My assistant, Lori, sent me a very funny link to a law firm’s commercial on YouTube. (You’ve got to love when you find people to work with whose personalities and quirky sense of humor is in-synch with your own! )

One aspect of marketing I work with my lawyers on when developing their brands, is to step outside the mold of traditional legal marketing and be truly representational of their personalities.

NY based Trolman, Glaser & Lichtman took a chance with their agency, The Levinson Tractenberg Group , and created a big viral win.

This spot’s been viewed more than 96,000 times!

Other articles you may be interested in:

Draconian Ideology Is No Fix For Legal Marketers

7 Sites That Will Keep Legal Marketers On Their Toes With Social Media Marketing Rules

Legal Marketers, For Social Media PR to be Truly Effective It’s Important To Remember That Good Things Take Time

For Small and Midsize Law Firms: The Launch of Your On-Line Platform Is News and Information For Your Current And Prospective Clients

Social Media PR For Lawyers is More About “Staying Conscious” Than “Being Cautious”

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

Legal marketers, don’t stop tweeting just yet.  If you haven’t gotten yourself up to speed with social media, specifically with Twitter, there’s no time better than right now.

Total Attorneys‘ @Kevin Churn posted a note to me on Twitter about an episode of  their terrific show on BlogTalk Radio he knew I’d be interested in.   Kevin, John Remsen and Larry Bodine discussed:

Shoestring PR for Lawyers

In the conversation, Larry states that “Twitter is really a waste of time”,  because very few lawyers are actually using it.  It’s extremely important to remember that social media and the population of  legal professionals is an ever growing platform.

I have a question, since when is a legal firm’s bottom line primarily dependent upon other lawyers?  Aren’t there some “consumer folk/audience” involved here?

If you recall, only a short time ago, it was thought that Facebook was purely for personal use.  The number of law firms with professional pages on Facebook has skyrocketed in the last 6-months.

Insidefacebook.com reported:

More than 10% of law firms in the country are on Facebook and more than 40% of attorneys, according to a survey conducted by the American Bar Association earlier this year. 12% of respondents reported working at firms with an online presence in a social network such as Facebook, up 4% from the 2008 survey, marking a three-fold increase, and 43% of reported maintaining a personal account.

The impact that Facebook is having on the legal world is surely worth noting.

It is evident the impact social media is having on legal marketing and what’s coming for us regarding Twitter.

Twitter’s traffic has grown tremendously in the past year, but how many people are actively using the service versus casually passing by? According to the latest research from eMarketer, that number will be at around 18 million by the end of 2009.

The fact is, Twitter was not designed to work well on it’s own.  In fact, it’s pretty frustrating as a stand-alone. Partnering it with support applications like TwitterLater, TweetDeck and SocialToo coupled with a little patience and persistence, your social media efforts will surely payoff.

Social Media expansion takes time.  Are you willing to take a chance of not starting to build now?

I need to point out that I don’t believe mid-size legal firms can master social media use and public relations efforts on their own.  You’re lawyers! Professionals like myself have spent years cultivating relationships and communications skills that we use to garner the results we do.  Additionally, working with social media platforms as PR tools is exceedingly cost effective when you attain guidance on using them effectively.

Those legal marketers “stuck on no” are risking having your organization being left behind as online presence becomes increasingly more important.

Other articles you may be interested in:

Twitter’s just getting started for Legal Marketers

Does Social Media end cold calling as a new business tactic for legal marketers?

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

Karasma Media Legal Marketing Blog’s Top 10 Posts of 2009

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

Legal marketers, what you don’t know is hurting you…

Florida: A mistrial was declared recently after a federal judge learned eight jurors had researched the drug case on the internet.

England: A juror was dismissed from a sexual assault case after asking how she should vote on her Facebook page.

Dallas: A state District Judge recently terminated someone from a pretrial drug diversion program after a probation officer discovered Internet postings showing that the man clearly planed to get drunk on his graduation day.

There has never been a time where the legal field’s ability to interact with the world technologically has been more important.  Garnering your legal organization’s sensitivity toward online communication, whether as  professional spokespeople, within their personal conversations, or emphasizing your client’s awareness of their behavior is imperative.

The Dallas News covered a story detailing these disturbing incidents that are unfortunately occurring more and more frequently.

Unfortunately, becoming social media savvy is not something you can do with a book or seminar, it takes frequent, ongoing interaction, research and monitoring.

There is no more expedient or cost effective way  for your organization to master the social media tools necessary to attract your desired audience and monitor  your online conversation, than with a skilled professional who customizes a program to your specific needs.

I work with small to mid-size legal marketing organizations  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. 

Call me at 917-856-5410 for a free initial consultation.

Other articles you may be interested in:

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

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

Social Media is Public Relations for Legal Marketing

Change is happening faster than EVER…

Five years ago, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook,  JD Supra and the iPhone didn’t exist. Today Facebook has 350 million members; Twitter -  30 million; and Hulu having surpassed Time Warner Cable, is the second largest “channel” in America.

We all know technology has profoundly impacted consumer behavior.  Smartphones brand loyalty is a prime example. Smartphones empower us to comparison shop on the basis of price at the point of sale.  Not to mention a shopping experience at any Apple Store is just a “Tech & Customer Care Heaven”…

As legal marketers, we are already witnessing how technology can  alter how potential clients  purchase our services and  give  third-party influencers are having effect.  Paid media’s “management” of our target audience’s purchasing cycle is have a transformational shift on our brands.

Ironically, while consumers and retailers are embracing these innovations, legal marketers are significantly  lagging behind the rapid technological evolution of our marketplace.

Considering that ten years ago consumers spent about 30 minutes online per day. Today, it’s four hours, according to Media Metrix, (twice as much time as they watch TV — and that time spent does not include e-mailing!)

In this decade, broadband expanded from 3% to two-thirds of American homes. Yet legal marketers barely adjusted their approach.

Change is always difficult, but legal marketers need to be  more aware of the new marketplace or run the risk of consumers disengaging themselves completely and rendering their marketing programs irrelevant.

The legal marketing narrative needs to be rebooted and the architecture of legal-brand building re-engineered.

Several important points to note:

• Legal CMOs must recognize that the speed and scope of change are so overwhelming that they need to dramatically revamp their marketing ecosystem.

• Transparency is the new black, making public relations and social media essential elements in a successful marketing strategy.

• CMOs must demand that all of their agencies, and not just the digital shop, be technologically savvy.

• “Traditional” agencies, and other disciplines play supporting roles, but if you spend 90% of your budget with traditional agencies, it makes integration all the more difficult.

In an interview I did with BlackEnterprise.com, I talked about the necessity of companies hiring people who are inclined toward technology and accept change as a given. That does not necessarily mean that those people are IT experts, but rather that they are curious, adapt easily and are inclined toward collaboration and social media.

As the landscape changes, the digital agency, the PR firm and especially the media agency should play an equal role in brand creation.
This time of change may mean that outside sources,  fluent in effective legal social media PR,  are necessary to achieve the best ROI.

Article referenced:  Why Brands Should Embrace Technological Change, Avi Dan,  Advertising Age, 1/11/2010.

Other articles you may be interested in:

Developing a Social Media Hiring Strategy: How To Use Networking Sites To Find Employee

How Social Media Impacts Advertising and Marketing for the Legal Industry

A Legal Marketing Revolution Is At Hand

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.

Harvard Business School is using social media for a variety of endeavors including publicizing faculty work, reaching out to potential students, customer service and event promotion.

Brian Kenny, CMO of Harvard Business School

Brian Kenny, the Chief Marketing Officer for (HBS) was in New York City this week to discuss his professional journey into the world of social media. As social media is changing the platform on which our society communicates and conducts commerce, Kenny says HBS is a embracing the behavioral shift brought on by social media and that the school is going to great lengths to harness viral marketing opportunities.

However, he also emphasized that with any social media program, there is some risk involved.

Read the full interview with Mr. Kenny on PR Shoptalk

David A. Couillard of the Minnesota Law Review, explores the potential applicability of the Fourth Amendment to data stored in off-site servers: spreadsheets in Google Docs, accounting data hosted on FreshBooks, and pretty much everything synced through DropBox, just to name two…

So far the courts,  mostly absent on-point statutes, almost always reason by analogy when presented with novel situations, and have not yet come to a conclusion about how to treat such data.

Drawing on analogies and  combined guidance from statutes like ECPA, the courts have pretty much settled on their treatment of email:

The to/from addresses on e-mails have also been considered transactional data, akin to an addressed envelope. However, the contents of an e-mail have been properly classified as content data. A service provider, even if it has the capability of accessing the contents of an e-mail, is not a party to the information.

However, the status of data stored in the cloud, that is, on the servers of a third-party provider, is much less clear.

Read Defogging the Cloud: Applying Fourth Amendment Principles to Evolving Privacy Expectations in Cloud Computing, for full detail.

Articles you may also be interested in:

Applying the US Fourth Amendment to data in the cloud

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.

I was watching on MSNBC last night and during  a program about the iPhone and an interview with Guy Kawasaki.  Since I was watching TV with my Mac in my lap anyway, I went over to his blog and saw his article

How To Make an iPhone App

In it, Kawasaki directs you to appmkr.com, an online platform that enables you to customize an application for your online content.

I was enthusiastic going in, then I saw,  “If you’d like to try the service, go to AppMakr.com and use coupon code “GUYK” to pay $49 instead of $199,”  that affirmed that guy is awesome! (Note: It takes 1 to 2 weeks for Apple to approve and publish…)

This offer expires on January 18, 2010.

Here’s mine!

You may know Guy as a entrepreneur, business consultant and blogging genius.  More importantly though, he was one of the Apple employees who was involved in promoting and marketing the original Mac back in 1984 — essentially one of the people who “Made Macs Kool”.

If you’re a legal marketer, the tools of social media: Apps, twitter, iPhone Google, and RSS are among those you’ll need to incorporate in 2010.  Once you have, you may want to consider working with someone who’s been working with them — effectively – for a while in order to maximize your results.

Other articles you may be interested in:

Social Media Marketing for Lawyers:  2009 Predictions

An  Interview With Guy Kawasaki, the Man Who Made Apple Cool

Legal Tech and the Future of Print

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.

What a year it has been!

The World is in the midst of some unprecedented shifts and Legal Marketers are embarking on new horizons with Social Media at the helm.  2009 has been extraordinarily enlightening for me as an entrepreneur and I’ve gained invaluable new friendships and colleagues in the process.

Thanks to the people who regularly support me by reading my content, here are
My top blogposts for the year!

1.  Lawyers Get Clients Using Linked In and Social Media

2.  Goldman Sachs Hires Law Firm to Shut Down Blogger’s Site

3.  Not Every Legal Firm Should Have A Blog

4.  Be Aware, There’s A New Scam Involving Law Firm’s Websites

5.  7 Sites That Will Keep Legal Marketers On Their Toes and Up To Speed With Social Media Marketing Rules

6.  Are You Ready To Leave the Large Firm Legal Industry Cocoon?

7.    Building Friendships With Journalists Via E-Mail

8.   Thinking About Saying Ta-Ta to Twitter?  Learning How To Use It Is Key

9.  Lawyers, How Do Potential Clients Find You?  See The Newest In Legal Directories

10.    Twitter Sparks Its First Libel Action

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.

The Chief Executive of WPP, the world’s largest advertising holding company and now 4th largest research firm, (coming in behind only Thomson-Reuters, Bloomberg and Nielson), has taken a strong interest in the cost cutting by large marketers across the globe.

AdAge covered a recent Ad-Tech conference in New York, Martin Sorrell warned  about the long term results of today’s “draconian cuts”  in marketing budgets.

Some of Mr. Sorrell’s key points:

• After 33- years in business, he  has never known clients to be focused on cost as they are now.  Very few people are increasing revenues except for the Apples and  Googles of the world, the rest are lowering costs.
  
• Other companies, like accounting and consulting firms, invest in their brands at times like these.  You will come up on top as we come out of the recession if you invest.
• Most companies say they maintain their standards, but that cant be true because markets are down 23%

Personally, here’s my list of “marketing expense enhancements” over the last 2-months:

• I hired a terrific web technician to redesign my blog and re-gained focus on my marketing efforts — with social at the core of course!
• I bought in an MBA consultant to re-work my now 3-year old, antiquated business plan
• Continue to work with a business coach
• Re-established my memberships and involvement in The Legal Marketing Association, Public Relations Society of America, and  NY Women in Communications, the organizations that support my efforts
• Re-created the importance of healthy food and exercise for myself
• Enhanced my wardrobe
• Changed my hair-do

I look forward to hearing what you and your firms are up to.

Another article you may be interested in reading:

Seizing the Opportunity of Recession Downtime with 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