On-Line Outreach & Social Media

There are a wide array of on-line options for generating and/or maintaining awareness among clients and customers. A sample of these include:

Banner ads – in which your site is highlighted on other relevant and compatible sites

Blogs – which allow firm attorneys to offer expert analysis and opinion on critical issues. The most successful blogs are those that focus on a very specific topic, post new content frequently, and are integrated with the firm’s search engine optimization efforts to help promote the blog as well as the firm web site. It should be noted that in order to be successful, bloggers should also regularly post questions, comments, reviews, etc. on other related blogs.

E-Newsletters – providing a cost efficient means for informing and maintaining top-of-mind awareness among constituent groups (even if they are not explicitly read)

Webinars – providing a means for educating relevant groups through informational presentations that a) do not require the participant to leave his/her desk, b) are interactive, and c) can be archived for future viewing.

On-line Groups – are essentially forums for people with similar interests and/or in the same industry, who wish to share information, get answers to questions and convey/highlight their own expertise.

Networking Sites (e.g., LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, etc.) - provides a means for individuals and organizations to make and maintain contacts with others for the purposes of reconnecting, prospecting, and seeking referrals. There is an exponential nature to many of these sites that allows users to increase the size of their contact list by providing them with the means to connect with the contacts of their contacts. For example, a law practice which focuses on the pharmaceutical industry may be a able to target pharmaceutical decision makers by exploring (and “working”) its own list of contacts as well as those of friends, associates, clients, etc.

Many of these sites also offer opportunities for the marketer to do some “bragging” about themselves through individual or business profiles that can, and should be updated with “news” regularly. These sites will also often provide forums for making (and receiving) recommendations about one’s services.

As stated, all of these activities can prove to be quite fruitful and relatively inexpensive – providing one can allocate the requisite investment of time.