Law Practice Technology

Blogging

Blogging is about controlling the message about you.  It makes you findable.

Guidelines for Post Content

• Crisp, compelling first sentence.  Make it short.  Remove unnecessary words.
• Ideal post is two paragraphs with the first containing the main point and the second expanded making use of hyperlinks.
• Write for search engines:
  • craft each post around a central theme--identify keyword and use in post
  • use keyword in title
  • be creative with words you use to link to other sites.

See Ernie Svenson, Blogging in One Hour for Lawyers 83, 90 (ABA Law Practice Management Section 2012) (KF320-I57 S88 2012--on reserve, Professor Callister).

Example Blogs

• DennisKennedy.Blog - Legal technology, technology law and other musings
• Traumatic Injury Law Blog - Stark and Stark attorneys at law
• NFL Concussion Litigation - One of UMKC's own graduates, Paul D. Anderson
• Missouri Divorce and Family Law Blog - Mark A.C. Wortman Attorney at Law
• Sansone & Lauber Blog - St. Louis Personal Injury Blog
• DUI News & Blog - Multiple contributors
• Bowtielaw.com - dedicated to e-Discovery
• AbnormalUse.com - products liability litigation (ABA Top 100 Blog)
• Nolacriminallaw.com - underage drinking and drug use
• Employeeatty.blogspot.com - aka "Screw You Guys, I'm Going Home
• Larry Bodine - Legal Web and Marketing Consultant
• abajournal.com/blawgs - ABA aggregate site.  You may apply to have your blog included.
• Justia.com - aggregate site

Blog Tools

• Blog Designers
  • lexblog.com - blog designers dedicated to the legal profession $
• Domain Name Registration
  • Hover.com - just domain registration
  • GoDaddy.com - cheaper domain name registration and hosting service (including blogs and email)
• Blog Hosting and Design
  • Blogger.com - free blog hosting company (provides software)
  • WordPress.com - design tools and hosting for blogs and websites.  WordPress available through GoDaddy as well.
  • TypePad - alternative to WordPress.  Great description of how to use in Ernie Svenson, Blogging in One Hour For Lawyers 31-55 (ABA Law Practice Management Section 2012) (KF320.I57 S88 2012 - On reserve for Prof. Callister's class).
• Analytics and Stats
  • Google Analytics - free site to monitor traffic
  • Google Alerts - email alert service about you
  • sitemeter.com
  • statcounter.com

Content Resources

• Creative Commons Search - search images and other media for freely usable images and media
• Video:  How to Find "Free" Images Using Creative Commons Search Engine
• istockphoto.com - fee site
• shutterstock.com - fee site

Registering the Blog

• Google
• Bing
• Yahoo!
• Blogarama
• Ping-O-Matic - Blog update service
• for a more comprehensive list, including law blogs, see Ernie Svenson, Blogging in One Hour For Lawyers 84-85 (ABA Law Practice Management Section 2012) (KF320.I57 S88 2012 - On reserve for Prof. Callister's class).

Other Suggestions

• In your settings for the Blog hosting service, make sure to connect blog to your Twitter feed and Facebook.  Also consider how to use with LinkedIn.
• Moderate comments by requiring your approval.
• Don't do "TrackBacks" (alows posting with links back to other site)--results in a lot of spam.
• Consider co-authors
• Use domain mapping to link back to your domain as source
• Ernie Svenson strongly recommends starting an E-mail newsletter in conjunction with the blog.  See Ernie Svenson, Blogging in One Hour For Lawyers 85 (ABA Law Practice Management Section 2012) (KF320.I57 S88 2012 - On reserve for Prof. Callister's class).   He suggests using Feedblitz.com to facilitate the RSS feed into a newsletter.

Facebook

Privacy

• About Privacy on Facebook
• Revisit privacy settings twice a year
• Carefully limit your posts to friends or "friends of friends"
• Note the "limit past posts" feature to change old posts to a more secure feature of "friends only" (could be important for litigation holds)

Profiles, Timelines and Pages

• See Dennis Kennedy and Allison C. Schields, Facebook in One Hour for Lawyers (ABA Practice Management Section 2012) (KF 320.I57 K46 2012, on reserve for Professor Callister).
• Create a Profile even if you are just going to emphasize a firm page.
• Generally, photo on profile should just be of you, emphasizing your face (not pets)
• Pages are always "public" spaces
• Pages can be created from http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php
• Page cover photos may not have:
  • a call to action
  • a Like button
  • a lot of text
  • links to your website
  • contact information
  • price/fee information
• In Page text area, use concise tagline, contact information (including blog) and any disclaimer information.  See fig. 4.4 (p. 66) of Facebook in One Hour for Lawyers .
• On Page timeline consider creating Milestones (see p. 68 of Facebook in One Hour for Lawyers), "star stories to expand the post to widescreen", and "pin" a post to the top of the timeline for a period of time.
• Page administrators my preview and remove offensive posts and ban the offending person from posting
• Get badges for existing website or blogs.  See http://www.facebook.com/badges/page.php.

Features you may not know about

• Events--way to calendar and invite people to events
• Ask questions as kind of informal survey
• Notes--found under apps, it allows for longer postes than the usual update.  "Think of Notes as miniblog inside Facebook." (see p. 128 of Facebook in One Hour for Lawyers)
• Facebook Ads  Go to the help page for more info.  Ads can be based on location, democraphics, interests and behavioral targeting, advanced connection targeting, "custom audiences" and lookalikes.
• Facebook for Business
• Facebook interest lists

Examples of Firm Facebook Pages

• Armajoo Law Firm
• Quitmeier Law Firm
• Legal Aid of Western Missouri
• Law Office of Young, Jakobe & Kuhl, LLC
• Kane Law Office
• Kansas City Ticket Lawyer - The Janssen Law Office LLC
• Hovey Williams, LLP

Examples of Organization Pages

• JRCLS International - Women in the Law

Example of Group Pages

• Missouri Trial Lawyers Care

Youtube

Examples

• KCdivorcelaw.com  Scroll down to videos

• Kansas City Federal Criminal Defense Lawyer Western District Missouri Paul Cram

Twitter

Examples

• Above the Law
• KCJD's Career Train
• Lawyerist
• Grover Law Firm
• Van Osdol & Magruder
• Husch Blackwell
• Lathrop and Gage
• Offer in Compromise

Aggregators (Third Party Management or Twitter Client)

• Hootsuite
• TweetDeck

URL Shorteners, cutomizers and Trackers

• tinyurl  (allows customizable urls--free)
• Bitly (includes marketing and analytics)
• Owly (can use with Hootsuite analytics)
• goo.ly (Google url shortner)

LinkedIn

As of 2011, 770,000 members of the legal field had LinkedIn Accounts. "LinkedIn is a tool to help you make your networks more visible and usable than they are when they are only in your head.  It lets you map your networks, organize them, grow and nurture them, and efficiently use them both for your own benefit and the benefit of your connections."  Dennis Kennedy and Allison C. Shields, LinkedIn in One Hour for Lawyers 2 (ABA Law Practice Management Section 2002) (KF320.A9 K46 2012-on reserve Professor Callister's Class).

There are three principles:  Profiles, connections, and participation that are essential to success.  Id. at 2-3

Suggestions

• Carefully choose the links that go to your Profile.  Connecting to a blog or website can can be a really important opportunity.
• Becareful not to label yourself as a specialist.  PR rules may prohibit.
• Make sure to list bar associations and other associations.
• List community service (boards, etc.)
• Make full use of the Publications section.  Even if its a blog or newsletter, get it up there.  This is how you establish your expertise.  What can you write that is worthy of posting?
• Skill sections are also important.  How are your Microsoft Skills?
• Keep LinkedIn updates professional.  You only get 140 characters; so make them count in building your expert status.  Could you use them to point to a blog with more in-depth coverage?
• A great way to build relationships is to build and establish groups.  "Choose Groups that are big enough to have depth, but small enough to allow you to be visible and actively contribute."  LinkedIn in One Hour for Lawyers 55.
• Groups can inspire other on-line activities such as blogging and tweeting.
• In starting a group, you need to have something different to offer.  It's about "bringing people together who can benefit from sharing mutual experiences and insights."  LinkedIn in One Hour for Lawyers 57.

Examples

• Aramjoo Law Firm LLC  Compare with Facebook page
• Hovey Williams, LLP Also compare with Facebook page
• Troy J. Leavitt Law Firm  (note use of specialities--is this appropriate?)
• The Reynolds Law Firm, LLC
• Stueve Sieglel Hanson, LLP
• Stinson Leonard Street LLP