Posted on July 27,2014 in Social Media

Everyone wants to be liked. According to Psychology Today, it remains one of our basic primal instincts. We strive to attract, create and maintain a strong social network. Reaching as far back as the Stone Age, it was simple. Individuals hunted for food, water, shelter, and intimate relationships.

Essential to survival, groups were formed based on these four elements of these essential survival quests. As we continually evolve we still seek to fulfill these primitive but essential needs. Psychologically, this quest suggests the creation of groups who are now defining modern methods of survival in the Internet age.

Facebook appears to be our technological answer. So much so, that the Facebook Help Center provides us with a clear definition and instructions for increasing our professional and personal “likeability” factor.

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 Posted on July 07,2014 in Legal Marketing

"It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change." -Charles Darwin

Remarkable. How could Darwin forecast our future? This quote can surely capture the essence of how we as a legal community are now conducting our business.

Gone are the days of branding via television and radio as a way to market our practice, symbol or design that will differentiate our services from all others. In today’s market, SEO or search engine optimization is the ultimate source of change in digital marketing.

It appears as the social media marketing evolution continues, digital branding has become just as important as creating and maintaining a relevant professional website for introducing your services to your target audience. It is now imperative for online marketers to focus on increasing their brand visibility by sourcing the most effective social media branding tools to capture consumers with bursts of significant and relevant material.

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 Posted on June 23,2014 in OVC Lawyer Marketing

Do you remember memorizing The Periodic Table of Elements back in the day? Being able to identify the 112 contributing elements seemed an unnecessary evil to achieve a passing grade in chemistry. School age kids are now charting the Table as early as the fifth grade. Do you also remember the collective class sigh of relief when the pop quiz was over? Personally, you may have even felt a fleeting sense of achievement only to realize The Periodic Table quickly became a distant memory of your educational existence.

For those in the legal industry interested in achieving a passing grade when it comes to successful execution of search engine optimization or SEO, a new table has emerged. Although you may not be studying chemistry, becoming familiar with The Periodic Table of SEO Ranking Factors may very well be your next marketing assignment.

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 Posted on June 11,2014 in Search Engine Marketing

Perhaps the recent article posted by Small Business Trends says it best: the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) culture is wrought with mystical and misleading myths. As social media marketing evolves these tall tales not only continue but beg to be debunked as they may thwart your efforts of building and maintaining an effective social media marketing campaign fueled by SEO optimization.

For those in the legal community and just beginning to build their social media marketing platform, do not be fooled by the folklore dismissing the importance of SEO to increase your online presence while also directing traffic to your website. The days of cold calling and slinging slogans is long gone and concentrating on SEO and all aspects of social media marketing are your future.

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 Posted on June 04,2014 in Social Media

A well-maintained social media campaign should invite client related reviews to your site, but what happens when you feel a recent review could prove damaging to your online reputation and quite honestly you find yourself strongly disagreeing with the content finding it’s home on one of your Google marketing platforms?

As a leader in the industry Google presents options for such products as Google+, YouTube, and Blogger to post and share personalized content but due to the massive uploading of online submissions, Google does not involve itself in the prescreening of content but relies heavily on it’s users to monitor and flag any material deemed inappropriate.

To thwart this type of situation it is important for members of the legal community to delegate systematic monitoring of all social media content either by a designated staff member or an experienced online marketing firm. Words cut deep and while Google provides policies and procedures to review damaging content the tarnishing of your online reputation may have already occurred.

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 Posted on May 29,2014 in Legal Marketing

From Alton to Wheaton, the HG.org provides a directory of practicing Chicago attorneys all vying for new business. Locating prospective clients can be a challenge. How attorneys accomplish this may depend heavily on the online marketing firm they hire to define and achieve their social media marketing goals. As each attorney is unique, so should their recipe for success when it comes to contracting an experienced online marketing firm.

As social media marketing expands how do you know you are choosing the best online firm? One that is the perfect blend of meeting your needs but also achieving the highest rate of return on your investment?

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 Posted on May 14,2014 in AdWords

For many in the legal industry, Google remains a constant in search engine marketing. You may rely on Adwords, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Google+ just to name a few methods, but is Google’s privacy policy in everyone’s best interest?

According the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), technology gurus have familiarized themselves with Google's privacy policy revision, effective March 1, 2012. Perhaps we may ask, as a technological layman, what does it mean for legal marketing efforts?

Google consolidated over 70 individual privacy policies, covering separate services available to publishing on the Internet. It now blankets a one-size-fits-all privacy policy for Google users. It allows Google to “data mine” a user's Internet activity across the Google playing field instead of through specific service options. This policy has sparked controversy and has even been labeled as possibly illegal according to an article in The Huffington Post. So what exactly is the bone of contention for Google users?

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 Posted on May 08,2014 in Search Engine Marketing

As Bob Dylan once sang, "The times they are a changin’." Attorneys view their social media marketing and Public Relations (PR) campaigns differently as Google redefines its search engine optimization (SEO) algorithms.

According to Search Engine Land, with the release of Google's Hummingbird update, page ranking is no longer the preferred method of boosting website visibility. Hummingbird provides the end-user with quality not quantity of search results relying less on key words, internal links and content rankings.

So how should the legal community approach this new turn of events?

As we previously discussed in our article, "Social Media Marketing Now Gracing the Legal Industry's Welcome Mat," legal firms are now realizing the benefits of hiring an internal media specialist or for the smaller or solo attorney, a qualified online marketing firm to incorporate a PR viewpoint into social media campaigns. With Google’s game changing algorithm following suit would be advantageous for some of the reasons stated below:

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 Posted on April 29,2014 in Search Engine Marketing

You have become a master of maintaining and monitoring your online marketing program. As a monthly practice you Google your firm to ensure that all elements of your well-oiled Search Engine Optimization (SEO) machine are functioning on all cylinders. For months this routine practice has been glitch free, but today Google Places for Business has made a slight detour, driving you to unfamiliar territory.

Surprisingly you detect an additional listing now representative of your firm containing an incorrect address and an unrecognizable telephone number. To make matters even worse, the phantom listing has now pulled rank over your original listing.

A bit stunned, you realize that this non-existent firm location is also being picked up directory listings, ultimately driving all clients and even worse, all prospective clients to an internet impostor. So how do you guide Google and your SEO program back on track? If possible, block off your schedule for the afternoon and map out the following:

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 Posted on April 18,2014 in OVC Lawyer Marketing

Social media marketing remains a hot topic. And as a result, attorneys are turning up the heat, especially in their own backyards, by cultivating prospective clients through the use of Local Search Optimization.

The leader in Internet magic, Google now provides businesses with the ability to customize Search Engine Optimization, the process of improving the volume of local website traffic by assigning keywords to achieve a higher ranking on the Internet marketplace and eliminating the need to key in specific geographical locations.

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