online thought leadership for lawyers - blogs, social media, and twitter

Online Thought Leadership & Reputation

Management

LeadershipSBOTHyatt Lost Pines - Bastrop

October

172008

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Building Blogs for Lawyers

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What we’ll cover

• Why become a thought leader?• Ability to become a thought leader online• Online tools for becoming a thought leader• Small town lawyer who became national

thought leader solely via online tools

Why?

• Professionally rewarding• Personally rewarding• Opportunity to serve others• Right thing to do

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Professionally rewarding• Become “lawyers’ lawyer”• Learn from other leaders

– Professionally– Personally

• Better skills• More confidence

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Personally rewarding

• Feels good• Spouse/partner happier• Role model for children• Financially rewarding

– You & spouse/partner– Children & grandchildren– Society

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Helps others

• Bar• Lawyers• Civic & business groups• Society• Image of our profession

Ability to do it

• Easier than ever• Build muscles by acting outside

your comfort zone• Opportunity lies online• Online for all ages

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The how: online tools

• Blogging• Social media• LinkedIn• Twitter

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What’s a professional law blog?

• Web site• Covers niche area of law or locale• Published by one lawyer or practice group• Directed to regular readers within target audience of

blog publisher• As easy to update as writing an email - no coding

experience needed• Distributes content via RSS and email• Unique domain name & url address• Found via search engines or known domain

What it’s not?

• Journal• Posts archived by calendar• Blend of personal information,

random thoughts and political views with legal information & insight

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Blog advantages

• New blog launched quickly• Easy to use - learning curve is low• Inexpensive• Comprehensive publishing, content

syndication (RSS) and interactive communication tool

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Relationship to yourfirm’s Web site

• Complementary to site• How you network and enter

conversation with thought leaders

• Draw traffic to site & lawyer bios

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Advantages to you

• Enhances your reputation as trusted and reliable authorities

• Establish brand based on expertise• Educational & tasteful• Syndication of content via RSS• Far superior search results to Web

sites• Cost savings vs other networking

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Why superior search results?

• Relevant content• Regular content updates• Incoming links

“Blog = better listing on Google”

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• Two-thirds of people do online research before selecting a service or product

• Nearly 70% of business executives and in house counsel go online to research lawyers during the hiring process

Importance of search engines

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Advantages over current Internet networking• Web site articles

– Poorly indexed & optimized for search engines

• Pdf’s especially– Frequency of content?– Difficult search – No table of contents/navigation with each

article– Users do not return to site

• Email newsletters– Corporate firewalls may block– Spam filters may block– Far less viral marketing effect

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• 3,000 plus law blogs• 4 new law blogs per day• > 30% of large law firms• 49% growth in large law firm blogs from

November to March

Lawyers’ adoption of blogs

BBC News 5/21/04

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• 75% of reporters to locate experts & get insight on stories

• Senior executives• 20% plus read business blogs• 96% familiar with blogs• 30% have familiarity with blogs

• Busiest people read blogs

Who is reading blogs?

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• Oxygen of Internet today• Streams content to target

audience• Syndicates content• Content reaches amplifiers

– Bloggers– Media - trade & general mass media

• Email as well

RSS feeds

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Newsreader Collects RSS feedsNewsreader Collects RSS feeds

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Blogs are a Rotary meeting

• Find the discussion• Listen to the discussion• Engage in the discussion• Empower your audience

Early blog design (preconceived notion of blogs)

Professional marketing blogs -- The LexBlog Way

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http://privacylaw.proskauer.com/

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CT Employment Law Blog Dan Schwartz

• 5000 visits in first 6 weeks• Few calls a week, new client• Nearly 100 incoming links from third

party websites and blogs• Regularly cited by leading law &

employment bloggers (3 of the most read)

• CT law periodical coverage

• Current content - extend it’s reach• Online news• Legal cases• Info from trade magazines &

newsletters• Info from CLE’s• RSS feeds = “The Discussion”

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Where’s content coming from?

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Time commitment?• Brief posts

– 2 to 3 paragraphs, 2 to 3 sentences each

– Expectation is less than that of articles

• Harvard Business School - 1x/week *

• Less than articles, newsletters & alerts

* Harvard Management Communication Letter, Vol. 2, No. 4, November 2005

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Blogging in current economy

• Forget the economy• Time to grab market share & be bold• Let others run scared• Be deliberate• Invest in your network and reputation• Have long-term eyes & vision to

succeed

Backend of Blog Platform

LinkedIn

• Professional networking tool• “Facebook for business people”

• 216,000 private practice profiles• Law firm profiles with

demographics• 20 million users• 150 industries• 3.2 million visitors/month

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Twitter

• “Microblogging”• Updates are called “Tweets”

• 140 characters• Links are shortened

• Who?• Lawyers• Reporters• Fire departments• New York Times• Fortune 200

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Small talk leads to big things

• What talk?– Personal– Professional– Social media - ‘pass it along’

• Twitter amplifies• News of China’s earthquake broke on

Twitter

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Search.twitter.com – Twitter Search

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TweetDeck– Desktop Twitter application

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Results of blogging, networking & social media

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• Governed by cannons of ethics• Cannot give specific advise• Cannot breach client confidences• Do not create attorney client relationship• No false or misleading

communication • Use disclaimer

Ethics

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Who is LexBlog, Inc.?

• Leading provider of professional marketing blogs to law firms

• 500 blogs, almost 1,500 lawyer authors• 75% of AmLaw 200 firm blogs use LexBlog• 96% client retention over 5 years• Led by former practicing lawyers• Team of IT, design, web development, client

service, and marketing professionals• Founded by Kevin O’Keefe

– Practicing lawyer of 17 years– Successfully marketed own law firm on Internet– Founder of Internet consumer & small business

legal resource, now sold to LexisNexis– Former VP of Martindale-Hubbell

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Thanks & for more info or questions:Kevin O’Keefe

CEO, LexBlog, Inc.411 First Avenue, Suite 304Seattle, WA 98104

Direct: 206 340 8204Cell: 206 321 2627

mailto:[email protected]

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www.lexBlog.com