media: This audience rarely contributes content on social channels, preferring instead to listen and consume. This approach makes their true level of engagement difficult to measure.
• Wikipedia Important, But Not to Research Law Firms: Very few in-house counsel (7%) are using Wikipedia to research outside firms, but they are using the online encyclopedia for issues-based research (51%). [Why would anybody research a law firm on Wikipedia, which is not a social network? See Wikipedia is Going Broke Again]
• Firm-to-Client Communications Going Social: Whether initiated by inside counsel or by firms themselves, the legal industry is warming up to social media as a "client services mechanism."

For more, see In-House Counsel New Media Engagement Survey

Thanks to Burkey Belser for this guest blog post:

I have some bad news for you. Your old, stale firm website isn’t cutting it. Sure, your competitors haven’t done much better, but that’s not the point.

Your firm’s website is the face it presents to the world--to potential clients and strategic partners. Research demonstrates that the vast majority of purchasers of professional services rely primarily on online resources when deciding which firms to hire. How much business do you think you are losing right now because your website is undermining your brand?

Your site is not judged by your industry. It is judged against all websites. In other words, our collective Internet experience subtly informs what we believe to be good, innovative, communicative, and helpful. If your firm site is unimaginative or uninteresting, it’s telling the world that your firm is too.

So, the question is: how can you create a website that will inspire and present the right firm image?

Today’s business purchaser isn’t just surfing the Web on a desktop in the office. There is a host of new technologies providing access to the Internet, and new tools are constantly being introduced.

Does your site display well on a smartphone? How about an iPad or Android Tablet? Launch your site on your smartphone and judge for yourself. You’ll have to be Harry Potter’s elf with bony fingers to manage the navigation unless the site has been adapted for mobile. How patient do you think prospects will be with your site if they can’t navigate it conveniently?

Even the smallest mobile platforms are lightning fast today. It takes just seconds to access the most complex pages. This means that designers can “paint” the entire page with an image and even place images within images. Or combine those images with motion for effect. And this same bandwidth also allows us to use computer-generated animation to display information in diagrams, maps, and charts.

In the past, there has been a tug of war between content and graphics. This is partly a reflection of the traditionally conservative nature of the legal field, and partly due to technological limitations that made downloading graphics painfully slow. Today, however, these limitations are a thing of the past, and savvy designers know the most successful sites are exciting. And exciting sites make use of the full canvas and all the rich interaction that image and transparency and motion can deliver.

Social Media Has Transformed Monologue To Dialogue

Social media buttons have become ubiquitous, now adorning almost every web page. Link me in. Friend me. Tell me what you like, and what you don’t (I know, this last bit requires courage). But what better way to engage your prospects and partners than to encourage them to reach out to you?

The most successful firms have embraced technology and grown with it. Don’t be afraid to be creative when you show the world who you are and what you have to offer.

Burkey Belser is the president and creative director of Greenfield/Belser. Greenfield/Belser can be found online at www.greenfieldbelser.com.

The latest edition of LexisNexis' Best Practices in Lawyer Blogs newsletter is now available. I started this newsletter to distribute the best ideas from legal bloggers across the Web. It's free, and you are welcome to subscribe at http://bit.ly/wguekl.

10 Ideas for Awesome Blog Posts

Have the January doldrums given you writer’s block? The new year actually offers some great opportunities for new blog posts. From 2011 retrospectives to predictions for 2012, there are plenty of topics to cover. Isaac Atia offers 10 more topics sure to help get your create juices flowing. Learn more ...

How to Build an Audience for Your Law Firm Marketing Blog

You can write the world’s best legal blog, but it’s of little value without any readers. Stephen Fairley offers invaluable tips on how to attract new readers and build a following for your law blog. Learn more ...

5 Reasons Your Business Should Be Blogging

Maybe you’re already blogging, but are having trouble persuading your partners to blog too. Or perhaps you’re thinking about starting a blog, but don’t think you can justify the time it will take. Marcus Sheridan offers five reasons why you--and others at your firm--should start blogging today. Learn more ...

How to Write With Your Reader in Mind: Three Crucial Points to Consider

Attorneys are often criticized for writing in legalese. Are you making the same mistake in your blog? Writing coach Ali Luke makes three suggestions to help ensure your blog content is written at a level appropriate for your readers. Learn more ...

Ultimate List of Blogging Tools for Pros

Blogging doesn’t have to be complicated … but sometimes it can sure be tough. How do you develop new ideas when you have writer’s block? How can you build an audience? Are there ways to make better use of your blogging time? Raven Tools has compiled a great list of blogging tools that covers everything from content creation to metrics, hosting and storage to productivity. Learn more ...

"Time for a healthy reality check to see if you’re doing everything you can do to drive more success from your LinkedIn Company Page efforts," writes Justin Brackett on the SocialMediaToday blog. As the VP of Marketing at @BizChangerZ, he outlines 5 mistakes and how to fix them:

1. You don’t check your page’s analytics. It’s important to utilize the Analytics tab on your LinkedIn Company Page.  All admins can access this page (it’s the fourth tab over on the top of the page).

How to Fix It:  Check your analytics! Create a baseline and record your results.  Your LinkedIn Company Page shows you Page Views, Unique Visitors and Clicks: Products and Services.  This way you can see what works and what doesn’t.  Is there a particular service that gets clicked often? Perhaps you can write the others in a similar fashion.

2. You haven’t included your services. We’ve all heard the phrase “Less is More” but not when it comes to your LinkedIn Company Page.  Not including the services your business offers on your company page is like having a website without content.  Why make it hard for people to figure out what you do?

How to Fix It: Go to your LinkedIn Company Page and click the Products tab.  Then click Admin Tools on the right hand side of the page and select Add a product or service.  This is where you get to be creative.  Select the category that best fits your product and/or service, name it, add an image, describe it, list the key features, add a URL to your website and finally, add a contact from your company.  Here’s your chance to make a great first impression.  Write your content in an interesting and engaging manner – you only get once chance at a great first impression!

3.  You aren’t posting status updates.  Yes, it can seem like a lot of work to post status updates from your personal account as well as your business page, but come on! It’s worth it in the long run, we promise.  No matter how hard you try to create a great LinkedIn Company Page, your efforts will be wasted if you don’t post status updates.

How to Fix It: This one is easy = post status updates from your LinkedIn Company Page.  Post one or two status updates each day.  The content can come from your website and/or blog, or you can post relevant news in your industry from other sources.  Share information your network will find interesting and engaging.  Don’t be spammy.  It’s very easy for connections to unfollow you and that’s what you don’t want.

4.  You haven’t created multiple variations of your page.  LinkedIn allows you the unique ability to be able to create multiple versions of your Company Page to serve custom audiences based on their profile content.  This is an awesome feature and if you’re not utilizing it, you’re missing out.  Perhaps one demographic is more interested in a particular service and you could spend some more time showcasing it on your profile.  You can create different profiles for people in different countries too.

How to Fix It:  The first thing you need to do is create your “default” version of your LinkedIn Company Page.  Afterwards, create multiple versions by clicking “New Audience”.  Write multiple descriptions and company overviews based what audience you are targeting. Include information on your company and your products and services. Tailor make it to your audience. Here comes the fun part.  You can show off your company with up to 3 banner images (640 x 220 pixels) and drive traffic by adding click-through URLs.  LinkedIn will create a rotating spotlight module to display on your page. You can add different disclaimers too.

5. You didn’t add the Company Profile plugin to your blog and/or website. Why create a page if you aren’t going to show it off? Not adding the Company Profile page to your website and/or blog is putting your hard work to waste.  I’m sure your competitors are doing it – get to work!

How to Fix It: Go directly to this page and don’t pass go or collect $200 until you add the plugin to your website and/or blog.  You can pick from a variety of styles and sizes so there’s sure to be a button that will fit your page design.  Decide if you’d like to display an inline, an icon and name or just an icon on your button.  You can also show your connections if desired.  The code is generated automatically and easy to plug in anywhere you wish!

You can also read "Does Your LinkedIn Profile Summary Stink Like a Pair of Old Gym Socks?" by marketing expert Kristina Jaramillo.