I had to let this one out on Twitter this morning, so I might as well blog about it. Most of my day yesterday was spent crafting a new website - legalvoices.com - with the concept of creating a public view of those in the legal industry posting to twitter. I’ve been sitting on the legalvoices.com domain for a while now, so it was primed for an appropriate experiment!

I created legalvoices.com for a couple reasons. For the non-users out there, it gives a brief insight into how the service works - a preview. It also has a what’s hot in the legal industry feel to it. Could be a novelty, could be insightful… who knows? but definitely worth 5 hours of my time.

And for the Twitter converts, it offers a filtered view of the most current commentary from those of us with a legal slant. The other aspect I considered, is that almost no one creates a follow list dictated by industry vertical. So it’s likely a perspective most twitter users would seldom replicate.

Finally, a big warning that the site is in “pre-alpha”. :) It may take a couple browser refreshes to see the conversation stream change. Unfortunately, with new follower email notices flying out via twitter, there really wasn’t a way to create this under wraps. So heed the warning, or blame twitter. ;)

Enjoy!

A quick note to mention our client JD Supra was featured in the New York Times this past Sunday.

The article, titled Lawyers Open Their File Cabinets for a Web Resource, also included a number of individuals from site’s growing community including Mitchell Matorin, Marc Stern, and Elena Garella. Keeping contributors front-and-centre has been a big part of the JD Supra approach, and often reflected by posts in the JD Scoop blog. … I was really happy to see that tone get carried forward in the story.

On a related note, I posted some thoughts yesterday on the benefits of work product sharing for legal consumers. Specifically, I cited:

• The ability to read these documents & become better informed;
• Increased reliability of documents where Lawyers take public ownership of them;
• Researching legal issues within a collection of vetted documents;
• Ability to identify a lawyer with rare experience (& not worth the lawyer’s effort to market);
• Ability to identify expertise by geographic region or practice area;

For the consumer, exposure to work product is valuable because it helps in making better decisions. It also offers a more complete digital picture of the lawyer in question. But the interesting part, and this is consistent with most forms of web marketing, is that this influence & judgement process takes place in the absence of the lawyer, and prior to the initial contact.

Think about this. Unlike giving a presentation, or a word-of-mouth referral, a significant portion of the sales process is taking place before the potential client engages - or even contacts - the lawyer. This is one of the fundamental differences in the way the web works. Great personalities don’t count unless the prospect picks up the phone or writes an email. And even the best web metrics software cannot tell you exactly how much consideration your services received.

The job of the legal web marketer is to see the many facets of this digital picture. To select pieces of the puzzle, evaluate the fit for the lawyer or firm, and then to frame-up an incredibly positive pre-contact image. Our job is also to increase exposure, but without a good accurate picture - we’re done.

My take: Sharing work product can be a big part of describing the multi-dimensional nature of legal practice. With other web offerings doing nothing more than commoditizing legal services ($139 incorporations?), sites like JD Supra should be embraced. Without a wide selection of digital tools to demonstrate the value of legal work… it’s a slippery slope, and a long way down. But that’s just my take. :)

Michelle Golden has a great post up on the process of gathering client testimonials. Process being the key word.

Reminds me that Stem Legal could use another round of testimonials. Now that we’re off the launch pad, the time has come to let some of our clients speak to our services. Note to self… :)

I exchanged emails with Jordan Furlong a couple weeks back on how we might improve the Scoop section of JD Supra. Nothing huge, just kicking around how we might help reporters decipher from source documents to the underlying story.

If you already read Jordan’s blog - law21.ca - you know he’s got lots of great ideas. So as Adrian just noted over on JD Scoop, we were very thankful when Jordan made an unexpected & very generous offer - to create this new guideline: JD Tips: Writing for The Scoop. To show people how to make those headlines & descriptions pop in front of a reporter’s eyes!

I highly recommend you link over and read the piece in its entirety. Here are section headings to get you started…

1. Think like a reporter.
2. Mainstream or legal media?
3. Identify your objective.
4. Get your client onboard.
5. Choose a great title.
6. Write a great lead.
7. Don’t write like a lawyer.
8. Include contact information.

Sounds a bit like writing a press release, right? It is. For me, Jordan’s article illustrates a fundamental point about marketing online content: the old adage of ‘If you build it, they will come‘ doesn’t work. Never has. Even the best content requires exposure, an intended audience, a grabbing headline, and a simplified description. And exactly like a press release: Always presume your offering will be scanned, and never read.

Many thanks to Jordan for this wonderful contribution!

An interesting twist to the “help with a transaction” spam/scam that we all get. Also a bit troubling, since the following email got past my Google Apps spam filter:

Sir/Madam

I am a lawyer and legal representative to a high profile client within the international community that requires your experience and assistance in the investment of her inherited funds,should this transaction be of interest to you contact me for more details at xxx@unlimitedmail.org

Best regards,
Dominic Chambers

So spammers are now posing as lawyers to lend a note of legitimacy? On the surface, we can probably just shrug our shoulders and say ‘Ah well, that’s spam’. But one further item for legal marketers to consider: If spammers are now using the good name of lawyers in their product, you should also know this is a serious blow to firms that rely on email marketing.

The logical response from spam filter companies will be to up-the-ante when it comes to the words ‘lawyer’ and ‘law firm’; which means getting any kind of email marketing message (ie. newsletters) through spam filters may soon become increasingly difficult. Getting on a client’s ‘white list’ for email should also be an increasing concern.

People have been calling email dead for a while now. Don’t think I’m on that bandwagon just yet, but when it comes to marketing communications, things may soon be in decline. The alternatives like the attention economy, blogging & law firm web publishing should receive the benefit. But, as someone who has seen a lot of success with email marketing over the years, I’m a bit disappointed this very fruitful technique could soon be coming to an end. Especially in the late ’90s and early part of this decade, when it comes to existing client communication, email really did deliver on all accounts. (no pun intended)

Following up on yesterday’s JD Supra launch post, I’d like to illustrate how The Scoop portion of the site works. I don’t believe either of the following two stories have hit Google news yet, but both are supported by some of the latest legal filings under The Scoop:

• In re Dell, Inc. ERISA Litigation laintiff’s Memorandum of Law in Opposition to Motion to Dismiss - “The Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) and U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York are investigating claims that Dell inflated financial results by engaging in improper revenue recognition and accounting practices. Dell began reducing sales and profit projections as the Company began missing its own revenue, earnings per share and unit sales growth targets, causing significant declines in its stock price.”
• Perfect 10 v Google (Amended) Opinion - “… While it leaves some questions open, the bottom line is that the Court upheld important policies of fair use and freedom online and resisted Perfect 10’s plea to put copyright owners completely in charge of how and when search engines and other online intermediaries can provide their users with links to images. EFF filed an amicus brief on behalf of Google to beat back Perfect 10’s overreaching copyright claims.”

Now I’m not a journalist, but can certainly imagine how the first document could turn into a story like “SEC Investigates Dell Accounting Practices“; or how a journalist could have fun with the second document, and publish “EFF Defends Google Too“, reflecting that Google isn’t always the bad guy when it comes to EFF support.

For lawyers & law firms, The Scoop is a real opportunity to work with the media. To get your court filings & decisions working on your behalf. And for investigative journalists looking for unique stories, it’s a great tool to monitor possible leads that are backed up with substance.

Sounds like a winning proposition for everyone. Right?

Stem Legal is proud to congratulate client JD Supra on today’s launch of their new website & accompanying blog - JD Scoop! JD Supra is a new website dedicated helping lawyers & law firms share legal documents, forms, pleadings, judgements, research, and other professional support materials.

As I wrote a few months back, I think JD Supra is going to stand out because of the site’s approach - there’s a definite collection mandate for the content & a targeted community of contributors. As a foundation for any website, that’s a huge starting point.

I also love this site’s ability to link a lawyer’s marketing presence back to substantive work product. It just makes sense. Not only does it create an incentive for sharing work product and a useful tool to help others, but it represents a qualification tool to measure professional experience. Whether you’re looking to hire a lawyer, or a member of the media needing a quote in a niche subject area, finding a lawyer who can backup their claim of expertise is important. Don’t just tell me you’ve got 20 years experience, show me your track record!

JD Supra enables that. And that’s unique.

The other aspect I’m really proud of is how the community is rounding out. The fact that both big firms and solos are seeing the value to participating. On one side we have larger firms like Morrison Foerster, Mintz Levin, Lane Powell and my former Canadian law firm Clark Wilson. And on the other side, great contributions from solos like Lisa Solomon, Doug Cornelius, Amy Becerra, Mitchell Matorin and Stem client Florida criminal lawyer Ron Chapman. Add in academics like John Hagan, interest groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Cato Institute, and you can just imagine the content mix we’re heading for.

So I offer my congratulations to the entire JD Supra team… Adrian Lurssen, Eliot Gersten, Larry Bodine, Brittanie Williams, the group at POP Interactive, and especially JD Supra’s founder Aviva Cuyler. I know everyone will continue to work hard on improving this website, especially in the coming days, but launch day is always a milestone. A time to celebrate… This site has a huge future ahead!

I’m going to break a personal rule today. I don’t normally reproduce entire blog posts, but this is a situation where I was the original source of the content, and I really like what the exchange says. So I’ll make an exception. :)

Quoted below is a Q&A session published this past Friday by Lexblog’s Rob La Gatta. It’s fairly concise, but I think it reveals a lot about my personal approach to law firm SEO — what it is; qualifying an SEO to help sell professional services; why good SEO is often misunderstood; and why blog commentary can be an important piece to the puzzle.

1. Rob La Gatta: In layman’s terms, what is the purpose of search engine optimization?

Steve Matthews: Keeping this as jargon free as possible, I would say ‘SEO’ or search engine optimization is about using search engines like Google to expose ’something’ to the right audience. When it comes to marketing professional services, that ’something’ can refer to the firm brand, a service line, a lawyer’s individual profile, articles & content, or some combination thereof.

Firms that employ an SEO strategy build a portfolio of search terms targeted around their subject or service expertise. Those firms know exactly which phrases are being searched for because they utilize keyword research tools. Pages are selected as ‘landing pages’ for particular keyword combinations, and then optimized to rank well. And to rank well, pages must be properly coded to reflect the subject of choice, and more importantly, be cited - via links - from other web pages on that same topic.

2. Rob La Gatta: As the Internet expands and the value of high search rankings becomes more apparent, it seems like there are a lot of so-called “SEO specialists” coming out of the woodwork. How can someone tell whether an SEO consultant is legitimate?

Steve Matthews: I would start with a cursory review of their work. Ask to see a comparable client in a different market, and see how their site ranks. While requests for client confidentiality do occur, most professionals should be able to give samples of their work.

I would also listen to their proposed strategies, and specifically how they intend to acquire links to your website. Remember, your site will be evaluated by the company you keep. I would also make sure they understand marketing professional services, and have experience beyond product-based search marketing.

The difficult part of the evaluation will be telling if the practitioner has the skill to rank for highly competitive search phrases. I would ask to see some of their top results for two word search phrases. Rankings gets increasingly difficult as the number of words in the search decreases. If he or she can hit a top-10 rankings for two word searches (and preferably two words that combine for a recognizable phrase), that would be a good sign they are capable to building your firm a ‘portfolio’ of three word searches.

One last hint: if you’re not sure which searches are competitive, have a look at the number of accompanying advertisements or ’sponsored links’ on the right hand side of the page. Paid results almost always correspond with desirable, and usually competitive, search terms.

3. Rob La Gatta: What would you say is the biggest misconception people have about SEO and its purpose?

Steve Matthews: One of the biggest misconceptions I come across is the belief that SEO is somehow based upon programming tricks. I routinely run into people who believe that SEO is no more than stuffing keywords into the meta tags or title tags, or that if you *gasp* stuff keywords into your marketing copy you’ll get to the top of search results.

My take is that a successful search strategy can be broken down into: 30% on-page factors, and 70% off-page factors. It’s much more important to have a quality network of links coming into your website than to let someone alter your message. And when you do hit those top rankings, it’s the pages with quality copy that will convert to leads.

Here are the facts: Marketing copy should be drafted for its intended audience, and always be natural. A good SEO should be able to work with clean copy and make it rank. That doesn’t mean that on-page factors aren’t important - as an example, well designed title tags are very important - but a good rule of thumb in my books is that SEO should never trump exposing your firm brand or alter your marketing copy.

4. Rob La Gatta: I’ve read that blogs naturally perform better in search engines than static websites. Do you believe this is true? If so, why?

Steve Matthews: Not to be picky, but we must compare apples to apples here.

Blog software is classed as a Content Management System, or “CMS”, and most modern CMS products already have the on-page SEO factors baked into their product. If we’re talking about hand-coding static web pages, then yes, a developer could overlook some of the basics - which would make it seem like blogging software has an advantage. But otherwise, most web designers will employ a CMS, and these products can compete with blog software.

The practice of blogging, however, does bring a number of attributes to the table that are unique.

First of all, blogs are content based marketing, and the breadth of content that a blog can deliver is very powerful. What many people are calling the long tail, blogs allow an author to cast a very wide net around their subject of expertise. And it’s this ever-growing body of work that gets indexed within the search engines.

Situated properly, a professional blog can build individual lawyer’s profile, and work as a more casual lead-in tool for the firm’s website, which is geared more toward services, expertise and experience. In other words, get to know the lawyer in question, and then decide if that person is qualified. Even with SEO, you must consider the entire online decision making process.

The second SEO factor I’ll note is the number of trusted citations that blogs produce. Lawyers need to understand that links are the currency of the web, and that blogs are not just a publication opportunity. If they were, why wouldn’t you just convert all your newsletters into blog software? It doesn’t work. It’s only when blog authors engage the social side of blogging, and begin to link out to other bloggers (who eventually reciprocate) that blogs begin to have a dominant effect on the search results.

A big thank-you to both Rob La Gatta and Kevin O’Keefe at Lexblog for this opportunity! The Lexblog Q&A series is very distinguished company, and I feel very lucky to have been included.

I love guerrilla marketing like Larry Bodine love’s guerrilla marketing. Time permitting, drop by Larry’s blog and check out some of the examples he’s just posted.

Larry’s also posted a podcast (mp3) recently that gives a great overview of why lawyers should invest their time marketing. Now I’m sure Larry would admit there’s nothing earth shattering about the interview he gave. However, I did think many of his questions were thought provoking, and especially for those lawyers that just can’t seem to justify investing the time required.

So here’s my guerrilla marketing idea … Larry should upload this podcast to 20 or 30 Ipods, and then send it parcel-post to the Marketing Directors of the firms he would most like to work with!

Or, what if some in-house CMOs did this themselves with a series of marketing training podcasts? If a travel schedule could be obtained for the firm’s attorneys, every business trip could also be a marketing training trip! Would that not be effective and well received?

I’ve always held the concept of guerrilla marketing in high regard. It’s a form of marketing that’s both creative & innovative. And done well, it can make a long lasting impression. I’d love to see more law firm marketing that fits this description.

And if there are legal marketers out there doing this kind of stuff already, please drop me a note. I’m more than willing to blog about this kind of stuff. I just think its fantastic!

One of the biggest areas of unexplored territory in legal web marketing these days is the power of RSS, or real simple syndication.

I’ve written in the past on the use of RSS in law firms (see here and here), and how those in the legal industry can be better consumers of information using this technology. However, for those of us on the marketing side of things, the best opportunities for RSS right now are in publishing, not consuming.

A great example, Infolaw’s Nick Holmes over in the UK has mixed together the content of 13 different family law blogs into a single feed using Yahoo Pipes. Now, Nick has followed up in a comment saying this was ‘no big deal’, but I’ll tell you what is a big deal: the opportunity this type of feed mixing offers to law firms and their web presence.

Many law firms are slowly adopting and getting onto the RSS bandwagon. And that’s great! For firms that don’t currently offer it, I hope there’s a plan in place to syndicate soon. I guarantee you’ll be hearing a lot more about RSS in 2008.

Now that said, once you do have your content RSS enabled, the next obvious question is — what are you going to do with it?

Your firm website will offer those feeds, probably running through a tracking service like Feedburner to get a subscriber count. But then what?

This is where the mixing that Nick has done comes in. For another example, check out Stem’s feed mix of Canadian legal publications; it was created using Yahoo pipes too. The power comes from taking these feeds and combining (or mixing) them. Content can take a completely different flavour, and be directed at a completely different audience when using this technique.

And most important, be automated to extend the firm’s content reach with no further effort by lawyers or staff!

Law firms frequently put together cross-disciplinary service groups, either for a target industry, or a specific client. Imagine being able to take the various online commentary from your contributing internal groups, and combine it to create a new dedicated product. Or, imagine being able to filter everything the firm publishes for the keyword “environment” and publish it to a new online location, and then directing those clients interested in environmental issues.

For me, that’s why law firms should take notice. RSS is easy, it’s cheap, and is probably the most flexible new technology the web currently has to offer.

Following up on a Stem news item I just posted, I’d like to offer a blogging welcome to Florida criminal lawyer Ron Chapman. Ron became a Stem client just after Christmas, and we’ve been slowly retooling some of the aspects of his blog & website.

Here’s a short snippet about Ron’s practice:

About Ronald Chapman, P.A.: Since 1990, Mr. Chapman’s law firm has represented those who have been accused of committing crimes in both State and Federal Courts within the State of Florida. Mr. Chapman is a sole practitioner whose service areas include violent crimes, DUI offenses, drug offenses, domestic violence, Sentencing & Appeals and criminal records services.

Ron is also new law blogger, and a Lexblog customer. One of the big challenges we’re going to tackle is how to mix traditional law firm website features with blogging and providing legal commentary. And to that end, I think what we’re doing is somewhat unique. Working within the lexblog platform, we’re trying to integrate some of the traditional service-based website features, but, still use the blog as the public front-end of the website.

As an example, one of the first things we’ve done is to ‘beef up’ Ron’s service pages. Why? Well, blog commentary is great, but you still need to explain to people what services you offer. These pages aren’t yet exhaustive in describing Ron’s practice, but it’s a start.

How successful will we be? Hard to say at this point, but I’ve got high hopes. We’ll be using the same techniques as I did with the Stem site. You see, not only is this blog running off blog software, but Stem’s principle website is too - entirely built on Wordpress. This time, we’ll be using Lexblog’s platform, and hopefully in a month or two, we’ll have Ron’s phone ringing off the hook. :)

So a big welcome to Ron! And thanks for agreeing to be a case study.

Update: I’ve added some related thoughts to this post over at the VLLB.

This masterpiece courtesy of the Insurance law group at my former law firm.  As usual, very creative marketing. Nice work gang!

……………

T’was the night before Christmas, when outside my house
our dog was barking, and awakened my spouse.
“Eh buddy!” she cried as we heard a loud shout
“Go see what that ruckus is all about”.

Out past the children all snug in their bed
I hurried with just one thought in my head.
For I knew that night St. Nick’s on his way
But where, oh where, would he park that darn sleigh?

‘Cause during the day it had snowed and snowed
until it completely covered the road.
Shovels and salt, I’d used them not.
For in all frankness I’d quite simply forgot

Alas when at the window I arrived,
a sight I beheld with my very own eyes.
Out in the middle of our snow covered walk
lay a big man in red completely asquawk.

His presents lay strewn all over the drive
but as I approached he came suddenly alive.
“This is a hazard and you failed to take care,
for me to be safe”, he did huffily declare.

“Put your insurer on notice right away,
as my elves will be suing come Boxing Day:
a claim will be made for breach of an Act,
Occupier’s Liability, to be exact !”.

So back into the house I went with a clatter
to locate a policy which might address the matter.
My Homeowner’s Comp I thought might respond
with grants of coverage above and beyond.

As on the advice of my broker I’d acquired
a specific endorsement which was truly inspired:
“We cover damages valid under all laws
which may be claimed by Santa Claus”

Back into bed I sprang with delight
and knowing I was insured, I slept through the night.

When boxing day came I accepted a writ,
thinking the insurer would take care of it.
How shocked did I feel when the letter arrived
stating “thanks for the premium, but coverage denied!”

Snow on the roof in Vancouver, so strange
this condition amounts to material change.

Now Claus has a judgment and I lost my house,
I sleep in an alley I share with a mouse.
I thought I had coverage but found out not quite,
A tough lesson to learn on a cold Christmas night.

****************************************

CW’s Insurance group wishes you happy holidays and our best wishes for a prosperous (and well-insured) new year!

……………

Taking a break from web strategy content here, I’d like to highlight a couple of new Stem Legal websites:

• First up and just launched yesterday, my Canadian Law Blogs List which started life in September 2005 as a VLLB blog post has now been moved to its own website at LawBlogs.ca. The list will remain open (& free) to any Canadian blogging lawyer, law librarian, legal marketer, legal tech specialist, or paralegal.
• The second site, launched on November 1st, is LegalPubs.ca. The purpose of LegalPubs (as you might guess from the name) is to produce a one-stop-shop for newly released Canadian legal publications. The site uses RSS technology to automatically aggregate new book titles from Canada Law Book, Thomson-Carswell, Irwin Law, CCH Canadian, and LexisNexis Canada. Canada is one of the first countries in the world to have our major legal publishers on-side with RSS technology, and this site really showcases how RSS can extend the reach of existing web content.

For me, these websites reflect my larger vision for Stem, and that the concept of ‘profile building’ is more than just being a consultant or an industry-based SEO service. I want Stem to evolve into a service that helps with the big picture, making sure all the factors are working together - audience profiling, web advertising, SEO, web publishing, cohesive branding, etc. … And the way you do that, from my perspective, is to get involved in what you’re preaching. How can you possibly advise on website marketing if you haven’t executed yourself? How can you advise on law blogging if you aren’t a blogger yourself? Experience is critical, and while I think I could rely on personal history, executing in the present (and the future) is just as important.

I hope to continue the Stem network expansion in 2008! And maybe in late 2007… :-)

An interesting development out of the UK. Clifford Chance has made a very targeted move in sponsoring Conflict of Laws.net. More on the sponsorship here, and here.

Blog sponsorships are nothing new to the online tech community. For examples, we can look to GigaOM or Techcrunch. But in other blogging communities, including law, the idea of sponsorship is quite new. It could be the fact that commercial applications typically lag behind web innovation; that we usually experiment to see if something delivers, readers adopt, and then monetization strategy follows once we’re beyond the proving ground. It may also stem from our aversion to spam and anything directly commercial online. Kevin O’Keefe has said he’s not a fan of ads on blogs and that it cheapens the offering, but I suspect with an appropriate design fit he’d be ok with the sponsorship concept. And depending on the blog, of course.

My next question would be on the strategic fit. A blog on International private law and Clifford Chance? Obviously it’s a good fit, and frankly, they get kudos for being both the first mover, and picking off a desirable audience of global decision makers.

The other value test here, is to question whether the firm could build this property & audience on their own. CC has both the resources and in-house expertise to do so, but may not have been able to make the business case internally. Busy attorneys, a lack of time, and so forth. That’s too bad. I’m a big believer in firms owning web properties, and the associated audience & relationships. This may not get reflected in a traditional ROI equation, but the value is there - new business relationships with targeted decision makers, marketing collateral, search rankings, referral networks - the list is extensive. CC gets some of those things with this move, but it isn’t their audience, and long term I’d rather see those assets under CC management.

Will law blog sponsorships become a trend? Perhaps. I can see firms choosing sponsorship as a springboard to other online strategies, or using it to engage niche target audiences. Firms may also use a strategy that includes both in-house blogs and a network of blog sponsorships — it’s working for ALM, isn’t it? :)

I see a lot of value in blog sponsorship as compared to other forms of web advertising. What many blogs lack in reader volume, they more than make up for with audiences that are focused & clearly defined. Aggregate a series of selected sponsorships together and it could be *very* good advertising. My concern, is that firms will see this as an alternative to blogging themselves. As part of a larger integrated approach, I think it makes a lot of sense. But on its own, firms will remain without a ‘voice’ and excluded from the online conversations within their chosen markets.

One of the new features on Slaw (the Canadian co-op blog on law, technology and research) is a revolving set of weekly articles. The idea is to engage some of the regulars (and some new blood) to go beyond our usual blogging exchanges and craft something a bit more substantial.

This week it’s my turn… I’m kicking off a series titled Web Law Connected, with the first article addressing Thought Leadership and the building of online expertise within the legal profession.

Future articles in this series will tackle the subjects of legal web brands, finding the business development spin to new web technologies, and connecting online exposure to lead creation & sales. Basically more of the stuff I’m working on here at Stem. :-)

Expect some catch-up blogging this week on my part. Now that the PLTC conference and a couple of projects are winding down, I’m due.