Make your Post Mobile Friendly

Being on the Internet + being found on the Internet = an effective marketing program. 

Let’s assume your website is online and current. You send out e-mails to your clients frequently, thereby keeping your name present in their minds. The first part of the equation is up and running. The issue becomes the second half of the equation--being found on the Internet. 

Consumers, as we’ve said ad infinitum and will continue to say, search for lawyers online--either at the start of their quest or to follow up on referrals. They search on their desktop computers, laptops, tablets and, more frequently, on their smartphones. According to eMarketer, the number of smartphone users worldwide will pass 2 billion in 2016 and come close to that mark in 2015. 


Smartphones are the smallest of our computers. The screen on my antique iPhone 4s, for example, is a mere 2 by 3 inches. The later models are bigger, however, the loaded content still has to fit in a small space. Often the fit is not usable, requiring pinching, expanding and scrolling to see it all. 

Google, seeing the problem and wanting to retain its position as a useful service, has decreed that it’s making a change to its search robots, which will begin to include a website’s “mobile-friendliness” as a ranking signal. This means that site pages that can’t fit comfortably on the smartphone smaller screen could see a downgrade in ranking. 

Google says, at present, the change will only affect a firm’s ranking on smartphones and only applies to pages not entire websites. 

A mobile-friendly page is one where the text is readable without tapping and zooming, its tap targets are spaced conveniently and there is no unreadable content or horizontal scrolling.

A mobile-friendly site is good for the site-owner as well as the consumer and Google. Researchers say that almost half of all smartphone traffic (43 percent in the first quarter of 2015) is spent on searching. Search engines will send inquiries to the mobile friendly sites, increasing traffic to your website and pages. 

E-mails should be mobile friendly also. Content should fit on the smaller screens making it easier for consumers to read your words while on the go. 

How do you know if your website pages are mobile-friendly? 

Ever efficient Google has created a website where you can enter your webpage URL (Uniform Resource Locator) or web address to test it. Find and click on the Mobile-Friendly Test, enter your web address and you will quickly know the results. If you fail the test, contact your web developer or website host to find out how to make your website mobile friendly. Your clients and potential clients will thank you. 

An Easy Path to the Internet

The State Bar of Michigan has revamped and revised its Member Directory powered by ZeekBeek. Using the new, improved version of the directory, lawyers can effortlessly craft informative and attractive profiles that reflect both the lawyer and his or her practice.

The newly redesigned SBM member directory has easy to use tools that help enhance your basic profile. You can:

·      Use your biography to tell prospective clients the basics such as education and experience and a lot more about who you are.  Do you skateboard like the skate board lawyer or are you a runner or perhaps a bird-watcher--clients like to feel a connection to a human being.

·      Include a photo--essential so have it professionally taken and fairly recent--it’s best if the client can recognize you.

·      Add your title--are you owner, shareholder or partner of your organization?

·      Create a tagline--tell the reader the type of law you practice and the clients you serve

·      Add your active social media accounts with easy links.

·      List all jurisdictions where you are licensed to practice--it’s possible the prospect needs a lawyer who can practice in a neighboring state. You can do this in the Professional Details section.

And, that’s not all. You can add your community connections. Volunteering, sitting on Boards, coaching a team are activities that might seal the deal for the consumer. List other languages you speak--your fluency in Spanish or French could land you your next important client.

Are you accepting new clients? If so, turn on that feature and consider adding that you want consumer contact. A form allowing prospective clients to send you a query will pop up. The form includes instructions telling the reader that they shouldn’t include confidential information and sending the form doesn’t create an attorney-client relationship.

Consumers searching on the Internet are used to seeing reviews.

SBM members can opt into the Recommendations feature, which includes both Reviews and Endorsements. Reviews are first checked by ZeekBeek for inappropriate language and then sent to you to be sure the writer is actually a client. Endorsements let clients to rate you according to attributes such as ‘Client felt educated. Lawyer was professional.’ You can add one or both of these features.

Help prospective clients find you.  Add your expanded profile to the SBM Member Directory and soon consumers will be traveling the information highway to your mailbox. 

Discrimination against women is alive and well.

Every time I think discrimination against women is dying, something happens to me or a friend or a business associate that makes me aware it is still alive and well.

Recently a well-respected judge was at a business-networking event when a middle aged male lawyer came up to talk to her. She had recently ruled on a motion he brought before her court. His comment to her, after the usual hellos and how are yous, was to compliment her on her hair.

Would he have done that to a male judge? I think not. It was discourteous and uninformed at the least and a power play to try and put her in her place at the most offensive. To show that it was upsetting to her was to note that she brought it up among friends and supporters at this recent event.

The latest trend in social networking is to add videos. It is easy; you can do it with your smart phone. And, for whatever reason, people will push the button to see what comes up. I received a press release recently advertising a workshop for lawyers being sponsored by a law firm. In the middle of it was a video. I, of course, pushed the button.

It was a well-designed video showing the speakers and the site where the workshop was to take place. The problem was all the participants were white males. All in the navy suit, white shirt and red power tie. Not a female lawyer, an African-American lawyer, an Hispanic lawyer; you name the group, it was not there. I suspect that only white dudes will attend the workshop. It seems no others need apply.

I realize that change in behavior is difficult and takes time. I did think we were further along in being aware of discrimination, simply because our local legal and education community is so diverse. Clearly, I was wrong. Sadly, discrimination against women is, indeed, alive and well. We must continu to be vigilant to find it and root it out.

A Writer's Reward

Writer's work alone. They sit in front of a computer for hours, staring, tapping away on the keyboard, outlining, plotting and, eventually, getting a decent or not so decent first draft. After a time away from the manuscript (Stephen King recommends a 6 week hiatus), out it comes for hours of revisions. Several drafts later, the writer determines it is finished.

Then comes the work of finding a publisher or an agent. Out go the queries, back come the rejections. Some have success. Others, like myself, choose to self-publish, much easier than in time past. One can do it as an e-book and as a Print on Demand.

Then comes the marketing. I'm not good at it. But I did send out a press release and got some publicity. Mason Today, the local community paper, published a review, my very first. It was good.

Today, I went into Bestsellers, Mason's book store, to pick up a copy of the paper. Annie, the clerk said, "Oh, here's the author." A woman holding two of my books smiled and asked me to sign her copies. I was thrilled and encouraged and again ready to sit in front of that computer.

The Best New Year’s Resolution for Lawyers

The month January, originally named Januarius in the Roman calendar, is named after Janus, the Roman god of beginnings and transitions. He is depicted as a two-faced god capable of looking at the past and the future at the same time, which is exactly what you can do when you set out to write those New Year’s Resolutions; be like Janus and look to the past to plan the future.

Start by looking back at 2014. List three things that worked. Maybe Jane, the new paralegal you found after a long search is awesome, LinkedIn actually brought in new business and you delivered a ‘killer’ and winning final argument. Then list three things that didn’t work. For example, the new software crashed the computers, your blog posts died after three postings* and your twenty-something receptionist ran off with a rock star. Learn from the past. Simply being aware is enough.

While you’re in the thoughtful mode, lean back in your chair, close
your eyes and visualize yourself being successful. First, of course, you need to decide what ‘successful’ means to you. Does it mean more cases in a special area of the law or more time for the family or at your easel or at the gym or a combination of all those desires? Whatever it is make a mental picture of your place of professional prosperity and keep it in your mind. Hard to remember when you are racing around from court to court, meeting to meeting and client to client, but pause a minute, find that place and move toward it. This is what athletes are told to do -- see it, then be it--works for them, it’ll work for you.

Resolve to make your life a little easier by leaving the office early on Fridays, fire your worst client, you know the one that gives you and the staff migraines and accept that there is no perfect solution in the law. Someone will be unhappy. Sometimes that person will be your client. Hang in there, next time your client will be the one with the smile.

Most of all, keep your New Year’s Resolutions simple. Don’t bite off more than you can chew. Move through the year remembering where you want to be, find your path and start in that direction. By the end of 2015, like Janus, when you look back, you’ll be feeling good for keeping your promises to yourself.

(*In keeping with my first New Year’s Resolution to write more blog posts for others, let me write them for you. My second resolution is to eat only dark chocolate.)

To encourage client reviews or not to encourage--that is the question

 The answer to the question may be yes, encourage client reviews.

         People find products and services, including lawyers, online. Where once they would turn to the yellow pages to find a restaurant, a doctor or a lawyer, now they turn to the Internet for help. And, when it comes to making a decision whether to go to restaurant A or B or to call Lawyer A or B, clients look to user reviews to help make their decision.

         While potential clients still consider a personal referral the most trusted source for information, second place goes to client reviews posted online.

          The first step most people make when seeking a lawyer is to go to the Internet and, according to a recent survey by Software Advice, the most trusted site they search is Yelp. Sixty-one percent of the respondents relied on Yelp’s reviews, 20% on Martindale-Hubbell, 10% AVVO and 9% Super Lawyers. And these sites make it easy for a client to write a review of your services.

Assuming this is a trend that can’t be ignored, how do lawyers manage their online reviews? 

          First, we know the law is an uncertain business. Second, clients can have unrealistic expectations. This means that in the midst of a series of good reviews can come a negative one that widely varies from all the others. This will happen.   

          The time-tested method used by business owners to protect from the negative review is to have a lot of positive feedback from their customers. They use methods such offering rewards for answering a survey with instructions at the bottom of a receipt or make a request in a post-purchase e-mail. Lawyers, too, can ask clients to write a review on a site after their case has been settled to their satisfaction. Happy clients are more likely to leave feedback. You can ask them to comment on:

• How well you explained their options,
• Your professionalism,
• Your listening skills, and
• How quickly the matter was resolved. 

         When potential clients see a long list of reviews, they trust that the attorney can handle their problem. The attorney with no reviews is less likely to be considered. Consider how you decide when researching products or services on Amazon, Angie’s list, TripAdvisor or Yelp.

         The only precaution is to be sure that your approach to seeking reviews complies with Michigan’s advertising rules. 

         Concerned about the negative review? It can be a wonderful marketing opportunity.

         A response to a negative review shows that the lawyer cares what a client thinks, gives feedback and shows strength of character. The right response doesn’t attack the writer, but looks, instead, to the reader or potential client. You can show you care about feedback, want to make things right and care about their problems. Take time to write your response--a poorly written response is worse than no response at all. And let it age; like a good wine, time and repositioning/revising will make it better.

Put Your Business Card to Work

I attended the State Bar of Michigan Annual Meeting this year, not as a lawyer seeking knowledge or as a lawyer/reporter covering events for a legal newspaper, but as a vendor/lawyer marketing my ghostwriting and editing services. I rented a space in the Vendor Hall, put out lots of candy and information about my services and talked to people all day. It was fun, interesting and enlightening. 

Many stopped by, some lured by my comment that it was safe since I was a ghost and really not there. Also I had dark chocolate, which, as we all know, is a health food. 

I had a basket to collect business cards as an entry into a drawing to win a free blog post. I collected a lot of cards. 

I was amazed at the differences in the cards. Many of the attendees, I suspect, had not looked at their card since it was created many years ago. Those cards had frayed edges, were simple, printed on cream card stock, with black print, no graphics or maybe a simple line dividing the lawyer’s name from the phrase Attorney at Law, possibly a firm name, with address, phone and fax numbers and that’s it. While that card worked quite well in times gone by, more information is needed in our modern world. 

Many cards included all-of-the above plus an e-mail and website address. Clients, we are told, find their lawyers on-line so we know we have to have a web presence and that presence is usually in the form of a website. Some of us have blogs so a blog link would be good. The problem is space. Business cards are small so all this additional information means using both sides of the card. 

More complicated cards included everything previously mentioned plus a logo. There were many designs including the initials of the firm, scales of justice or a sketch of the office building. Others included the whole name in a bordered box against a colorful background. Some added a symbol of the type of practice such as tree for an elder law attorney or two hands shaking for a mediation/arbitration practice. If you want to get some ideas, click on The Lawyer Business Card Fishbowl: Behind the Design for a view of the ordinary and the unusual. 

Then there are tag lines--since lawyers are now a “business” with a web presence, a blog and marketing departments--we are told to have a tag line. What is a tag line? It is a line that describes your business, tells your clients and your employees who you are and what you do. That’s difficult to do in a few words, however, here are some examples from my stash of cards:

• Your Appellate Advocates---Speaker Law Firm
• By Your Side---Nacht Law
• Legal Solutions for Life---Svoboda Legal, PLLC
• Resolving family matters for over 30 years---Paul H. Jacokes, PLLC
• A Reasonable Doubt at a Reasonable Rate--Derrick Etheridge, PLLC

For a quick look at what others are doing, check out JD Supra's article for top twenty tag lines.

The right card does make a difference. You might want to look at yours to see if it has all the information you want a client or prospective client to have at their fingertips. Maybe it’s time for an upgrade.