Join us for a young people’s slumber party and movie screening under the stars!

Saturday, June 26th at 8:30 pm

Bring Your Blanket or Lawn Chair and Join Us for

Madagascar

Marcus Garvey Park Lawn

Located on Madison Avenue side of Park between
122nd & 124th St.

Free Admission and Limited Refreshments.

Raindate:  Wednesday, June 30th

Storyline:  At New York’s Central Park Zoo, a lion, a zebra, a giraffe, and a hippo are best friends and stars of the show.
Runtime:  86 Minutes

This event is co-sponsored by   Karasma Media, The Mt. Morris Park Community Improvement Association, Dark Green Joe, Maysles Cinema and Target

Kara works with legal marketers to create a more clearly defined focus and distinctive business strategy that will provide them with a competitive advantage for new business, higher reputation recognition, and enhance their ability to attract, win, and retain the clients they really want.

You can reach her at 917-856-5410

Technorati Tags: Alain L. Locke, Kara Smith, Karasma Media, Legal Marketing Tips, Legal Marketing Trends, P.S. 208

I am excited and enthusiastic about a conversation happening among barristers practicing international law.

European Parliment; Strasbourg, France

On the Martindale-Hubbell Connected German Law Group Blog, a London based journalist who specializes on the European legal market commented,

“There is no privilege for in-house lawyers in Europe.   As it stands now, any lawyer who wants to benefit from legal privilege has to be completely independent of the client they are taking instructions from…

Attorneys need to… re-focus their efforts on trying to persuade their local bar associations to allow them to join their organizations on equal term with private practice lawyers. Only once a significant minority of European countries treat in-house lawyers as just as “independent” as their private practice colleagues is the ECJ ever likely to change its opinion on corporate counsel privilege.

A scenaro which makes this situation worse, is often in-house counsel based in the United States is granted privilege by a European judge due to their US origin, in accordance with the standard practice here.

See the Poll on Martindale Hubbell Connected’s German Law Group Forum asking:
Should (German) in-house lawyers be allowed to be members of their bar?

It occurred to me that this situation is exemplary of the kinds of imbalances within the international legal community that attorneys using social media platforms designed specifically for them, will have the ability to bring to light and alleviate.  Martindale Hubbell Connected’s closed community on  is ideal for this, due to the scrutiny, reputation, and expertise of the firm; while other newer platforms may not be as oriented in the needs the international legal service provider.

Many law firms and individual practitioners alike work to resolve their areas of concern and skepticism about social media, from a strictly theoretical perspective.   However, those who are actively embracing the nuances online social media interaction are going to be far out in front in there ROI as a result of using it masterfully over time.  Legal organizations working globally are going to more subject to this than any other practitioners.

Log -in here to read and contribute to this discussion on Martindale Hubbell Connected
Joining Martindale Hubbell Connected is free of charge, the only requirement is that you are a legal professional.

Other articles you may be interested in:

Generate an International Legal Marketing Conversation Using Social Media

How to Use Twitter To Build Your International Conversation

Small and Medium-sized Firms Can Generate Business From Blogging

Listening, monetization, and ethics are key for successful social media campaigns and your legal marketing reputation

Alain L. Locke Elementary School P.S. 208 Celebrates World Dance

Kara works with legal marketers to create a more clearly defined focus and distinctive business strategy that will provide them with a competitive advantage for new business, higher reputation recognition, and enhance their ability to attract, win, and retain the clients they really want.

You can reach her at 917-856-5410

Technorati Tags: Europe, European journalist, Germany, International, Kara Smith, Karasma Media, Legal Marketing Tactics, Legal Marketing Tips, Legal Marketing Tools, Legal Marketing Trends, Martindale Hubbell, Social Media Legal News

Once again, @Lisa Solomon has proven herself to be an invaluable information resource…

This afternoon she sent out an note regarding Lance Goddard of 22Tweets moderation of a Twitter debate hosted by ABA Journal about virtual law offices.

It was featuring VLO (Virtual Law Office) expert Stephanie Kimbro and Legal Rebel Richard Granat (in favor) and outspoken Florida Lawyer Brian Tannebaum in opposition; with of course a litany of comments provided by all those tuning in.

You can see and add to the Tweetstream here:

In the event you’re not on Twitter, and you should be… You can view the debate at http://tinyurl.com/2csdtm6. (The Tweets are in reverse chronological order, keep clicking “older” to get to the beginning.)

Other articles you may be interested in:

A Very Simple Twitter Formula for Generating Legal Marketing Business

In Fortune 500 Companies Twitter Moves Ahead of Blogs – Are you Tweeting Legal?

In Social Media for the Legal Marketing Industry – Digital Branding Creates Clients

3 Reasons For Legal Marketers to Start Thinking Like Journalists

Legal Marketing Ethics in a Web 3.0 World

Kara works with legal marketers to create a more clearly defined focus and distinctive business strategy that will provide them with a competitive advantage for new business, higher reputation recognition, and enhance their ability to attract, win, and retain the clients they really want.

You can reach her at 917-856-5410

Technorati Tags: Brian Tannenbaum, Kara Smith, Karasma Media, Lance Goddard, Legal Marketing Tactics, Legal Marketing Tips, Legal Marketing Tools, Legal Marketing Trends, Lisa Solomon, Richard Granat, Social Media Legal News

As a volunteer with PENCIL, I provide pro-bono public relations services to the Alain L. Locke Elementary School – PS 208  in Harlem.  Principal Susan Green and her staff are some of the most dedicated, diligent people I’ve ever had the privilege of working with.

This year, fifth-grade teacher, Monica Burns, has done an exemplary job of keeping the school’s blog updated, providing the teachers, parents and community with important and exciting information about Alain L. Locke Elementary.

They’ve received coverage in the New York Times , and featured in a segment of NY1’s New Yorker of the Week, Andrea Wenner founder of the non-profit Out 2 Play.

MS. Burnes ensures a  post goes up every day. sometimes twice in a day and weekends.

Kudos to Ms. Burns!!

Brazilian reporter Antonio Gois,  working on a special article about New York City’s reforms in public education, made a stop at PS 208.   An education correspondent for Brazil’s largest newspaper, Folha de S. Paulo, Mr. Gois interviewed administrators, teachers, parents and students to learn about Alain L. Locke Elementary.

PS 208 Featured in Brazilian Newspaper – Alain L. Locke Elementary School – P.S. 208.

Other articles you may be interested in:

The Joy of Watching Pro Bono Seeds Grow

Kara Smith of Karasma Media on Fox 5 NY – As PENCIL’s Principal for A Day” at Alain L. Locke Elementary School-P.S. 208

Karasma Media & Alain L. Locke – P.S. 208 Receive PENCIL’S 2008-2009 Emerging Partnership Award

Kara works with legal marketers to create a more clearly defined focus and distinctive business strategy that will provide them with a competitive advantage for new business, higher reputation recognition, and enhance their ability to attract, win, and retain the clients they really want.

You can reach her at 917-856-5410

Technorati Tags: Alain L. Locke, Andrea Wenner, Kara Smith, Karasma Media, Legal Marketing News, Legal Marketing Trends, Monica Burns, NY 1, Public Relations, Social Media, susan green

Seth Godin, is pretty pessimistic about the future of higher education in the United States.  On of the key factors he holds responsible for it’s demise is Accredation:

Accreditation isn’t the solution, it’s the problem.  A lot of these ills are the result of uniform accreditation programs that have pushed high-cost, low-reward policies on institutions and rewarded schools that churn out young wanna-be professors instead of experiences that turn out leaders and problem-solvers…

…The solutions are obvious… there are tons of ways to get a cheap, liberal education, one that exposes you to the world, permits you to have significant interactions with people who matter and to learn to make a difference.

Seth’s Blog: The coming melt-down in higher education as seen by a marketer

Fortunately, The City College of New York is one of those schools staffed with many college professors who are committed to putting a shift in this vicious cycle.  One of the ways they do that is with guest lectures and I’m extremely happy to say that I’ll be speaking there this evening.

I will be a guest lecturer in the Black Studies Program – Entrepreneur class at  City College of New York, CUNY. Using the business model the class is currently working with for the semester, I’ll be reviewing:  How social media works, the platforms available, expense involved, and how to generate new business by using these tools effectively.

Dr. Charles Townsend, the professor, also requested that I include a section on ethics and emphasize the importance of ethical business practices to his students, which I’m only too happy to do.

The American Bar Association has also taken on an active roll in shifting the path of American education.  They’ve started the development of the  American Bar Academy, with a faculty consisting of the organizations 400,000 bar members.  Conceptually, they’re going to go into every high school  and provide a curriculum that teaches Civics.  They’ll be working with 11th graders (50% women & minorities),  in turn they’ll be taking that knowledge back to classrooms.

Other articles you may be interested in:

Ethics Checklists for Legal Marketers

Legal Marketing Ethics in A Web 3.0 World

7 Deadly Business Mistakes Legal Marketers Can Avoid

Listening, monetization, and ethics are key for successful social media campaigns and your legal marketing reputation

Kara works with legal marketers to create a more clearly defined focus and distinctive business strategy that will provide them with a competitive advantage for new business, higher reputation recognition, and enhance their ability to attract, win, and retain the clients they really want.

You can reach her at 917-856-5410

Technorati Tags: ABA, Charles Townsend, Kara Smith, Karasma Media, Legal Marketing Tactics, Legal Marketing Trends, NY City College

As of January 2010, more than 75 million people visited Twitter, with over 23 million  from the US. According to Twitter, over 50 million tweets are sent daily.

Twitter is being talked about everywhere. People are drawn to it because of the buzz of its popularity but the majority of people don’t understand its potential. That includes most ad agencies.

My primary objective for using Twitter has been to increase traffic to my blog. Twitter is now the leading traffic generator for THE KARASMA MEDIA LEGAL MARKETING BLOG.

There are hundreds of tools that have been developed to enhance Twitter’s usefulness for marketing. The tool that is most helpful to me and the one I use most often for legal marketing new business is called Social Oomph.

These are some of the Social Oomph features that I like and use:

• Manage multiple accounts from one dashboard (your agency’s as well as clients Twitter accounts)
• Manage an unlimited number of blogs
• Upload your agency’s blog posts and URLs from an Excel spread sheet, in bulk to Social Oomph
• Pre-set the date/time range for each post in minutes
• Automatically shorten post URLs through Bit.ly and track clicks
• Automate – follow those who follow you in Twitter
• Automate – unfollow those who don’t follow you in Twitter
• Purge and filter your Twitter account’s DM box
• Small monthly fee that is month-to-month, that you can cancel at any time (it more than pays for itself for the time that it saves)
• Junior level people/interns can be easily trained to use this tool on behalf of the agency and clients
• You can also schedule your agency blog posts to Facebook, just keep the repurpose level to only a few per day or it gets annoying…

For Twitter to have real value from a new business perspective for legal marketers, you must have a clear objective and follow a simple formula for use.

In Fortune 500 CompaniesTwitter Moves Ahead of Blogs – Are you Tweeting Legal?

In Social Media for the Legal Marketing Industry – Digital Branding Creates Clients

Here’s the Scoop: Facebook for Lawyers Is In the News

Chris Brogan on Legal Marketing: An Interview With Karasma Media

Kara works with legal marketers to create a more clearly defined focus and distinctive business strategy that will provide them with a competitive advantage for new business, higher reputation recognition, and enhance their ability to attract, win, and retain the clients they really want.

You can reach her at 917-856-5410

Technorati Tags: Kara Smith, Karasma Media, Legal Marketing Tips, Legal Marketing Tools, Social Media, Twitter

In early March 2010 several large corporations declared their commitment to work with the minority and women owned (MWBE) law firms in 2010 and have created the Inclusion Initiative to challenge other companies to follow their lead.

They will be working closely with the National Association of Minority and Women Owned Law Firms (NAMWOLF) to identify best practices for corporations to maximize relationships with high quality minority and women owned law firms.

Thomas Sager, Senior Vice President and General Counsel of Dupont, this initiative will help to improve chances “that the economic downturn does not disproportionately affect minority and women owned law firms.”  Sager also pointed out that many minority law firms are smaller and more cost effective.  Sager views this initiative as a way for corporate law firms to cut costs at a time when many law departments are trying to trim budgets.

The Inclusion Initiative companies will work closely with the National Association of Minority and Women Owned Law Firms (NAMWOLF) to identify best practices for major corporations to maximize relationships with high quality minority and women owned law firms throughout the United States.

“The companies of the Inclusion Initiative and their general counsels are proven leaders on the issue of diversity in the legal profession,” said Richard Amador, Inclusion Initiative task force chair for NAMWOLF. “Their collaboration will provide a successful model demonstrating that law department leadership, tracking and support for utilizing highly-qualified MWBE firms can reap significant benefits for both the companies and the MWBE firms.”

Contact NAMWOLF for more details

Mastering the tools of social media, aka online brand building is the most viable and cost effective ways to attract the attention of large corporate counsel to your firm’s abilities and want to bring you on to work with their clients.

Social media  is not only about sharing your knowledge, but also sharing the knowledge of others and helping your audience grow in their knowledge.  The center of your social media informational platform is your blog, so if your firm isn’t using one and generating traffic, getting one sooner rather than late is key, so you don’t get caught in “catch-up” mode.

Karasma Media offers a Jumpstart Your Social Media Workshop designed for legal marketers to develop new business and come up with answers to key questions that will accelerate your productivity.  Click here for details

Other articles you may be interested in:

Women and Minority Law Firms Looking to Grow – Mastering Social Media Highlights Your Reputation

There Has Never a Better Time for Legal Marketing Brands to Engage in Social Media

The Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act Empowers Cultural Diversity and Multi-Faceted Thinking For the Legal Industry

What If I Were Just Getting Started With Social Media Marketing

Lawyers Get Clients Using Linked In and Social Media

Kara works with legal marketers to create a more clearly defined focus and distinctive business strategy that will provide them with a competitive advantage for new business, higher reputation recognition, and enhance their ability to attract, win, and retain the clients they really want.

You can reach her at 917-856-5410

Technorati Tags: Dupont, Inclusion Initiative, Kara Smith, Karasma Media, Legal Marketing Tactics, Legal Marketing Tips, Legal Marketing Tools, NAMWOLF, Public Relations, Social Media, Thomas Sager

Many legal marketers have been hesitant to embrace social media such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter because they believe that these new media channels are strictly about creating awareness for their law firm’s brand.

Some are also under the impression that their website is strictly on “online brochure” so that prospects can learn more about them in a non-threatening way.  Razorfish reported in their 2009 Digital Brand Experience Study, that nothing could be further from the truth. (See the slide presentation at the end of this article)

Survey after survey has shown how consumers interact with brands online and found that not only can you build a brand online, the online experience that a consumer has can be the difference between success and failure in driving new clients to your practice.

It is no longer enough to simply re-configure the same message as you did with traditional media.

In today’s digital world, the experience is the message.

Razorfish found that 65% of consumers reported having a digital experience that strongly influenced their opinion of a brand and that 97% of those indicated that their experience determined whether they bought a product or service from that brand.

Consumers are demanding more interaction and want to be talked with rather than talked at.

Further, potential clients for your law firm not only convert from visitors to prospects after interacting with your website, but give serious consideration to engaging your firm and may recommend your firm to their friends.

The research in this study definitively indicates that consumers expect the same level of quality from all of their web experiences as they do on those sites where the ability to complete a transaction is everything. If your website does not provide an informative and satisfying experience and you don’t engage your prospects through social media, then they will find a law firm that does.

Every web interaction has the power to influence a potential client’s decision to contact and/or hire your firm.

The Razorfish Digital Brand Experience Report 2009

Referenced:  Social Media for Attorneys-Digital Branding Creates Clients

Other articles you may be interested in:

Here’s the Scoop: Facebook for Lawyers Is In the News

Your Personal Brand vs Your Corporate Brand – Added Clarity for Legal Marketers

Ease, Steadiness and Awareness Work for Legal Marketing Social Media

Kara works with legal marketers to create a more clearly defined focus and distinctive business strategy that will provide them with a competitive advantage for new business, higher reputation recognition, and enhance their ability to attract, win, and retain the clients they really want.

You can reach her at 917-856-5410

Technorati Tags: Branding, Kara Smith, Karasma Media, Legal Marketing Tips, Legal Marketing Trends, Razorfish

Faced with one of the most serious strategic marketing challenges of the 20th Century, Kodak’s, CMO, Jeffrey Hayzlett adds excitement, exhilaration and enthusiasm to taking the driver’s seat of paradigm shift.

Hey, sometimes we’ve gotta laugh at ourselves in order to pull of change!

Other related articles you may be interested in:

Small to Mid-size Legal Marketing Firms – Your Online Video Is Allowed to Express Your Individuality

Legal Marketers Can Step Out Of the Box With Video

Lawyers Preparing to Launch Your Own Boutique – Here’s a video you’ll want to see

Kara works with legal marketers to create a more clearly defined focus and distinctive business strategy that will provide them with a competitive advantage for new business, higher reputation recognition, and enhance their ability to attract, win, and retain the clients they really want.

You can reach her at 917-856-5410

Technorati Tags: Jeffrey Hayzlett, Kara Smith, Kodak, Legal Marketing Tactics, Legal Marketing Trends

I’m prefacing a reference to a terrific article published on lawyerist.com on ethics, with a sneak-peak of  what’s to come for legal marketing.

Almost everyone reading this knows what Web 2.0 is, Web 3.0 is terminology you may not be so familiar with.

Web 2.0 is about social networking and mass collaboration with the blurring of lines between content creator and user whereas Web 3.0 is based on “intelligent” web applications using:
*    Natural language processing
*    Machine-based learning and reasoning
*    Intelligent applications

Read more at Suite101: What is Web 3.0?: The Next Generation Web: Search Context for Online Information

As the legal marketing industry is struggling to get up to speed with blogging, Facebook, and LinkedIn, technology isn’t slowing down in order for the sector to get caught up.  Ethical standards for legal marketers have never been more important nor more scrutinized than they are in today’s environment of the quest for new clients.

Legal marketing in a Web 2.0 world is complicated for bar associations for many reasons, but one of the most significant is that legal marketing on the web, even when it’s done in a traditional format, is completely different from the legal advertising that bar associations are used to regulating.

Google’s point-and-click ads for law firms come the closest to traditional advertising, but unlike radio and TV ads, they can be tailored and tweaked easily and frequently. Some bar associations require attorneys to submit all their advertisements for review–but how can one do this with an online ad that has 30 permutations?

Non-traditional legal advertising like that found on blogs, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter is even more complicated.

Read the article in full on The  Lawyerist.com

Ethical online marketing for legal professionals is not an “in-your-face” or obnoxious sales pitch.   It is a gentle conversation that entails one-to-one communication.  Which is  why I’ve been saying “Social Media is Public Relations for Legal Marketers, for the past 2-years.

Keeping on track with legislation governing online marketing rules and learning how to stay in tune with your audience and attract your ideal clients is not something legal marketers have to struggle with.

Kara works with legal marketers to create a more clearly defined focus and distinctive business strategy that will provide them with a competitive advantage for new business, higher reputation recognition, and enhance their ability to attract, win, and retain the clients they really want.

You can reach her at 917-856-5410

Other articles you may be interested in:

Your Personal Brand vs Your Corporate Brand – Added Clarity for Legal Marketers

Listening, monetization, and ethics are key for successful social media campaigns and your legal marketing reputation

Legal Marketers – Now is NOT the time to give up on Twitter

Lawyers, Forget About “Quitting Facebook” – Expanding Your Comfort Zone to Communicate is Key

Technorati Tags: Ethics, Kara Smith, Legal Marketing Tips, Legal Marketing Trends, The Lawyerist