Google is enacting a new algorithm that is going to penalize over-optimized content.  As a communications professional who has been actively blogging for more than 6-years now, I’ve been wondering when Google was going to put their foot down.

I, like many online content writers have spent countless hours writing content that our readers find valuable; not to mention the attentive nurturing it takes to comment, connect and cultivate the online relationships we develop,  into invaluable professional and personal friendships. Over the years, I found it unnerving to think that businesses with an abundance of money could “Out Do” me online with their multitude of unscrupulous links – many of which were not generated from  authentic content.

Google has changed the playing field and we are in the midst of a new day.  I say, “Allelujah”!

Last week, at SXSW, Matt Cutts, the head of Google’s search spam team, announced that Google developed a new tweak to its algorithm that will punish sites that are too optimized for SEO.

In a recent Hubspot article, Matt explains the changes in this way….

“trying to make the algorithm more adaptive,” or being more understanding of sites that have good content even if it isn’t search engine optimized like many marketers have learned to do. The sites that will be penalized are those that “throw too many keywords on the page, exchange way too many links, whatever they’re doing to go beyond what a normal person would expect.”

Read the article in it’s entirety on Hubspot

Kara works with legal marketers and small to mid-size businesses 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 & retain the clients they really want.

You can reach her at 917-856-5410

If you’re an attorney struggling to build your practice, then you probably believe that the best way to use your time is by practicing law. The reality is, you are not in the business of practicing law. Your business is building relationships (also known as marketing) so that you can practice law.

This is the link to a powerful E-book written by Rainmaker Institute CEO, Stephen Fairley entitled, Top 10 Marketing Mistakes Attorneys Make & How to Avoid Them.

In this book you will learn specific principles and tools you can use to grow your practice, too. The one thing you will NOT find within its pages is an ‘easy button’. Unfortunately, in the world of legal marketing there’s  simply no such thing! I can certainly attest to how much hard work, effort and money it takes to build a successful business and it will not happen overnight.

The great thing is, if you are willing to work we can help you make it happen!

As an advisor at The Rainmaker Institute, I work with solo and small firm legal practitioners to create a more clearly defined focus and distinctive business strategy. In partnership with my clients, I support them to develop a competitive advantage for new business, higher reputation recognition, and empower them to attract, win, and retain the clients they really want.

Stephen Fairley, has helped thousands of attorneys achieve their goals of creating a financially successful and personally satisfying legal practice.

Echoing Stephen’s invitation, I invite you to download and print this e-book and read it with a pen and highlighter in hand. The specific strategies you’ll find within its pages, once applied, can make the kind of dramatic difference in your practice that lasts a lifetime.

If you are serious about implementing support services specifically designed for solo and small firm attorneys, please feel free to give me a call at 888-588-5891 Ext. 402 or send me an email at kara@therainmakerinstitute.com.

Other articles you may be interested in:

Kara Smith of Karasma Media Joins the Rainmaker Institute as a Rainmaker Advisor

Legal Marketers and Mid-Size Businesses – Let Your Commitments Do the Talking

The Amsterdam News Covers AALBC.com and Karasma Media Media Marketing Workshops

You may already realize that I relocated from New York City to Phoenix, Arizona and I am very proud to announce my new position as a Rainmaker Advisor with a remarkable legal marketing company, Stephen Fairley’s Rainmaker Institute.

Over the last 3 years, I’ve talked with literally hundreds of solo practitioners and partners in small law firms who were faced with the need to manage their firms as successful business enterprise.  Unfortunately, my do-it-yourself seminars were not products in high demand from lawyers who already worked 60-80 hour work-weeks.

One, cold Saturday evening in mid-January, after returning from an annual visit with my mother in Arizona, I was writing a press release in my apartment office. That was the moment I decided it was time for a dramatic change in my life.

So, I bought myself and my cat a plane ticket, started taking pictures of my belongings for Craig’s List and posted an announcement of my impending departure.

Shortly after I published my relocation announcement, I received this Direct Message from Stephen Fairley on Twitter.

In April of 2009, I wrote this article for Stephen’s magazine, The Rainmaker Advisor, “7 Essential Tools You Need to Manage Your Law Firm’s Online Reputation & Position Yourself as an Expert”, so I was acutely aware of The Rainmaker Institute’s dedication to excellence and integrity.

I am excited to say that going forward, all of the legal marketing business I conduct will be through The Rainmaker Institute in my position as a Rainmaker Advisor.

For the last 12 years, the programs Stephen developed have helped more than 7,000 attorneys create successful and sustainable law practices, with over 22 of the largest state and local bar associations having sponsored his live law firm marketing seminars & Rainmaker Retreats to their members.

This white paper on How to Market Your Articles is specifically for lawyers. It is a sample of the exemplary free information we make available on a regular basis, so be sure to connect!

Keep me posted on your accomplishments and let me know if I can help.

Kara works with  small to mid-size business and  legal marketers to create a more clearly defined focus and distinctive business strategy.  This new design provides 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

You’re  Informed -  It’s time to engage your audience
As a professional marketing legal services, there is a need for you to distinguish your services.  Obviously, all information is not created equal, and it is more important now than ever for you to reach out to your audience as a viable information source in your area of specialty.  You need to provide a venue for them to be able to interact with you easily, and these interactions will translate into the quality clients you want to attract.

News and information sources today have never been more accessible and anyone with an internet connection can contribute to the broadcast of information.  A  new survey by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project and the Project for Excellence in Journalism makes clear, we have become a nation of news grazers whose “relationship to news is becoming portable, personalized and participatory.

But as the concept of “journalism” expands to include citizens with cellphone cameras, Twitter Facebook, and LinkedIn, the survey’s responders reflected something we all feel, with 70% of them feeling overwhelmed by the amount of news and information from different sources, and 72% think most sources of news are biased.

All of us consumers want to be connected to the people and products we can  trust.   There’s no better way for professionals marketing legal services to distinguish their credible information from misinformation and propaganda than by being in control of their online presence.  Journalists will seek you out as an expert and when you approach one of them, being able to reference articles your online articles written by firm members and associates will be invaluable.

Your Results Will Reflect Your Efforts
I published an interview I conducted with Social  Media expert Chris Brogan last week, reviewing his perspective of social media’s impact on legal marketing services.  The next day, I featured the article in my e-mail newsletter and posted it on the Karasma Media Platforms on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

It’s important to note that  fresh information is kept flowing on these platforms on a daily basis.    Since the article’s initial publication (8-days ago at the time I’m writing this):

The Alexa rating of the Karasma Media Marketing Blog has gone up more than 15%, which translates into an increase of almost 40 readers per day, three calls from prospects and two requests for in-person interviews.

Once legal marketers put their infrastructure of information into place infrastructure is in place and the information is flowing, your potential clients and legitimate journalists are going to use it.  Today, legal marketers need to think like journalists because they are  increasingly serving as informational gatekeepers, both by creating and publishing original content online and by passing on (and thereby endorsing) news and information created elsewhere.

The Federal Government’s Providing Educational Support
The Federal Communications Commission’s National Broadband Plan, which was released last month, offers an important opportunity to increase news-literacy education to millions of students. The plan, authorized in the $787 billion stimulus package last year, is a long-overdue effort to shore up our digital infrastructure by extending high-speed Internet access to the entire country.

The online infrastructure’s in place, and the government is backing it.  Now is the time to put your legal information structure into place and bring your online platform up to full speed.

USA Today article referenced:  As Journalism Changes, So Must You

Other articles you may be interested in:

Social Media as PR in Legal Marketing is Underused and Under Funded

Legal Marketers and Our Responsibility

Why technology and social media need to be integrated into your branded legal marketing strategy

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

One of the initial activities I do in the  Jump-start Your Social Media Workshop is work with a firm on how to choose the  keywords they’ll be using to connect with their potential clients.

Using social media provides you with insight into the minds of your ideal clients and customers.  Tasha Coleman of Upward Action provides some incredibly powerful information throughout her site, but particularly in this post on Keyword Usage.

Her top three points:

1. Invest time conducting keyword research (or hire an agency like UpwardAction®) to get clear about exactly what your target market is searching for online as related to your industry and practice areas.
2. Utilize this information to develop a list of about 15 power keywords.
3. Use your power keywords to create GoogleAlerts and TweepBeeps to monitor online conversations that include your top 15 keywords.

Read Tasha’s full article and watch her video on Social Media, Keywords, Success

Other articles you may be interested in:

Legal Marketing Pros – Avvo’s Growing Fast and Listening

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

Legal Marketers, Interested in 13 Ways To Drive Traffic To Your Blog?

Why technology and social media need to be integrated into your branded legal marketing strategy

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

I am proud to announce that this blog has become part of Alltop!  You can find the  Karasma Media Legal Marketing Blog at http://law.alltop.com/

What is Alltop you may ask?

Alltop is a news aggregation site that provides “all the top” stories for forty of the most popular topics on the Web.  The headlines and first paragraph of the five most recent stories from forty to eighty sources for each topic are displayed, and the stories are refreshed approximately every ten minutes.

They gather together the best suggestions from the most active social web users and compiles links into a simple, clean discovery space.

When Guy Kawasaki launched  Alltop last year, Chris Shipley, the chairman of the  Guidewire Group and executive producer of DEMO stated, “For many, Alltop will replace their RSS readers.”.

A good metaphor is that Alltop is an “online magazine rack” that displays the news from the top publications and blogs. Our goal is to satisfy the information needs of the 99% of Internet users who will never use an RSS feed reader or create a custom page. Think of it as “aggregation without the aggravation.

Guy Kawaski – Alltop Founder

One of Alltop’s most impressive attributes is that it curates and organizes.  So, I’m very proud to be listed beside some other wonderful law blogs.  Do take a few minutes to look-see.  You can create your own individual “Front-Page” stories for yourself!

Read more

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.

“Regarding the pace of change, we believe more users will likely connect to the Internet via mobile devices than desktop PCs within five years.” The Mobile Internet Report, Morgan Stanley, 12/09

There is a fundamental shift taking place in how people are accessing the internet.  Apple’s iPad is coming and legal marketers seem less prepared for Mobile than they were for broadband. As usual they are behind the curve. While they were planning to dip their toe in the water their potential clients dove in.

The number of people who use Internet-enabled mobile devices is expected to pass 1 billion by 2013. According to eMarketer, mobile advertising spending is going to increase from a mere $416 million in 2009 to $1.560 billion in 2013.

In a recent article for Online Media Daily, Erik Sass, highlights a survey published by ABC Interactive (ABCi), titled “Going Mobile: How Publishers Are Preparing for the Burgeoning Mobile Market.”

Some of the survey’s key findings:

• 80% of publishers believe people will rely more on mobile devices as a primary information source in coming years
• 70% said mobile is receiving more attention at their publication this year than last year
• 44% said visits from mobile devices boosted their Web traffic by 10% per day
• 17% of respondents said their company had already developed a Smartphone App
• 56% of responders said they plan to develop an app in the next two years
• 57.5% of newspapers and 44.7% of magazines already format their sites for mobile devices
• Over half the survey respondents believe both advertising and subscriptions will be key to the future success of mobile business models

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.

On Monday, November 9th from 8-9 pm EST  Joel Comm and Kevin Houchin, Esq. for a special FREE one-hour webinar designed to help you answer questions about the massive changes you need to make to your online business.

On December 1, 2009 the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) will implement the new guidelines on endorsements and testimonials.

That day, the world of  marketing will change.  Even 100% TRUTHFUL testimonials and endorsements could result in a Federal case against you for DECEPTIVE advertising.

Literally, wording that was considered standard practice in product and service marketing may now cost you tens of thousands of dollars in fines from the FTC.

• Are you clear about what makes the difference?
• Have you made the necessary changes to your offers?

If you aren’t sure or aren’t sure what changes to make, it’s not necessarily your fault.  Most people have no idea where to start or how to implement the new guidelines on endorsements and testimonials from the Federal Trade Commission that are effective as of December 1, 2009.

I feel staying on top of these regulations is so important to the service I provide my clients, that I became an affiliate forthe product solution that Joel and Kevin will be discussing.

The purpose of the webinar is to help you…

1. Escape the FEAR of not knowing what to do.
2. Provide steps to proactively bring your offer materials into compliance with the new rules to avoid the potentially HUGE Fines.
3. Save THOUSANDS of dollars in legal fees.
4. Remain current as the interpretations of these Guidelines change over time.

Sign up for the Webinar now By Clicking Here

To your success,
Kara

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.ed

Other articles you may be interested in:

Big Day, Big Week by Kevin Houchin, Esq.

Legal Marketers, Be Aware of the New FTC Rules regulating endorsements and testimonials, Effective December 1st

New Rules: Endorsements & Testimonials in Marketing

FTC’s Proposed Plan Would Hold Bloggers Liable for False Brand Marketing Discourse

Copyright And Libel In the Twitterverse – A Question for Copyright Legal Pros

AP’s Quest to Outlaw Search Engine Links – What Will This Mean For Legal Marketers?

New F.T.C. Rules Has Bloggers and Twitterers Mulling

Are you a lawyer who’s skeptical about the attributes and longevity of social media?

Or, perhaps you’re a legal marketer who’s just completed a rebuild of your firm’s website, feels that you know the differences between a website and a blog, and still haven’t bought into this whole “Blogging Phenomenon”.

1. Blogs are dynamic, websites are not
2. Blogs encourage conversation, websites do not
3. Blogs offer RSS, websites do not
4. Blogs publish current news, websites do not
5. Blogs create the blogosphere while websites are in a way standalone islands

Photo by Jon Lovitz

You’re writing the content of your firm’s blog. The content you create should be written with one focus – conversion. But to get there, your writing needs to focused and follow industry-standard, Search Engine Optimized copywriting techniques. It really isn’t difficult. But you know your business, and I know social media PR and blogging. So, let me help you…

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