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Open Source Standards

Published March 22, 2008 Law , Marketing , Operations , Strategy , Technology 0 Comments

This past week I received an email from the ILTA listserv where someone was asking about SEO-vendors. In a way this is a shock: SEO doesn’t require any great degree of understanding or inside knowledge. A careful analysis of the market, an understanding of HTML and the ability to find search-optimizations on the marjor engines delivered a sustained 20% jump for skadden.com. This excludes a lot of the buzz about blogging and SEO (there are benefits, but don’t throw away your Web site for a blog).

I believe this information should be in an open source format. Why should we pay vendors, which may or may not have a complete or legit understanding of technology, to maintain ownership. Whereas user-generated content is becoming more important in communications, user-generated standards must be developed. Open-source standards enable us to become better marketers of our organizations and reach out to clients & customers. SEO and SEM are a critical part of business. Let’s take it back from vendors in a space that is free of vendor influence.

Who’s up for the challenge?

Strategic Intent: Blogging

Published February 26, 2008 Law , Marketing , Strategy 0 Comments
Tags: marketing strategy

I have been promoting the effective use of technology for years. First and foremost, do NOT include something that offers little value. This behavior goes by many names, but in polite company I’ve heard it referred to as “designing beyond scope.” Making a strategic decision “just because you can” is foolish and is most likely going to disappoint people.

Kevin O’Keefe of Lexblog has a great post on this very issue in SEO shenanigans pose danger to law blogs. Kevin’s writing style is forward, honest and amusing:

Though law blogs often rank higher on Google than websites, law blogs don’t exist for SEO shenanigans. Law firm website developers and law firm ‘SEO experts’ who don’t have a clue about blogs don’t understand this.

Does SEO improve as a result of blogging? Yes, but that is poor reason to blog. The intent and purpose behind any social application is to help establish a conversation. Boosting placement in Google’s SERPs is important, perhaps more so to transaction-based businesses. Blogs — when used appropriately — have a much greater impact.

While free, poor blog approaches, either in structure of writing, can be costly mistakes. Intent and effort make all the difference.

Blogging: Not dead yet.

Published February 20, 2008 Law , Marketing , Strategy 1 Comment
Tags: blawging, legal blogs, transparency

Ron at Strategic Legal Technology posted up a compelling review of Law Practice Management magazine. Is legal blogging dead? Hardly. But rather than examine the merits of legal blogs (there are already an extensive number of blogs and experts in this field), I’d like to focus on the response from Dave Bilinsky, Editor-in-Chief of Law Practice Magazine.

Upon seeing the post from Strategic Legal Technology, Mr. Bilinsky left his take on the matter and provided a link to his own blog. The ability to provide an intelligent response while maintaining transparency is to be commended. Agencies take note (one development shop in particular): if someone calls you on something, respond and join in on the conversation!

While Law Practice Management magazine may hold a differing opinion on blogs, the Editor certainly understands social computing.

Why Blog? People are listening.

Published January 31, 2008 Law , Marketing 0 Comments
Tags: blogging, law firm, Vote

There is often debate, particularly in the legal industry, over the purpose of blogging. The Web is social media… and writing a blog connects with people. I present the SkaddenInsider as evidence: http://skaddeninsider.blogspot.com/

A meaningful conversation? Sure, if you’re interested in the hottest associate, bonus drama or cold weather news. I admit that it’s amusing. A vote underway at SkaddenInsider deals with the hottest female associate. As of January 31st, there have been nearly 1000 votes. Inappropriate? Perhaps. If I engage a top Firm, I don’t care if the attorney working on my case is Cyrano — I want someone who can melt the flesh of my competitor. But given the high-pressure environment that is biglaw, it does lighten things up. Plus with votes for male associates, it’s equally as offensive to men.

With 1000 people interested in the relatively innocuous happenings at a biglaw firm, how many would be interested in practice areas, new cases or even recruiting? It might be 1%, but if you reach out to one decision-maker, the effort is worth it. What’s the opportunity cost of avoiding blogs?

The Power of Flanking

Published January 11, 2008 Law , Strategy 0 Comments

AdAge has a great article on use of flanking in business strategy. Using an example from the automotive world, it describes how a business may out maneuver its competition in order to gain a greater share of the market. It’s a good read for anyone in branding.

In the relatively homogeneous market of law firms, it’s hard to find an ability to outflank your competitors. The primary reason: law firms are not agile. Technology, particularly the Web, offers any number of tools to turn on a dime and create value. Market pressures will force firms into action in the near future.

Marketing and technology managers, take note. Will you lead your firm and outflank the competition? Is blogging the answer?

Relationship Building Starts Offline

Published January 9, 2008 Law , Marketing , Operations 0 Comments

For those people tapped into the pulse of social media, every action online seems to be a relationship. Blogging? Reach out to new customers and people. On LinkedIn? Find more people for your network. Twittering? Get more followers… and find others to follow. It can be exhausting.

Taking a step back from this digital frontier, it’s important to realize that relationship building starts offline. For those in a client service role, this is critical to the success of your group or businesss. Attorneys practicing at any size law firm, from solo to the AmLaw #1, take this to heart. First and foremost is clear, consistent communication to a client. Delays or other problems should be conveyed through a phone call. Honesty comes next: hold yourself accountable for mistakes. While the client may be pissed off, it will be appreciated. As someone on the other side of the fence, you know when someone is full of BS. Lastly, be human. I have one vendor right now who always sounds like a robot (in person and over email). I feel at times if I’m dealing with someone at an oversea’s call center. Make a personal connection, it’s not that difficult.

Communication Focus: Holiday eCards

Published January 7, 2008 Law , Marketing 0 Comments
Tags: holiday ecard, law firm

As we all sit back and enjoy the gifts from this holiday season, I wanted to recognize the great work of Cadwalader in its execution of holiday eCards. Many firms, including my own employer, have executed eCards in the past year. (As a sidebar, our incorporated custom messages for many of our overseas offices and alumni program.)

The following links go to two flash-based eCards. Check them out… the execution is very good.

http://www.cadwalader.com/happyholidays/

http://www.cadwalader.com/invite/ecard_2007/

Great job, Cadwalader!

Edit: My apologies for the typo (site > sit). I’m surprised someone didn’t comment on it. Future posts won’t be written at 1am after my graduate assignments.

Focus: Increasing Web Traffic

Published January 7, 2008 Law , Marketing , Strategy 2 Comments
Tags: law firm, Marketing, SEO

Law.com’s story, How to Increase Traffic to Your Web Site, provides a list of tactics to improve site visits. The article discussed wikipedia, content linking and search-widgets, all of which are somewhat useful. However, there’s an even more powerful tool available to increase web traffic: a formal strategy.

Web stats have a certain utility. What most people fail to mention is that you can’t tell anything about your users unless there is a transactional component to the site. This doesn’t apply to certain organizations… what biglaw firm would “sell” M&A representation on a Web site? If I send a proposal to a company, can I see if they looked at the Web site for more information? No. Even if you could trace back the IP to the company’s headquarters, who’s to say it was even the right department?

A Web strategy will help focus your firm (or organizations) desires into a series of objectives that can be reached with a series of tactics. The follow list covers some important elements:

Develop a comprehensive Web strategy document, focusing on SEO. I have yet to see any vendor execute this properly, so don’t blindly trust their “expertise.”
Usability will continue to be important. Make sure site features, including search, are easy to use and provide relevant information.
Begin to monitor and maintain your online reputation. Make sure your firm has a Wikipedia page that is checked periodically, but don’t become obsessive. The open-edit model has it’s share of problems. Setup google alerts for news and blog posts on your firm.
Recognize that the importance of relationships will eventually extend into the digital realm for law firms. Social networks or blogs come to mind, but also realize this is with technology as well. Integrating different sustems will have a major impact on a major Web project currently underway at my firm.
Instead of looking exclusively at numbers, look at the relationships within the stats. When I started several months ago, I put together a Web strategy that included a heavy focus on SEO. Within two weeks of implementation, site visits went up 20% and have remained stable over the past few months.
Get Google analytics for your site(s). I’ve had vendors give me webtrends reports, along with livestats and other products. Google beats them all, and best of all, it’s free.

The Future of the Web

Published December 20, 2007 Law , Strategy 0 Comments

Kevin O’Keefe had a great post today on the decline of Martindale-Hubbell.

Summary: Firms view the cost of Martindale-Hubbell listings as very high compared to the value received.

With agencies charging what I view as ridculous amounts for web design, implementation and content management, the Martindale effect will impact web operations at some point in the near future. As clients push back on billable hours, it will be time to cut the bloat. In my time on the outside, I’ve seen redesigns run several hunders of thousands of dollars. The results? I’ve seen interns do better work (and in fact, know better design standards). CMS and front-end builds are the same. Now, take into considersation that conversations and pressures from social networking will be brought to bear on these 1.0 properties as well.

Advice to marketing managers and directors: learn to make yourself future-proof.

Ditch expensive design firms.
Partner with a web agency that won’t bill for every change and can offer technology that will help you scale at a reasonable price.
Avoid video. It’s bloat.
Traditional content management will be obsolete. Don’t spent 100K on a new site.
Look into social networking. No, don’t run out and toss up a facebook page. Start by listening.

Adopt a strategy to leverage change to your advantage. Your clients just might appreciate it.

Who says lawyers don’t have a sense of humor….

Published November 19, 2007 Law , Shameless Plug 0 Comments

This was just launched for the Energy group of Skadden, Arps. Think “Amélie” meets BigLaw:

The Skadden Energy Regulatory Compliance Handbook

This is a great feature… rich, visual content with value added components for the user in both download content and an opportunity to send in more pics. While you would expect FERC and other D.C. landmarks, there are a few that are just plain silly (see below):

lol

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