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In the early days of social media, most large law firms had rather bland practice area blogs. Law firm social media typically focused on promoting firm achievements rather than to provide valuable content and client engagement. Most law firms – large and small – have been reluctant to enter the social media sphere due to concerns about ethical and legal issues and a perceived lack of value. Also of concern is the fact that a position advocated through an attorney’s law firm social media use may run counter to one held by a client.

That’s beginning to change as lawyers are beginning to see the value of law firm social media programs.

Does law firm social media make sense? Attorneys at advised to at least be aware of law firm social media — if for no other reason than to be able to employ effective damage control in the event the firm is the target of an embarrassing blog post on a legal site.

In addition, lawyers are advised to have policies governing their law firm social media activities. Further, even if you are not contemplating a law firm social media program, it is advisable to stake out the firm’s name on various vehicles such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to prevent others from hijacking the firm’s name and causing problems down the road.

Lawyers can and should do more with law firm social media. A simple way to embark upon a law firm social media program is by simply creating consistent and educational company profiles on the social media platforms that receive the largest amounts of Internet traffic.

The first step in deploying a law firm social media program is by creating an effective presence on Facebook, a LinkedIn Company Profile page and a number of Twitter accounts, including a main firm account and an account for each major practice area. Twitter accounts can be an effective law firm social media vehicle and be used to share news and information relevant to the firm and its various practice areas. The firm’s main Twitter account should share news about the firm and should re-post tweets from the firm’s practice area Twitter accounts.

Once the firm makes the decision to commit to a law firm social media program, the next step is to enact a sensible firm- wide social media policy. The policy should set the parameters for the firm’s employees’ social media interactions in a way that mitigates the risks and maximizes the benefits of their participation.

The firm’s practice area Twitter accounts should focus on sharing news stories and links to outside resources that relate to the practice area. Links to recent blog posts from the firm’s blog devoted to that practice area also should be shared. The account can be used to share news regarding individual lawyers’ victories or other achievements from within the practice area. In order to avoid the appearance of excessive self-promotion, however, the Twitter account should share links that consist of substantially more informational content than promotional content.

The LinkedIn profile should be used for brand identification and recruitment purposes. Job openings can be posted on the LinkedIn Page, along with information about current employees and new hires. Amazon’s LinkedIn profile is a good example of an active company profile – www.linkedin.com/companies/amazon.com?trk=copro_tab.

The firm’s Facebook page can be used for brand identification and recruitment purposes, but likewise should be used to disseminate content and news about the firm. Content from the firm’s main Twitter account can be disseminated via the Facebook page, as can separate links to blog posts from the firm’s various blogs. The Facebook page also can feature occasional links to articles written by its attorneys that appear on the firm’s static website.

There is no doubt engagement in social media can be a dicey proposition for large law firms and their reluctance to begin the process of online interaction is understandable. Big Law can and should take the leap, however. Doing so ensures the firm has a consistent, useful, approachable online presence that can be located easily on the three main social media platforms.

Of course, how to go about accomplishing that delicate balance is fodder for a future column.

Certainly, television and radio have their strengths, with broad-based awareness being the obvious, but Iet’s take a look at how mail can offset some of the limitations of TV and radio. ln addition to high production costs, TV has become a very fragmented media. The advent of DVR and remote control driven cable television puts the average viewer in complete control of the content they consume. More and more, consumers channel surf during commercials and fast forward over ad content. This greatly reduces the chance that your message effectively reaches your target.

Although radio tends to be more cost effective than TV, it provides a limited message time and also lacks the ability to be personalized in the way that mail can. In addition, it is also a broad based media that has limited target ability. While both of these mediums are still key to raising awareness ofa campaign, their overall effectiveness can increase when used in conjunction with mail.

Here are just a few of the key advantages on how mail can increase the effectiveness of your broadcast advertising:
It’s measurable – By integrating mail with your broadcast efforts, you can track response and learn what offers, mail lists, and creative treatments are working most effectively. You can also find out how much of your message is being heard by including a short survey with your mail response device.
It‘s effective – Mail potentially reaches 100% of your customers, as virtually everyone has a mailbox. So a parallel mail campaign will create synergy with your broadcast campaign and add to the campaign’s overall impact.
It’s cost effective – Supporting your broadcast efforts with mail can help you achieve a higher ROI on both, since mail’s unique target ability helps ensure your message reaches your best prospects.

Mail should also be integrated into your print to overcome some ofthe limitations of a print campaign.

With an influx of user driven on demand mediums, newspaper continues to struggle with declining readership and although the medium offers quick turnaround, the low production value of newsprint has always been, and continues to be, a challenge.

Magazines, on the other hand, offer higher reproduction value and the borrowed interest of the reputation of the publication. However, a long lead time makes it difficult to get time sensitive messages into the hands of customers and the infrequency of the message hinders recall. While both media offer limited target ability, they still offer a wide reach, making them ideal for generating awareness of a campaign. However, both media can be maximized by integrating a mail element into the campaign. Let’s take a look at how mail can expand the power of print advertising.

Again, you can increase the effectiveness of your print advertising by integrating mail into your mix. Mail can pick up where print leaves off. Here are some key strengths of mail that make it ideal for integrating with print;

It‘s yours — Mail offers you full creative control of the overall execution of your communication. Everything from a one color postcard to a highly complex dimensional piece that contains product samples.
it’s customizable — Mail allows you to tailor the message and incentive to your customers‘ specific interests or needs
it’s selective – Mail targets your best prospects. It also offers the privacy and security to communicate sensitive information such as financial data and health information.
it’s flexible – Mail gives you control over the format and the timing for greatest impact. Plus, you can go far beyond the space restraints of newspaper and magazine to tell your entire product story.
lt’s personal – According to research, 67% of respondents felt that mail is more personal than the Internet. The same research found that 98% of consumers bring in their mail daily and 77% sort through it immediately.
lt’s cost-effective – At a cost of 46 cents per contact, mail comes in far below that of the telephone at .27 per contact.
lt’s interactive – Mail allows you to include a response device to learn more about your customers and to better meet their needs. It also accommodates product samples and tactile elements, such as sample swatches.
In addition, it’s tangible – An effective mail piece (and your message) can stay with the customer for as long as it is relevant.
lt’s dimensional – You can literally take creativity to another dimension to make an impact.

Finally, let’s look at how mail enriches telephone and e-mail communications. Although telemarketing generates a higher response rate, it is far more expensive to execute nearly tripling the cost of mail. Consumers also often perceive it as an intrusion of their space and time. The ” Do Not Call List” is also making it increasingly difficult to get in touch with your target via telemarketing.

While e—mail offers the lowest cost per contact, it also delivers significantly lower revenue per contact at 18 cents, compared to that of mail at 85 cents and catalog at .41. On the digital side, an influx of spam is making it difficult to connect with prospects via unsolicited e—maiI communications. The competitive clutter, delete key, and spam filters are causing more and more e-mails to get deleted before they reach their target.

When used in conjunction with a targeted Direct Mail campaign, these mediums can effectively boost lead generation and direct order. Here are a few ways mail can go beyond telephone and e—mail to connect with consumers:

The bottom line is simple; Mail is a great addition to an integrated marketing campaign because it makes all media work harder. It compensates for the weaknesses of other media to help create a campaign that generates response and is also quantifiable. Mail expands on other media efforts by connecting with customers in a place where they look daily: their mail. This personal touch point is a contributing factor that increases the overall responsiveness of any campaign. Which leaves us with one question: How can we incorporate mail into your current mix to increase the overall effectiveness of your marketing efforts?

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With the promise of bringing in more fun and excitement DISH Network has incorporated such unique features that can not be found elsewhere. In HD programming, DISH TV has created a buzz due to its huge line of HD channels. DISH is the only provider that is presently offering more than 200 HD national channels. Whether cable television or DirecTV or any other, no one has yet to reach such high target. Then in terms of technological advancement , DISH TV also has stand out as supreme provider, With DISH Receiver you can record and then replay your favorite episodes as many times as you wish as per your convenient level. Especially Vip 922 Slingloaded DISH Receiver can record more of what you want with an exclusive hard drive of 1TB, the largest in the present time.

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There is yet another aspect that has enabled DISH Network to achieve success and fame. DISH Network satellite TV has a 24X7 customer service that is not only suitable but is and very simple to handle and execute. Because of its excellent customer services, DISH Network has gained topmost rank in 2010 American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) in customer satisfaction thereby superseding all the existing providers of the present market. Less technical difficulties, plus low priced, excellent channel selections system, and lastly also due to satisfactory customer services, DISH Network has turned out to be the champion of the time.

Email marketing is a successful way to make a business profitable. People have been doing it for many years now. If it were not successful, Email Marketing would have gone down in the history books as being one of the most unproductive marketing methods to ever hit businesses. However, that is not the case. The case is that it has been so successful that companies have found new and improved ways to market their businesses through email. In the process, they are bringing in more and more money. In the meantime, more and more businesses are being flagged for sending SPAM. The email recipients either flag them as SPAM so they’ll go straight to their junk mail folder in the future or they report the company.

How to avoid SPAM

The best way to avoid SPAM is to not do it. This means that you shouldn’t download email spider software that is going to crawl the internet for email addresses. What’s going to happen is you’re going to market to people who don’t want your service or your product. They’re going to get angry and this could have a negative impact on your business’s reputation. First of all, they’re going to put you on their blocked list, which means future efforts will be for nothing and, second of all, they’re going to tell others about it. They may even report you for spamming them, which is something you don’t want.

What you want to do is target your audience by having sign-up forms on your website. This means they’re opting in. You can also exercise a lot of other opt-in methods so that you’re not spamming. It is also possible for you to personally email them and tell them about your company. Ask them if they would like more information. If not, they can click a link in the email that indicates they do not want to receive more correspondence. If they don’t click that opt-out link, then this is an indicator that they want to receive the emails. However, targeting your audience is what you really want to do because you know you’re not wasting your time. As a matter of fact, you’re marketing to people who want to receive your emails. That is going to be much more effective than literally gambling away your time and effort.

How not to get flagged

You also don’t want your emails to be flagged. Even if they’re legitimate, certain words can be flagged and that can cause your email to automatically be put into the junk mail folder of their email. Stay away from “spammy” words such as: Free, guaranteed, money, now, offer, and any combination of words that include those. Even if the email is completely innocent because the recipient subscribed, the email will be missed by them if it is placed into their junk mail folder.

The best way to combat this is to go to an online SPAM checker. There are plenty of free ones on the internet that you can use. What these programs do is let you know if the email you sent will be flagged as SPAM. This can be a very valuable tool to email marketers in making sure that their recipients actually see the emails instead of the emails going to another location within their inbox. Many email marketing service also provide SPAM score checking as a value added service. Note that the final spam score is based on the content of the email message as well as the delivery method.

It doesn’t matter what your website is about or what online purpose it serves for your business, you probably want to rank higher in the search engines. At least if you understand the role a search engine plays in sending traffic to your site, you want yours to rank higher. If you’re already taking up the top spots, then you care about staying there.

This isn’t an easy subject to cover completely, because there are many different ways to market online. There are also several aspects to search engine optimization that work along side internet marketing efforts. Internet marketing is a complete industry by itself because of the many facets of today’s internet. There are tools that can be used by small business owners to get their information in front of many prospective customers. These tools change and grow constantly, creating more options and more complications.

Getting huge droves of traffic to your website may seem like utopia, but the reality is that if you don’t have the right kind of traffic your efforts to raise your ranking in the search engines was wasted. The right kind of traffic includes people who are really interested in what you offer and are true potential customers. If you send people to your site who are looking for construction tools when you sell school supplies, the traffic you get won’t be interested and they’ll leave your site in seconds because you can’t fulfill their needs. It’s much better to get people who do want what you offer because they have potential to actually buy from you.

Choosing the right keywords to target is the way to get the right people to your site. Don’t write a blog post about hammers when you sell pencils. That may seem like common sense, but many people just don’t understand how keywords work.

Next, be sure your website is visually appealing for people who will visit the site. It doesn’t have to have tons of bells and whistles – it just needs to have nice, compatible colors and an image or two. Also, make sure it’s laid out logically and is easy to navigate and read. Make sure you have plenty of content that is interesting, informative, and helpful.

You need to be aware that content you put on the internet in places other than your own website can also get ranked. In addition to getting ranked, if you include links to your site in content you place outside of your site you’ll get credit for that. The other benefit to putting content in other places on the internet is that people who see the content there, will click your links to visit your site.

Some of the ways to get more content in other areas of the internet are through:

Video Directories Social Media Social Bookmarking Google Places Blogging Backlinks Articles Press Releases

Each one of these options is a big topic, but when you use more than one of these methods they work together to rank your website higher and bring in more leads. Depending on your competition, you may have to use a lot of these methods or not many of them.

There are three methods I believe every small business should take advantage of are Google Places, video, and directories. Each method requires a marketing campaign of its own too, but each method can deliver huge results.

Social media is also high on the list, but it can require a fair amount of consistent attention if it’s going to bring leads. Also, social media isn’t always right for every kind of business. I believe it can be extremely effective, but I don’t put it in my top three because it simply isn’t right for every business.