Should Solo and Small Firm Lawyers Blog?

By Gina F. Rubel

Solo and small firm lawyers should blog if they wish to increase their online presence and relevancy. If you need convincing, read Why should lawyers take the time to blog? 

There are several ways for solo and small firm attorneys to blog. One way is to contribute to a relevant public blog once a month and link back to the firm’s website.  Another way is to develop a firm blog and populate it bi-weekly. 

It is also important to understand that there are different types of blogs relevant to your target audience.

Types of blog content for lawyers

Two types of blog content have proven most effective for lawyers: 

• timely posts about court decisions, legislative rulings, breaking news, etc., and 
• evergreen blog topics that are general and can be posted at any time and still be relevant to your target audience. 

Both types of posts are important for effective relationship development and legal marketing. 

Breaking news blogs

If you are going to blog about topics that are current, you must write the posts and publish them in a timely manner. If you’re discussing a Supreme Court decision and how it affects the firm’s target audience, you want to get it written and posted within 24 to 72 hours of the decision (preferably closer to the 24-hour mark). Otherwise, it’s no longer news and will garner less attention. These are the types of topics we refer to in process as “topics that need to be shared ASAP.”

Evergreen blogs

Evergreen topics are vital to your content marketing plan. These usually address issues that you deal with every day, issues that can be discussed in general terms and that don’t change frequently. Think about the questions that your clients ask you regularly (aside from “how much will it cost?”). Your answers make for great evergreen blogs. 

Evergreen blog content can be shared repeatedly over time, generating three and four times the amount of traffic and maximizing your investment in content marketing.

If you plan to develop a firm blog on your own, choose a blog URL and name relevant to your geographic region and/or area of practice. For more tips and instructions, see:How do you set up a free WordPress Blog?

How to Come up with Blog Topics

By Gina Rubel

 

Blogging does not have to be a daunting task for lawyers. As most blogs address a single topic in a short and concise manner, it should be easy to come up with blog topics that serve your target audience with information about your  areas of practice to establish you as an authority.

·         Keep a notepad next to your phone or keep notes in your mobile device. Every time a colleague, client or prospect asks you a substantive question, write it down. The answers to those questions are almost always worth blogging about.

·         If you’re a transactional attorney, consider every transaction for a blog topic. For example, every contract has many clauses. Contract attorneys can write short blogs about the benefits and/or pitfalls of various contract clauses such as termination clauses, non-compete clauses, liability clauses, etc.

·         Review your memos of law and briefs for substantive (non-fact-specific) content that can be edited and sanitized of client-specific information and turned into blogs.

·         Utilize materials from CLE programs and seminars you have presented for blog topics. In fact, CLE presentations are a great source of imagery to support blog topics (such as screenshots of a single PowerPoint slide that supports the premise of the blog post).

·         Set up a free Google Alert on specific topics in your area of practice and review them daily. If something is breaking in the news, you’ll be on top of it. If you do set up a Google Alert, consider creating a rule in your email system that sends the alerts to a dedicated folder that you check once a day. That way, alerts will not clutter your inbox.

·         Subscribe to or regularly review any of the following syndicated news feeds to stay on top of the issues being discussed by other firms throughout the country: Lexology, Mondaq, JD Supra, National Law Review.


·         Have someone record presentations you are giving and then have them transcribed. Edit the transcription into several blog posts.

What Goes Into an Avvo Rating, and Why Should You Care?

By Gina Rubel

As legal marketers, we field questions from attorneys all the time about Avvo – what it is, what its lawyer “ratings” are based upon, and whether attorneys should pay it in any mind.

Founded in 2006 in Seattle by former Expedia general counsel Mark Britton, Avvo is an attorney rating and directory website that aims to “match consumers with the best possible fit for legal representation.” It enables potential clients to research lawyers by city, state and practice area and to submit requests for legal advice, among other things.

Lawyer referrals go high-tech

Britton and co-founder Paul Bloom raised millions in venture capital to launch Avvo, which they envisioned becoming a name brand nationwide resource.

“When you are looking for a book, there’s Amazon; when (you) travel, you have Expedia; for jobs, there’s Monster; and when it comes to search, there’s Google. But when it comes to legal, there’s nothing,” Britton told the Seattle Times in a 2007 interview.

In the years since then, Avvo has raised millions in funding, including $71.5 million in 2015 to expand its product offerings, boost its headcount, and increase its marketing efforts. According to Bloomberg Business, the site is valued at $650 million.

Attorney ‘ratings’

By far Avvo’s most contentious offering is its ratings system, which assigns a numerical value to attorneys in its vast directory. Shortly after the site’s launch in 2007, it found itself in the legal crosshairs of two Seattle attorneys who took umbrage at the site’s ratings, alleging it engaged in “unfair and deceptive practices by falsely claiming to be objective, reliable and factual.” The suit was dismissed by a federal judge who wrote, “Neither the nature of the information provided nor the language used on the Web site would lead a reasonable person to believe that the ratings are a statement of actual fact,” Lasnik wrote.

So what does all of this mean for attorneys? Should lawyers care about their Avvo rating?

In short, yes, but first, it is helpful to understand how those ratings come to be.

Avvo calculates a rating for a lawyer, with 10 being the highest, using a mathematical formula based upon the information provided to Avvo in a lawyer’s profile and from public records such as state bar associations and law firm websites. Therefore, an Avvo rating often has little to do with an individual attorney’s prowess, and instead is based upon how thoroughly an attorney has filled out his or her Avvo profile. That sometimes leads to situations where well-regarded attorneys who have practiced for decades will have lower Avvo ratings than less experienced attorneys who have claimed and updated their Avvo profile.

Avvo’s marketing investment can benefit your practice

Remember that $71.5 million in funding we mentioned? Avvo is pouring some of that money into advertising its site, which now claims 8 million unique visits each month. Attorneys can benefit from that traffic in various ways:

• Individual Avvo profiles appear very high in Internet search results. If you’re an attorney, Google your name and see if your Avvo profile appears on the first page of results; there’s a good chance it will.
• Avvo provides free online real estate of which attorneys should take ownership. If your name is on it, you want to be able to exercise as much control over it as possible.
• Avvo ratings are important to consumers (just like Super Lawyers).
• High Avvo ratings can be used for firm marketing efforts.
• Avvo profiles allow attorneys to link to their firm’s website, boosting the traffic to the website.

Although claiming your Avvo profile sometimes can be tedious, we advise clients to invest the time in doing so. But don’t stop there; a surprising number of lawyers claim their Avvo profile and then do nothing with it. It is important to fill in an Avvo profile completely in order to ensure it accurately reflects a lawyer’s credentials and experience. It’s also just as important to maintain that profile and keep it updated.

Adding relevant, current information to a lawyer’s profile can translate into “points” toward Avvo’s calculated rating. We advise attorneys to fill out as much of their Avvo profile as possible, to help achieve as high a rating as possible.

In a future blog post, we will share tips on ways attorneys can boost their rating, looking at the factors that influence an Avvo rating – and those that don’t.

Is Your Law Firm Making These Social Media Mistakes?

By Megan Quinn

Social media in general and its various platforms in particular are not always easy for lawyers to fully understand, much less embrace. Social media engagement also is something that must be maintained over time to be successful. Unfortunately, too many attorneys and other professionals refuse to invest the time and energy needed in order to use social media as a successful public outreach tool, and so end up doing it poorly.

Other industries that adopted social media sooner have invested that time and energy into social media plans. They’ve practiced and learned from their mistakes, making them better marketers in the process. Getting the most out of social media requires the three Ps: practice, patience, and perseverance. It requires calculation and investment. It also requires a willingness to overcome preconceived notions about social media. Below are five mistakes attorneys often make regarding social media.

1. Thinking that simply being on social media equals engagement with target audiences. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Social media platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter allow you to engage with your audiences, but this can be tricky because it requires actual two-way participation. Social media is not like a billboard or a newspaper ad. You can’t just push, push, push out your own content and messaging. It has got to be a real conversation.
2. Deserting a social media account when you’re not the getting results you expected. Great outcomes from social media marketing take careful planning and lots of time. Earning the users’ trust is key, and that can take months, if not years. Posting consistently about current industry happenings, commenting on others’ posts and being part of the conversation can help establish your credibility.
3. Not knowing the difference between social media platforms. For example, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn each have different posting and image standards so it’s important to research each platform before diving in. Put in the time and effort to understand each platform and tailor your posts according to each network’s best practices are the best ways to boost the results of your social media marketing. 
4. Not tracking and measuring metrics. This can be the most difficult task for attorneys to accomplish for several reasons. First, because many want to be able to draw a straight line between a social media post and a new client, and that often just can’t be done. Second, breaking down metrics is time-consuming and requires an in-depth understanding of each platform in order to determine whether what you are doing is working.
5. Not driving your social traffic to your website. Social media offers an opportunity for law firms to engage online with all target audiences and, by doing so, to be seen as a valuable resource. When a potential client or referral source has a legal issue, guess who they will be calling first? The firm that comes to mind first. That's where content marketing comes in. Sharing links to your firm’s blog posts about trends in the industry or to news items should point back to the firm's website. This will help you establish a following and keep you top of mind for the day when they do need your services.

The only way to truly know if your social media marketing plan is working is to define SMART goals – specific, measurable, achievable, results-focused, and time-bound. What are your goals for your social media marketing plan? What tools or approaches have worked for you? We’d love to hear your thoughts.

6 Things Google Analytics Can Tell You About Your Marketing

By Kim Tarasiewicz

At Furia Rubel, we build many of our clients' websites and also provide hosting on a dedicated server. Part of our website services involve checking Google Analytics to see how those sites are performing. An analytics program can provide a bird's eye view of how many visitors are using your site each month, among other things. By defining your parameters in detail, you can even see how many visitors go to a certain page each day, month or quarter. When used properly, Google Analytics can provide crucial information on your customers/clients that can be used in the marketing process throughout the year.

Several of the key metrics we look for when compiling data to share with clients are outlined below. Depending on your marketing and advertising needs, different reports may be more or less important to your business. You will need access to your company's analytics account associated with your website to view your reports.

The traffic report shows the number of visitors to your site, this number should increase or at least remain consistent if your site is performing well. When using analytics properly, you should be able to increase the number of visitors to your site by reviewing behavior on your site and making edits to pages as needed. For example, by checking the "Organic Search Traffic page", you will see the number of visitors that used a search engine and which keywords they used to find the site. You can then incorporate additional related keywords into the site which should increase traffic.

The channel report image above provides a perfect overview to HOW visitors arrived at the site. This area can be used to develop or tweak your marketing plan. If your business determines that they want to increase their social media leads to the website, you can review the current social media number which in this case is very low (0.27%) and after running a social media campaign, check back to see if your percentages have increased, hopefully giving your campaign validation.

Referral traffic is important to evaluate as it shows which outside websites are sending online traffic to your company's website. This could be in the form of a news story that links to your website as part of the story, or it could be a partner company that has a link to your website on their site for referral traffic. It is important to follow-up on these resources, grow your network connections, and promote your company, in order to increase online visitors.


The device overview report will show you from what type of device your clients are accessing your website. On the report example above, 88.49% of these website users are using a desktop computer, perhaps visiting the site as they work. As the number of people accessing your site from a mobile device increase, you should consider building a mobile, responsive version of your website to provide those mobile visitors with content that is optimized to display on small screens.

Reviewing the pages report will show you which pages have the most traffic and have created the most interest. This will give you an idea of what your readers are looking for and allow you to add additional material such as blogs or media stories around that subject, with the goal of increasing traffic to your site.

If your marketing plan is to target certain geographic areas, you may want to review the location report to see what country or which state your viewers are coming from. This report can be narrowed down by clicking on the country, then the state which will eventually show the local towns visitors are in when viewing your site.

Google Analytics can be customized by day and date, locations, new and returning visitors etc. and can be an ideal tool to use in measuring your marketing tactics. Before your team sits down to create next year's goals and plan, do a little research in analytics and give your team cutting edge information to increase opportunities for a successful year.

Developing an App for Your Law Firm

By: Laura Powers

Supurb case study session today on mobile app dev from @BGLLP @nakosar #LMA14
— Laura Powers (@LPPowers) April 4, 2014

We have been studying the landscape of law firm apps closely this past year. Many firms are reluctant to invest the required time, resources and energy into app development - and with good cause. Most apps developed for law firms are simply an extension of the firm's website. This neither benefits the user, who can access the same information just as easily online, nor the law firm which inevitably will have invested heavily in the app's development and marketing.

The key to building successful apps for the legal industry is in the strategic development of the idea that makes the app useful to the firm's target audience. Firms that are interested in apps need to think critically about what makes an app valuable for users and different from existing apps.

This year, at the Legal Marketing Association’s Annual Conference, I attended a superb presentation by a team from Bracewell & Giuliani. The team described the planning, development, design, integration and marketing of their ShalePlay app, a resource for news and information related to shale gas and hydraulic fracturing. The process took two years of hard work, many hours of critical thinking and in-depth strategic planning, but it has been tremendously successful for the firm as a result.

As I typically do at the presentations I attend, I live-tweeted information from the session. Below, I've distilled some of the main points from these tweets.

• There are two primary areas of concern in app development. The first is targeting the right market - knowing the audience for the tool. The second is "doing mobile right" - considering that, to app users, mobile means immediacy, simplicity & context.


• The team from Bracewell & Giuliani recommends that if you're not going to enable push notifications, don't bother with an app at all. You need to ping users in order to keep the app top-of-mind. If you do plan on sending out push notifications through your firm's mobile app, it should be at a frequency of three to five times during the week.


• The team from Bracewell & Giuliani also recommends that the firm take into serious consideration how the app will fit into the overall brand. In considering what direction to go in the planning phase, start with what the firm knows best. In Bracewell & Giuliani's case, it was their environmental strategies work.


• When developing an app for a law firm, always start with a content plan. Ask yourselves, what content do we usually generate and what is lacking in the app marketplace?


• A critical concern for law firm to consider is that apps need to be useful for potential users, fit into the context of each particular firm and provide a unique value.


• Creating an RFP (request for proposal) for third-party app development is a process that will involve many teams within the firm: marketing, business development, knowledge management, IT and procurement.


• Careful consideration must be given to content management platforms, graphic design and creating the name of the app.


• The extra benefits of mobile apps for law firms include the opportunity to reach out to your audience with a useful tool through direct outreach, article writing or speaking publicly on the benefits of using the app.


• Just like your website, your firm's mobile app is an evolving tool that serves the business – it works to promote the firm to various target audiences.


• Don't overlook measurement and ROI. By measuring the app's performance, Bracewell & Giuliani can demonstrate how the mobile app has opened doors to new clients and generated beneficial conversations with current clients.


• Paul Grabowski, from Bracewell & Giuliani, notes that firms must start looking at new ways to distribute information and ShalePlay is a primary example of this.


• Three key elements of digital marketing to remember: target your market, generate relevant content and stay socially engaged. Launching a law firm app should support all three.

However, there is one caution to keep in mind when evaluating how an app would enhance your law firm's marketing plan. In order for the apps to be successful, people must already know the firms they belong to. In most cases, potential clients must know about a firm before downloading their app. This means that firms need to be reaching out to prospective clients through other marketing techniques first.

Foursquare for Professionals: 4 Easy Steps to Take Control of an Online Presence You May Not Even Know You Have

By Sarah Larson

My campaign for mayorship of my neighborhood is flagging, but I am still the mayor of The Larder, in Doylestown, our favorite condo in Ocean City, MD, The Blacktail Meadows Kids Fish Pond in Dillon, MT, and, of course, the Furia Rubel office.

No, I’m not talking about an actual elected office.

I am “mayor” of all those places on Foursquare, the location-based social networking app. You may not have heard of it, but your clients have – and they may already be on it talking about your firm without you.

That is enough reason for us here at Furia Rubel to advise our clients to get to know social networks beyond Facebook and Twitter. Public discourse takes place online in today’s world, and even if you’re not part of the conversation on a particular platform – yet – you need to know what other people are saying.

More than 45 million people use Foursquare, the company said in January 2014. That is phenomenal growth from the network’s birth in March 2009, when founders Dennis Crowley and Naveen Selvadurai launched it at South by Southwest Interactive in Austin, Texas.

More than 1.5 million businesses already are marketing themselves on Foursquare, claiming their listings, offering specials to customers, and using check-in information to glean insights into where their customers are coming from. The goal: ensuring that those customers come back.

So what is Foursquare? After downloading the mobile app, people use their mobile devices to “check in” to the places they visit. Picking up the dry cleaning? Whip out your phone and check in. Stopping at the grocery store? There’s another check in. Grabbing a latte at the coffee shop? Check in again. For a primer on all the things you can do, check out Foursquare 101.

You might be asking why anyone would do this. What’s the point?

When I first started using Foursquare in 2010, it was mostly for fun. Competitive by nature, I was attracted to the ability to earn points and “badges” by performing specific tasks. On Nov. 6, 2012, I checked in at my local polling place and earned the “I Voted 2012” badge. On April 7, 2013, I snagged the “Super Swarm” badge when I (along with more than 250 other people) checked into Citizens Bank Park to watch the Phillies play the Kansas City Royals. On Feb. 24, 2014, I earned the “Navigator” badge when I checked in to the National Air and Space Museum.

Foursquare is still fun for me and the millions of other people who use it daily. From cupcake shops to craft breweries, customers are checking in, earning badges, sharing photos and leaving tips for others. But today, I actually use Foursquare to shape my behavior – read: I use it to decide where to go, what to see and do, and how to spend my money.

On a recent trip to Washington D.C., I opened up Foursquare to search for a restaurant near my hotel. I checked the ratings and tips left by previous Foursquare users and ended up at a sushi joint a few blocks’ walk away.

Because of its interactive, public nature, Foursquare is most useful for retail and entertainment venues that court customer foot traffic. Professional service providers such as lawyers and accountants may be tempted to ignore Foursquare, assuming it doesn’t readily apply to them.

While we don’t advise professional providers to devote much time and effort to Foursquare marketing at this time, we do advise firms to take control of their Foursquare listings now. Remember, anyone can create a Foursquare listing for any location. A law firm client may already have created a Foursquare listing for your office so he or she can check in there. That is part of your online presence, and you should be in control of the information that appears there, to the fullest extent possible.

If you’re a professional service provider who is new to Foursquare, here’s what you should do:

1. From a desktop computer, visit the Foursquare website  and search for your business name and location. If someone already has created a listing for your business, click on the “select” button. If not, you can add it by clicking on the link at the bottom.

2. Enter your phone number to receive a call to verify your ownership of the listing; when the call comes in, provide the information requested.

3. You don't need to pay $20 for an expedited verification; check the box for Foursquare to send you the verification by mail for free.

4. Once you have control of your listing, add a photo and list important information, including a description of your business, your address and phone number, the hours that your office is open, and a link to your website.

As with all social media, remember that ethics rules govern what lawyers, financial advisors and other professionals can and cannot – or should and should not – say on public platforms. Taking control of your Foursquare listing, however, is a safe and easy step to protect your company’s brand online. And once you start using Foursquare personally, you may find out you like it.

Just don’t try to take my mayorship.

The 12 Days of Legal Social Media

By Sarah Larson

Social media can be a field of landmines for lawyers and their marketers. It's all too easy to tweet a statement or post a blog piece that ends up running afoul of ethics rules for legal marketing.

That's why so many legal marketing agencies, Furia Rubel included, spend so much time advising attorneys and their marketers on the ins and outs of social media. We field questions from clients and colleagues and write about both the opportunities and the things to be wary of when attorneys and law firms turn their attention toward social media.

In honor of the holidays, the Legal Marketing Association Social Media Special Interest Group has pulled together some amazing resources in their 12 Days of Social Media list. The 9th day's list is a handy compendium of legal marketing blogs that should be on everyone's daily reading list. Furia Rubel was honored to be listed among them, but there are plenty more to check out.

To see which legal bloggers are leading the way in thought leadership, check out LMA's website.

While you're at it, be sure to check out the previous days' offerings. From advice on using LinkedIn to funny videos of LMA leaders to 12 Tips for Twitter, you'll find plenty of great information to help you make some new year's social media resolutions.

Do Google AdWords Work for Law Firm Marketing?

By Gina Rubel

We were asked recently about the efficacy of Google AdWords campaigns in marketing law firms, specifically to other businesses.

AdWords is Google’s paid advertising platform which can help drive traffic to your website. It takes advantage of Google searches, which people perform each day, and serves up advertisements for related products on the top and right hand side of the search results pages. It is called Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising, a name which speaks for itself.



Running an AdWords campaign may or may not work for your law firm marketing efforts. It depends on what you are trying to accomplish. This form of paid advertising has both advantages and disadvantages; it’s more complicated than just telling Google that you want an ad to appear, since more than 1 billion searches are conducted on the site daily.

It is also important to understand that there are various types of AdWords campaigns. For example, a “Search Network – Standard” targets your ads to high-potential customers searching for your services but does not allow for use of AdWords’ advance settings. More specific details about the features available for each campaign type are available on Google’s AdWords > Help > Setup and basics page.


Advantages of Google AdWords for Law Firm Marketing:

• AdWords ads give visibility to businesses whose sites are buried behind other companies’ pages on Google search results. This provides businesses with the opportunity to attract new customers.

• As with most Google products, AdWords is user-friendly and offers step-by-step instructions to create an advertisement with options tailored to your needs.

• The quick set up process and ability to set a maximum budget can be financially beneficial if the marketing budget is tight and the business does not have enough content (yet!) to appear on the first page of Google search results without paid help.

• Your advertisement has the potential to appear on thousands of other sites across the web, depending on how you set up visibility options. Remember that this may increase the expense of ads, but knowing your audience and anticipating how they conduct their web searches will allow a higher return on your investment.

• In a short amount of time, AdWords will help you identify the keyword phrases that are most effective for your firm, which can then be used in your organic search engine optimization efforts. No other keyword research tool compares with the data you will get from running an AdWords campaign.

Disadvantages of Google AdWords for Law Firm Marketing:

• Not all clicks are good clicks, so there is a chance of wasting money. For example, if you are a personal injury lawyer, a broad keyword search can rack up a hefty cost-per-click bill in a short amount of time.

• There are no competitors to Google AdWords; therefore, there is no other company with which to compare data. Google has a monopoly on this one.

• You have 70 characters to sell your business. This line would be it.

• Since AdWords is a money maker for Google, the company is interested in resolving issues. Still, Google is an enormous company, and customer support may be spotty; you may have to “google” for help instead of calling someone directly.

AdWords for Law Firms Considerations

Ask yourself what type of return you want to get from your investment. Determine how much money you would need to invest in AdWords to accomplish that return. Tailor your AdWords campaign to reach a very specific target audience (assuming that target audience is finding legal services through advertising and the web).

As far as its efficacy for B2B marketing, it depends on the purchaser of your services. For example, if your law firm handles government contracting, the likelihood of AdWords being advantageous to your business development efforts may be very slim. On the other hand, if you are a person injury, workers’ compensation, family law or criminal defense law firm, AdWords may prove valuable.

In any event, it may be more advantageous to launch an organic search engine optimization (SEO) campaign. Leveraging your law firm news, press releases and blog posts; creating content-rich videos that appeal to your target audience; engaging in media relations; building relationships; sharing valuable content via social media networks such as LinkedIn; and presenting online CLEs are just a few tactics we execute for our clients to boost their visibility in online search.

Remember, it is the organic, well-placed, relevant content that will remain on the Internet long after an AdWords campaign has ended.

New Jersey Bona Fide Office Rule Change Closes Doors - The Legal Intelligencer Blog

As you know, Gina F. Rubel is a regular blogger for The Legal Intelligencer. She often writes about legal marketing and ethics, social media and the law and much more. Last week, Gina shared a post about a recent state Supreme Court amendment to NJ Rule 1:21-1 (Bona Fide Office). Gina shared the following excerpt from the ABA/BNA Lawyers’ Manual on Professional Conduct which highlights the specific revisions to the rule:

"The modifications, which take effect Feb. 1, drop a controversial mandate that required lawyers to maintain a fixed physical office location. However, the amended rule instructs lawyers who don't have a fixed office location to:

• maintain a system ensuring ‘prompt and reliable communication’ with clients, other attorneys and courts, such as a telephone service staffed during ordinary business hours, or a promptly returned voicemail or email service;
• be available for in-person consultations requested by clients at mutually convenient times and places;
• designate an actual location for inspection of files and records, hand deliveries and service of process; and
• fill out a form appointing the clerk of the New Jersey Supreme Court as agent for service of process.”

Read the full blog post and learn more about the modifications to NJ Rule 1:21-1 by visiting The Legal Intelligencer blog.

PRSA Philly 2012 Pepperpot Awards - Furia Rubel's Awards & Acceptance Videos

As you may have already heard, Furia Rubel was the recipient of several Public Relations Society of America - Philadelphia Chapter 2012 Pepperpot Awards in December. Our agency compiled acceptance videos for two of our three honors in the categories of brand management and website design. Below see our animated acceptance videos - we are not only proud of the awards, but also our accompanying videos...

Furia Rubel has long been Philadelphia personal injury law firm Feldman Shepherd Wohlgelernter Tanner Weinstock & Dodig LLP's agency of record, providing strategic marketing and public relations counsel and services to the law firm. We designed a new website focused on increasing awareness of Feldman Shepherd’s successes while reinforcing the firm’s brand and national reputation through a myriad of communication tactics. The campaign resulted in more than 14 million media impressions and a consistent increase in visibility supporting business development.

Seeking top-of-mind awareness among existing and potential clients, Para-Plus Translations, Inc. contacted Furia Rubel for strategic assistance in 2011. In 2012, we designed and launched the new Para-Plus website, www.para-plus.com, garnering a top nod from PRSA Philadelphia. The website was designed to segment translation and interpretation services while providing more user-centric content and a streamlined experience. The results were increased site visits by 120 percent within 40 days, increased average length of visits and more online inquiries with less emphasis on phone screening.

We do hope you enjoyed these videos featuring illustrations by Pat Achilles and animation by TD Post & Animation.

Damages: Recap from TLI Litigation Summit, Part V - The Legal Intelligencer Blog

In September 2012, Gina F. Rubel attended The Legal Intelligencer's first annual Litigation Summit and captured highlights from various programs shared throughout the event. She recently authored a blog for The Legal titled, "Damages: Recap from TLI Litigation Summit, Part V," which recaps the damages program presented by Frank D. Tinari, the principal economist of the Tinari Economics Group, along with Kristin Kucsma from the same organization; Jane A. North, a partner with Deasey, Mahoney, Valentini & North; and Lawrence R. Cohan, a shareholder with Anapol Schwartz. Read the full blog post and take-aways from the program at Damages: Recap from TLI Litigation Summit, Part V.

Social Media and the Courts: Recap From TLI Litigation Summit, Part IV – The Legal Intelligencer Blog

Gina F. Rubel recently authored a blog for The Legal Intelligencer titled, “Social Media and the Courts: Recap From TLI Litigation Summit, Part IV.” To provide you with a bit of background, in September 2012, The Legal hosted its first annual Litigation Summit in Philadelphia and Gina co-moderated its lunch program with Mary Platt of Griesing Law. Program panelists included Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas President Judge Pamela P. Dembe; Judge John W. Herron, administrative judge of the court’s Trial Division; and President Judge Marsha H. Neifield of the Philadelphia Municipal Court. Gina's blog is an overview of what the panel discussed – specifically highlighting how social media has affected litigation in the courts. To read the full post, go to The Legal Intelligencer Blog.

Law Firm Crisis Planning and Management: Lessons Learned from #Sandy - Lawyernomics Blog

Gina Rubel recently authored a blog for Avvo.com's Lawyernomics blog titled, "Law Firm Crisis Planning and Management: Lessons Learned from #Sandy." The blog explores crisis management for businesses and how Furia Rubel and its law firm colleagues on the East Coast dealt with the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. Gina discusses crisis planning and management issues such as life without electricity, transportation / travel, social media and crisis messaging. To read the full article, go to Avvo.com's Lawyernomics Blog.

U.S. News & World Report Best Lawyers Survey – To Participate or Not to Participate, That’s the Question

Posted by Leah Ludwig

Every year, legal marketers across the U.S. debate the need and validity of the U.S. News & World Report Best Lawyers Survey. Some firms have decided to boycott it altogether, while others participate and use their inclusion for marketing, public relations and business development value. Last year, my colleague Gina Rubel asked her legal marketing colleagues on a national listserv if they knew of any law firms or in-house counsel that subscribe to Best Lawyers and use the subscription to guide decisions about hiring counsel.

A marketing director in Virginia said that her firm has in fact received business from their listing in Best Lawyers after linking an attorney’s Best Lawyer profile to the firm’s website. She said that within 12 hours, the attorney had received a call from a prospect who had gone to the Best Lawyer site and saw the attorney’s profile. The attorney was hired with a substantial retainer on what turned out to be a multi-million dollar case. This marketer also said that she knows of lawyers in her own firm who have been contacted by other attorneys who search the deep link listings in Best Lawyers to find other Best Lawyers for referrals. Her firm has had several matters referred to it as a result.

On the other hand, there are many legal marketers who do not see value in Best Lawyers and feel that it is an “arbitrary ranking / metric driving poor business decisions.” To read more about this reasoning, visit Larry Bodine’s LawMarketing Blog.

It is understood that responding to any ranking survey is an investment of lawyer and staff time. The benefits certainly need to outweigh the time investment. That said, when an attorney or law firm is ranked, there is a credibility factor that goes along with it. But the ranking in and of itself, is not what is going to benefit the firm. It’s what the firm does with it. For example, issuing a press release, sharing the release on the firm’s website and via social media, updating attorney bios and adding the news to the firm’s newsletter – are all ways to capitalize on such an investment.

This has been a recent topic of discussion with many of our law firm clients and partners – and to reiterate, the choice is ultimately up to each law firm to decide on the value of the opportunity and whether or not their firm plans to strategically capitalize on its investment with supporting promotional efforts.

Social Media and Electronic Communication Statistics Lawyers Should Not Ignore – The Legal Intelligencer Blog

In her blog post for The Legal Intelligencer, Gina Rubel discusses how social media and electronic communications are critical legal marketing tools that cannot and should not be overlooked by law firms and lawyers. She also explores statistics and trends about social media tools and electronic communications. To read more, go to the blog post: Social Media and Electronic Communication Statistics Lawyers Should Not Ignore.

RFP Management – Tips from Pros

By Leah Ludwig

A few weeks ago, I attended a Delaware Valley Law Firm Marketing Group program titled, “RFPs: Meet the Experts.” If you play any type of role in your firm’s communications efforts, I’m sure you have dealt with writing and/or answering an RFP (also known as a request for proposal).

Wikipedia describes RFPs in this way: “An RFP is issued at an early stage in a procurement process, where an invitation is presented for suppliers, often through a bidding process, to submit a proposal on a specific commodity or service. The RFP process brings structure to the procurement decision and is meant to allow the risks and benefits to be identified clearly up front.”

Many people dread the RFP process. This was echoed by the extensive panel of law firm marketing professionals including: James T. Austin, director of publications at Pepper Hamilton LLP; Cheryl Disch, senior manager of marketing information systems at Duane Morris LLP; Sharen Nocella, director of marketing at Obermayer Rebmann Maxwell & Hippel LLP; and Katherine L. Rebechi, marketing coordinator at Pepper Hamilton LLP.

The panelists discussed how to evaluate an RFP; how the marketing department can help in the RFP process; elements of a winning RFP response; what to do after the RFP; and some common problems professionals encounter during this process. Some of the helpful tips that I took away from the discussion were as follows:

• Read (really read) an RFP in its entirety before deciding if it is a good fit for your firm.

• The quality of the RFP (meaning the incorporated details, the organization of the document and scope of work, etc.) should help your firm decide if working with that company would be a good fit.

• Learn from past experiences and trust your gut. If the company has issued you various RFPs, all which you have not won and that tend to be won by another firm, take a hint and save yourself some time.

• Do not hesitate to call the company requesting responses and ask questions of the company. The answers to these questions will often provide you with key insight which may help your firm in deciding if you will move forward with providing a response.
- Ask how many other firms were included in the RFP process.
- Ask detailed questions about the scope of the work requested.
- Gauge the tone of the conversation, and the spokesperson’s willingness to provide information, etc.

• Make sure that your firm does not have any conflicts with the company before taking the time to respond.

• Create some sort of template system – index standard RFP question responses.

• Respond to the RFP precisely as requested – follow all guidelines and adhere to criteria.

• If you do not win the RFP process, call the company and ask what your firm could have done better – use this as a learning process.

• Record time spent on RFP responses and RFP success percentages and be ready to share feedback with upper management.

I found the DVLFMG program and the panelists’ feedback to be very helpful and I hope that these take-aways help you streamline your next RFP experience.

Avvo Webinar: Integrated Marketing For Law Firms With Gina Rubel

Posted by Amanda Walsh

The Avvo webinar hosted by Gina Rubel that we wrote about last week is now up on Vimeo for your viewing pleasure. Learn about implementing a strategic approach to integrated marketing for your law firm.


Integrated Marketing for Law Firms with Gina Rubel from Avvo on Vimeo.

A big thank you to Avvo for hosting the webinar!

Acceptance & Adoption Of Digital Communications

Posted by Leah Ludwig

Gina Rubel was recently published in the Burlington County Bar Association's legal publication - The Straight Word. The article, "Acceptance & Adoption of Digital Communications - It's Not About You," discusses how engaging in social media is all about who you're trying to reach, where they are, and how they wish to be communicated with. And more importantly, it's about great lawyering. That's the biggest mind shift that changes how we have to communicate. To read the full article, go to Acceptance & Adoption of Digital Communications.

Integrated Marketing For Law Firms - Free Webinar On Aug. 4, 2011

Posted by Gina Rubel

Join me tomorrow, August 4, 2011, at 1 p.m. EST for a free Avvo webinar titled Integrated Marketing for Law Firms.

Lawyers and legal marketers understand their firm needs a website, a logo and even business cards. Many also understand the benefit of a blog, email newsletters, online profiles and public relations campaigns. But not many lawyers know where to start and how to strategically piece together each marketing initiative so that they support the brand, key messages and ultimately bring in more business. I will discuss how you can put together an effective integrated marketing plan and best practices for ensuring its implementation is a success.

Lawyers who participate in this webinar will learn about: brand identity and message creation; developing a marketing plan to reaching a target audience; and how to integrate each marketing initiative to ultimately bring in more business.