TechnoLawyer: Law Firm Marketing/Publications/Web Sites

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Coming today to TechnoFeature: Good client. Bad client. How do you tell them apart? Unfortunately, a clear-cut test doesn't exist. But with law firm management expert Allison Shields' help, you can focus on the former and avoid the latter. In this TechnoFeature, Allison explains how to identify good and bad clients, and attract more of the former and avoid the latter through an exploration of core value and psychographic analysis, pre-qualification, and other techniques they don't teach in law school. If you already have a few bad clients, Allison discusses how to eliminate them. Life's too short to work with people who sap your energy. Free yourself from bad clients today by following Allison's advice.

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Cloud Computing Threatens Legal IT Professionals

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This issue also contains links to every article in the November/December 2009 issue of Law Practice. Don't miss this issue or future issues.

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Watch the Video

TechnoScore: 1.0
1 = Lowest Possible Score; 5 = Highest Possible Score

I can sympathize with any injured victim seeking compensation for their injuries. But I cannot tolerate a poorly produced video, especially a 9:38 minute video that rambles on without purpose or direction.

I'm sure the Terry Law firm thought having any testimonial was better than no testimonial. In this instance, I have to disagree. Some clients simply do not come across very well in telling their story. Maybe they are not photogenic. Maybe they cannot tell a concise story. Maybe they don't understand the legal issue or cannot explain it.

This video testimonial is filmed in front of a legal bookcase and is overexposed. The video alternates between a man and a woman attempting to describe what happened to their mother in a nursing home. Honestly, I could not sit through the entire 9 1/2 minute video. It was very painful. The two clients could not concisely describe what happened, and spoke about David Terry and the case only at the very end.

A good testimonial can help generate leads. A poor client testimonial will hurt you more than you can ever know.

Tip #1: Direct Your Client

It is your responsibility to direct your client and have them explain in one or two sentences the problem and why they chose you instead of the thousands of other lawyers with whom you compete.

You don't need a bullhorn or director's chair. Just ask them pointed questions.

"What legal problem did you have that you needed a lawyer?"

"Why did you choose me instead of all the other lawyers out there?"

"What set me apart from other lawyers?"

"How did I solve your legal problem?"

By forcing your client to focus, you force them to tell their story concisely. You create short, clipped answers that will motivate prospects to call you. If you bore viewers, they will leave your site, never to return.

Tip #2: Alternatives for Lawyers Who Cannot Use Testimonials in Their State

Some states prohibit the use of testimonials (e.g., Florida). What can you ethically do as an attorney to show a viewer that others think highly of your legal services?

If you are a trial attorney and just settled the case favorably, or have won a recent verdict, why not interview the defense lawyer?

Don't ask the defense lawyer for a testimonial. Instead, ask the defense lawyer about the key defenses. What was the defense's position regarding liability? Ask "Why did you feel you had a good chance of winning this case if we went to trial?" I would personally ask the defense attorney what he or she thought of the claims. Remember not to get into the specifics of your particular case, but rather talk in generalities. As an attorney, you never want to give legal advice online, and never want someone to inadvertently rely on the information you provide in a video.

Tip #3: A Testimonial Formula

At the outset, I suggest getting on camera to provide an overview of the legal issue in the case. Then introduce your client and switch to a view of your clients talking. Ask them why they needed a lawyer. Ask them why they chose you. Ask them how you were able to help solve their legal problem. Ask them whether they would refer their best friend or family member to you if they had a legal problem, and why.

Then, I suggest you get back on the video and describe in very concise fashion how you solved their legal problem. This formula provides a framework and context for the viewer to understand the details of the case.

Conclusion

Video testimonials enable you to demonstrate your skills without boasting about them yourself. A poor video, or one that goes on endlessly will ensure that no one will ever pick up the phone to call you. Before uploading a video testimonial online, I strongly recommend that you have friends and colleagues review it first. Unless it is a worthy testimonial, you are better off leaving it on the cutting room floor. Till next time, see you on video!

The Back Bench

Certified Family Law Specialist and online video producer Kelly Chang Rickert says: "I love client testimonials. However, this video took an excessive amount of time to get to its point. And Robert is right — what happened at the end?"

Lawyer, journalist, and legal media consultant Robert Ambrogi says: "The video is compelling and dramatic in its use of the victim's two children to tell what happened to their mother. More to the point, it is a compelling testimonial for the lawyer. However, the nearly 10-minute video is much longer than it needs to be — it could have the same impact in just half the length. The lighting is poor and washes out the faces. Most surprisingly, they tell us about the lawyer's preparation of the case but never say how it turned out. Was justice done?"

TechnoLawyer publisher and online video producer Neil Squillante says: "David Terry's clients have a compelling story about nursing home negligence, but the video runs way too long and ends without disclosing the outcome of the case. Most YouTubers won't wait for the sequel."

About YouLaw
YouTube offers law firms a free advertising platform with tens of millions of potential clients. But a poor video can hurt more than help. In this column, lawyer and online video expert Gerry Oginski reviews and rates the latest law firm videos. A panel of fellow experts (The Back Bench) add to Gerry's reviews with pithy remarks. We link to each new YouLaw column and all other noteworthy law firm marketing articles in our weekly BlawgWorld newsletter, which is free. Please subscribe now.

About Gerry Oginski
New York trial lawyer Gerry Oginski has created more than 150 informational online videos for his medical malpractice and personal injury practice. Realizing that most video producers don't have a deep understanding of the practice of law and what potential clients look for, Gerry launched The Lawyers' Video Studio, which provides free tutorials and video production services. If you need help producing a video, please contact Gerry now.

Contact Gerry:
T: (516) 487-8207
E: lawmed10@yahoo.com

Coming today to BlawgWorld: Our editorial team has selected and linked to 62 articles from the past week worthy of your attention, including our Post of the Week. Here's a sample:

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Our newsletters provide the most comprehensive coverage of legal technology, practice management, and law firm marketing, but not the only coverage. To stay on top of all the noteworthy articles published in blogs and other online publications you could either hire a research assistant or simply subscribe to BlawgWorld. The BlawgWorld newsletter has received rave reviews and is free. Please subscribe now.

If a car jumps the median into your lane, you need to act instantly to avoid a life-threatening collision.

Many legal marketing gurus would have you believe that you must act just as quickly to embrace Twitter, the leading micro-blogging platform. Don't believe them. Your law firm won't disappear tomorrow if you don't start tweeting today.

While I don't recommend taking a few years to think about how to incorporate Twitter into your marketing plan, giving it some serious thought before diving in will benefit rather than hurt you.

Below you'll find three ways to get started with Twitter, none of which require a serious investment of time or pose any risk. I also point out a few pitfalls to avoid.

1. Search for Real-Time Competitive Intelligence (Spying)

People can't help themselves — especially those who grew up with instant messaging (IM). Twitter is a lot like IM except that it's public (you can create a private account but most people don't).

Before you read another sentence, bookmark Twitter Search.

Start searching it on behalf of yourself and your clients to monitor people, companies, and other keywords you care about. At the very least, you'll find it interesting plus you may hit the jackpot and learn about a competitor's strategies or possible legal work for existing clients (e.g., infringement). You may even find someone seeking legal services in your field. Using Twitter Search for spying monitoring keywords doesn't require an account.

Unfortunately, Twitter does not make its complete archive searchable. In fact, it only goes back a day or so. However, Google archives Twitter — sort of. If you save your Twitter searches as RSS feeds, and then place those feeds in Google Reader, you can build your own archive of tweets that never disappear.

If you start tweeting someday, don't make the same mistake many others do. Think twice before tweeting about your personal life or your law firm's finances, strategic planning, etc.

2. Start Tweeting With Direct (Private) Messages

When you start searching Twitter, you'll find a lot of "replies to nowhere." Much like that famous bridge to nowhere, which stood to benefit just a few dozen people, these replies are essentially directed at one person or at most a small group of people so they don't make much sense to anyone else. It's like hearing the punch line of a joke without hearing the setup.

Inevitably, you'll come across a tweet and want to reply to the author. Try replying to these tweets privately rather than publicly to prevent cluttering up your stream with replies to nowhere, especially if you have not yet started publicly tweeting or if your reply is unrelated to the topics you typically tweet about.

To contact someone privately, use a Direct Message as opposed to a public @reply. However, you can only send a direct message to someone who follows you — a spam prevention measure that creates a catch-22.

But don't despair. Unless you're trying to contact a celebrity, if you follow the person you want to contact they will usually return the favor and follow you, after which you can direct message them. If they don't reciprocate, try searching Google, LinkedIn, etc. for their email address. If all else fails, you can use an @reply, and later delete it once you've established a dialogue.

3. Tweet Your Blog Posts and Retweet Related Tweets

Because the foregoing activities don't involve public tweets, they pose no risk. If you want to start posting publicly so that you can attract followers and network on a larger scale, the tips below will safely get you started.

If your firm publishes a blog, you can start tweeting immediately. Most blog platforms integrate with Twitter (see, e.g., TypePad, which we use). Once configured, every time you publish a new article in your blog, you can automatically post the title and corresponding link to your Twitter stream. In other words, you can tweet and generate traffic to your blog with zero effort.

You should also consider Retweets — reprinting relevant tweets by other Twitter users. Originally created by Twitter users through a simple copy and paste preceded by the letters RT and the original author's Twitter name, retweeting has become such a phenomenon that Twitter recently unveiled its official retweeting tool.

Retweeting dovetails nicely with searching Twitter for keywords, and tends to attract followers. For example, suppose you want to focus on trademark issues. Every day, you search Twitter for "trademark" and other related keywords. Invariably, you'll find some interesting tweets, perhaps pointing an article somewhere on the Web. Rather than tweet about that same article yourself, you could quickly retweet it instead.

Publishers such as AllTop and Huffington Post have amassed large audiences aggregating the related content of others into one convenient location. Aggregation works just as well on Twitter

Twitter has not (yet) addressed the copyright issues surrounding retweets in its terms of service, but given that an official tool now exists, I suspect Twitter will require all users to permit retweets (Twitter enables you to block the retweets of those you follow, but you cannot prevent people from retweeting your tweets).

Beyond these two starting points, treat your Twitter stream as you would any publication — stick to a theme. This disciplined approach will not only attract a larger audience than a random stream of non-sequiturs, but also attract the kind of people with whom you want to connect. Also, you can still have fun and showcase your personality. Most topics have their lighter side, plus your tweets will hopefully spark some lively debates. Just stay away from listing what you ate for dinner. Few people care about that stuff — unless perhaps you dined with Jennifer Aniston and Ashton Kutcher at Per Se.

Follow Up

You now know a lot more about Twitter than you did a few minutes ago — enough to get started. You may also want to read Twitter 101, Twitter's guide for businesses. Just one more thing. While we welcome you to follow us, we encourage you to join us.

Originally published October 26, 2009. Updated to include Twitter's new retweet tool.

About TechnoEditorials
A TechnoEditorial is the vehicle through which we opine and provide tips of interest to lawyers, law office administrators, and others in the legal profession. We link to each new TechnoEditorial and much more in our BlawgWorld newsletter, which is free. Please subscribe now.

Coming today to BlawgWorld: Our editorial team has selected and linked to 59 articles from the past week worthy of your attention, including our Post of the Week. Here's a sample:

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This issue also contains links to every article in the November 2009 issue of Law Practice Today. Don't miss this issue or future issues.

How to Receive BlawgWorld
Our newsletters provide the most comprehensive coverage of legal technology, practice management, and law firm marketing, but not the only coverage. To stay on top of all the noteworthy articles published in blogs and other online publications you could either hire a research assistant or simply subscribe to BlawgWorld. The BlawgWorld newsletter has received rave reviews and is free. Please subscribe now.

Coming today to Fat Friday: James Reed shares the secrets of his law firm's success during the recession, Bob Leonard reviews MobileMe for syncing LexisNexis Total Practice Advantage with his iPhone, William Tait explores whether your law firm should switch to Macs, David Long shares his two cents on the healthcare coverage debate, and Harry Steinmetz has a few choice words regarding Mazy's Solo Practice Still Stinks SmallLaw column. Don't miss this issue.

How to Receive Fat Friday
Our most serendipitous offering, Fat Friday consists of unsolicited contributions by TechnoLawyer members. You'll no doubt enjoy it because of its mix of interesting topics and genuinely useful knowledge, including brutally honest product reviews and informative how-tos. The Fat Friday newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Coming today to BlawgWorld: Our editorial team has selected and linked to 65 articles from the past week worthy of your attention, including our Post of the Week. Here's a sample:

Creating a Click-thru Agreement in a PDF

Verizon Droid Meta-Review: A Killer Phone

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Add Value to Your Legal Services With Changed Perception

Don't miss this issue or future issues.

How to Receive BlawgWorld
Our newsletters provide the most comprehensive coverage of legal technology, practice management, and law firm marketing, but not the only coverage. To stay on top of all the noteworthy articles published in blogs and other online publications you could either hire a research assistant or simply subscribe to BlawgWorld. The BlawgWorld newsletter has received rave reviews and is free. Please subscribe now.

Watch the Video

TechnoScore: 3.5
1 = Lowest Possible Score; 5 = Highest Possible Score

Jason Diamond, a founding partner of the Traffic Ticket Team offers some useful and compelling information to anyone pulled over and given a traffic ticket. Diamond and his team claim to have handled over one million traffic tickets collectively. If that's not impressive enough, he promises a money back guarantee if you receive points on your license or have to attend traffic school.

From a content standpoint, the video is excellent. Most people who get a traffic ticket don't know what to do. Most municipalities rely on that lack of information to generate income from their tickets. Attorney Diamond clearly dispels the need to pay the ticket in full and to immediately plead guilty to whatever traffic infraction you are charged with.

Having received a traffic ticket myself a few weeks ago, this video hit home. I haven't received a traffic ticket in over 20 years, and was tempted to immediately pay the fine since I did not want to waste hours in a village court for my case to be heard. However, after consulting with a traffic ticket lawyer, he confirmed my belief that I should plead not guilty and proceed to trial.

From a technique standpoint, the video is lacking. He has a nice introductory graphic with background music when the video starts. Inexplicably, it then comes to an abrupt halt, like screeching tires immediately before impact. You are then treated to a video that is washed out, most likely because he appears to be shooting the video directly in front of a window. The audio is also poor and sounds like he's in an echo chamber.

I like how he introduces himself and explains immediately how he can help you. He addresses a frequently asked question that is on the mind of every driver who receives a traffic ticket. He also does something that I have never seen any attorney do -- offer a money back guarantee. Kudos to Mr. Diamond for using this technique.

Tip #1: Don't Shoot Video in Front of a Window

The reason? Your video camera thinks that the light shining through the window is the primary light source, and will, therefore, make everything else darker. The surrounding colors become washed out. Instead, close your shades, turn on the lights and shoot your video.

Tip #2: Use a Lapel Microphone

Your camcorder's built-in microphone stinks. Unless you stand 12 inches away from the camera, that built-in mic will pick up all ambient sound and sound awful. I will tell you from experience that online viewers will excuse a poor quality video. They will excuse fuzzy or grainy video. They will not excuse poor audio. If they cannot hear you clearly and well, they will quickly go elsewhere, never to return to your video or Web site again.

Go to Radio Shack and spend $20 for a wired lapel microphone. It is significantly better than using your built-in mic. If you want even better quality, I strongly suggest you invest in a wireless lapel microphone, which cost anywhere from $150-$600.

Tip #3: Watch Your Video Before You Upload It

When you prepare a brief or motion, it is often helpful to put it down and come back to it another day. This way you get a fresh perspective of what you created. The same principle applies to your law firm video. After you have edited, color corrected, created graphics, and background music, you'll want to upload it to YouTube. My advice: Revisit it hours or days later. I guarantee you will want to make some additional changes before going live.

Conclusion

With a reshoot, Jason Diamond's video could become stellar by moving away from the window, adding a lapel mic, and having some satisfied clients on camera talk about how Mr. Diamond successfully helped them fight their traffic tickets. Till next time, see you on video.

The Back Bench

Certified Family Law Specialist and online video producer Kelly Chang Rickert says: "Very nicely done! I would hire this guy in a heartbeat. He is convincing, forthright, and his video flows. The man is very engaging, and he presented answers to questions we all want. He is the ticket-man!"

Lawyer, journalist, and legal media consultant Robert Ambrogi says: "This video makes me wonder how much production values matter on YouTube. The image quality is poor, the sound is tinny, the camera shakes, and the speaker shows no affect. Yet his pitch is quite effective. If I had a speeding ticket, he'd be the guy I'd hire. Two side points: One is that the video is unclear about the jurisdictions in which he practices. The other is that his video and his Web site differ by 500,000 in their claims of how many tickets his office has handled."

TechnoLawyer publisher and online video producer Neil Squillante says: "The Traffic Ticket Team has handled more than one million traffic tickets. How many more must they handle until they can afford a better camcorder and a more talented video editor? The video offers some good information (and a snippet of a catchy Coldplay song), but the poor production detracts from the message."

About YouLaw
YouTube offers law firms a free advertising platform with tens of millions of potential clients. But a poor video can hurt more than help. In this column, lawyer and online video expert Gerry Oginski reviews and rates the latest law firm videos. A panel of fellow experts (The Back Bench) add to Gerry's reviews with pithy remarks. We link to each new YouLaw column and all other noteworthy law firm marketing articles in our weekly BlawgWorld newsletter, which is free. Please subscribe now.

About Gerry Oginski
New York trial lawyer Gerry Oginski has created more than 150 informational online videos for his medical malpractice and personal injury practice. Realizing that most video producers don't have a deep understanding of the practice of law and what potential clients look for, Gerry launched The Lawyers' Video Studio, which provides free tutorials and video production services. If you need help producing a video, please contact Gerry now.

Contact Gerry:
T: (516) 487-8207
E: lawmed10@yahoo.com