Archive for the ‘Social Media Advice’ Category

Making Your Business Irresistible to the Media

Wednesday, February 29th, 2012

If you are relatively new to the cyberspace world, and have just put your business on the web, you may be wondering how you can involve the media in your online business and draw them to your site on a consistent basis. Where do you start when attempting to become overwhelmingly appealing to the media at large?

Why Not Turn the Tables?

Instead of sitting back and waiting for the media to come to you, why not go to them first? Ask the editor of your local newspaper if you can interview him or her for your website or blog on a topic which is relevant to your site or niche. Even better, be exceptionally brave and approach the editor of a larger national magazine or newspaper for an interview, creating interest in your site and your business.

If the media becomes interested in your site, your product or what you have to say, they may ask to be added to your distribution lists which will enable them to be kept apprised of new developments, new products or new information you share on your site. Once you have established a relationship with a member of the media, provide them with several links to your best work and ask if they would like to be added to your list. What this means is that every time you write a new blog article, you are likely to get multiple media mentions from taking the initiative and approaching the media first.

Let Your Customers Be Part of the Process

When a member of the media profiles your site, they may want to include an interview with a customer of yours—a satisfied one, obviously. Speak to the customers you have in mind prior to the interview and ask if they would mind doing a little PR work for your business, and if they are comfortable being interviewed, photographed or even being on television. Then let the member of the media know that you have several customers who are willing to discuss their experiences with your company in person or via phone.

Build the Relationship Prior to Pitching an Idea

It’s important that you connect with members of the media several months in advance via Twitter, Facebook or other social media avenues before you jump right in and ask for media attention. Even though we are talking about internet business, you are still the real person behind the real business and these people must get to know you and to trust you before they will be willing to promote your business. Reporters often use Twitter to converse with the public, so keep up with these exchanges and respond to comments.

Read a reporter’s work on a regular basis, and comment favorably on a particular story he or she did. If you are at a charity event or chamber of commerce event and spot a reporter you are interested in having review your business, make a point of introducing yourself, but save the hard sell for later on down the road. Pleasant small talk is all that is necessary at this point, but do try to make a favorable impression. Write a blog posting on your blog which highlights a reporter’s story in a positive manner, then shoot them an e-mail, including the link.

Start small by scouting out your local publications which have smaller, but more targeted readerships. Often these publications are run by a handful of people, who will welcome the opportunity to have a guest column done by you, saving them the time of running down their own story. There are many more ways to make your site tantalizing to the media, but the tips above are a good way to begin.

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The Best Reasons for Your Law Office to Have a Facebook Page

Sunday, October 24th, 2010

More and more businesses, both large and small are turning to Facebook in order to create an additional online presence, as well as giving their customers a less formal platform with which to engage. Even if you are a true Facebook addict on your personal time, you may wonder how Facebook can be successful for your law firm. Considering that the average Facebook fan logs on a minimum of six hours per month, there are many ways Facebook can increase your legal website’s exposure in the most positive ways imaginable. Some of them include:

  • Search engine optimization is very positively impacted by your firm’s Facebook page. Once your law firm has an up and running Facebook page, it will show up high in the search results for your business because Facebook lists pages on the individual users’ public search listings—therefore each user who “likes” your firm’s Facebook page instantly adds another link back to that business page. This process can provide numerous links back to different areas of your legal website, thus dramatically improving the search rankings of your site.
  • Facebook can facilitate communication between you and your potential client by updating your firm’s Facebook page to let clients know about a new service from your firm. The members of your group then comment about your new legal service, thus opening a positive dialogue, and engaging potential clients. Facebook also allows for customized applications on your firm’s Facebook page, which could include things such as “join our mailing list.” This allows you to add potential clients to your e-mail marketing program sending them out interesting and informative articles each month.
  • The personal communication which takes place on your firm’s Facebook page can be invaluable in giving you feedback regarding your firm’s services. You can see firsthand what clients have to say about your services, which in turn allows you to resolve customer issues and gain valuable feedback you might never have been aware of before. The kind of information you receive from clients can advance your market research efforts and allow you to improve your customer service. Because Facebook’s members choose to become so, you can keep in constant contact with new, old or potential clients through uploading content whenever you want. This content shows up on your client’s newsfeeds, giving them information about your firm in a much less intrusive manner—your clients may even look forward to new content being added!
  • Facebook business pages can be a wonderful addition to your online business presence, and can be a sort of less-formal extension to your firm’s website. The Facebook page drives increased traffic to your firm’s website and with numerous links back to your regular website Facebook becomes yet another way your potential clients can find you.
  • You will gain invaluable information about your clients, including graphs and stats on the types of users your Facebook page attracts, whether they are male or female, ages, locations and other demographic data as well. The average Facebook user has 130 friends in their network, therefore if one of them “likes” your Facebook page, there is the potential for all 130 of their friends to see that, causing them to investigate and look at your Facebook page themselves. If you attempt to do the math on such a phenomenon, you will see that the “reach” of Facebook is literally beyond your imagination.
  • Having “Fans” makes you business more credible and legitimizes your business.
  • Your comments, articles, etc can be distributed to others at no cost to you.

Facebook offers law firms the chance to show a different, less “buttoned-up” side of themselves than what is typically shown in their legal website. Your firm can post photos and videos of a staff function, or an attorney’s television or court appearance. It can show the softer, more personal side of the attorneys who make up the law firm, and give potential clients an insight into the firm they might not otherwise have.

So let’s review: Having a Facebook page for your law firm’s website has a huge reach, is completely customized and branded, is almost as powerful a marketing tool as your website itself….and it’s free!

FREE ADVICE (from real experts, no sales people) concerning Facebook and other social media management services for law firms, lawyer, and legal companies. We also offer custom Facebook design and programming.  Call (769) 218-6099 for free advice.

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Google Responds to Yahoo/Bing By Testing "Shared By" Social Networking Activity in Search Results

Wednesday, October 20th, 2010

Google is beta testing a new feature of their search results page inresponse to the recent announcement made by Yahoo/Bing.  On October 16, 2010, Yahoo/Bing announced that they have included within their search engine results pages, a link to the number of users that have shared that particular link, content, or web page with other web users.  In response Google integrated in “social shares” into their main search results today as a beta test. In the image to the right you are able to see a screenshot example of this Google beta test.  Note the “Shared by 20+” link that follows the website link along with the number of related articles.

For now the “shared by” links will only appear on Google’s main search results page. What is interesting is what happens when you click on the “shared by” link.  When you click the link you are brought to Google Updates, where real-time sharing activity reporting is displayed. Google has not disclosed whether or not this will be a permanent feature as of yet.

If you have questions as to how this will impact your law firm search engine optimization, call (769) 218-6099 for a free consultation about Social Media Search Engine Optimization for law firms.

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Attorney Social Media Marketing is Important to Law Firm Search Engine Optimization

Saturday, September 18th, 2010

Social media websites like FaceBook, Twitter and others are driving a substantial amount of Internet web traffic. To search engines and your website visitors, when you see icons or buttons which show how many likes, tweets, shares or digs the post on a law firm blog post or law firm web page has, the more attractive the information on the website becomes.

Most people are unlikely to share or bookmark just any piece of law firm web content. So when someone does, it provides extra value and credibility when someone does share your law firm website content with their social network.  This social sharing is one of the most essential part of any law firm website conversion. This also has an impact and will have an even greater impact on your law firm search engine rankings.

Everyday, law firm search engine optimization (law firm SEO) methods are being used online to obtain enormous amounts of LOW COST web traffic to a law firm website.  Your competition is steadily and consistently at work trying to reach the top of Google. Most click-throughs on a legal website only happens off of the first page. Also, a majority of the users searching for legal information or legal representation rarely ever go past the first page on a law firm website. Law firm websites that are ranking at the top of the search engines attract a substantial stream of qualified traffic.

So what is another technique to ensure that you have high traffic and visibility to your law firm website?

Social marketing can achieve this. Every time time an law firm article or legal blog post is visited by a user, their is a potential that it will be shared to their social network. One way to encourage this is by offering the user to add his or her comments. As your law firm blog or website is visited and the  visitors leave their feedback, this helps influence the interaction to promote sharing. In addition, if your legal website provides an incentive to comment, this will lead to bigger conversations that will auto pilot your content and updates to your website or blog!

In some cases, the commenting may carry over to the commentator’s website. That is why it is equally important for commentators, who do consider leaving feedback, to say something of value. Social bookmarking through Facebook, Twitter, Digg, StumbleUpon, Delicious and others has made it possible to further spread the influence of your high quality legal content. In turn, the commentators that make the effort or take the time to leave their comments or feedback will be 10 times more likely to share your blog post or article with their followers on the various social networks they are involved with.

Each time you visit a website take notice of the number of the bookmarks made and look at the feedback as well. The correlation between the bookmarks made and the number of feedback comments is really interesting.  Social media, if performed and managed by a expert such as Lawyer Success, Inc.,  is an important part of the law firm search engine optimization process. Also, the number of legal consumers that vote and/or share their links are more than likely to share again and present the same link to their followers. This can result in a cycle of viral shares which really adds value to law firm Internet marketing and makes social marketing for law firms an attractive strategy for law firm SEO.

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