TechnoLawyer: Law Firm Marketing/Publications/Web Sites

Originally published on August 16, 2011 in our free BigLaw newsletter. Instead of reading BigLaw here after the fact, sign up now to receive future issues in realtime.

I'll be honest. I greeted the fanfare of Google+ (pronounced Google Plus) — yet another Google social network — with a healthy dose of skepticism. Remember Google Buzz? What about Google Wave? Both had big coming out parties and neither lasted past beta. And let's not forget Dodgeball, which Google bought and then killed. But hey, Orkut is big in Brazil.

So what about Google+? Does it have what it takes to find a place among the big three — Linkedin, Facebook, and Twitter? Or will Google again drop the social ball, especially now that it needs to manage 19,000 new employees courtesy of its Motorola acquisition?

What Google+ Has Going for It

Google+ had an outstanding launch, growing in just two months to more than 25 million members despite being available only by invitation. By comparison, at the beginning of 2009 Twitter had an estimated five million members after almost three years of operation, while Facebook had around 40 million members after six years. Google+'s rapid growth increases its chances of success.

While Google+ has a number of interesting features, the most intuitive and useful is Circles. Think "circle of friends" in which you have a circle of work buddies, a circle of friends from law school, a circle of people that you haven't seen since grade school but who always want to comment on your posts, etc.

Currently, I think of the big three as three circles — Facebook is very personal, Twitter is for content sharing with professionals, and Linkedin is for all my serious business contacts.

Google+ Circles makes a compelling argument: "You can have all three here in one service, and keep them separate."

What Google+ Has Going Against It

Let's face it — Google+ is late to the party. Although the tech community may be fast to move from Geocities to Friendster to MySpace to Facebook to Friendfeed, we really don't know if the average joe — prospective clients of yours in particular — will switch to a new social network.

Take my father for example. He is 63 years old and logs into Facebook every evening. Sort of. He logs into my Mom's account because he doesn't really like the idea of belonging to a social network. Google+ is going to have a difficult time assimilating many of the older generation that came kicking and screaming to Facebook. Have you ever tried to help convince an elderly person it's time to move into an assisted living center? It's near impossible. Facebook is just as "sticky" for most people as an elderly person's home.

My Recommendation for Midsize and Large Law Firms

Join Google+ and learn how to use it (let me know if you need an invite). Remember the contrarian rule of marketing? Go where your competitors aren't. If you practice intellectual property or environmental law, or work with technology companies (especially startups), your prospective clients are already hanging out on Google+, but not many lawyers have taken the time to do the same. When legal questions and issues arise, you will be well suited to demonstrate your expertise and build some new relationships.

Written by Adrian Dayton of Marketing Strategy and the Law.

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Nuance PaperPort Learns New Tricks in the Cloud

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Originally published on July 12, 2011 in our free SmallLaw newsletter. Instead of reading SmallLaw here after the fact, sign up now to receive future issues in realtime.

Who's on your list? You know which list I mean.

Deep within the folds and confines of your LinkedIn connections or Outlook contacts or Facebook friends or wherever exists the hub of all your business relationships, there is a small and very exclusive group — the people whose support and friendship has made the difference between success and failure for you.

Maybe you call them referral sources or key clients or just friends. What you call them and where you store them is less important than that they exist in the first place. I'm going to refer to them as VIPs for the sake of brevity.

Over the years, first as a practicing lawyer and later as a practice management advisor, I've heard many lawyers and marketing gurus refer to the need to compile a core group of 10, 15, or 20 people who comprise a professional's list of VIPs — the folks who help you build your practice and make your business world go round.

Top of Mind

It's not enough to build this group of VIPs though. You need to maintain contact with these heavy hitters — enough so you always remain top of mind when they need your skills, but not so much that you annoy them. Remembering enough detail about their lives that you demonstrate sincere interest, but not so much that you become creepy. (It's a fine line — remembering their kids' birthdays is okay, but remembering their spouse's yoga schedule is creepy.)

But with all the effluvia and ephemera that pass through the transoms of our minds and Facebook walls, there's not as much gray matter to remember the important stuff as we would hope.

CRM to the Rescue

CRM or client relationship management (companies outside the legal sector use the word "customer" instead) software can help. Long the province of salespeople, CRM software helps you manage your VIPs by enabling you to stay in regular touch with them, and reminding you of the important details of your relationship with them. It does this by:

1. Serving as the repository for all key information about your VIPs.

2. Reminding you when you interacted last with a VIP and what you talked about.

3. Prompting you to follow up with them in the timeframe you choose.

I realize this publication is called SmallLaw and not Selling Power, but don't let the sales origins of CRM software get you wrapped around the axle. When I was in college, I worked as a file clerk for a sole practitioner in a little hippie town in upstate New York. His "CRM" system consisted of a bunch of stuff typed on index cards. I know because I filed the cards.

Some CRM Options

When you start thinking about using CRM in your practice, it's important to recall that the end goal is strong relationships with your group of VIPs. Don't miss the forest for the trees, and become consumed by finding the CRM software with the most widgets, doodads, and gizmos. Find the product that best helps you connect with your VIPs.

Here's a test — if you are spending more time curating your VIP details in your CRM program than you are having lunch with your VIPs, you're on the wrong track.

As I've mentioned in previous SmallLaw columns, I'm a bit of techno-gadfly — and my experiments with CRM are no exception. I've tried 800 pound gorilla Salesforce (which TechnoLawyer uses), some more streamlined options that I liked (Highrise and BatchBook), and one or two forgettable options that ride on top of Outlook.

I can heartily recommend all three of the options I just listed. If you are in the market for CRM, they are each worth a look and all have free trials. The truth is, though, I don't use any of them. I found my personal CRM nirvana someplace else.

Back to the Inbox With Xobni

Covered several times in TechnoLawyer NewsWire, Xobni is a well-known Outlook add-on that helps users draw more functionality out of their email programs. I tried it years ago and was not terribly impressed — I don't keep enough email in Outlook for it to be particularly helpful so I cast it on the scrap heap of my discarded tech toys (if you use Outlook, check out that version).

Recently though, Xobni released Xobni for Gmail (currently in beta), which has provided the answer to my CRM needs. It pulls from all my contacts in Gmail, as well as their LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter information. It provides a graphical "relationship summary" of the frequency of our email exchanges and topics, including other people commonly included in our exchanges. And because in Gmail I keep all of my old messages, it draws on an unbelievably extensive history of information with each contact.

Best of all, though, it does all of this (courtesy of a Google Chrome extension) right in my Gmail inbox automatically without my needing to go to some other place to interact with it. It richly contextualizes my email exchanges when I need it and gets out of the way when I don't.

Xobni for Gmail does not have a task component built in, but that works for me anyway. I'm a bit of a Getting Things Done nerd (GTD — another three-letter acronym for a future SmallLaw column) so I use other tools for my task list.

Experiment for Yourself

Don't take my word for it. Try Xobni for Gmail or Outlook, Salesforce, Highrise, and Batchbook for yourself. See if one of them helps you keep track of your VIPs. They're your VIPs, after all. Shouldn't you treat them like that acronym?

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Today's issue of TL Answers contains these articles:

Harry Steinmetz, My Law Firm's Switch To Macs

Bryan Sims, How I Use Paper And What I Keep On Paper In My Paperless Law Office

Caren Schwartz, Review: CrashPlan, Gillware For Cloud Backup; Replacing Quicken

Ronald Cappuccio, Review: PHONEslips 12 For Client Relationship Management

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Originally published on June 28, 2011 in our free SmallLaw newsletter. Instead of reading SmallLaw here after the fact, sign up now to receive future issues in realtime.

You've got a problem. A big problem. Literally. Large law firms differ from small law firms in one important way — money. They've got it. We don't. They can invest hundreds of thousands into ad campaigns. How nice. For those of us in the trenches, taking grenades from every high school booster ad campaign or restaurant menu designer, advertising is a little less glamorous. Sure we'd love a billboard on every corner and a thirty second spot during primetime, but the Benjamins just ain't there! So what's a small fish to do in a big pond? Quit looking at our small size as a weakness, and recognize our strengths instead! Here's how.

Use Your Non-Billable Time Productively

One area where the lack of size matters is overhead. A small firm could run indefinitely on a large firm's monthly operating budget. Large firms are particularly vulnerable here as they've grown so accustomed to branding campaigns, gourmet cafeterias, and other such amenities for so long that they can't imagine practicing without them. They should at least cut the crappachino machine. But they won't. Their loss, your gain.

Time is on our side. While silent phones are disheartening, realize that because the large firm across town is responding to client emergencies around the clock they don't have time to learn new tricks like how to optimize their Web site for Google, or how to institute a paperless office. They'll just pay the next SEO shark lying in wait for a sucker to swim by — and not get much value for the big bucks they spend.

With your down time, you've made your way through Stephan Spencer, Rand Fishkin, and Jessie Stricchiola's The Art of SEO: Mastering Search Engine Optimization and learned about backlinks, content management systems, keyword-laden URLs, title tags, and more. With the money you saved by going paperless you now have enough scratch to get your Web site up and running. While the large firm lawyer across town just spilled his non-soy low-fat double-caramel latte on his monogrammed custom shirt while reviewing his slam-dunk marketing bill, you just took first place for "Seattle personal injury lawyer" on Google ninja style!

How Technology Created a New Frontier for Small Firms

Technology enabled small law firms to evolve from the primordial soup of big city boutique and small town general practice firms into the next big thing in our industry — more variety than even Darwin could imagine, including virtual practices. (Our ailing economy and the abysmal job prospects for law school graduates have also helped usher in this new era.)

Ten years ago the sole practitioner was revered as a sad little being that either couldn't play nice with the other children or didn't have the grades to get a job in a boutique or large firm. Back then if you wanted to go solo it helped to have a rich relative, preferably deceased. It took money. In my dad's day an electric typewriter was high-tech and the price tag reflected it. A small firm had to weigh the benefits of technology versus its cost.

Today, cost and technology rarely come at odds (except perhaps for those just out of law school). The new cost-benefit analysis focuses on technology versus productivity with a little cost sprinkled on top. For example, if you want to go paperless, buy a scanner for $450ish. Couple your new scanner with Dropbox, or any of the other myriad cloud services, and you've just gone paperless. Now a box of paper will last months rather than days. You will consume ink or toner only for printing court exhibits. Your filing cabinets hit eBay, and you stop sending a monthly check to that offsite storage provider.

Technology also empowers your marketing as intimated above. Before the advent of WordPress you had to understand Web development code such as ASP.Net or PHP if you wanted to create and maintain more than a brochure site. It was tough to learn and expensive to outsource. We were at the mercy of Web designers.

But now that you can register a domain for $10 per year, find great hosting options for under $100 per year, and run WordPress using a professionally-designed theme (I use Headway Themes) to make your site pop, you've got no excuse whatsoever to ignore the trend in our profession.

And what is that trend? That potential clients use Google for everything. Studies show that most folks will search for something before they ask the person sitting next to them. These people are searching for doctors, electricians, and yes even lawyers. And they're looking for answers, not your curriculum vitae. Lawyers publishing articles answering these questions are killing their competition.

What's in My Small Firm Toolbox?

I run a paperless office with a scanner and Dropbox. I ditched the fax machine in favor of an online fax-to-email service. $10 a month. I run www.clarkstewartlaw.com using WordPress (free) hosted by Bluehost ($80/year) so I don't have to learn code.

As I discussed extensively in my last SmallLaw column, I use an iPad 2 to remain paperless while in court and for many other mobile tasks. I use Fastcase (free on iPad or iPhone) for legal research, and Google Calendar and Gmail. And thanks to a very gracious offer during a current family hardship I'm having my calls answered by a virtual receptionist via Ruby Receptionist to lighten my load.

I learned how to do all this by reading SmallLaw and TechnoLawyer's other newsletters (I was a fan before I became a columnist) as well legal blogs like iPhone J.D. and Legal Practice Pro. I joined every legal email listserver I could find such as the ABA's Solosez. I also joined my state's criminal defense lawyers group. I now have access to legal marketing, mentoring, and beneficial technology for nothing more than my time!

In short, if you are willing to learn, technology can elevate your practice, enabling you to offer incredible value, once only available from large firms, to your clients at a fraction of the cost, thus beating the big boys at their own game. When that large firm across town shuts its doors, you can buy its crappachino machine at a discount.

How to Receive SmallLaw
Small firm, big dreams. Published first via email newsletter and later here on our blog, SmallLaw provides you with a mix of practical advice that you can use today, and insight about what it will take for small law firms like yours to thrive in the future. The SmallLaw newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

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Debate: Is the Paperless Office Possible?

Reid Trautz's 2011 Holiday Gift Guide for Lawyers

Legal Industry Q3: Robust Collections, Slowing Demand

How to Offer Free Samples to Attract New Clients (Video)

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Revisiting PDFs for Law Firm Websites and Mobile Publishing

Samsung Galaxy Nexus Versus Apple iPhone 4S

What They Don't Teach Law Students: Lawyering

Two Law Firm Ads Compared

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Review of Lexis Advance

In Defense of the Stylus

How to Negotiate Fee Agreements

Year of the Law Firm Web Site Makeover?

This issue also contains links to every article in the November/December 2011 issue of Law Practice and the November issue of Law Practice Today. Don't miss this issue or future issues.

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Today's issue of Fat Friday contains these articles:

Wandal Winn, Reviews Of Dictamus And Cloud Dictation

Mike O'Horo, Optimists Can Create Their Own Luck But Can Lawyers?

Karen Oakes, Review: Fujitsu Scansnap S1500

Michael Caldwell, Thoughts About The iPad And TechnoLawyer Product Reviews

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