Tag Archives: law firm marketing

The ABA’s Top 100 Blawgs and Some of My Top Posts

Posted on

The ABA Journal publishes a “Blawg Directory” of more than 3500 law blogs (get it? blog + law = blawg), and each year the ABA accepts nominations to choose the 100 best. If you’ve appreciated the blog posts here, then I hope you will take a minute to vote for Cogent Legal Blog through this link. (Note, the link only works on desktops or laptops, not mobile devices, which I find rather strange. Apologies if you try to click through on your iPhone and iPad and get a “cannot connect” message. I hope you’ll try it on a computer.)

This contest is sort of the Oscars for legal blogging and can really help gain blog readers and elevate a firm’s profile. You can nominate more than one blog, so I encourage you to nominate any and all blogs you believe other attorneys should check out. Continue reading →

Blogging and Social Media for the Legal Profession: Advice on What Works and Why

Posted on

At the recent American Society of Trial Consultants convention in New Orleans, I was part of a wide-ranging panel discussion on social media and marketing that considered the benefits and effects of blogging and other social media. Since I’ve been developing this blog and using social media for professional networking to grow my startup firm, this topic genuinely interests me. I started blogging and became active on Twitter and LinkedIn in early 2011 with little to no training, figuring it out as I went along, and I’m always eager to learn from others and share what I know. With that in mind, here are some of the key points made at the presentation that may be useful to attorneys, trial consultants and legal marketers. Continue reading →

Law Firm Marketing and Design Lessons Learned While Redoing My Website

Posted on

Earlier this year, I embarked on a months-long process of building a new, more sophisticated and customized website, which I’m happy to unveil at cogentlegal.com. This post will share some of what I learned about website design and law marketing through the process.

First, let me clear up confusion if you think you’re already looking at my website. You’re not—this is my blog, built separately on a WordPress platform—and I deliberately keep the two separate. I subscribe to the view that a firm’s website and blog are two related yet distinct vehicles with separate roles to play. Continue reading →

Social Media Ethics for Attorneys: An Evolving Topic That Shouldn’t Be Ignored

Posted on

We all know procrastinators who wait until a week before the annual deadline to fulfill their mandatory MCLE requirements on subjects that many find the least interesting, such as ethics, substance abuse and diversity. My law school recently hosted a day-long program in late January that offered six hours of MCLE workshops to reach those attorneys who procrastinate, and I was asked to do one of the presentations. (Sounds like fun so far!)

I decided to focus on the ethics of social media for attorneys, which I genuinely find interesting and relevant. Continue reading →

5 LinkedIn Tips for Lawyers: How to Build and Use an Effective Online Profile for Networking

Posted on

This post is written by Cogent Legal’s senior advisor, Kevin L. Nichols, who’s assisting me in the areas of litigation support and communications. Kevin is the founder of two professional networking LinkedIn groups in the Bay Area with roughly 2,500 members combined.

Engaging in social networking is somewhat of an oxymoron when it comes to lawyers. Maybe it’s because it goes against much of what they were taught in law school and what they reassure their clients: that they will neither disclose, break confidentiality nor privilege. Nevertheless, creating and maintaining a social networking profile has become as common as having a cell phone. It’s time for lawyers to get off of the sidelines and network where their clients/potential clients are.

Most professionals use LinkedIn to reconnect with people they went to school with, worked past jobs with, share organizations with, just met and want to remain connected with, or to create connections with new colleagues, because LinkedIn is more professional and highly regarded than its counterparts, Facebook and Twitter. In fact, a recent survey of professionals, reported by Mashable, showed that 61% used LinkedIn for professional networking, compared to 22% using Facebook and 4% using Twitter (13% answered “none”).

Whatever your reason is, while using common sense and exercising moral character, here are five tips on how lawyers can get more out of using LinkedIn: Continue reading →