Are Hoverboards the next big mass tort lawsuit for 2016?

The now famous hoverboard, one of 2015's hottest Christmas gifts has just become even hotter...in legal circles. As linked below, a growing number of accidents ranging from personal injuries to house-fires are linked back to this new device and many attorneys are now taking note. Is this the next big mass tort of 2016?


http://money.cnn.com/2015/12/30/technology/hoverboard-lawsuits/index.html

http://kxan.com/2016/01/01/hoverboard-injuries-spike-after-christmas/

http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Hoverboard-Crashes-Send-Injured-Riders-to-Texas-Hospital-364031401.html

Other breaking new on Hoverboard injuries...

#hoverboard  #hoverboardaccidents #hoverboardlawsuit #miketyson

Attorneys Tips To Using LinkedIn - Customizing URL's & Opposing Counsel Searches #lawyermarketing #linkedin

Two of the most common questions I receive when conducting my CLE's for LinkedIn Networking For Attorneys are the following:

"How can I customize the URL (Website address) for my LinkedIn Profile?"

"How can I turn off notifications others receive when I view their LinkedIn Profiles?" 

Both of these are important questions for attorneys that use LinkedIn for the following reasons:

1. LinkedIn profiles will system generate a URL address that is not user friendly until changed. Because if this, it can be very difficult to easily publish and reference and profile address on a website, collateral, business cards, and when speaking to others. For example, a system generated profile link may look something like: www.linkedin.com/pub/dustin_ruge/12/51/a56 when it can be easily customized to www.linkedin.com/in/dustinruge. Now which one do you think will look better on a business card? 
2. When a person looks at another person's profile on LinkedIn, that person whose profile has been viewed will receive a notification in LinkedIn about who viewed them. This may be harmless enough unless you are an attorney and don't want other people like opposing counsel, juror's, etc. to see that you were reviewing their public profile information. LinkedIn provides you with the capability to turn off this view notification but in doing so, they also disable the ability for you to see which people have viewed your profile as well. So you have to ask yourself if turning off this capability can be useful for you or not? In most cases I advise attorneys to only disable this capability when doing these types of searches and revert back when not. You can easily do this by following the instructions below or simply clicking on this link.

Customizing Your URL in LinkedIn

Disabling View Notifications in LinkedIn 

Other Useful Tricks & Tips (click on each link):

- How to create a Follow Button to my Facebook Page

- How To Create a Follow Button To My LinkedIn Personal Profile

- How To Create a Follow Button To My LinkedIn Company Page

 #lawyermarketing #socialmedia  #linkedIn  #attorneymarketing  #linkedincle  #clelinkedin

What Happened To Martindale-Hubbell / Lawyers.com?

It is commonly said that a jack of all trades is a master of none. 

On August 30^th, LexisNexis (which owns the Martindale-Hubbell & Lawyers.com brands) announced a “joint venture” with Internet Brands to operate their internet marketing solutions together. Along with the announcement came Lexis’s elimination of 205 “roles”, including their CEO and head of marketing and business solutions, indicating that these roles will be carried out by Internet Brands. Naturally this creates a lot of questions for their attorney website clients who originally bought something more than directory listings with LexisNexis – especially since many/most/all? of the brand websites listed with Internet Brands are directories and blogs.  

 

So Who Is Internet Brands?

According to their website, Internet Brands was founded in 1998 as CarsDirect.com. In 2005, they decided to diversify (expand) their industry vertical niches and in 2006 changed their name to Internet Brands. The vertical brands listed by category on their website currently includes: Automotive, Careers, Health, Home, Legal, Licensing, Money, Shopping & Travel. Does expanding verticals outside of the legal space work for directories? AVVO tried it once expanding to lawyers, doctors, accountants, etc. – now they are back to just legal. So does Internet Brands want to be a master of directories or a master of a business vertical?

What Does This Mean For Attorneys?

For a number of years now, I have had numerous attorneys ask me if they should continue to pay for and/or promote their AV ratings online. My question back to them was simple: “What is the quantifiable value it is providing you and what is your Return On Investment with it?” This is a simple measurement for all marketing and brand management – not just for them. In most cases, the attorneys couldn’t answer the question thereby answering it for themselves. In essence, this simply illustrates who much brand value may be left with these brands and as has been written by others recently in the legal marketing space, does their value even exist anymore?

I am not going to pretend to know what the future holds for the Martindale-Hubbell & Lawyers.com brands but I cannot deny the trends I have witnessed recently. Attorneys have questioned the value of their AV ratings, I rarely ever see a Lawyers.com TV commercial anymore and LexisNexis has decided to give-up sole management/ownership of these two brands to a company that runs many brands in many verticals. Does this mean nobody wanted to buy them first?

Looking forward, this could be welcome news for attorneys who rely solely on web portals like Lawyers.com to generate leads but it leaves a lot more questions about the other brands and services previously provided.  More importantly, it also draws to question if this new industry-ubiquitous entity provides all of the value needed to successfully market as an attorney. Internet Brands currently lists around 238 total brands (websites) on their website – 6 of which are legal brands (2.52%). Even a jack of all trades can do the math…

#lawyermarketing 

Long Tail Search Tools - Making The Most Of Your #lawyermarketing Dollars

Everything online is a function of competition. When attorneys want to compete with other attorneys for new cases and clients online, they commonly and mistakenly feel that they need to go toe-to-toe with every other attorney based on vanity search terms like "Omaha Real Estate Attorney", Phoenix Personal Injury Lawyer", Denver Divorce Lawyer," etc.

Many attorneys want to compete with have long-established attorney websites that have actively been building up authority for a number of years. In short, starting out from behind creates an "authority gap" that needs to be closed in order to compete. The challenge with this strategy includes many hurdles including:

• Authority building must look natural to Google otherwise you can get penalized. Build up authority too rapidly and against Google rules and you put your firm and your future at risk.
• The best attorney websites will continue to extend their lead while you try to catch up with them. This is like trying to hit a rapidly moving target.
• Most attorney searches online that convert into clients and cases ARE NOT from vanity search terms. Over time people are becoming increasingly more sophisticated in how they search and simple "head term" searches like "Omaha Estate Planning Attorney" are simply not specific to most client searches any longer. People are becoming more sophisticated online and so must your search marketing techniques to match it.
• Most attorneys simply do not have the budget to compete at the levels of many of the top vanity search terms attorneys in most metropolitan areas. 

As we have discussed before, long-tail attorney searches are considered to be "money searches"and are largely created through an active content strategy. The problem with this strategy is that many attorneys either hit a writer's block, do not know how to properly structure and distribute content,  and/or simply do not know how to research long-tail terms.

For those struggling with direction in long-tail search, there is one tool I would recommend: http://www.hittail.com/. This tool takes a lot of guess work out of the equation and for a small monthly subscription fee, can provide a high level of value for your firm. It should be noted that this should not be a substitute for a more detailed and strategic case generating process. Rather, this should help in assisting with the process of creating more unique and relevant search results in areas of lesser competition and authority.

As they say, there is more than one way to skin a cat and when it comes to attorney search online, this is especially so. Try to tool and tell us if you see the value...


#lawyermarketing #longtail #SEO

Successful Online #LawyerMarketing Requires #SocialMedia

Eight years ago many attorneys asked themselves if they needed a website. Today, similar questions now revolve around social media. I still conduct CLE classes at a number of bar associations dealing with online #lawyermarketing and social media and nothing fills the room like a social media CLE. Why? Because unlike a simple website, social media can be far more complex and difficult to understand for a typically attorney. Moreover, social media is best utilized as a much larger piece of an overall attorney marketing strategy.

SOCIAL MEDIA + SEO = SUPERIOR RESULTS

Until recently, most website authority producing measures had to do with the quality and quantity of inbound links generated to a website. In 2012, Google made 665 reported changes to their search algorithm with arguably the two most sweeping changes having to do with active content (Panda) and bad link building (Penguin).

As a result of these changes, we are seeing new sources of authority coming from content distribution points – namely #socialmedia. A recent study by Acend2 indicates that companies with the strongest social media / SEO strategies now produce the best results, and visa-versa. This was further picked up in Search Engine Land when they built on this analysis to point out the important of social media marketing and local SEO efforts. Since most attorney searches are local in nature, this should grab your attention.

 BUILDING AN ACTIVE CONTENT STRATEGY

At the heart of social media is unique content generation and the best place to generate new and fresh content is on a blog. When content is created on a blog, it can be automatically sent to content distribution points where people can more readily see, access, promote, share and act on it. The most effective content distribution points for attorney come from social media (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google +, etc.). This is what we refer to as an active content strategy – all of the necessary pieces from generation (blogs) to distribution (social media) to conversion (websites) working together.

MOVING BEYOND SIMPLE INBOUND #LINKBUILDING

As the search engines like Google are changing from static to a more dynamic content indexing, they face a number of new changes including which results should have the highest authority (and rank) in the SERP’s. Although inbound links (off-site SEO) still remain a critical component to success online, the search engines are finding new ways to create authority from social media. In short, if inbound links serve as “votes” from other websites, what does active content generation and distribution count as and how should it be measured?

The most effective way to measure social media content distribution is through “#reach.” Reach is nothing more than a simple measurement of the total number of people who see your social media updates. The more people “reached,” the better visibility and potential for new case / client generation you receive. Beyond reach, Google has added one more benefit: authority.

AUTHORITY THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA

Through optimal content flow and distribution of active content, the search engines should be able to source your social media information to a single point. Much like an author will cite their sources in a book, so too will the search engines try to cite the sources of content through citation flows. The more of these citation flows from blogs, news, post, tweets, retweets, Google +, etc., the more potential authority can be gained by the source. For most attorneys, the source is their blog which more often than not resides on their website. When properly executed with all of the pieces working together in an active content strategy, we are seeing around a 30% bump in overall traffic to websites that deploy this strategy compared to firms that do not. This would help reinforce the findings from Acend2 study listed above. In short, authority comes from both off-site SEO (inbound link building) and citation flow (active content strategies).

WHAT EVERY ATTORNEY SHOULD KNOW

Internet marketing has evolved beyond a simple website. In fact, the technology and market is evolving so fast that what was optimal yesterday may be obsolete today in this competitive framework. Due to the limitations of the search engine battlefield, everything online is a function of competition. If you are not consistently moving forward in action and strategy, you will fall behind – plain and simple. Successful attorneys online have evolved beyond simple products (websites) and now follow additional strategies (active content) in order to stay ahead of the game and maximize new case and client generation efforts.  

Successful attorney marketing is a journey, not a destination. How you chose to compete ultimately comes down to this simple philosophy.

#blogs  #socialmedia  #activecontent  #lawyermarketing  #seo

Facebook Adds #hastags, Will #attorneys Take Notice?

Hashtags have been around since 2007 and unless you are an active twitter user / follower, you likely haven’t noticed their importance. Now is a good time to take notice since Facebook has now adopted them and in effect, tripled the total share of social media users that can now utilize them.

You may recognize hastags when you see a word that starts with a “#” in front of it. Examples for attorneys would look like: #attorney, #mesoattorney, #probate, #regulan, #wrongfuldeath, #policebrutality, etc. By placing the “#” sign in front of words, it creates a metadata signal to services like twitter and now facebook to help categorize the message based on the keyword with the hastag in front of it.

WHY DOES THIS MATTER TO ATTORNEYS AND FACEBOOK USERS?

Facebook has around 170 million users in the United States – nearly twice as many as twitter. This equates to around 50% of ALL Americans!  The average Facebook user spends 7.5 hours on Facebook each month compared to just 3.3 minutes on Google +.  As the old saying goes: “fish were the fish are”… and the fish (your clients) are on Facebook.

One of the greatest advantages to Twitter users was that information on topics could be grouped together (through the use of hashtags) and searched without having to be connected to a user beforehand. In short, hastags allowed unconnected users to share information with anybody  - something Facebook has lacked until now.

Facebook announced this week that hastags are now fully supported in their messages and can now be searched on in Facebook. You can now click on a keyword displayed with a hastag and/or search for messages containing the same. For example, here is a search for “#medicalmalpractice”: https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/medicalmalpractice  - note that you can change the last portion of this address bar (in this case /medicalmalpractice) and replace it with any other words, just make sure to not include any spaces.

HOW ATTORNEYS CAN USE HASHTAGS TO THEIR ADVANTAGE

Most attorneys create an active content strategy to better stay in front of their current clients, referral partners and generate new clients and cases. Experts agree that you need to touch your clients 7-10 times a year for them to actively remember you when they need you. Why else would brands like Coke continue to spend millions reminding you about them?  The same applies to your brand and image. Gone are the days of effective attorney email lists and newsletters and instead attorneys are turning to more effective means of marketing through blogs and social media.

When attorneys create effective active content strategies, they will commonly author to blogs and disseminate that content throughout their social media properties such as Facebook, twitter, LinkedIn, etc. The challenge at that point is to build audience (or reach) so that your pages are being followed and people will be able to find and see you regularly. This is where most law firms fail – they create great content but fail in creating reach…thereby hosting nothing more than an expensive billboard in a cornfield.

Beyond the means in which to build audience and reach through actively publishing and promoting your social media properties OUTSIDE of these vehicles, hashtags now allow you to create better reach within them. Here is an example: Risperdal is a drug that was involved a lawsuit involving the drug companies downplaying of complications. When I search for “Risperdal Lawsuit” in Google, I see 66,700 results – many of which are news sites, attorney websites and blogs. When I search by the hastag #risperdal in Facebook, I see ZERO results – except for my own. Wow! Really? 170 Million users and no mention (in a hastag) for Risperdal? No facebook pages to follow on the subject? No blogs to keep me updated? No attorneys that want my business if I or somebody I know could be a client for this case?

This of course is merely one example but illustrates a point – hastags now allow you to open your practice up to search within Facebook and 170 million potential clients. Want to build reach as an attorney and improve your #attorneymarketing, this is a great way to get started!

WHAT TO DO NEXT

If you have not already created an #activecontentstrategy for your law firm, get started now – it is the #1 driver of traffic to your website according to the most recent studies by SEOMoz. Once you have your strategy in place, make sure to incorporate hashtags within your content in the proper locations and with the proper density to have an impact. This includes in your subject lines, the beginning of your content, etc.

If you need more help on any of these subjects, contact a legal marketing consultant today to help you out…

The Return of Long Tail Attorney Search

OK – long tail search never really went away but the ever changing landscape of the search engines are certainly giving it a new emphasis. This was recently written on Search Engine Watch and here are some of the biggest drivers leading to an increased emphasis on long tail search for attorneys…

INCREASING USE OF MOBILE SEARCH

As we have previously discussed, mobile search for attorneys is expected to exceed PC based search by 2016. We also recently learned that 77% of mobile search takes place at home or work – not exactly places requiring high mobility. In short, mobile search is the future of search.

One of the more interesting aspects of mobile search is the growing popularity of voice-based commands over typing. Thanks to the technology provided by smart phones, more people are talking to search instead of typing leading to longer and more specific queries (i.e. long tail search).

GROWING LEVELS OF TARGETED KEYWORD SEARCH COMPETITION

How many times have you heard an attorney (or yourself) judge results by how they (you) show up for a specific search term? Did you ever think to ask yourself that what you are paying for may also be what other attorneys are also paying for? Why invite such high levels of competition and at such high costs? Since 50-70% of attorney searches online are typically non-repeatable searches, why focus only on the smaller number of terms that cost more? As we have reported, attorneys are spending record amounts of money on PPC terms and driving up the costs at the same time. Remember: everything online is a function of competition and being a lemming is not typically the smartest way to lead.

CHANGES RESULTING FROM GOOGLE PENGUIN AND PANDA RELEASES

Last year Google made 665 changes to their search algorithm. In addition the quantity of changes, Google also made two of the arguably most impactful changes with the Penguin (Links) and Panda (Content) changes.  These changes were so transformational that it has led many in the SEO community to literally change all of the rules they worked under for many years…or go out of business altogether. Some law firms responded by successfully changes to a more rich-content strategy with social media while others simply gave up on SEO and started buying PPC ads again. Remember, Google makes over 98% of their money from their paid advertising and the more people who give-up, the more competition and higher prices they will command…which is exactly what they want and you should not.

CONVERSION AS A MEASUREMENT OF SUCCESS

There is an old saying that “you cannot manage what you cannot measure.” When it comes to attorney marketing online, most failure comes from a lack of quality measurements. In short, many attorneys continue to infatuate on search term rankings, traffic levels, etc. while losing site on the whole reason they advertise to begin with: new cases and client generation. Why would an attorney want to be #1 for a specific search term that is more ubiquitous at the expense of a more case-specific term? To wit: Is being #1 for “Kansas City Injury Attorney” any better than showing up #1 for “Need Attorney For Truck Accident Injury on 435”. Which term do you think is more case specific? BTW, both of these terms came from actual searches to a client’s site…I am pretty sure how they would answer this question. The question is a function of conversion. So if you measure success by your overall level of visits, wouldn’t more case specific (long tail) visits naturally convert better? Then why, assuming the same level of visits, would an attorney want better results for lower converting terms? Again, false measurements lead to bad results.

If you are an attorney who wants to be successful online, you need to understand how ‘targeted” content and an active content strategy is the key to capturing long-tail search results, leading to new case and client generation.

WHAT TO DO NEXT…

Being a successful attorney online is not complicated if you clearly define your goals and utilize good and knowledgeable resources to help you achieve them. One of the most cost effective ways to doing this is by creating a long-tail search strategy around true measurements (cases and clients) of your results. Or you can choose to be a lemming and see where that leads you.