If your law firm doesn't consider marketing to be one of its strong suits—and studies show that nearly half of small firm partners consider marketing to be the most difficult part of their business—you may be considering asking an outside firm to handle some or all of your legal marketing work.  In today's marketing climate, though, not all elements of your marketing campaigns can be handled equally well by someone from outside your firm.  In this guide, we'll look at four distinct aspects of your marketing that you might be considering outsourcing: social media, reputation management, blogging, and advertising. 

Facebook/Social Media Marketing

Why You Might Want to Outsource It:

Let's face it, not every law office has someone who thinks that Facebook is the best and highest use of your firm's people and time.  Outsourcing your social media has an appeal, especially for attorneys who think they're above marketing to some extent—if you're afraid that your marketing efforts could come off as fake or desperate, it may be time to hire an outside firm.

You'll definitely want to outsource your social media marketing if you've found that you're unable to keep up with it.  If you're not posting regular updates and keeping up your web presence on social networks, you're going to lose followers and connections fast.  If you really need help and the alternatie is not having any social media presence, by all means, find a great professional company with experience helping law firms like yours.

Use Caution If:

Keep in mind that you get what you pay for when it comes to social media marketing—and most other outsourcing solutions.  If your firm uses a marketing firm that is inexpensive but hires people who don't understand the legal field, you're not going to be happy with your results.  In some cases, hiring a bad social media marketing firm could actually be disastrous.  Unethical conduct or just seeming impersonal, or having a bad command of the English language, could lead to your marketing company sinking your firm's reputation.  Think long and hard before hiring a bargain basement firm to do your social media.

Reputation Management

Why You Might Want to Outsource It:

It's stressful to worry about your firm's online reputation on a day to day basis, but it's also something that needs to be done.  Your online reputation can change in a heartbeat, and not always for reasons that are even your fault.  In some cases, a rival firm or disgruntled client could spread misinformation about your firm.  In other situations, you might find that you're getting criticism because of a specific policy or an interview you did with the media.

Knowing what people are saying about you is great—but finding out can be hard.  Outsourcing gives you the psychological distance to be able to deal constructively with critiques, instead of finding them and taking them personally.  Having a neutral third party looking at the criticisms of your firm can also help you to determine how to work on those criticisms and how best to respond.  In many situations, an online reputation management firm can help you have negative search results removed or pushed so low into the search results that it's unlikely anyone will ever find them again.

Use Caution If:

Online reputation management firms are really only something that your firm needs if you're relatively large.  Solo practitioners and very small firms don't generally need a team of people managing their online reputation, unless they handle very high profile cases that get a lot of media attention.  If you're working for a small firm, you may want to put your outsourcing dollars into an area where they'll get you more immediate benefits for marketing purposes.

Blogging

Why You Might Want to Outsource It:

You're busy!  Blogging—especially good blogging—takes a huge amount of time and energy.  There's not just the writing, there's also the research, and keeping up with the comments, and maybe even commenting on the blogs of others to help you network.  With all these responsibilities, it's no wonder that many attorneys just want to foist off the job.

Use Caution If:

Unfortunately, this is one where the answer is that you should ALWAYS proceed with extreme caution.  There's almost never a good reason to outsource your blogging.  Think about it: clients and other attorneys come to your blog looking for your original thoughts.  If they're getting the thoughts of a flunky at a marketing firm, and not a well-educated, articulate attorney who's been trained in argumentation and legal writing, they're going to feel cheated—and rightfully so.

Blogs simply can't be outsourced well.  A blog that is generic enough to be outsourced is a blog that is unlikely to bring your website a great deal of traffic anyhow.  Many of the SEO tricks that used to make low-quality blogs shine in search engine results no longer work, so even if you're willing to use tricks and gimmicks it's now very hard to succeed with an outsourced blog.

Online Advertising

Why You Might Want to Outsource It:

Pay per click and targeting and ROI, oh my!  Not all people at law offices want to spend a lot of time figuring out exactly how many pennies to spend on every click of the mouse that leads a person to your website.  For many attorneys, this kind of work feels nitpicky and trivial, and it's hard for them to really feel excited about starting new online advertising campaigns.

Use Caution If:

This is one area where many law firms would do well to bring in outside people, at least for some time.  Getting a handle on advertising online—which search terms you should advertise with, demographics research, and so on—is much easier when you've hired someone who already knows what they're doing to help you out.  Online advertising can be fairly confusing, so hiring some outside consultants to help you get a handle on things can ensure that you don't flush money down the drain on a campaign that had little or no chance of succeeding.

When you're starting to develop your strategies for legal marketing, you'll find all kinds of opinions online that make it sound like there's only one way for your firm to be if you want to be successful.  Only one design aesthetic, only one right way to talk to clients, only one right way to divide your marketing budget.  This couldn't be further from the truth.  There's no one perfect legal website that you should model yours after.  There's no one way to get your marketing message out.  To understand what's actually best for your firmwide marketing plan, you need to ask real questions about your firm's priorities.  These tips are best for people who are just starting out with their law firm marketing plans and are in the brainstorming phase of strategic planning.

#1: How Personal Do You Want to Get?

One of the biggest questions you have to ask yourself when thinking about legal marketing is whether you want your content to have a personal, warm touch, or for it to be more formal and traditional?  Traditional approaches are the way that many law firms choose to communicate that they are staffed by serious professionals.  This kind of approach usually doesn't offer much in the way of new content, but if you're going to go with traditional approaches make sure you're doing them well—with professional photography, excellent writing, and fresh, informative content.  If you're dry, at least be dry with a lot of well-organized, easy to understand information.

On the personal side, make sure that if you're trying a personal strategy, you don't let it get unprofessional.  You can be funny, you can be authentic and earnest and folksy, you can do just about any style that fits with your personal style.  What you can't do is let that style get in the way of communicating clearly with people looking at your site.  Don't lose sight of the fact that you want to keep people informed, and tone down your style if it's interfering with your ability to be informative.

#2: What's the Role of Technology?

You need to decide right away whether you're actually committed to using new, online technologies in your marketing campaign.  With over 85 percent of consumers of legal services looking for attorneys online instead of using phone books, you can't afford to be a total Luddite—but how much tech do you want to get involved with?

You're the one who knows your people.  Will you be getting in over your head if you try to download social media dashboards and maintain 7 different social networking profiles?  What are the technologies that excite you?  What are the ones that scare you?  Just because you're using online marketing doesn't mean you have to latch onto everything—use the marketing ideas that call out to you, whether you're working online or off.

#3: Which Social Networking Sites Match Your Clientele?

Some law firms are dealing primarily with hipper, younger clientele who are more likely to have smartphones and use social networks like Twitter.  Other consumer oriented firms are much more likely to have a client base that uses Facebook as its only source of social networking.  Still other firms interact largely with businesses and prefer LinkedIn.

Pay attention to what kind of client you're trying to attract when deciding which social networks to join.  A consumer oriented firm in a small town is unlikely to get much, if any, new business from LinkedIn, for example.  Make sure you know what people are using not only in the demographics you're interested in, but also in your local area.

#4: Focus on Long or Short Term Returns?

If asked, the vast majority of people will say that they want to focus on their long term goals, whether those goals are related to marketing, their personal life, or anything else.  But that's not always really true.  Maybe in an ideal universe we'd always be able to focus on the long haul, but in today's intensely competitive legal world, that's not always what really needs to happen.

If you need short term gains because otherwise you're going to have a hard time keeping the lights on, you don't need to hear more platitudes about long term planning.  Instead, you need to work on the kinds of advertising and marketing that work right away.  Probably the best form of online marketing for those needing a quick fix of new clients is pay per click advertising.  This form of advertising allows you to target specific types of clients based on search terms or demographics.  Using this form of advertising allows you to get new clients within hours or days, not weeks or months.

PPC advertising is very short-sighted if you want to keep your eye on the long term goals, though.  As soon as you stop spending, it stops working.  Consider options with better long term payoffs, like social media and building on your social networks, when short term goals aren't enough.

#5: How Do You Know If It's Working?

Before you get started with your campaign, you need to think about how you'll determine if you've seen the results you wanted.  What criteria are actually important to you?  What do you want your online marketing to do for your law firm?  Only you can decide what results make a difference to you.  Don't listen to what marketing gurus have to say about calculating return on investment—figure out the metrics that make the most sense in your specific circumstances.

#6: Who Do You Trust For Critique?

Everyone—no matter who—could use a good editor and critic.  By having someone you trust to critique your work, you can make sure that you're only putting your best foot forward in your online marketing campaign.  Always make sure you have an extra set of eyes look at any marketing material—one of the fastest ways to a faux pas is to go too quickly and send out copy that isn't yet ready for prime time.

It's the biggest social media behemoth in the world, and no competitor even comes close: Facebook boasts over 1 billion active members in 2013, and 680 million of them take the site with them on their mobile phone.  Tapping into the potential of Facebook is something many law firms are trying to do, but many of them fail to stand out in the social media world.  Why?  Usually, it's because while they understand the basic uses of social media for consumers, they have a harder time applying that knowledge to their law firm's business model and brand.  In this article we'll look at 8 different ways to make Facebook work for you as a business tool, rather than just a way to connect with long-lost friends and distant family members.

#1: Make Your Pages Your Own

One of the worst mistakes you can make with your business Facebook page is to set up your page very quickly, without customizing much.  A generic tagline copied and pasted from your website copy, a couple of hasty photos, and presto, you have an account—right?  Well, sure—but is it really the kind of account you want people to see?

A Facebook page that is just a Facebook-branded version of the same information users could find on your website isn't useful.  You need to make your Facebook page stay with your brand, but with unique information and posts that people can't find elsewhere.  Having unique content on your Facebook page is the best way to attract subscribers and likes.

#2: Appoint Someone As the Face of Your Facebook

Some law firms make the mistake of having all of their posts come from on high, as if they were simply from no person in particular but some sort of firm mascot.  This is a huge mistake.  Instead, you need to have someone who is tasked with being the face of your law firm when it comes to social media.  This lets people ask questions of a real human being (who can always refer the questions to other people for answers) instead of feeling like they have to ask some kind of monolithic entity.

This also ensures that people feel like they're being personally addressed, which can help to soothe hurt feelings and ensure that people feel their critiques are being listened to.  Keep in mind that the person who is the face of your Facebook should be outgoing, personable, and steadfast in their approach to avoiding the kinds of conflict that could lead to embarrassing Facebook incidents.

#3: Bring Attorneys In For Comments

Because you have a face for your Facebook, your attorneys can comment as their own selves on questions and comments made on your Facebook pages.  Your attorneys can also post their own content using a Facebook page for your firm, including links to their blog entries or a list of frequently asked questions about a particular legal issue.

If your attorneys are part of your social media brand, people will be able to get a better feel for your firm and see easy demonstrations of their expertise.  Don't be afraid to let people's individual voices shine through.  You don't always all want to talk as one—it's fine if your attorneys have a discussion with points and counterpoints!

#4: Link to Video and Blog Content

You should try to make sure that your Facebook feed isn't all just simple posts.  Linking to articles (whether they're by people at your firm or just really interesting to the kinds of people you want reading your feed), blog entries, or videos can make sure that people keep paying attention.

When too many of your posts are in the same format or seem the same, people tune out.  Help them avoid this kind of fatigue by giving them content that shakes up the usual.  Sometimes, try posting something that's funny instead of strictly informative—people like to be entertained on their Facebook feeds.

#5: Respond to Commenters—and Critics

Make sure that you're keeping on top of comments made to your Facebook wall.  If you're not responding to at least the comments that ask questions or request clarification, you're not doing your job when it comes to social media marketing.  The point of social media is to socialize—to interact in a two-way fashion, not just to broadcast one-way information to advertise your law firm.

If you're not responsive, it will start looking like you're using social media not to communicate and provide services, but just to reel in clients.  Even if reeling in clients is exactly what you'd like to be doing, that's not the reputation you'd like to build online.

#6: Stay Knowledgeable About Changes to Facebook

Facebook has had its share of changes to how pages are displayed and how users interface with the social networking aspects of the site.  Privacy and account policies can also change significantly from year to year.  Don't get caught unaware of a change that will significantly affect how your Facebook pages look or behave for people reading your pages.

#7: Listen More Than You Talk

When in doubt, listen to what people are asking for.  Try to make sure that you're listening to people's comments and also reading other people's Facebook feeds to see what's making people react.  If you're talking all the time without listening, you may not have your finger on the pulse of social media.  Make sure you're reading social media sources outside of Facebook as well, so that you can see fresh content that your viewers may not have taken a look at yet.

#8: Keep It Up For the Long Haul

Understand that even if your primary goal with your Facebook page is attracting new clients, you're not going to do it overnight.  If you assume after a month without many new page views or friends that no results means you should pack it in, you're wrong.  Shake it up, reach out and network with other people in your area or field, and get involved in Facebook groups that are local and interesting to you.

On average, just 1-2 percent of the people who find your website using search results will actually contact your firm to set up an appointment.  While this number can seem very small, there's some good news in it, too—if you can push those numbers up just a couple of percentage points, you'll start to see a huge uptick in business to your firm.  In this guide, we'll look at how to give your website the best chance of converting clients and bringing you the new business you need to thrive in today's intensely competitive legal marketing climate.

#1: Use Video, Not Just Images

Studies show that websites using video are up to 50 percent more likely to convert clients.  Why is this?  For one thing, video allows people to see you the way that you would actually talk to them in the office.  This can help alleviate some of the anxieties that new legal clients, especially those who haven't needed legal services before, have before they schedule a consultation.

What's more, you can use video to talk about some of the most common issues in your practice areas.  When people watch your videos, they'll gain an understanding about the basic legal issues in cases like theirs, so that they'll come in with more informed questions and have a better idea of what they're looking for in an attorney.

#2: Select Your Images Carefully

Too many attorneys use old standby images, thinking that the typical pictures of gavels, courtrooms, and law books will give the impression that their firm is reliable and professional.  Unfortunately, that's not what most people will get out of these kinds of generic images.  Instead, they'll see a law firm that's literally just following the crowd.  Instead of conveying that you're a good law firm, you'll just be any random firm.

Instead, try to give your website a professional, but distinct look.  Instead of using stock imagery, make sure that you have real, professional photographs of your office, professional shots for your attorney bios, and so on.  These images, which convey real aspects of your office, won't be photos anyone else has.  Try to make your photographs professional, but perhaps a little unorthodox—standing out will make it more likely that people will call your law offices instead of the offices of your competitors.

#3: Link Up With Social

Today, most Americans have some type of social media account, with the most popular website for these accounts being Facebook.  When you link your website up with your Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn accounts, you make sure that people can see your social presence and understand how you interact with people in the social networking world.

Because Facebook is a comfortable internet environment for many consumers, they may be more likely to convert after reading your Facebook page.  Attorney websites can feel stressful to people who are not used to needing legal services, and having a social media presence helps you meet these consumers in a place that is more likely to feel safe to them.

#4: Get Specialized and Specific

Today, consumers of legal services are much more likely to prefer attorneys who specialize.  Specializing in very narrow legal fields, or having mini-sites designed to help people with very specific issues and emphasizing your firm's experience with those issues, can make it much more likely that you'll convert new clients.

When people see firms that do everything, they often worry that their case won't really be an area you specialize in.  For example, many people who have been arrested for driving under the influence will specifically want a DUI attorney, rather than a more general criminal defense attorney who sometimes handles DUI cases.

#5: Be Informative and Helpful

Today, people aren't just looking for you to advertise to them.  They also want real information about their legal options and what they can expect from the courts and the legal process.  People who have the information they need are ready to call attorneys, while people who still feel uninformed are more likely to continue their web search and call someone once they feel more comfortable.

It's fine to “give away” information.  Keep in mind that when you have information about common misconceptions and very detailed information about what people can expect at your law office, you'll be ensuring that people have their most commonly asked questions answered so that by the time they call, they're confident that they need an attorney and that you're a good fit for their needs.

#6: Design a Mobile Site

Mobile consumers are exactly the kinds of people who are most likely to become conversions right now.  They have their phones in hand, ready to book an appointment or even visit a law office immediately.  This means that you want to get this market—and the best way is by having a website version that works well with mobile operating systems like Android and iOS.

Your mobile site should be distinct from your desktop site but have much of the same feel so that it doesn't feel like it dilutes your brand or design aesthetic.  You should also make sure that you allow people using the mobile site to view your full desktop site, and should make sure that the desktop website doesn't display so badly on mobile devices that information becomes inaccessible to mobile users.

#7: Use Compelling Testimonials

Some of the best people to speak about your firm aren't your attorneys and other staff members, but former clients.  By having client testimonials on your website, you make it easier for people to feel good about calling your law office and scheduling a consultation.

The best testimonials are the kind that give a narrative of your firm, rather than just listing positive attributes.  Anyone can create a list of compliments, but having an honest, authentic story is worth much more than compliments can be.  That authenticity will make your website ready to convert even the most hesitant potential clients.

As many as 90 percent of lawyers in recent surveys have said that they have a LinkedIn page.  However, the vast majority of attorneys who use LinkedIn are not using the service as well as they could be.  It's not enough to just build a profile and leave.  In this guide, we'll take a look at why LinkedIn is one of the best—perhaps the single best—social media service for attorneys who primarily work with business clients.  We'll also look at eight different ways to maximize the value of your LinkedIn account for finding new clients and making your law firm's social media strategy work well for you.

#1: Use the Right Photograph

When you start creating your LinkedIn profile, you may be tempted to use a generic photograph of your law firm or an older headshot.  The best thing that you can do to make sure that LinkedIn works well for you right away is to have a new, professional photograph taken of yourself.  A more contemporary looking photograph will be more likely to draw in viewers, and will ensure that your firm doesn't look mired in the past.

If you're unsure of whether you're photogenic, the best advice is: don't worry about it, but make sure that you're hiring a photographer who knows how to make you look your best.  Clients want to see that you're taking care with your appearance and that you know how to look your best in a photo—don't make the mistake of thinking that just because you're not gorgeous, you shouldn't post a realistic photo on your LinkedIn profile.  Don't use older photos just to make yourself look younger—odds are, you'll also make yourself look dated.

#2: Complete Your Profile—Completely!

Your profile, complete with skills and summary, is a great place for you to make your profile stand out from a search engine optimization standpoint.  You get enough words in your profile to really be able to fit in a wide array of keywords.  Don't make it obvious that you're putting keywords into your profile—this will usually be off-putting to people who find you some other way than with a search engine.

Instead, make sure that the keywords fit into your content and summaries organically.  Don't overload the keywords—you're better off making your profile informative and have a slightly smaller number of keywords.

#3: Don't Forget SEO In Your Headline

Make sure that when you use your LinkedIn headline, you use all of the most common terms that people might want to use to search for an attorney like you in your area.  If you're not using basic SEO knowledge in your headline, you're missing out on some clients every single day when people search for attorneys using common keywords.  Google weights LinkedIn results highly when looking at the reliability of websites for professionals like attorneys.  Using SEO in your headline increases the chances that your LinkedIn profile will come up early in Google or Bing searches for your name or your occupation.

#4: Get Involved—Don't Be a Wallflower

Make sure that once you've completed your LinkedIn profile, you don't think that your involvement with the website is over.  “Set it and forget it” isn't the key to online marketing success in the 21st century.  Social media requires active participation.  Many attorneys today think that their social media presence isn't succeeding, when the truth is that they just haven't really put in the effort needed to see success.

Make sure that you're posting updates routinely.  You can think of LinkedIn updates as being similar to your Facebook status updates, but targeted to a different audience.  Typically, the people on LinkedIn are more likely to be educated professionals, so you should frame your LinkedIn updates accordingly.  If you're making routine status updates, try mixing it up a little.  Ask a question, try to get discussions started.  Raising questions can often be better for getting people talking than trying to say that you have all the answers.

#5: Answer Questions to Get New Clients

One of the other places that you can use LinkedIn as an attorney is the LinkedIn Questions section.  In this section, people post questions that they have about different problems.  Many of these problems are legal in nature, making this a good fit for attorneys looking to expand their client base.  You can look at people's questions and answer them based on your own legal knowledge and understanding of local and state laws and practices.

You should always steer clear of providing direct legal advice, but you can definitely answer hypothetical questions and talk about your own experiences on LinkedIn Questions.  Make sure to use basic disclaimers so that the people you're discussing legal issues with know that you are not giving legal advice without a consultation.  This can be a great way to show your website's resources for dealing with common legal situations—in many cases, answering a question on LinkedIn Questions can lead directly to new client contact.

#6: Link to Your Blog Content

If you also have a legal blog, you should be linking to some of your blog's content on your LinkedIn account.  Updates should sometimes include links to your newest relevant blog entries.  However, make sure this is a step you're taking only if your blog really has quality content that might be relevant, fresh, and interesting for your LinkedIn readers.  If you give them content that looks like it was just designed as search engine ranking fodder, your readers are likely to be insulted and may stop being connected to you on LinkedIn.

#7: Build Your Connections From Existing Lists

LinkedIn will let you create your list of connections in several different ways.  You may want to connect in several older email addresses in the hopes of getting more connections for your LinkedIn account.  Because LinkedIn provides networking opportunities, many people will simply accept nearly any LinkedIn connection request that comes from somebody they know or used to know at an earlier time.

With over 1 billion users, Facebook is clearly a social media site that's here to stay for the foreseeable future.  However, if you've got a limited law firm marketing budget (and who doesn't?), you need to know which other new online marketing methods are going to be around in the future and which ones have a short shelf life.  In this guide, we'll take a look at the bandwagons that your law firm should consider jumping on.  These methods all have tremendous applicability for most or all law firms, and can be expected to still be relevant for the foreseeable future.

Bandwagon #1: Quantitative Testing

For a long time, most law firm marketing and advertising depended not on quantitative A/B testing of different possibilities, but of what amounted to guessing with a good helping of talent and intuition.  While the old way of doing marketing could work passably well, today, you can augment any talent with quantitative testing that will help you identify exactly when your marketing is bringing in clients.

Internet technology has made it easier than ever for businesses to learn what clients are responding to.  Only a few decades ago, when advertisers wanted to see if consumers were reading, they'd have to include cut-out coupons to mail in.  These were somewhat inconvenient and couldn't be used effectively by many types of businesses.  Today, you can see exactly what ad made someone click on your website, and whether anyone clicking from that ad is actually calling pr emailing your firm to set up an appointment.

Bandwagon #2: Mobile Marketing

For the first time, in 2013 smartphone connections to the internet in the United States will actually exceed internet connections from desktop and laptop computers.  This means that even if your firm hasn't been great about interacting with mobile clients in the past, today is the day to start changing that.  As more and more people access the internet from their smartphones, it will become more difficult to stay competitive as a firm that is steadfastly against mobile marketing.

Begin your mobile marketing ventures by starting to make your content mobile friendly.  Having smartphones redirect to a mobile website is a good idea.  You should also make sure that any emails you plan to send are viewable not only on dekstop and laptop computers, but also smartphones with Android or iOS.

Bandwagon #3: Client-Responsive Websites

If your firm has several practice areas but someone came to your firm's website because of an advertisement for DUI defense services, you will be wasting your time telling them about all of your firm's other services.  Having websites that actually are based on how your clients got there, and that change based on how your clients interact with them, are the wave of the future when it comes to legal marketing on the web.

This kind of website specialization might not yet be feasible for some smaller firms, but keep an eye out.  As technology for creating client responsive sites improves, prices will drop, and you may be able to get the kind of site that will start converting 100-200% more viewers than the site you have today.

Bandwagon #4: The Rise of Agencies

Because online advertising and marketing is becoming increasingly important and, in some critical ways, increasingly complicated, more and more firms are considering having some or all of their marketing services outsourced to agencies.  In fact, the number of online marketing and branding agencies has doubled in the last year alone.

If you're having a difficult time understanding how to position your brand in your local market, or you're just not seeing a way to find enough time to maintain your website and create new content marketing materials on a regular basis, you should consult with one of these agencies.  They can help you to find a plan that will suit your firm's needs and budget, and that will provide the marketing assistance you need.  Whether you need someone to update your Facebook wall from time to time or just want someone to manage your PPC advertising budget, agencies can help you with whatever you're having the most difficulty with.

Bandwagon #5: Locally Based Marketing

Because it's very likely that the vast majority of your law firm's clients come from a 20 mile radius, what good does it do your firm to advertise to many, many people who will never be able to come to your office for a consultation?  Locally based marketing is a great way to save money over national marketing, all while making sure that you're targeting the potential clients who are most likely to convert.

Not all locally based marketing is actually online.  For example, sponsoring local events or teams can seriously improve your reputation in your community.  However, you should make sure that when you do locally based marketing in your community, you're also discussing it in your online marketing materials.  You can also make sure that you're being listed in local directories, including any online listings offered by your local chamber of commerce or bar association.

While locally based marketing with tagging services like Foursquare and Gowalla seemed promising in 2011 and 2012, today it appears that these services have actually become significantly less popular in recent months.  You should consider discontinuing your use of these services unless you're still seeing results from them.  It's possible that in your city or neighborhood, Foursquare could be going strong.  If so, keep up your use of it as long as it's still benefiting your firm.

Bandwagon #6: Relationship Building

Keep in mind that the real purpose of social media platforms isn't for you to use them as a bullhorn.  It's to build longer-term relationships with clients in a way that isn't inconvenient in the same way that continuous phone or email contact can be.  A brief post on Facebook linking to something and giving enough information about whether it will be interesting to click on won't offend anyone, as long as you're not making that kind of post more than once or twice a day and the content will genuinely interest a significant number of your friends or subscribers.

If you're already using Twitter as a tool for your law firm—as a little over a third of firms report they're already doing or plan to do in 2013—you may think that Twitter's primarily a way to get your marketing content out there.  But if you're looking at Twitter exclusively from a content marketing perspective, you're missing out on some of the best features of the service.  In this guide we'll look at seven different ways to use your Twitter account more effectively that are about much more than content marketing.

#1: Use Twitter As a Recruitment Tool

One aspect of Twitter that many law firms ignore is its potential to bring in new recruits.  Many bright law students and young attorneys are using Twitter in their daily lives, and you can use your account to start finding the right people and making your firm's strengths known.

Consider talking about some of your firm's best aspects from a recruitment standpoint—whether your office offers a superb work life balance, the kinds of cases associates can expect to work on—and discuss them in tweets.  You may also want to include links to firm recruiting videos or text on your website or on Youtube.

#2: Scope Out Potential Clients

So you know that someone's coming in for an initial consultation, and you have enough information about them to find their Twitter account.  What's great about Twitter is that you can actually use the service to learn some things about the person you're about to meet with.  From what sports team they're rooting for to what they think of political issues, clients will talk about many things very freely on Twitter that they might not discuss openly with an attorney.

The reason that you should do a little of this kind of friendly reconnaissance is easy—you really don't want to put your foot in your mouth at your first client meeting.  Understanding what your client thinks like can help you anticipate the best strategies to address their legal problems while providing a high degree of client satisfaction.

#3: Get Competitor Intelligence

Another way that you can use Twitter is to get a feel for how your competitors behave.  This can help you identify opportunities.  If there's something that your competition is falling short on, you can pounce and offer the services in the places they're missing. You can also figure out what kinds of hashtags your competitors are using and how they're marketing their services.  If they're doing anything particularly well, you can figure out whether their strategies could be incorporated into your own marketing.

If you're not getting competitor intelligence, you're ignoring half the battle when it comes to marketing.  Understanding your firm's own unique selling proposition will help you to get across your message, and the first step to knowing what makes you unique is seeing the public face of the people you're competing most directly with.

#4: Show Off Your Good Press

You should be doing more than just online marketing if you're in charge of publicity for your firm.  It's important to send out not just generic press releases, but press releases that give a good narrative “hook” to journalists.  Doing a little of a reporter's job for them—finding an angle for a story—is important in a world where print journalists are working on increasingly tight deadlines for lower pay.

When your press releases start resulting in stories in local publications, make sure that your Twitter readers know it.  It's not considered undue bragging to talk about your good press.  Many people on Twitter will post their own media mentions, and ignoring these on your firm's Twitter profile is a mistake.

#5: Watch For People Talking About You

You should also consider making sure that you're monitoring any hashtags that could pertain to your firm, as well as several search terms for your firm's name and the names of the attorneys at your firm.  If someone is making a complaint about your law firm, it's much better to find out quickly so you can react before any concerns go viral, which can deeply hurt your firm's reputation.

Sometimes, handling a complaint gracefully can lead to virality all its own—responsiveness to clients can get people using your firm's name in positive discussions online.  Even if it doesn't, swift and authentic client-focused responses will usually stop any negative publicity in its tracks.

#6: Consider Vine Videos

One of the newest features people are using on Twitter is the Vine service.  Vine allows people to upload videos to the internet, with one small catch.  Much like Twitter restricts the characters in a tweet, Vine videos restrict how long the video clip can be—to just six seconds.

What can you say in six seconds?  That depends entirely on you and your firm.  Consider having a firmwide contest to see who can make the best Vine video with their smartphone.  Since the videos are just six seconds long, they're not beyond anybody's ability to create.  This can be a funny and inclusive way to get people at your firm interested in the firm's marketing online.

#7: Understand Twitter Jargon and Notation

If you want to get the most out of your Twitter account, you'll need to communicate well with other users of the website.  Part of that will mean that you need to study up on your Twitter jargon.  Whether you don't know the difference between a trending hashtag and a trendy handbag or you've just used the service personally before, it's a good idea to read up on some Twitter 101 for businesses before you start trying to make a lot of tweets of your own.

If you don't know how to use hashtags, hat-tips, re-tweets, and other similar jargon, you won't be able to interact with Twitter users as someone who really cares about their community norms.  It's important to really try to be a part of any online social community you belong to, and Twitter is no exception.

4 out of 5 new legal clients use web searches to help them make a decision about which lawyer to hire.  Because link popularity influences search results so much, many lawyers are now looking into using link popularity tools to increase their traffic and conversions.  However, not every lawyer has the same problem, and not every lawyer needs the same link popularity tool.  Here are some of the most common problems that attorneys have when trying to put together a successful, high ranking website, and the link popularity tools that can help you to overcome those problems.

Problem: We Don't Know How Popular Our Links Are

Solution: Link Popularity Tools for Link Checking

Sometimes, lawyers have had a website for a very long time—maybe your site dates from a time when search engine optimization mostly depended just on keyword percentages.  If this is the case, you may not have checked your link popularity at all, especially not with modern link popularity tools.

Using a link popularity tool designed to check your level of link popularity can give you part of the picture about how well you're performing.  In order to get a more detailed image of what you're doing right and what you can do better, you should check out your competition's website using the same link popularity tools.  This helps you understand comparatively where you are, and using a link popularity tool like this may even give you some new ideas about where to try to build new links.

Problem: We Don't Have Enough Links

Solution: Link Popularity Tools For Link Building

Maybe you've already used a link popularity tool to check how popular you were—and you didn't like the results very much at all.  You saw that your website was languishing behind many other sites like it, and you want to use some link popularity tools to help you create new ones.

Some all in one link popularity tools act as link managers that can help you post links to a wide variety of websites from a single interface.  This also helps you to keep track of the links that you have already posted.  If you're not using a link popularity tool like this to enhance your link popularity, you'll have to post at every website individually, using their interface, which may not seem like it takes very long—but once you add up all the time you're spending navigating different website layouts, it turns out that these link popularity tools can be one of the biggest time savers your law firm can invest in.

Problem: Not Enough Time To Post Our Links

Solution: Automated Submission Link Popularity Tools

This is one of the biggest problems that many law firms have when trying to figure out what link popularity tool to use.  Posting links takes time, and for lawyers, time is money in a very direct and tangible sense.  To avoid the feeling of those billable hours just slipping away, many attorneys use link popularity tools that automate their link submission fully.

However, this type of link popularity tool has a down side that you should be aware of before you ever choose to use one.  Automated link building through link popularity tools is not looked upon favorably by search engines, and if you're caught, you can expect penalties to your search rankings.  For some lawyers, this may be perceived as a risk worth taking.  Others won't want to chance it.  You'll have to make up your own mind about whether or not automating your links is enough of a time savings to be worth the possibility of losing your hard-won rankings.

Problem: Finding New Sites To Post Links On

Solution: Using Social Bookmarking as a Link Popularity Tool

Some of the best link popularity tools today aren't freestanding pieces of software.  Instead, think of websites that allow free user posting to be their own unique form of link popularity tool.  If you want to increase your link presence, social bookmarking sites are the best link popularity tools possible.  Just start by creating an account and soon you'll be able to freely post links to whatever part of your website needs them most.

Problem: Don't Know Which Links Are Better

Solution: Use SEOQuake or Other Link Popularity Tools to Check PageRank

When you're building your links, you'll want to prioritize them by quality, and there's no better way to check than by using a link popularity tool.  Google bases the amount of link juice you get with each link on how authoritative the link source is, and how many other links are on the website.  Using a link popularity tool like SEOQuake, which works in your browser to tell you information about a website's PageRank and other data, can be extremely useful if you're hoping to find the most efficient route to Page One of search results.

If you're considering two different sources for your link, try using SEOQuake and seeing whether their PageRank is the same or not.  If it's not, you probably want to prioritize putting links on the website with the higher PageRank value.

Keep in mind that not all of your links can or should be from high PageRank sites—this would be a very unnatural linking pattern.  However, you can definitely use link popularity tools like SEOQuake to find out which links are likely to be most valuable and which ones you can probably ignore.

Problem: Google Says Our Website is Overoptimized

Solution: Use Link Popularity Tools to Identify Bad Links

One last use of a link popularity tool that you should know about is using tools to identify bad links.  Whether they're inbound links leading to your website or outbound links that go to websites other than your own, you need your links to work.  If you use link popularity tools and find out that one of your inbound links isn't working, you can talk to the webmaster or redirect the link URL to the page that now contains the relevant information.  If an outbound link no longer works, you should find where the data you were linking to is now displayed, and change your link accordingly.

Search engine link popularity is now the #1 factor that matters when it comes to where your link appears in the rankings.  If you're not actively working to boost your SEO link popularity, you're going to fall further and further behind your more prepared competitors in 2013 and beyond.  In this guide, we're going to look at some of the hottest search engine link popularity topics of 2012 and examine how they can affect law firms.  Sit back and take some notes, because these tips will help you to get your website onto the top page, where the traffic flows freely.

Is Your Law Firm Prepared for 2013?

It's not exactly a secret that most lawyers hate marketing.  Search engine link popularity just isn't a very exciting topic to most legal professionals, which probably explains why so many lawyers are ignoring it.

Today, though, it's like everybody's living in the future—over 80 percent of people look for lawyers online before deciding on who will represent them, and over 90 percent of those people aren't looking past the first page of their search results.  That means that in order to get clients, you're going to need to put yourself on the first page for at least some search strings that people actually use.  

Google makes most of its rankings decisions based on your inbound links—both how many of them there are, and how authoritative each link is based on the linking website's PageRank.  If you're going to boost your SEO link popularity today, you'll need to not only focus on building large numbers of links but also on checking the quality of every link you get.

Use Caution When Boosting SEO Link Popularity

There is such a thing as trying too hard to boost your search engine link popularity.  If you spam the entire internet with link after link to your website, you might think that the boost to your SEO link popularity would automatically lead to a dramatic increase in your search ranks.  Not so—in fact, Google has several ways to detect when someone is gaming the system.

One of the easiest mistakes to make is building your link presence too fast.  No real website builds its search engine link popularity overnight.  Gradual, slow changes to your SEO link popularity will look more natural and will lead to a slow but steady positive change to where your website appears in search results.

The Difference Between Indexed and Non-Indexed Links

Not all links are created equal.  Not only are some links poorer quality than others for search engine link popularity purposes, but some links actually don't make any difference at all.  Why?  Because Google's “spiders” (the programs used to find new web pages and index their content) aren't able to find them.  If your inbound links can't be found by Google, there's no way for their link juice to add to your website's level of authority.

The best way to ensure that your links will be indexed and affect your SEO link popularity is to put them on websites with easy to navigate interfaces and site maps.  You may also want to actually build links to your links in order to increase your search engine link popularity—this is called nested or tiered link building.

Worry About Clients First, Search Engines Second

With all the focus in the search engine marketing world today, some marketers make the mistake of putting the machines first.  It's worth keeping in mind that the best way to build your SEO link popularity is still to get natural links from people interested in your content.  If you build for people first, and think of search engine link popularity as a nice bonus, you'll do much better than if you make barely readable pages full of content that an audience wouldn't care about but a search engine would.

Methods of Boosting Your SEO Link Popularity Naturally

Search engine link popularity isn't necessarily hard to build naturally, as long as you're good at creating content and can do so consistently.  Start joining and participating in social networking websites, and you'll see your SEO link popularity start to build up overnight.  It's not because you've done anything “black hat,” but because you've actually provided a way for people to find information they're looking for.

You can also improve search results and your search engine link popularity by listing yourself in a large number of directories, both for websites generally and for lawyers specifically.  Attorneys who aren't listed in these directories will have substantially lower SEO link popularity, and most directories are either free to participate in or cost only a nominal fee.

What Changes Will Happen in 2013?

Google tends not to talk about search engine algorithm changes until they come out, so it's difficult to speculate on exactly how SEO link popularity will change.  However, we can make some educated guesses based on how Google has dealt with search engine link popularity issues up until now.

So far in 2012, Google has been making big changes to their search algorithm to prevent people from gaining SEO link popularity through automated or “black hat” techniques that involve spam.  However, spam results are still very noticeable, especially when making searches for very competitive terms.  We can expect for Google to address this and tweak the way they correlate search engine link popularity with rankings next year.  So far, the trend has been toward penalizing automated SEO link popularity building, so you should start phasing out the use of automation programs, even if they're still working for now.

Differentiating Yourself From The Competition

The best way to make sure that your search engine link popularity continues to climb is having an effective brand identity and promoting that brand identity across the web.  If you just seem like another lawyer, without a lot to differentiate yourself from the competition, don't be surprised if your results are tepid.  Don't just do what everyone else is doing—if you want to be on page one, you need to build your search engine link popularity organically and contextually.

Running a free link popularity check tool isn't difficult, but most law firms aren't using a link popularity checker yet.  Why not?  It may be that many lawyers haven't yet really grasped how important link popularity is for their websites—so they don't even know that a link popularity check could be useful.  If you're not sure whether a link popularity check would be beneficial for your firm, this guide can help steer you in the right direction.  Here are seven different ways that a free link popularity check can make your firm's website easier to find for potential clients.

#1: Learn What You're Doing Right

When you run a link popularity check for the first time, you may be surprised by how many links you have.  It's very likely that the link popularity checker will reveal not just links that you've deliberately built for your firm, but also many other links that other people have made with or without telling you.  If you haven't run a free link popularity check in some time, or have never run one before, you're going to find out which of your pages tend to get the most links and which get the fewest.

By finding out what other people are linking to with a link popularity checker, you'll be able to understand which topics are most interesting to your viewers and which don't get as much traffic.  You may not have known that a particular niche was making so many waves for your firm online—this kind of understanding is one of the biggest advantages of running a link popularity check.

#2: Investigating the Competition

Knowing what your firm is doing right is only part of the battle.  The reality is, you've got competitors, and some of them may be doing a link popularity check right now—on both their website and your own.  Once you've already run a link popularity checker on your own website, do a free link popularity check on your competition's site as well.

The results from running a link popularity check on your competitor can be a veritable gold mine of information.  In many cases, you will find through your link popularity checker that they're listed on directory websites or other types of sites that you haven't yet built inbound links from.  You can get your links on the same sites, then re-run a free link popularity check on your own website to make sure they're showing up.

#3: Finding Different Websites For Links

When you use a link popularity check, you can find brand new websites to start posting on.  Maybe you'd never even heard of reddit.com, but now you find out through the link popularity checker that the social bookmarking website already includes three different inbound links for your blog.  Because of your free link popularity check, you can now start using websites where it's clear you or your competitors have had success.

#4: Learning Who's Following You

Having a great network of people is one of the best ways to build inbound links.  By using a link popularity checker, you can find out whether there are a few people or websites that are linking to you repeatedly and seem to be following you.  By identifying these people with your free link popularity check, you can start actually interacting with them and following them as well.

When you use your link popularity check in this way, you're actually building a small web community all of your own.  Make sure that when you reach out to these followers after running your link popularity checker, you don't just seek them out as a source of better links.  Treat them as people deserving of respect and consideration, and you'll have much better results and can possibly make a lifelong career networking connection because of your link popularity checker.

#5: Checking Reciprocal Links

If you've asked somebody for a link exchange, you may have used a link popularity check at the beginning of your arrangement to make sure they put up the link they promised.  But have you checked with a link popularity checker since then?  If not, running a free link popularity check can give you peace of mind and help you see whether anyone has broken their agreement.

If you run a link popularity check and find that someone is no longer running the link that they said they would be, you can talk to the webmaster and ask them to reinsert the link on their website.  If they refuse, you can take down the reciprocal link from your site.

#6: Making Sure Your Links Are Up To Date

When you redesign your website it's imperative to run a free link popularity check as soon as you can.  If you don't run a link popularity check periodically after a site revision, it's possible that your inbound links will direct to pages that you no longer maintain or update.  This means that people trying to follow these links won't get what they're coming for, and they probably won't search all over your site to find it.

When your free link popularity check reveals that some links are going to outdated pages, you have two options.  You can either alert the webmaster of the site where the link is hosted, so that he or she can change the link based on your link popularity checker results, or you can include a new redirect page on your website so that people don't get lost.

#7: Learning Where You Need Expansion

Your link popularity check can show you not only where you've already got links, but also where you haven't got them.  If a free link popularity check reveals, for instance, that you have few or no links from social networking sites, you may want to start pursuing a social networking strategy.  If the link popularity check reveals that you're not yet taking advantage of any type of commonly used link, you should definitely at least consider adding those links to your site.