Marketing Communications

Do Blogs Offer Value? Or, R They Just Marketing Messages?

Do Blogs Offer Value? Or, R They Just Marketing Messages?

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There’s a healthy discussion over on Law.com’s Legal Blog Watch following Bob Ambrogi’s post “The Demise of the Legal Blogsphere.” The centerpiece of the discussion is a blog post by Mike Cernovich at the blog Crime & Federalism who believes the legal blogsphere has gone to pot.

Cover your ears and guard your hearts, my marketing friends, because Cernovich sums it up by blaming YOU!

He says:

“The modern legal blogosphere sucks because it’s been overrun by legal marketers, and because people who might be able to engage in actually-interesting conversations are too busy sucking up to their e-friends and e-colleagues.”

Mike Cernovich seems to think that the legal blogsphere has gone to pot. No, he’s not suggesting that legal bloggers want to legalize marijuana to solve the California deficit, rather, blogging going to pot is being “overrun by shallow marketing and exclusive cliques.”

Curiously, Ambrogi thinks he makes some good points, so you might want to link over there and ponder his thoughts and contribute to the conversation.

Cernovich’s post, according to Ambrogi, feeds off of the perspective of 11D, which offers an unflattering assessment of legal bloggers who, “have undermined the blogosphere and that both bloggers and readers are burned out.”

I admit that a recent browse through of Alltop’s Legal Category did turn up some pretty marginal, watered-down, self-serving and even lame stuff, yet, I’m not ready to concede the value of the blogsphere, both legal and otherwise.

It’s easy to dismiss the blogs that are blatantly pitching to the marketplace, so that’s a non-issue in my opinion. Read more…

Facebook Friday – Law Firm Fan Pages

Facebook Friday – Law Firm Fan Pages

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In the interest of transparency, I am enthusiastic about social Web tools and particularly Facebook. Continuing in my series of Facebook Fridays, today’s post will address: Should a law firm have a Fan Page and if so, what should it look like?

If you haven’t seen it action, you’ve probably at least heard about how Dell or Zappos, the poster children for companies using social media, are creating revenue and positively impacting their brand in Social Media. According to various reports, most other companies, retail or B2B, have barely gotten started; law firms are no exception.

An April 2009 article on Adweek.com confirms that law firms are not alone:

“Thousands of brands from large, medium and small companies… crossed that hurdle a few years ago of making a Web site. But they are not yet waking up to the fact that the Internet is not just about parking your information somewhere and hoping people stumble across it somehow. You have to be active for anyone to notice…. Companies obviously know Twitter and blogs and Facebook. They just don’t know how they fit in. ”

Most law firm marketers are slow to increase social media in their marketing mix. It’s looked upon as mostly experimental and they invest only as time and priorities permit.

Will Online Networking Expedite the Development of Rainmakers?

Will Online Networking Expedite the Development of Rainmakers?

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I asked Mike O’Horo, of Sales Results Inc. if he thought social networking online will expedite the development of young professionals into rainmakers. His response was so on point that I would be selfish not to share it with you.

So, I asked Mike, “Do online social networking behaviors produce rainmakers at an earlier age? Where does business development fit in?” Here’s what he said:

“That depends on the degree to which the young professionals in question recognize the difference between marketing and selling. Social networking tools emulate and magnify personal networking behaviors, and serve the same purpose: helping you to get found, presumably by those whom you most want to find you. [marketing/exposure]

Getting chosen from among those found (selling) requires a disciplined decision-management process that is entirely distinct from marketing [networking]. Therein lies the double rub re: online social networking. If you can’t sell, all the getting found (leads) in the world is just wasted opportunity. Likewise, if you can’t manage the distillation process, weeding out those who want to act vs. those who must act, you’ll exhaust your extremely limited sales-time bandwidth before you get the desired results.

The bottom line is that these tools are just a medium within which to conduct the same marketing and sales activities that have been necessary in commerce for hundreds of years. Faster, cheaper, broader? Yet bet. Sufficient? Not by a long shot. As my friend, Mark Greene, was wont to say during his decades as a premier market research wizard, “Necessary, but not sufficient.”

Read MORE!!!

Is Social Networking Mission Critical For You?

Is Social Networking Mission Critical For You?

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Online “social” networking isn’t the big mystery that some people think it is. It has the same elements of networking that have held up since the beginning of time. In fact, if I were to guess, the creators of the popular network, LinkedIn, probably developed the idea like this:
They recognized that they got to where they were in their professional – and personal –lives because of someone they knew, who knew someone who knew someone else who was able to help them through this or that challenge. Whether that involved getting into schools, jobs, or apartments, finding financing, mentors, business partners, or customers, a good deal, a trustworthy professional or valuable advice, their progress or success was built upon how well they were connected.

How Important are Law Firm Business Cards?

How Important are Law Firm Business Cards?

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Being professional does not mean you have to be invisible. Tradition is a wonderful thing, I like classic black on ivory. But I’m also practical. I want that card to throw me a clue. I want something that helps me to remember the person that gave it to me so I can follow them on Twitter!