by Brian Focht | Aug 29, 2013
Part I in a continuing series on improving your firm’s website Part I: 7 Tips to Improve Your Bio Page Part II: 5 Best Practices for your Practice Areas Part III: Video is a Game Changer Part IV: 4 Reasons You Should Blog Part V: 3 Videos You Need to Have Part VI: 4 Reasons to Ignore SEO Part VII: 4 Steps to Know (and Track) Your Audience A law firm’s website is only as good as its content. So, in my quest to help you improve your firm’s website, content is where I’ll begin. That covers a lot of ground though, so let’s think of this from an advertising agency’s point of view. The ad agency’s goal is to put the most important items where the readers eyes fall first or most. That way, the most important information is right where the potential customer is most likely to look. For most law firms, the attorney bio pages are, by far, the most viewed part of the site (according to one study, the bio pages may account for as much as 56% of law firm website traffic). It’s the place where most of your potential customers are going to be won or lost, so the renovation of your firm’s website begins there! Here are 7 Tips to improve your bio pages: 1) Make sure your site is written for your potential customers, not for you! Too many people want their website to serve as a glorification of themselves; a shrine to legal and educational accomplishments over a lawyer’s lifetime. However, your website is advertising, not Narcissism 101. An easy way to improve your bio... read more
by Brian Focht | Aug 25, 2013
When you sign on to LinkedIn, you are probably most concerned with news about your contacts and making sure that your individual page looks good. It’s a professional social media site, so it is most definitely important to keep your information up-to-date and aesthetically pleasing. However, I’d be willing to bet you don’t put nearly that much thought into your law firm’s LinkedIn company page. If you read this blog regularly or keep up with the ABA’s annual technology surveys, you know that LinkedIn is THE choice for lawyers and law firms when it comes to social networking. This weekend, an excellent article in the Kansas City Business Journal, reviewed brilliantly by Kevin O’Keefe’s Real Lawyers Have Blogs, discusses some of the best ways to maximize your law firm’s LinkedIn company page, which for many, is a mere afterthought. LinkedIn has over 200 million users and over 3 million company pages. Considering that 98% of attorneys surveyed by the ABA reported that they use LinkedIn. Law firms need to consider the possibility that the first impression many attorneys and other professionals will have of their firm is from their LinkedIn company page. Why is this important? Just think about how much of your firm’s business in the past year came not from online advertisement or foot traffic, but from referrals or recommendations made by other attorneys! Suddenly, your law firm’s LinkedIn company page is beginning to take on the same level of importance as your firm website, isn’t it? Well, not to worry, there are plenty of resources out there to provide guidance. Citing the Kansas City Business Journal article, Kevin... read more
by Brian Focht | Aug 21, 2013
“Sticks and stones may break your bones, but words will never hurt you,” admonished every single mother, I imagine, for the entire history of human kind. It’s probably even in some of those ancient cave glyphs that have been found. It’s a fundamental tenet of New Testament Christianity, that one will demonstrate their strength in their ability to “turn the other cheek,” to refuse to dignify the petty assault of another. Today, it seems sometimes like it would take the internal, divine fortitude of a deity to handle some of the fierce attacks that one can find almost daily on Twitter or Facebook. Then one morning, you’re flipping past pictures of your friends’ kids on Facebook, when you see that one of your former clients, unhappy about the result of their case, has decided to post a comment on your firm’s page calling you… … a Hey, let’s face it, today’s social media allows anyone to say pretty much anything, and to do so before their “better angels,” so to speak, can prevent them. It’s done on accident all the time! Yesterday, even Dr. Phil (allegedly) had to delete a post from his twitter account after a poorly thought out question led some to wonder whether he was condoning rape if the woman was intoxicated (I’m pretty sure he doesn’t, but you get it). Another fact of life we all have to deal with is that there will ALWAYS be clients who will be upset with the services we, as attorneys, provide. So you’ve received some really nasty reviews from a former client, that you consider to be... read more
by Brian Focht | Aug 15, 2013
According to the American Bar Association’s 2013 Legal Technology Survey, the percentage of lawyers and law firms utilizing social media is on the rise, and by a considerable margin, lawyers prefer LinkedIn over Facebook and Twitter. The ABA reports that 56% of law firms and 98% of lawyers have a presence on LinkedIn, up from 37% and 62%, respectively, just two years ago. Why do lawyers prefer LinkedIn over Facebook (35% of law firms and 33% of lawyers) and Twitter (19% of law firms and 14% of lawyers), and what else does this report tell us about how lawyers can and should utilize social media going forward? It should come as no surprise to anyone that social media platforms are playing an increasingly important role in our business and personal lives. For proof, one needs only look at how the New York Times responded to their own website being unavailable for several hours yesterday: they began posting their digital articles on Facebook until the site was back up! However, like every other technological innovation, lawyers have been slow to adopt social media. Even the ABA’s report indicates that although attorney use of social media is on the rise, the rate of increased use of social media among lawyers continues to be lower than the general public. The one major exception is LinkedIn. Don’t believe me? Well, based on the past two weeks, if you’re reading this page via social media, there’s over 90% likelihood that it’s through LinkedIn. So what is it that LinkedIn offers attorneys that they cannot find in other social media. Well, several things, really. Professionalism “Professionalism”... read more
by Brian Focht | Jul 27, 2013
In a topic that’s quite close to my heart after having recently finished an upgrade of my firm’s website, Google recently announced (well, two of their tech guys told a whole bunch of reporters, which is basically an announcement today, right?) that companies that don’t fix glaring problems with their mobile sites will see their rankings in search results demoted! According to one study, mobile internet users account for a staggering 20% of all web traffic, and it is estimated that 45% of all mobile internet traffic is “goal-oriented,” with a massive 73% of mobile searches resulting in follow-up action, it is INCREDIBLY important that companies have an efficient, user-friendly mobile version of their website. Helpfully, Google has identified some of the types of problems that most frequently cause delays and problems for mobile users: Faulty Redirects. If you have a separate URL for your mobile site, MAKE SURE that all of your mobile links are connected to the appropriate page. HELPFUL EXAMPLE: All of the links on the regular website link directly to the mobile home page instead of the specific mobile page they should be linking to. If you have a mobile page, redirect smartphone users to the mobile page instead of using a 404 page (“file not found”) Make sure the mobile page is in a mobile-friendly format! (This seems like a no-brainer, but it would be silly to be demoted on Google just because you didn’t check!) Unplayable videos. If you use video on your site, and want mobile users to be able to access the site smoothly, make sure it’s a format they can... read more
