Social media now a MUST for law firms

Not convinced that social media is important for a law firm? If you're still not sure why it's important, read on as this latest piece of information is pretty compelling. The New York Times recently published an article which explained that Bing & Facebook are currently partnering to improve the search experience for Bing users. In the future when someone conducts a search on Bing, the results will be in part influenced by the preferences of their Facebook friends. So for example, if a user enters the search "family lawyer Orange County", the search results will include pictures of friends that have expressed an opinion on family law firms in Orange County. So to spell it out......if your law firm is being talked about positively on social media and you have an expanded network, not only will your website have more visibility online, but these word of mouth impressions will be found too. Google is also very pro social media, even more so since the launch of their social media product Google+. I would not be surprised in the least if Google starts introducing social media to its search results in a similar fashion. Click here

to see the full NY Times article. All business including law firms need to embrace social media - it's not a question of 'if' but a quesiton of 'when' and to my mind the sooner the better. Social media to law firms today is what the internet was like to law firms 10 years ago - taking off rapidly and those that get into the game ahead of the pack will be positioned for the strongest success in the future.

Newport Beach Estate Planning Attorney Laura Meier

It's been on my 'to do' list for a long time, however I finally got around to creating an estate plan! I worked with Newport Beach Estate Planning Attorney Laura Meier and had an excellent experience. Laura is very easy to talk to and relate to. She made the whole process really easy and was very good at keeping us on track with what needed to be done. I highly recommend her services should you need a will, trust or any kind of estate planning.

Click to view the Meier Firm website.

Effective blogging

Blogging is a great way to market your law firm. When done well it can be a great marketing/branding tool and can gain strong visibility online in addition to increasing the visibility of your website. Here are a few key tips on how to write an effective blog:

Blog writing with SEO:

1. Style of writing. Remember who your audience is and write for that audience. If you expect that non legal professionals will be the main audience for your site then make sure you keep the language in layman’s terms.
2. Topics to write about. Stuck on what to write about? Think of every question a client has ever asked you – each one is an opportunity to write a blog posting! In addition share your thoughts and commentary on recent new events which are relevant to your practice, talk about recent events in your practice etc…
3. Focus. Keep the topic of your blog as focused as possible around the area(s) of law in which you practice.
4. Keywords. Your blog posting should be as rich as possible with keywords but remember that it still needs to read well. Don’t simply say ‘criminal lawyer’ 20 times in one post as Google can consider that ‘keyword stuffing’ which could result in a penalty and of course when someone reads the blog it will sound terrible. So make sure the post reads well however do use as many keywords as possible. In addition try to use those keywords in sentences which make sense but also in a way that people might use them when searching. For example you could start a posting by saying ‘Orange County Estate Planning Attorney Bob Jones was recently blah blah……..’. The first 5 words are clearly what someone could enter into a search engine.
5. Blog post titles. The title of your blog post is very important. Make sure that you use keywords in the title.
6. Hyperlinks with anchor text. In your postings you should link to your website where appropriate. Create links to the home page of course but be sure to create plenty of links to the internal pages of your website also. For example if you write a post on Chapter 7 bankruptcy laws then link to your Chapter 7 page. Create a hyperlink from the relevant words. So for example if the blog was about Chapter 7, highlight Chapter 7 and then click the link button (usually looks something like this ) and then enter the url of the page you want to link to on the screen that will pop up. Click ok and you have now linked those words to the relevant page.
7. Inbound links. Make sure that your blog is linked to your website and your website is linked to your blog. In addition you should create as many inbound links to your blog as possible from as many different websites as possible. If you know other attorneys who blog ask them to write a post about you and link to your blog and of course you will do the same for them (make sure that no more than 50% of your links are these ‘reciprocal’ links however as more than that will not look good to Google). Do a search for ‘blog directories’. You’ll find a slew of blog directories many of which you can create a listing with free of charge.
8. Blog regularly. The more often you blog the more credibility your blog will gain and the more it will help your website results. I would recommend a minimum of 1-2 times per month to make it worthwhile. Any less than once a month and it’s probably not going to do much for you.

Happy blogging!

Newport Beach Business Lawyer William Bissell

Newport Beach Business Lawyer William Bissell recently launched a new website for his firm. The site is very modern, clean and uncluttered and features pages of content describing the key areas of Mr Bissell's practice which includes:

Business & commercial litigation

Business transactions

Sales, acquisitions and mergers

Construction law/litigation

Real estate law/litigation

For more information about Mr Bissell's practice visit his new website at: http://www.wgb-law.com

Irvine Personal Injury Attorney - Adam Krolikowski

Irvine Personal Injury Attorney Adam Krolikowski just recently released a brand new FindLaw website. The design of the website is contemporary and striking. The bold red on the home page is very eye catching and Adam's family crest adds a highly professional look and feel.

Although Adam has a varied practice this particular website focuses on personal injury. The content of his website is extemely informative and gives great information on topics including the following:

Slip and fall accidents
Dog bites
Elder abuse
Bicycle accidents
Bus accidents
Motorcycle accidents
Brain and spinal injuries
Premises liability
Harassment
Discrimination

Visit Adam's new site at click here

Orange County Criminal Lawyer Ken Schreiber

Orange County Criminal Lawyer Kenneth Schreiber recently relaunched his website! As computer screens get increasingly bigger it's important for websites to adapt. Ken's newly relaunched website was expanded to fit bigger screens and now has a much more modern look and feel.

Mr Schreiber's practice is focuses exclusively on criminal law. He handles all types of cases including:

Sex crimes
DUI
Domestic violence
Assault & battery
Vehicular manslaughter

Visit Mr Schreiber's updated site at www.schreiberlawoffices.com

Join the internet revolution

It's not news to anyone that the internet is booming. These days people shop online, they find their partners online and they navigate almost every aspect of their lives online. Just so far today I've used my phone's navigation system to get to a meeting, I used an app on my phone to scan a business card and enter the information into my computer and I'm about to use another app to deposit a check into my bank and it's only 10am!

Despite the web being so prevalent in the lives of most people these days I find that some law firms are still slow to adapt.

There are several examples of once mighty businesses which have now failed or are failing, the most recent being Borders. Once a thriving business they are now going out of business as they simply didn't adapt to the world going online.

In the legal sector it's no different. More and more people use the web as a means of finding legal information as well as representation. Why use the web? People are busy and in a hurry - the web provides instant gratification. Many people start out by searching for information regarding their problem and if they find your law firm website during that search it's highly likely they will call you.

So if you have yet to adapt to the internet age, my question to you, a successful firm that gets business from relationship and referrals, is when do you want to begin? You can choose to be a firm that continues on business as usual as the world changes around you and risk the consequences. Or, you can pro-actively learn, understand and participate in the new market space. I highly suggest the latter.