Online Thought Leadership & Reputation Management LeadershipSBOT Hyatt Lost Pines - Bastrop October lexBlog TM Building Blogs for Lawyers

2 lexBlog TM Building Blogs for Lawyers What we’ll cover Why become a thought leader? Ability to become a thought leader online Online tools for becoming a thought leader Small town lawyer who became national thought leader solely via online tools

Why? Professionally rewarding Personally rewarding Opportunity to serve others Right thing to do 3 lexBlog TM Building Blogs for Lawyers

4 lexBlog TM Building Blogs for Lawyers Professionally rewarding Become “lawyers’ lawyer” Learn from other leaders –Professionally –Personally Better skills More confidence

5 lexBlog TM Building Blogs for Lawyers Personally rewarding Feels good Spouse/partner happier Role model for children Financially rewarding –You & spouse/partner –Children & grandchildren –Society

6 lexBlog TM Building Blogs for Lawyers Helps others Bar Lawyers Civic & business groups Society Image of our profession

Ability to do it Easier than ever Build muscles by acting outside your comfort zone Opportunity lies online Online for all ages 7 lexBlog TM Building Blogs for Lawyers

8 lexBlog TM Building Blogs for Lawyers The how: online tools Blogging Social media LinkedIn Twitter

9 lexBlog TM Building Blogs for Lawyers What’s a professional law blog? Web site Covers niche area of law or locale Published by one lawyer or practice group Directed to regular readers within target audience of blog publisher As easy to update as writing an - no coding experience needed Distributes content via RSS and Unique domain name & url address Found via search engines or known domain

What it’s not? Journal Posts archived by calendar Blend of personal information, random thoughts and political views with legal information & insight 10 lexBlog TM Building Blogs for Lawyers

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11 lexBlog TM Building Blogs for Lawyers Blog advantages New blog launched quickly Easy to use - learning curve is low Inexpensive Comprehensive publishing, content syndication (RSS) and interactive communication tool

12 lexBlog TM Building Blogs for Lawyers Relationship to your firm’s Web site Complementary to site How you network and enter conversation with thought leaders Draw traffic to site & lawyer bios

13 lexBlog TM Building Blogs for Lawyers Advantages to you Enhances your reputation as trusted and reliable authorities Establish brand based on expertise Educational & tasteful Syndication of content via RSS Far superior search results to Web sites Cost savings vs other networking

14 lexBlog TM Building Blogs for Lawyers Why superior search results? Relevant content Regular content updates Incoming links “Blog = better listing on Google”

15 lexBlog TM Building Blogs for Lawyers Two-thirds of people do online research before selecting a service or product Nearly 70% of business executives and in house counsel go online to research lawyers during the hiring process Importance of search engines

14 lexBlog TM Building Blogs for Lawyers Advantages over current Internet networking Web site articles –Poorly indexed & optimized for search engines Pdf’s especially –Frequency of content? –Difficult search –No table of contents/navigation with each article –Users do not return to site newsletters –Corporate firewalls may block –Spam filters may block –Far less viral marketing effect

15 lexBlog TM Building Blogs for Lawyers 3,000 plus law blogs 4 new law blogs per day > 30% of large law firms 49% growth in large law firm blogs from November to March Lawyers’ adoption of blogs BBC News 5/21/04

16 lexBlog TM Building Blogs for Lawyers 75% of reporters to locate experts & get insight on stories Senior executives 20% plus read business blogs 96% familiar with blogs 30% have familiarity with blogs Busiest people read blogs Who is reading blogs?

17 lexBlog TM Building Blogs for Lawyers Oxygen of Internet today Streams content to target audience Syndicates content Content reaches amplifiers –Bloggers –Media - trade & general mass media as well RSS feeds

lexBlog TM Newsreader Collects RSS feeds

18 lexBlog Building Blogs for Lawyers Blogs are a Rotary meeting Find the discussion Listen to the discussion Engage in the discussion Empower your audience

Early blog design (preconceived notion of blogs)

Professional marketing blogs -- The LexBlog Way

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19 lexBlog TM Building Blogs for Lawyers CT Employment Law Blog Dan Schwartz 5000 visits in first 6 weeks Few calls a week, new client Nearly 100 incoming links from third party websites and blogs Regularly cited by leading law & employment bloggers (3 of the most read) CT law periodical coverage

Current content - extend it’s reach Online news Legal cases Info from trade magazines & newsletters Info from CLE’s RSS feeds = “The Discussion” 20 lexBlog TM Building Blogs for Lawyers Where’s content coming from?

21 lexBlog TM Building Blogs for Lawyers Time commitment? Brief posts –2 to 3 paragraphs, 2 to 3 sentences each –Expectation is less than that of articles Harvard Business School - 1x/week * Less than articles, newsletters & alerts * Harvard Management Communication Letter, Vol. 2, No. 4, November 2005Harvard Management Communication Letter, Vol. 2, No. 4, November 2005

22 lexBlog TM Building Blogs for Lawyers Blogging in current economy Forget the economy Time to grab market share & be bold Let others run scared Be deliberate Invest in your network and reputation Have long-term eyes & vision to succeed

Backend of Blog Platform

LinkedIn Professional networking tool “Facebook for business people” 216,000 private practice profiles Law firm profiles with demographics 20 million users 150 industries 3.2 million visitors/month 23 lexBlog TM Building Blogs for Lawyers

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Twitter “Microblogging” Updates are called “Tweets” 140 characters Links are shortened Who? Lawyers Reporters Fire departments New York Times Fortune lexBlog TM Building Blogs for Lawyers

25 lexBlog TM Building Blogs for Lawyers Small talk leads to big things What talk? –Personal –Professional –Social media - ‘pass it along’ Twitter amplifies News of China’s earthquake broke on Twitter

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lexBlog TM Search.twitter.com – Twitter Search

lexBlog TM TweetDeck– Desktop Twitter application

Re lexBlog Results of blogging, networking & social media

26 lexBlog TM Building Blogs for Lawyers Governed by cannons of ethics Cannot give specific advise Cannot breach client confidences Do not create attorney client relationship No false or misleading communication Use disclaimer Ethics

lexBlog TM Building Blogs for Lawyers

lexBlog TM Building Blogs for Lawyers

Who is LexBlog, Inc.? Leading provider of professional marketing blogs to law firms 500 blogs, almost 1,500 lawyer authors 75% of AmLaw 200 firm blogs use LexBlog 96% client retention over 5 years Led by former practicing lawyers Team of IT, design, web development, client service, and marketing professionals Founded by Kevin O’Keefe –Practicing lawyer of 17 years –Successfully marketed own law firm on Internet –Founder of Internet consumer & small business legal resource, now sold to LexisNexis –Former VP of Martindale-Hubbell 27 lexBlog TM Building Blogs for Lawyers

Thanks & for more info or questions: Kevin O’Keefe CEO, LexBlog, Inc. 411 First Avenue, Suite 304 Seattle, WA Direct: Cell: lexBlog TM Building Blogs for Lawyers