online thought leadership & reputation management leadershipsbot hyatt lost pines - bastrop...
TRANSCRIPT
Online Thought Leadership & Reputation
Management
LeadershipSBOTHyatt Lost Pines - Bastrop
October
172008
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lexBlog
TM
Building Blogs for Lawyers
2lexBlog
TM
Building Blogs for Lawyers
What we’ll cover
• Why become a thought leader?• Ability to become a thought leader online• Online tools for becoming a thought leader• Small town lawyer who became national
thought leader solely via online tools
Why?
• Professionally rewarding• Personally rewarding• Opportunity to serve others• Right thing to do
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Professionally rewarding• Become “lawyers’ lawyer”• Learn from other leaders
– Professionally– Personally
• Better skills• More confidence
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Personally rewarding
• Feels good• Spouse/partner happier• Role model for children• Financially rewarding
– You & spouse/partner– Children & grandchildren– Society
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Building Blogs for Lawyers
Helps others
• Bar• Lawyers• Civic & business groups• Society• Image of our profession
Ability to do it
• Easier than ever• Build muscles by acting outside
your comfort zone• Opportunity lies online• Online for all ages
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The how: online tools
• Blogging• Social media• LinkedIn• Twitter
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What’s a professional law blog?
• Web site• Covers niche area of law or locale• Published by one lawyer or practice group• Directed to regular readers within target audience of
blog publisher• As easy to update as writing an email - no coding
experience needed• Distributes content via RSS and email• Unique domain name & url address• Found via search engines or known domain
What it’s not?
• Journal• Posts archived by calendar• Blend of personal information,
random thoughts and political views with legal information & insight
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Blog advantages
• New blog launched quickly• Easy to use - learning curve is low• Inexpensive• Comprehensive publishing, content
syndication (RSS) and interactive communication tool
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Relationship to yourfirm’s Web site
• Complementary to site• How you network and enter
conversation with thought leaders
• Draw traffic to site & lawyer bios
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Advantages to you
• Enhances your reputation as trusted and reliable authorities
• Establish brand based on expertise• Educational & tasteful• Syndication of content via RSS• Far superior search results to Web
sites• Cost savings vs other networking
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Why superior search results?
• Relevant content• Regular content updates• Incoming links
“Blog = better listing on Google”
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• Two-thirds of people do online research before selecting a service or product
• Nearly 70% of business executives and in house counsel go online to research lawyers during the hiring process
Importance of search engines
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Advantages over current Internet networking• Web site articles
– Poorly indexed & optimized for search engines
• Pdf’s especially– Frequency of content?– Difficult search – No table of contents/navigation with each
article– Users do not return to site
• Email newsletters– Corporate firewalls may block– Spam filters may block– Far less viral marketing effect
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Building Blogs for Lawyers
• 3,000 plus law blogs• 4 new law blogs per day• > 30% of large law firms• 49% growth in large law firm blogs from
November to March
Lawyers’ adoption of blogs
BBC News 5/21/04
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• 75% of reporters to locate experts & get insight on stories
• Senior executives• 20% plus read business blogs• 96% familiar with blogs• 30% have familiarity with blogs
• Busiest people read blogs
Who is reading blogs?
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Building Blogs for Lawyers
• Oxygen of Internet today• Streams content to target
audience• Syndicates content• Content reaches amplifiers
– Bloggers– Media - trade & general mass media
• Email as well
RSS feeds
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Blogs are a Rotary meeting
• Find the discussion• Listen to the discussion• Engage in the discussion• Empower your audience
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Building Blogs for Lawyers
CT Employment Law Blog Dan Schwartz
• 5000 visits in first 6 weeks• Few calls a week, new client• Nearly 100 incoming links from third
party websites and blogs• Regularly cited by leading law &
employment bloggers (3 of the most read)
• CT law periodical coverage
• Current content - extend it’s reach• Online news• Legal cases• Info from trade magazines &
newsletters• Info from CLE’s• RSS feeds = “The Discussion”
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Where’s content coming from?
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Time commitment?• Brief posts
– 2 to 3 paragraphs, 2 to 3 sentences each
– Expectation is less than that of articles
• Harvard Business School - 1x/week *
• Less than articles, newsletters & alerts
* Harvard Management Communication Letter, Vol. 2, No. 4, November 2005
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Building Blogs for Lawyers
Blogging in current economy
• Forget the economy• Time to grab market share & be bold• Let others run scared• Be deliberate• Invest in your network and reputation• Have long-term eyes & vision to
succeed
• Professional networking tool• “Facebook for business people”
• 216,000 private practice profiles• Law firm profiles with
demographics• 20 million users• 150 industries• 3.2 million visitors/month
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• “Microblogging”• Updates are called “Tweets”
• 140 characters• Links are shortened
• Who?• Lawyers• Reporters• Fire departments• New York Times• Fortune 200
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Small talk leads to big things
• What talk?– Personal– Professional– Social media - ‘pass it along’
• Twitter amplifies• News of China’s earthquake broke on
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• Governed by cannons of ethics• Cannot give specific advise• Cannot breach client confidences• Do not create attorney client relationship• No false or misleading
communication • Use disclaimer
Ethics
Who is LexBlog, Inc.?
• Leading provider of professional marketing blogs to law firms
• 500 blogs, almost 1,500 lawyer authors• 75% of AmLaw 200 firm blogs use LexBlog• 96% client retention over 5 years• Led by former practicing lawyers• Team of IT, design, web development, client
service, and marketing professionals• Founded by Kevin O’Keefe
– Practicing lawyer of 17 years– Successfully marketed own law firm on Internet– Founder of Internet consumer & small business
legal resource, now sold to LexisNexis– Former VP of Martindale-Hubbell
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Thanks & for more info or questions:Kevin O’Keefe
CEO, LexBlog, Inc.411 First Avenue, Suite 304Seattle, WA 98104
Direct: 206 340 8204Cell: 206 321 2627
mailto:[email protected]
lexBlog
TM
Building Blogs for Lawyers