This is a perfect case of viral marketing meets social media marketing meets, well, probably a stupid decision.

George Murphy, Foster Web Marketing’s SEO and social media marketing manager, was interviewed last week in an article by the Baltimore Sun on the power of social media marketing.

The article also featured a young Baltimore native who was brave enough to get a Twitter whale tattooed on his body (which is making pretty big headlines). I wonder what his return on investment will be.

Some great quotes from the article:

• “With Twitter and Facebook, the power of it is just amazing. I’m constantly blown away by this world,”…. “How quickly you can get people to respond, to react, to become aware of something. … It underscores how no business can ignore this.”
• “Be personal, share personal stuff on there so that people can relate to you, and they’ll actually pay attention to what you’re saying,” he says. “Nobody pays attention to you if you’re self-promoting most of the time.”
• “Why not? It doesn’t cost us anything.”
• “And as unpredictable as Twitter is as a Web traffic generator, its route to the bank is even less direct. But based on what Malis has seen so far, he thinks tweets just might pack profit potential.”

Proving a return on investment when it comes to social media marketing is always an obstacle, but considering that the only investment that you’re making is the time that it takes to setup and manage a Twitter or Facebook profile (spend maybe an hour a day), I’d certainly say it’s worth it.

So what are some smarter decisions?

The second part of the advice is to focus on the lesser expensive methods that yield a high return and really focus on directing a target audience to explore your site and service. One way that is continuing to prove its effectiveness is using SEO.

During these times, the Internet is growing in popularity by consumers who want to save time and effort when searching for a service. Having an optimized site with the most effective keywords will drive quality targeted traffic to your site, get your message in front of the right people and help create visibility in the market. When placing an expensive ad on a high traffic site, you are not guaranteed who will see your ad, who will click and if people are truly interested in your service. Instead, use targeted keywords to optimize your site. When deciding keywords and effectively using them for optimization, a person who is searching and uses your keywords will see your service and you are then providing a solution to an existing need and therefore, your traffic is of higher quality and has a proven interest.

SEO can also be tracked using Google Analytics, which shows where visitors are coming from, which pages are most visited and the effectiveness of keywords. Using these analytics, you can decide which keywords are proving most effective and focus on using them to keep the quality traffic flowing. This can also help organize your marketing budget.

SEO is cost effective and can take the place of other expensive, lengthy marketing and advertising campaigns that will yield similar results in increased traffic—such as e-mail marketing blasts and paying for ad impressions. One challenge to keep in mind is that a site must be optimized and continually offering updated content to be effective.

You can work on SEO in-house, or hire an agency that will most likely provide more than just an SEO service at a reasonable cost. Because SEO is an art and science and constantly evolving, it might be most effective to hire a professional to assist and implement the services.

We can show you a number of Foster Web Marketing clients whose traffic and leads have dramatically increased over the past few months because of these standard practices: proper web development (adding content on a DAILY basis) and basic search engine optimization techniques.

But when it comes to the point where your site and every site competing with yours have been optimized online, when they all have thousands of pages of content and features such as blogs and library articles included on their site, how do search engines decide whose site has the more authority and should rank better?

That’s easy, the amount of inbound links it has. The blog post I made a few weeks ago about a FWM client trying to figure out why he or she was being outranked for a specific keyword search is a pretty good case study to prove that building links is VERY IMPORTANT.

So, back to basics. It’s not enough to just write content. You, as an attorney or webmaster, always have to keep that thought in the back of your head: is this a link opportunity?

Google ranks sites and pages with more inbound links to them based on the fact that, if this is useful and informative content, than more people will be linking to it and sharing it.

But does this always come into play as attorneys? You have to remember that the area where you practice is geographically limited (or it SHOULD be! I can’t stress the importance of marketing yourself to one niche market as opposed to trying to conquer the world and rank for the entire east coast with only one website) so the chances of sites and blogs linking to you are as small as the size of your target audience.

You could always take the “link baiting” approach and come up with a story that will bring in readers from around the country or world. But, even though we always stress the importance of increasing your exposure online and that everyone, no matter where or who they are, is a potential client because of referrals and social networking, this usually results in a high bounce rate and a very low ROI.

Sometimes you have to take a more pro-active approach to link building. Some of these were mentioned in our ways to build links as attorneys and should be used regularly, but when it really comes down to it: link building is like everything else, the more personal and grassroots ways you use, the better.

Here are 10 basic and usually overlooked linkbuilding techniques you can use:

1. Posting on Craigslist. Sometimes it’s good for leads, but it also counts as a link. Don’t stress over the fact that the link is “nofollow”, look at your Google Analytics traffic report and see how many visits Craigslist resulted in next time you post. TIP: sometimes the services section postings get flagged or get lost in spam postings, so be creative with it.
2. Register with your local Better Business Bureau and Chamber of Commerce if you’re not already. This almost always leads to a link or two.
3. We’ve mentioned this before, but take a few minutes out of your day to answer questions on Yahoo! Answers , Fluther,  and any law-related message boards you can think of like Injuryboard. Dropping a link back to your site on these kinds of sites, as long as you ADD VALUE TO THE CONVERSATION and answer the question can result in pretty good traffic.
4. Build relationships with local bloggers.
5. You SHOULD, by now, realize that you need to be active on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. But do you have a link to your website or blog on there? No? (smack forehead)
6. You have a blog… is it linking to your website? Is your website linking to your blog? TIP: utilize site-wide footers as well.
7. Sometimes you have to look in the mirror. Is your own site or blog linking internally to other pages? Are you taking the time, when writing a blog post, to link to other blog posts and web pages? These count as links as well. ALWAYS think about how you can link internally, it’s very important.
8. Google local searches. Know those maps and local business results you see for certain searches in your area? You should be concerned about not being ranked number one. Obtaining a number one rank for these isn’t something I’m going to share quite yet.
9. Look for linking opportunities from local government and law-related websites.
10. Create a Squidoo page.
11. Okay I lied, there are 11. ALWAYS DEEP-LINK AND USE DIFFERENT ANCHOR TEXT. You don’t want everything going back to the homepages and you don’t want search engine spiders seeing the same anchor text when crawling for inbound links. Switch it up, you’re constantly adding content to your site for a reason, use those other pages!

Facebook, founded in 2004 as a student site, opened up to non-students in 2006 and now has a network of over 100 million users, making it an important and useful social media tool. It has transformed into a platform for students and professionals alike and helps bridge connections between top professionals who seem out of reach and those just penetrating the industry.

Understanding how Facebook is a useful tool takes understanding the components that can be customized to suit your preferences and utilizing the tools best suited for your needs.

1. Your Profile- You can add as much or as little information as you wish (political views, education, etc.) and showcase your work portfolio and provide links to your Web site, blog, published articles or other spaces. You can start marketing yourself with your profile by finding colleagues and other lawyers to be your friend, which creates an online presence and visibility.

2. Groups- Facebook can serve as an open or private forum by creating groups. Groups can serve as a discussion outlet and allow lawyers, colleagues and others to ask questions and the responses are archived. Posting a discussion as part of a group invites others to comment and share information. This can serve as an alternative to just e-mailing back and forth. Also, joining some relevant groups can be valuable since some allow only members to have access to exclusive content and the ability to gain access to involved professionals.

3. Social Media Networking- Finding colleagues and friends who are using facebook and adding them creates your network. You can stay updated on others’ information by checking their feed that shows up on your homepage or visiting their profiles once in a while.

4. Referrals- Using your facebook wall (where others can leave comments) can generate business leads if clients or colleagues leave positive messages referring to your services. Encourage others to comment by commenting on their walls with positive remarks.

5. Applications- Applications such as what books you read or places you vacationed can be conversation starters and information exchange with your network. These are a little more personal, but can give a sense of your interests and personality traits.

A common concern is drawing the line between personal and professional and how that is managed in a facebook profile. Eventually, our personal and professional profiles will merge, but until then be cautious as to what you share with others via social media. For your facebook profile, you are able to adjust your privacy settings so only the people you want can see certain parts of your profile. The general rule is, if you don’t want the wrong person to see it, don’t post it.

Should you be on facebook? The most useful function of facebook is joining, creating and participating in groups. Since groups on an issue and have the ability for information exchange and starting groups on specific topics help networking within a community of lawyers. Being that the facebook community is huge, your competitors will probably be on there and you should be, too.

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Twitter is one of the most effective tools for instant information sharing with your “Twitter associates” (the term used as opposed to followers and coined with credit to @jimconolly) and the entire Twitterverse. It is a tool that, when used effectively, should be updated frequently and provides a sense of “there is someone behind that name,” which is appreciated and valued by those occupying the social space.

The Twitter trend is simple and logical, but can be confusing to the unknowing. The most common question I hear is, “How do I use Twitter for marketing and what is the importance?”

First, let’s tackle the question of using Twitter for marketing. Let’s assume you followed our previous steps and created an account and found some Twitter followers and are building your community. The next step is to be sure your Tweets are 140 characters of either informal and more personal information, or useful information…and an equal combination of both.

As mentioned in our Twitter Webcast, informal information and more personal tweets can be about anything from what you are doing right this minute to a funny joke or thought that your followers might find interesting or entertaining.

Useful information can be a breaking news story or an industry-related blog or site that adds value and credibility to your account and appeals to your followers. For instance, if you come across a blog about green building laws and want to share with others, use a tiny url (to reduce the number of characters) and add a descriptor such as “Oregon New Green Law Regulation: http://tinyurl.com/3rx8c7“ and post. The more information you offer, the more likely someone will retweet your post and you can gain exposure to new followers and expand your network. When a new person shows up in a Twitter feed, Twitter users often check out the unknown person’s Twitter site to read updates, check the amount of followers, click on the posted link, and will decide to follow or not follow. The exposure of your name and site and boost in credibility are your returns on a valuable post.

What is the importance? The very simple answer to this is building brand visibility and awareness through social networking and connecting with your target audience through a different and unique medium. Twitter allows for two-way communication with individuals and/or companies through micro messaging…something no other medium encourages. Because of its simplicity and ability to have a targeted “following”, it is something all companies can find benefit in using.

To optimize Twitter use, there are plenty of tools that can be found on the Internet. They include applications that put Twitter directly on your desktop, separate tweets by categories, feed your blog posts to your twitter account, and more…I will compile a comprehensive list of these tools and include in an upcoming blog post! Stay tuned!

How about this…. SEOMoz published an article last year, but it still holds weight today (with the exception that keyword in domain name should now be higher and so should SEO-friendly URLs): Search Engine Ranking Factors, where a number of experts in the industry ranked different on and off-page search engine optimization factors on a scale of 1-5. Some of those related to link building:

Anchor Text of Inbound Link- 4.4 According to most, this is the second most important factor when it comes to Google and other search engine spiders figuring out what your site should rank for. For Foster Web Marketing clients who Tom and George have been preaching to about changing your titles in DSS and making them shorter: your practice area and home pages are linked to and from on other FWM clients. The anchor text for these links pull directly from…. you guessed it… the TITLES! Get them under 70 characters and make them page-specific… meaning don’t focus on the home page for every keyword, that’s why you have practice area and other pages!

Global Link Popularity of Site- 4.4 And the third most important factor. Your inbound links shouldn’t only point to your home page. That’s why FWM clients have blogs, library pages, and other resources. Now you have to build links to these pages. It’s called deep-linking, and is VERY important.

Link Popularity Within the Site’s Internal Link Structure- 4 And number five overall. Each link on your site to another page on your site counts as a link. When writing blog posts and other content, include links to your other pages that are relevant, and use the proper anchor text. And remember that footer feature that we mentioned we’re launching for FWM clients this month? This is why.

So, as Dave Frees mentioned in his comment the other day, what are some ways of building links as an attorney or law firm? Here are a few great techniques to use:

1. Blog Commenting

Dave couldn’t have done it any better. In his comment, he included a link back to his blog, which, while blog comment links don’t carry as much “link juice” as other methods, they kill two birds with one stone.

Blog comments can be good for building link juice and traffic, but it also helps you expand your social network. If you’re a motorcycle attorney in New England (he wouldn’t be the Million Dollar Man without a link back to his site, would he?) and you come across a blog post or article that you think is relevant or interesting by a motorcycle attorney in California somewhere, comment on it! Not only will you be getting a link back to your site, but you’ll also be expanding your online social network.

Tip: Exercise good taste when using this link building method. Don’t put your practice area as your name and don’t shamelessly self-promote. READ THE BLOG POST and then comment, and add something that is relevant to the discussion and topic. Nobody likes a spammer. Use some of the resources I mentioned in my Ways to Market your Attorney Blog post like Google Blogsearch and Google Alerts to find posts relevant to your practice area(s). And don’t focus too much on NOFOLLOW vs DOFOLLOW, it’s not a huge issue if you’re commenting on blogs that are relevant to what you do.

2. Forum and Answer Services Participation

You, as an attorney, offer valuable information that can be relevant to everyone. And this information is trusted. You didn’t spend all of those years in law school and making a name for yourself over the years for nothing, people know that the knowledge you possess is trusted and accurate. So share it!

You might be saying to yourself, why offer advice and information for free? I’m here to get leads and clients, not trade industry secrets.

The Web 2.0 mentality is all about transparency. People (and search engine spiders) notice you taking time out of your busy day to contribute to legal forums and other informative websites. Including a link back to your site in the signature of these sites can’t hurt either. I’ll make a post later about some legal forums you can use to answer law-related questions (and get a link or two in the process), but in the meantime, registering and using answer sites like Yahoo! Answers, Fluther, and others cant hurt.

TIP: Again, be tasteful. Don’t use wording like “for a free consultation, visit http://www.spammylawyer.com”. And again, the forum and answer service links don’t carry a LOT of linkjuice, so don’t focus too much time on these thinking it will help you reach #1 next week. The main goal of this is that search engines see you contributing to relevant conversation. Also, deep-linking (linking back to a blog post or library page) is much better than linking back to your home page when using this method.

3.. Article Submission

Creating articles and submitting them to article submission sites is a common link building technique. However, two things to keep in mind:

1) Duplicate Content

You can either a) write an article specifically to submit to these sites, and don’t publish the article on your blog or website. or b) revise the way the article is worded if you decide to include it.

2) Trusted Article Sites

Google has made it known that there are articles sites out there that are not trusted. Stick to sites like  EzineArticles, GoArticles, iSnare.

TIP: If you have a website as well as a blog, you can link back to each through this method. And if you don’t…

4. Get a BLOG!

Many debate whether it is better to have a blog on or off-site. On-site is good because it’s another way to add content. But off-site is better for link building and networking purposes.

Bloggers don’t mind linking to other blogs; in fact, they are way more likely to link to another blog than they are to your website. You can also use an off-site blog to drop links to your site pages from time to time. Take the time to build the authority of the off-site blog by

1. Linking to useful pages and resources
2. Submitting your blog to the resources I mentioned in Ways to Market your Attorney Blog3. You can even install a footer on your off-site blog that links every page to your web site. This is good, because most blogs are multiple pages, resulting in more links to your website. But, content is key, and building the blog’s authority not only improves the link juice coming to your site, but it also gives you another site that has a chance to rank well.
4. Promoting your blog as actively as you promote your website, and take the time to come up with useful and informative content.
5. Get a domain name that is relevant to your practice area. Google seems to be putting more and more emphasis on ranking sites with good domain names higher, so see what is available other than your or your law firm’s name.

5. Niche Directory Sites

Google has made it no secret that regular directory sites like DMOZ are not as valued as they once were. However, relevant niche (law-related) directory sites are still good, if they are trusted and have a decent authority built. Look for directory sites that include content and a few articles, and not one that just links in and out.

TIP: Set up a “links page” for niche directory sites that require reciprocal linking.

These are five (and by the way, top 10 or top 5 lists as link bait and article topics are great because they are easier to read through) link building methods that are good for attorneys and law firms. I will share some more next week some time.

A client of ours, Atlanta Car Accident Attorney James Murphy are wondering why they’re not ranking as well for their blog posts as they are for their practice area pages. From her e-mail:
 
Type “school bus accident dublin ga” in the Google search bar.  We should be the 5th result or so.  When clicking on the link, however, our car accident practice area page appears….

(then) type “parking deck Sandy Springs” in Google.  We should be the first result, and Google sends visitors to the correct blog (post).

At Foster Web Marketing, clients in similar practice areas who are not in the same area (and don’t compete) link to and from each other. But the pages that they link to are the practice area pages and home page, resulting in more inbound links and higher “link juice” of the practice area pages than of the other pages.

That being said, the practice area pages ranking higher than the blog post pages are not uncommon, and goes to show the power of building links to individual pages (ESPECIALLY blog posts).

So then you ask, why does a blog post rank for the second keyword phrase, but not the first? The answer: competitiveness.

Who are people going to blog/talk about or report more, a school bus accident in Georgia that sends 29 kids to the hospital, or a parking deck collapsing (which, from what I can find, resulted in no injuries). While there’s no clear-cut answer, it would appear that the school bus crashing resulting in injuries is the more competitive topic/keyword phrase, because there is simply more more authoritative sources out there covering the story.

Proof: type in “school bus accident dublin” and you’ll see that there are triple the amount of search results, and more news stories out there than the second keyword phrase about the parking deck.

So, how do you overcome this?

Build links to the actual blog post. The search results above you are ranking because they have built more authority, meaning that particular page has built more links (both off-site as well as internal linking on-site…. if a news website has 100,000 pages, with a link on every page to this particular blog post, while the quality of those inbound links might not be that great… guess what… that’s a lot of links) than your blog post.

Taking the time to create the content of your blog post is only the first step… promoting and building links to it is a whole new level.

Check out the first post of this blog, ways to promote your attorney blog, and coming tomorrow: ways to promote and build links to individual blog posts.

Here is a three-part video on how to use Twitter as an attorney:

Twitter For Attorneys Part 1:

  

Twitter For Attorneys Part 2

 

Twitter for Attorneys Part 3:

George Murphy of Foster Web Marketing recently asked Josh King, Vice President of the fast-growing legal directory Avvo, a few questions about the site after it is heading into its third year online. Here is what he had to say:

So just give us some feedback on Avvo and a few of it’s selling points.

Avvo helps guide consumers in handling their legal matters with confidence and choosing the right lawyer.  For lawyers, Avvo offers a free web presence where attorneys can add highlight their practice and stand apart online.  Attorneys can also answer legal questions posted on the site by consumers, and use Avvo’s self-publishing tool to create legal guides in their areas of law.

All of these activities help create a depth of profile that makes it easier for buyers of legal services to make the decision to hire a lawyer.  Avvo is not only highly trafficked, but is also highly search-engine-optimized.  This is particularly valuable when a potential client is looking an attorney up by name. Another very popular feature of out site is the Avvo Rating, which is our assessment (based on an algorithm we run on every lawyer profile) of the likelihood an attorney will be able to help a consumer with their legal problem.

Sounds like way more than a directory site. What kind of success stories have you been hearing from attorneys using Avvo?

We’ve heard from many attorneys who tell us they receive numerous clients through Avvo.  One WA firm told us that earlier this year, one-third of their new clients were from Avvo, and another told us they were acquiring two clients per month. Not bad for a free website.

Not bad at all. What kind of growth have you experienced since launching last June?

We’ve grown over 400% in 2008.We also cover more than 1 million attorneys, making us the largest legal “directory” in the U.S.

Impressive. What does the future hold for Avvo?

Very soon, attorneys will be able to advertise on Avvo, much as Google features sponsored listings along with search results. We’ll also expand coverage into the states in which we currently don’t have lawyer profiles.

We’ve spoken about this before, but with Avvo.com having a web 2.0, almost social-media type of feel to it, what are your thoughts are on social media for attorneys? Especially Twitter?

I think Twitter is a terrific way to network and expand readership of attorney blogs, when used properly.  However, attorneys will need to find the right balance between not letting Twitter be a time sink and not posting once and going away. 

Amen to that. Thanks to Josh for his feedback, and for any attorney out there who is looking to expand their online reach, go claim your Avvo profile (everything is pulled from State Bar records, so not anyone can register as an attorney on the site. Very cool!).

Coming tomorrow: Twitter For Attorneys, in Video.