Constant Content : Legal Ghostwriting & Content : Janet Raasch : Copy for Lawyers & Attorneys, Law Firm Business Development

As my regular readers know, I believe that most attorney biographies are a waste of valuable online real estate that only hit on one persuasive cylinder -- and not very well at that.

Marketing tools (and I include bios in this category) work best when they demonstrate three qualities (first outlined by Aristotle in his Rhetoric)  -- intelligence, good character (shared values) and friendliness (concern for the client).

Most attorney bios attempt to demonstrate intelligence through a boring list of credentials, and totally ignore shared values and client-centricity.  Intelligence can be further enhanced and client-centricity demonstrated by the use of good "case stories" (more than simple case citations) that show how you solve problems for clients.  Shared values can be demonstrated by personal quotes that demonstrate your personal and professional character.

Lawyer and consultant Larry Bodine elaborates on this subject in an excellent recent article, "Turning your bio into a magnet for business."

Smart lawyers turns their bios into a marketing magnet that generates leads, as opposed to a mere resume or a CV, which recites only your education and epxerience.  The trick is to turn a feature of yourself into a benefit to the client.

Bodine continues:

You may have a great resume, but it will just list all the place that you worked.  But when you go into practice, your bio should answer these questions:  What have you done for people?  What have you accomplished?  How have you helped people?  Can you give me some examples?  Writing a bio is completely different from a resume.  it really requires a mental shift.

I agree completely.  Invest in the re-writing of your attorney bio as a persuasive marketing document -- and then post this "profile" not only on your firm Web site, but also on the full range of relevant social networking and content sites.  By doing this, you can easily and inexpensively "own" the first page of search results for your name.

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Martindale-Hubbell recently launched a social network that includes both public and private groups for marketing professionals.  This week, I am guest-hosting forum conversations on this site on the subject of the use of persuasive content marketing to position lawyers and law firms as experts on the Internet.  So far, I've started threads on ghostblogging and attorney biographies/profiles.  For those of you who are already members of MH Connected, check it out and join the conversation.  If you have not yet joined, give it a try.  You might have to wait a day or two to be approved.

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According to research conducted for LexisNexis, 86 percent of lawyers under the age of 35 are members of social networks like LinkedIn, Facebook and MySpace.  Among lawyers age 46 and older, a surprising 66 percent are members of social media.  Obviously, the role of social networks in marketing a law practice cannot be ignored.

These stats were cited in an article that appeared in Sunday's The New York Times.  The article has received a lot of attention because it discusses the situation of a lawyer who was reprimanded and fined by the Florida Bar Association for an intemperate blog post.

All of those lawyers -- younger and older -- who are now using social media would to well to remember that publishing is publishing.  The ethics requirements governing the conduct of lawyers don't change just because you are online.  Use social media -- but do not publish anything there that you would not publish in a magazine or newspaper.

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Once you have created a bio/profile that works as a persuasive marketing piece on your Web site, be sure to add that content to the full range of social networking and media sites.  I am constantly amazed at the results these sites -- with their robust RSS -- generate in search engines.  I write and blog constantly, and post my articles to a wide variety of online content sites, but my social media profiles still show up higher in search engine results than any other catetory of content.

When I Googled my name earlier this week, the top two results were my JDSupra and LinkedIn profiles -- which consistently rank even higher than this well-tended blog.  Making a surprising showing at Number Ten was my Facebook profile -- which has long been a secondary effort.  Even so -- it shows up in the first page of Google results for "Janet Ellen Raasch."

According to an article in Sunday's The New York Times business section, Facebook expects to register its 200 millionth user this week:  "This saggering growth rate -- doubling in size in just eight months -- suggests Facebook is rapidly becoming the Web's dominant social ecosystem and an essential personal and business networking tool in much of the wired world."

Anecdotally, I would have to agree.  I have received more requests to "friend" old acquaintances on Facebook in the past month than in the past two years.  Something is happening here.  I am going to pay much closer attention to "working" that profile.  So should you.

Lawyers should Google their names to see what shows up on the first page of results and make every effort to "own" that first page of results.  Post high-qualify, professional profiles on LinkedIn, JDSupra, LegalOnRamp -- and even Facebook.  If you focus on personal injury, estate or family law, you should probably be on MySpace. 

Look in your search engine results for directories like AVVO that have created pages for all of the lawyers in quite a few states -- entries that often include nothing more than your name and address.  There is a lot of debate over the propriety of AVVO's tactics (especially its ranking feature), but an empty entry looks bad -- plain and simple.  It looks like you are inactive.  Complete AVVO and any other blank directory pages to include the profile that appears on your Web site and other sites.

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In my work as a writer and ghostwriter for lawyers, law firms and other professional services providers, I spend a lot of time doing research on the Internet.  I see a lot of service provider Web sites and online bios.  I see a lot "inside" Web pages -- including bios -- that do not include language that identifies the firm and what it does.  This is a mistake.

Not so long ago, most people would enter your Web site through its home page -- where they would discover what the firm does -- and click through to subsequent pages.  This is no longer the case.  Now that all pages of a Web site are optimized for search engines (as they should be), visitors can enter anywhere -- often skipping the home page entirely.  If they skip your home page, do they miss your marketing message?

Your firm's marketing message needs to appear on each page of its Web site -- preferably in the text itself, where it can be read by search engine spiders.  If your message is in "art" that automatically appears at the top of each page, the spiders are less likely to read it.

Your bios are the most-often-visited page on your Web site.  Each bio should begin with language that succintly describes the firm's (or practice area's) overall marketing statement.  It should continue with a statement of how the featured individual contributes to that overall effort -- and then the rest of the bio content.

In addition, since a potential client will often print a hard copy of an interesting bio for future reference (without its surrounding Web site pages), each bio must be capable of functioning as a stand-alone marketing document for the firm -- as well as the individual lawyer.

The same holds true when a law firm is posting lawyer profiles on social network or content sites.  If the firm is doing this on behalf of its lawyers (rather than the individual lawyers posting their profiles or content on their own time),  the firm will benefit from inclusion of the firm's simple marketing statement on each profile or item of content.

When it comes to getting your firm's marketing message across, and impressing search engine spiders, simple repetition is an important part of the game.  Make sure that your marketing message appears on each page of online content -- especially the popular individual bio pages.

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The blogosphere is currently abuzz with an object lesson in how NOT to use Twitter (or any other social medium, for that matter) for business development purposes.

An account executive from a large PR firm in Atlanta flew to Memphis to make a presentation to his big client -- FedEx.  Upon landing at the Memphis airport, he made the following Tweet:  "True confession but I'm in one of those towns where I scratch my head and say, 'I would die if I had to live here.'"

The Tweet was instantly picked up and circulated by a senior executive at FedEx, who was also using Twitter.  Turns out, the people at FedEx are quite fond of their home town.  The consultant's Tweet was immediately and publicly denounced as "inappropriate" by the FedEx corporate communications team -- before he had even arrived at the front door of this very important client.  Just try to imagine the reception!  And it is now all over the Internet.  Apologies have been issued.

What is the lesson here for lawyers and other professional services providers?  Social media are great tools -- but never, never, never post anything on a social network or other social media site that you would not want a client, a potential client or a reporter to read.  Social media are instantaneous and, because of the viral nature of the Internet, can rarely be completely recalled.  Think twice before you Tweet.

For more details about this incident, see David Henderson's blog.

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Of the 75 percent of U.S. adults who go online, 35 percent currently are using social networking sites like LinkedIn, Facebook or MySpace.  This is up dramatically from eight percent of adults just four years ago.  The trend is obvious!  These results were reported by the Pew Internet & American Life Project and summarized in a Jan. 29, 2009, Associated Press article.

Even though most social networkers still skew young, this is also starting to change.  Just last week, I received a number of Facebook requests from old college friends who are -- like me -- awfully close to age 60.  The average age of someone on LinkedIn is 40.  Social networking is not just for kids anymore! 

Another interesting thing pointed out by this article is that many social networkers have more than one profile on the same site.  This is important for professional services providers to remember.  Maintain a public profile for your "professional" self and other private profiles for your personal life.  For marketing purposes -- since these results will show up in a Google search by a client or a potential employer -- it's usually a good idea to keep the two separate.

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Social media are based on user-contributed content.  A social site provides an online framework and then opens it up to anyone (like you!) who would like to contribute content -- usually for free at an entry level and for an additional fee for additonal enhancements or privileges.  But always at a far less expensive cost than print alternatives like advertising.

What does this mean for you as you market your legal practice?  It means that you can post your own profile and work product on the Internet for everyone -- clients, potential clients, the media -- to see when they search for information about you or a particular legal subject area or issue.  You can add your profile and content to existing social networks like LinkedIn or Facebook -- and participate in legal groups on these sites.  You can add content to legal-specific sites like JDSupra or LegalOnRamp.  You can create your own site to host your content (a blog, for example) and post comments on the blogs of others.

Posting original samples of your work product is a great and inexpensive way to establish your reputation as a thought leader on the Internet -- and to improve your results in the seach engines.

In 2009, resolve to post at least one new item of content each month on the Internet.

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Social networking sites like LinkedIn bring the kind of interaction that lawyers and other professionals enjoy in "live" business, industry, professional, civic, religious, charitable and personal interest groups onto the Internet -- and supercharge it.  In this September 2007 article, commissioned by the Canadian Bar Association, Janet Ellen Raasch interviews lawyers, law firms and legal consultants about the legal marketing uses of online social networks.

Linked in or left out:  Software and the Internet supercharge social networking

Sidebar:  For the truly adventurous:  Law practice in Second Life

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The Legal Marketing Association recently launched its new member social network -- LMA Connect.  I've created a profile there and uploaded a few documents in order to give it a test drive.  Brett Wangman at LMA was very helpful.  A few suggestions:  It would be nice if you could make edits to documents (and document information) after you've made a download.  Currently, if you want to make a change, you have to delete an entry and start all over.  Also, it would be nice if documents could link to your profile -- like in JDSupra's setup.

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