Post on 07-Jan-2016
description
October
72008
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lexBlog
TM
Building Blogs for Lawyers
Law Blogs : What You Must Know : Creation, Use, and Ethical & Liability Issues
New York City Bar AssociationNew York, NY
Daniel E. Clement, Attorney at Law, NYCScott H. Greenfield, Attorney at Law, NYC
Eric Turkewitz, Attorney at Law, NYCKevin O’Keefe, CEO, LexBlog, Inc, Seattle
2lexBlog
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Building Blogs for Lawyers
What we’ll cover
• Introduction to blogs• Ethical & liability issues• Blog publishing platforms• Better blogging practices• RSS, the secret to successful blogging• Growing traffic to your blog• Social networking for lawyers
What’s a law blog?
3 lexBlog
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Building Blogs for Lawyers
• 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, known domain, or links
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Building Blogs for Lawyers
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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http://privacylaw.proskauer.com/
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lexBlog
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Building Blogs for Lawyers
Where do you find them?
• Google – standard search• Google Blog Search• Other blogs• Blog directories
– ABA (blawg) legal blog directory– Justia (blawg) legal blog search
• LexMonitor – journal of law blogs
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Building Blogs for Lawyers
Key features
• Name of blog• Blog publisher• Authors• Categories/topics• Promotional categories
– About you– Your services– Contact info with intake form
• Email subscription• Comments• Social bookmarking
7lexBlog
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Building Blogs for Lawyers
General advantages• New blog launched quickly• Easy to use ‘Learning curve is very low’• Inexpensive ‘Insignificant marketing
expense’• Comprehensive publishing, content
syndication (RSS) and interactive communication tool
• Cannot tell difference between well designed blog and website
Relationship to firm website
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Building Blogs for Lawyers
• Complementary to site• Blog is ‘educational magazine’
published by law firm• Networking ‘leaving the office’ • Joining the conversation ‘blog is your
voice’• Draw traffic to site & lawyer bios• Can a blog be your website?
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Building Blogs for Lawyers
Advantages to a lawyer
• Enhance reputation of lawyers as trusted and reliable authorities
• Establish brand based on expertise• Educational & tasteful marketing • Syndication of content via RSS• Far superior search results to Web
sites• Cost savings
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Building Blogs for Lawyers
Why superior search results?
• Software architecture designed for publishing & getting content indexed
• Relevant & substantive content• Regular content updates• Incoming links
‘Blog : Better listing on Google’
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Building Blogs for Lawyers
• 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
• What do people find when googling you?
Importance of search engines
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Building Blogs for Lawyers
Advantages over current Internet marketing• Web site articles
– Poorly indexed & optimized for search engines - Pdf’s especially
– Frequency of content?– Difficult search – No table of contents/navigation– Users do not return to site
• Email newsletters– Corporate firewalls may block– Spam filters may block– Far less viral marketing effect
Adoption rate
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Building Blogs for Lawyers
• 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, 07 to March ‘08
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Building Blogs for Lawyers
Who’s reading blogs?
• 75% reporters use blogs & RSS to locate experts and get insight on stories
• Corporate executives– >20% read at least one business blog/week– 96% generally familiar with blogs– 30% working understanding of blogs
• Busiest Americans read blogs
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Building Blogs for Lawyers
RSSReal simple syndication
• Streams content to target audience• Built into blogs• Builds subscribers• Content reaches target audience• Content reaches amplifiers
– Bloggers– Media - trade & general mass media
• Email if not using RSS
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Newsreader Collects RSS feedsNewsreader Collects RSS feeds
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Building Blogs for Lawyers
Aim high!Connecticut Employment Law Blog
• 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
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Building Blogs for Lawyers
Where’s the content coming from?• 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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Building Blogs for Lawyers
Time commitment
* Harvard Management Communication Letter, Vol. 2, No. 4, November 2005
• Brief posts– 2 paragraphs, 2 to 3 sentences each– Expectation is less than that of
articles
• Harvard Business School - 1x/week *
• Less than articles, newsletters & alerts
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Building Blogs for Lawyers
Legal Ethics & Liability Matters
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Building Blogs for Lawyers
• Free Speech• Commercial Speech - Sullivan• Reasonable limits on commercial
speech - Bates
Blogs covered as advertising?
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Building Blogs for Lawyers
Applicable New York rules
• Websites covered• Label as ‘Attorney Advertising’• Name of lawyer• Location of office• General advertising rules
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Building Blogs for Lawyers
General ethics rules
• Cannot give specific advice• Cannot breach client
confidences• No false or misleading
communication
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Building Blogs for Lawyers
• Not legal advice• General public information• Need to see lawyer in your state• No attorney client relationship
Use disclaimer
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Building Blogs for Lawyers
• Defamation• IP• Fair Use• Section 230 of the
Communications Decency Act
Liability issues
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Building Blogs for Lawyers
Blog Publishing Platforms
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Building Blogs for Lawyers
Free
• Blogger• Can you use them as professional?• Do you know how to blog?• Do you have the time to learn?
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Building Blogs for Lawyers
Low cost
• TypePad• GoDaddy, Yahoo & the like
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Building Blogs for Lawyers
• Types• WordPress• Moveable Type• Drupal• Expression Engine
• Who• You• Web developer• Professional blog developer
Professional blog software
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Building Blogs for Lawyers
Better blogging : 5 keys to success
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Building Blogs for Lawyers
• Keeping posts simple & clear• Effective linking• Creating good titles• Using tags• Frequency of posts
What we’ll cover
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Building Blogs for Lawyers
Keep posts simple
& clear• Blogs not read like a novel or treatise• Brevity or will lose subscribers• People scan on the net
• Bullets• Salient points in bold
• Offer insight & commentary• Who is your audience
Legal
Legal Sanity by Arnie Herzhttp://tinyurl.com/5pkylg
Legal
True Gothamby Douglas Heddingshttp://tinyurl.com/6rzgg5
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Building Blogs for Lawyers
Link effectively – why?
• Links are the currency of blogging• Best blogs send people away• Helps readers• Helps SEO• Helps marketing• Provides trackbacks
Link effectively: How?
• Link to all references• Do not use url in text• Anchor text is key vs. ‘click here’• Authors• Posts• Link only to first reference of
subject
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Building Blogs for Lawyers
Ct
Connecticut Employment Law Blog by Dan Schwartz http://tinyurl.com/3gy83p
Equine Law Blog by Allison Rowehttp://tinyurl.com/3zafhp
Climate Change Updateby Thelen Reidhttp://tinyurl.com/4jvlsh
Legal
Texas Appellate Law Blog by Todd Smithhttp://tinyurl.com/3pdj4o
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Create good titles : Why?
• SEO• Readers using RSS readers• Posts displayed by syndication
• News sites • Social networking sites
• Common sense
Th
Think syndication
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• Short• Subject is well defined• Keywords are in beginning of subject
Create good titles : How?
Chicago IP Litigation Blog by David Donaghuehttp://tinyurl.com/673cza
D & O Diary by Kevin La Croixhttp://tinyurl.com/5z8yz6
American Constitution Society Bloghttp://tinyurl.com/6452cr
Palm Beach Criminal Lawyer Blogby Ron Chapman http://tinyurl.com/6aufed
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Building Blogs for Lawyers
• SEO• Organizational tool/hyper
search• Readers• You
• Social media & networking sites
Effective use of tags : Why?
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Building Blogs for Lawyers
Effective tags : How?
• Specific to subjects in post• Not rise to level of category or
subcategory• Limit number to 4 or 5• Use consistent text for similar tags
Connecticut Employment Law Blog by Dan Schwartz http://tinyurl.com/59u4dr
Pennsylvania Employment Law Blog by Russell Krafft http://tinyurl.com/5jenfc
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Building Blogs for Lawyers
Frequency of posts
• Once a week• Make it easy on yourself
• Use reader• Engage in conversation• Answer questions you receive
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Building Blogs for Lawyers
RSS: The Secret Sauce of Blogging
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lexBlogBuilding Blogs for Lawyers
• Why use RSS
• How to use a RSS newsreader
• How to subscribe to particular sources
• How to subscribe to particular subjects
• How to subscribe to mentions of you, your blog, and your firm
• How to reference content discovered in RSS feeds
• How to use RSS feeds to further enhance your reputation
• How to use RSS feeds to market your blog
What we’ll cover
lexBlogBuilding Blogs for Lawyers
RSS Newsreaders
lexBlog Desktop RSS Newsreader
lexBlog Google Reader
lexBlogBuilding Blogs for Lawyers
How to subscribe toparticular sources
Subscribe to blog’s posts
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Grab the RSS feed url
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Subscribe to News Website
Grab the RSS feed url
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Grab the RSS feed url
lexBlogBuilding Blogs for Lawyers
Subscribing to particular subjects
Google Blog Search
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Google Blog Search
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Subscribe to Google Blog Search Result
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Subscribe to Blog Search Results
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Google News
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Google News
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Subscribe to Google News RSS Feed
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Subscribe to Google News RSS Feed
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Building Blogs for Lawyers
Subscribe to your self for vanity feeds
• Name• Company/firm’s names• Blog’s name• Blog url• Website url
lexBlog Search and subscribe to your url
lexBlog Referencing content from RSS
feeds
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lexBlogBuilding Blogs for Lawyers
• ID A-list bloggers• Legal area
• Industry
• People with interest in legal area & industry
• ID A-list publications• ID A-list keywords & phrases
• Topics
• People
• Competitors
RSS feeds to further enhance yourreputation & market blog
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lexBlogBuilding Blogs for Lawyers
RSS feeds to further enhance your reputation & market blog
• Enter discussion with thought leaders• Network with media – trade & mass• Network with conference coordinators• Best blogs send people away• Blogging at its best is a conversation• Marketing is a conversation
lexBlog
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Building Blogs for Lawyers
Marketing Your Blog : Growing Traffic
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lexBlogBuilding Blogs for Lawyers
• Defining success
• Entering into the “discussion” with other leaders
• Registration with blog directories and blog search engines
• Law blog announcement sites
• Social networking sites ala LinkedIn, StumbleUpon
• Blogroll
• Meeting “A-list” bloggers
• Commenting on other blogs
• SEO
• Press releases
What we’ll cover
41lexBlog
Building Blogs for Lawyers
Defining success
• What is your goal?• Traffic is not goal• Be realistic• Influence takes time
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lexBlogBuilding Blogs for Lawyers
Entering into the discussion with other leaders
• Talk about their posts• Talk about what’s relevant to them• Don’t be a troll• Best blogs send people away• Best way to become influencer
lexBlog
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Building Blogs for Lawyers
Blogs are a Rotary meeting
• Find the discussion• Listen to the discussion• Engage in the discussion• Empower your audience• Use your blog to organize in person
meet ups
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lexBlogBuilding Blogs for Lawyers
Register with blog directories and blog search engines
• ABA Blawg Directory• Justia BlawgSearch• LexMonitor• Vertical law blog directories• Local blog directories• Inter alia – blog announcement site
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lexBlogBuilding Blogs for Lawyers
• Get your account• Individual versus firm• Personal versus information tweets• Add value to the discussion• Share your posts• Reference context of post• Follow leaders to grow twitter followers
46lexBlog
Building Blogs for Lawyers
Social Networking Sites
• LinkedIn• StumbleUpon
• Getting others is key
• Facebook• FriendFeed
Blogroll
• What is it?• Custom on each blog• A list blogs • Blogs of interest• Using to get noticed• Leveraging blogroll to gain intro’s
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Building Blogs for Lawyers
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lexBlogBuilding Blogs for Lawyers
Meeting A-list bloggers
• Email• Twitter• In person• Comments in blogs and
FriendFeed
49lexBlog
Building Blogs for Lawyers
Commenting on other blogs
• More than valuable than posts• Bloggers love comment love• Legal blogs• Industry blogs• Local blogs
SEO
• Post titles• Blog categories• Blog post format
• Anchor text in links• Bullets• Bolds• Headers
• Garnering organic links• Effective blogging leads to SEO
50 Building Blogs for Lawyers
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Mainstream press
• Press releases• Building a relationship with
reporters– Report on what they report– Email– Post as a resource on ‘news story’
• They have jobs – understand what it is
• They are your friend• Use of LinkedIn with reporters
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Building Blogs for Lawyers
And more…
• Syndication of content– Existing sites– Keep your eyes open
• Guest posting• Having guest posters• Interviews• Cover events• Let LexBlog know of successes –
‘LexBlogosphere’
Re
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Results of social networking & use of social media
Thanks & for info/questions
Dan ClementDClement@clementlaw.com
Scott GreenfieldSHGLaw@aol.com
Eric Turkewitzeric@turkewitzlaw.com
Kevin OKeefe, LexBlog, Inc.kevin@lexblog.com
lexBlog
TM
Building Blogs for Lawyers
www.lexBlog.com