Currently Browsing "Content Marketing"

Linkable content: the backbone of social media marketing

Posted by Jordan Furlong on December 7th, 2011

As you probably know, I’m a frequent user of Twitter, both at my own jordan@law21 account and as a contributor to the @CCCA_News stream for Stem client the Canadian Corporate Counsel Association. In both capacities, but especially with the CCCA, I receive emails from law firms telling me about a new article they’ve published. Many of these… more »

Social media for law firm leaders

Posted by Jordan Furlong on November 2nd, 2011

I recently had a conversation with Sean Larkan, my Australia-based colleague with Edge International, about what law firm leaders need to know about social media. That conversation led to a Q&A that Sean has now posted on his Legal Leaders Blog. It’s a lengthy post, so here are some of the highlights; if these look interesting, I encourage… more »

Be remarkable: Online marketing for the smaller law firm

Posted by Jordan Furlong on September 13th, 2011

Lawyers in small law firms sometimes like to poke fun at their large-firm competitors by calling them “dinosaurs.” While there’s some truth to the comparison, it’s also worth recalling that the dinosaurs had a pretty good 200-million-year run and would still be around but for that asteroid. Size might not be everything, but it’s still a lot, especially in a… more »

Explaining content and why lawyers struggle with it

Posted by Jordan Furlong on May 25th, 2011

In my previous post, I explained how social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and blogs are simply vehicles for the distribution of content, and I showed how these vehicles can be an unusually good fit for lawyers. The problem with vehicles, of course, is that whether you’re driving a beat-up old Civic or a sleek new Lexus is less… more »

Reluctant publishers: helping lawyers generate content

Posted by Jordan Furlong on February 15th, 2011

There’s the principle, there’s the theory, and then there’s the reality. The principle is that the only reliable way for a law firm to build a lasting positive presence on the web is through the steady and timely production of relevant content: no amount of SEO gamesmanship will outperform good content that builds links with other websites. The theory is… more »

How to get ahead in publishing (law firm edition)

Posted by Jordan Furlong on January 6th, 2011

It seems to me that for law firms, “content” — articles, papers, case law summaries, legislative updates, alerts, and so forth — is really just a lawyer byproduct, a side effect of lawyers’ efforts to stay informed about the law. That’s a critical aspect of lawyers’ primary function, of course, which is selling advice and judgment. But clients don’t pay… more »

Ontario & BC Leading Law Blog Provinces

Posted by Steve Matthews on November 24th, 2010

In preparation for its forthcoming relaunch, we’ve been adding some classifications to the blogs listed on Lawblogs.ca.  Part of the divisions we’re putting into place will be to show the breakdown by Canadian Province; and I thought it might be interesting to share an early look at the numbers: Ontario (100) British Columbia (53) National (22) Quebec (18) Alberta… more »

JD Supra Powers New LinkedIn Legal Updates

Posted by Steve Matthews on July 16th, 2010

[cross-posted at Slaw.ca] To date, LinkedIn has only offered a handful of sidebar applications that users can install.  They’ve been very picky, and only a few are aligned with vertical industries. Even then, it’s obvious that industry apps must have a broader application and be applicable to the general business community.  Late last night, the rollout began for… more »

Building Effective Legal FAQ Collections

Posted by Steve Matthews on April 19th, 2010

An article on A List Apart recently caught our attention here at Stem.  R. Stephen Gracey’s post Infrequently Asked Questions of FAQs wonders whether FAQ sections on websites actually work. While he acknowledges their popularity, he’s got a beef with them because they rarely answer the questions he actually has. Gracey’s post offers some solid advice for good FAQs, including:… more »

CNW Report on Social Media & Canadian Law Firms

Posted by Steve Matthews on August 19th, 2009

Heather Morrison of the CNW Group, formerly Canada News Wire, released a 11-pg report yesterday titled Canadian Law Firms and their Use of Social Media. I am quoted in it, so please excuse the vanity reference. The report itself offers a nice overview of the benefits of social media investment. That’s important, but the part I appreciated… more »

No Blog Comments & Connecting with Readers

Posted by Steve Matthews on July 30th, 2009

If a blog post doesn’t receive any comments, does that mean you struck out? Actually, it’s quite common for blog posts not to receive comments. In the legal industry, and especially with lawyer blogs, we see it all the time.  The truth is the majority of online readers are lurkers. It’s called the 90-9-1 Rule, where 90% of your… more »

Law Centers Make JD Supra Browsable

Posted by Steve Matthews on May 26th, 2009

An item just posted on the Stem news page: JD Supra announced its new law centers this morning; a feature that should add both context & browsablity to their community-driven collections. The law centers are broken down into four core divisions: personal law, business law, government law, and law practice management; with each… more »

Lawyer Web Publishing & Content Routing

Posted by Steve Matthews on March 10th, 2009

This past Sunday I published my latest Web Law Connected column over at Slaw, titled “The Formal-to-Informal Rule of Lawyer Web Publishing“. The title of month’s article is a bit of a misnomer, and my suggestion of a rule is a mental guideline more than anything. The basic premise is to be careful about taking raw unfiltered… more »

The Problem with Twitter

Posted by Steve Matthews on December 23rd, 2008

TechCrunch published an important post yesterday about the amount of time we invest in Twitter. Using Robert Scoble as an example, this post demonstrates a valuable lesson for everyone. There’s a risk involved when we disproportionately web-publish to another company’s service. The cost is that we increasingly ignore our personal web-publishing efforts. While this may seem strange coming… more »

New Article in the Texas Bar Journal

Posted by Steve Matthews on December 10th, 2008

This month’s Texas Bar Journal inlcudes a republication of my article, It’s Not the Tool, It’s You! Many thanks to the TBJ’s technology editor, John Sirman, for picking it up from Slaw‘s RSS feed. It’s also worth noting from a web-marketing perspective. The next time someone says blogging & RSS aren’t valuable marketing tactics, consider routing them… more »