Using Chatbots for Your Legal Website

Chat Service, Chatbots, Featured Content, Legal Internet Marketing, Legal SEO Marketing /

What are Chatbots and How Do They Work? A chatbot is a computer program or an artificial intelligence which conducts a conversation via auditory or textual methods.   It basically is a personal assistant that works 24/7 and has all the answers related to your business. Do you remember when it wasn’t necessary to have a website for your legal practice? When most online boards would scoff at the value of running a Facebook page for your legal practice? Now Gartner is telling us that customers will manage 85% of their relationship with brands without interacting with a human by 2020 and publications like Forbes are saying that chat bots are the cause.    SO it makes sense that you should start using chatbots sooner then later. I’m sure most of you must’ve interacted with a chatbot by now on Facebook Messenger. It is adopted by thousands of companies and becoming more and more popular. A chatbot publishing platform is a medium through which the chatbot can be accessed and used by the users. This is where your chatbot that you create with software like Chatfuel or Manychat, is then accessed on something like facebook messenger. A chat bot development platform, on the other hand is a tool/ application through which one can create a chatbot. Chatbot platform helps you by letting you add more functionality to your bot by creating a flow, machine learning capabilities, API integration etc.     (This is where you would TEACH Your Robot! You would program the robot to have answers to a variety of different questions a potential client might have for you) Chatbots for Lawyers There are a number of reasons people will use chatbots but the main reason might be to provide assistance to anyone looking for help on your site or facebook page.    You can have the chatbot setup so that its the first thing someone sees when visiting your site or facebook page, and then you can have it be helpful and even entertaining.    So the chatbot has to be built or programmed so that it has the answers to any question a potential client might ask.    SO if your a criminal lawyer and someone is looking for help after an arrest, they probably want to get some answers QUICK.  So with the chat feature, you can have it setup so they can easily call you or visit the key pages of your site. Yet you can also provide some easy answers to basic questions.     So this person might have a question about being arrested and what happens next.   The bot can provide the answers and list content about the arrest process.   Then the client might ask about DUI and the bot could respond to specific questions about what is DUI, the penalties, etc. You could also have the bot be a Legal Dictionary and have answers to questions about legal definitions. You could also have the bot answer a number of questions clients might have related to your legal practice.  Like questions about directions, reviews of the lawyers, social accounts of the firm, latest blog posts and info related to the lawyers on the case. I will be testing out all of the different chat platforms and the first one Ive used is Chatfuel.   This is a Free product with a pro version, but it has most of the things you would need for free.  Its easy to use for the most part but takes a little setup.    Manychat is the next and most popular chat program on the market.   Either way you just want something that will allow you to easily create a Chatbot for your law firm and program it to use with Facebook Messenger. Chatfuel – www.chatfuel.com Any person without any knowledge of coding can create his/her own bot on Facebook Messenger using Chatfuel. It provides features like adding content cards and sharing it to your followers automatically, gathering information inside Messenger chats with forms and let users request info and interact with your bot with buttons. Since people are more comfortable with chatting than selecting options from a chatbot. It also provides Artificial Intelligence technology for scripting interactive conversations. And using AI to recognize user answers to provide the appropriate response. It is completely free for anyone to make a bot on its chatbot platform. Although after your bot reaches 100K conversations/month you will have to contact their team to subscribe as a premium customer. Many multinational companies like Adidas, MTV, British Airways, Volkswagen etc are using Chatfuel for their Facebook Messenger chatbots. Help with Lawyer Chatbots Contact us today for assistance with setting up a chatbot for your legal practice today.  

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Top Citations for Lawyers in 2018

Citations, Google My Business, Lawyer Marketing Tips, Legal Internet Marketing, Local Search Marketing /

Lawyer Local SEO Marketing   LIST OF TOP 2018 LAWYER CITATIONS Legal Citations are key to your law firms Google My Business (GMB) and Local SEO success.   Citations are like links, the more QUALITY and legal focused you are, the better your overall results will be with Google.       Bright Local puts out a listing of the top niche citation sites and have updated it for the current year.    So here you can see the best citations for lawyers below.  Lots of obvious sites like Findlaw, Avvo, Lawyers.com and most likely every lawyer are listed in those sites, so you need to differentiate your firm and have more focused citations.    So first off you want to focus on some of the other not so obvious legal directory sites below such as Lawguru.com and then also you want to do some Paid legal directories and then also try and focus on getting some listings at any local related directory or site. Online directories (often referred to as ‘citation sites’) are crucial for local search optimization, and our recent research shows that consumers lose trust in businesses with inaccurate business listings. But which online business directories and citation sites are the best? The citation lists below are the outcome of a huge project to compile the most comprehensive list of niche lawyer citation sites available on the internet. These lawyer sites are all listed by DA or Domain Authority.   Most of the sites give you a free listing and might already have one setup for you, and guess what? It might be WRONG and sabatoging your local SEO and Google My Business rankings.   You need to have all of your citations have the correct contact info or NAP, Name, Address and Phone #.  You want them all to be 100% the same if possible. Citation Site D.A. Country Free / Paid Listing URL findlaw.com 87 USA Free Click here nolo.com 81 USA Free Click here avvo.com 78 USA Free Click here wallethub.com 75 USA Free Click here justia.com 74 USA Free Click here lawyers.com 72 USA Paid Click here bestlawyers.com 71 ALL Free Click here hg.org 64 ALL Free Click here lawguru.com 59 ALL Free Click here lawinfo.com 57 USA Paid Click here lawyers.uslegal.com 56 USA Free Click here divorcemag.com 49 USA / CAN Paid Click here lawyer.com 47 USA Free Click here justgreatlawyers.com 43 ALL Paid Click here legaldocs.com 43 USA Free Click here canadianlawlist.com 41 CAN Free Click here leadcounsel.org 41 USA Free Click here attorneypages.com 40 USA Paid Click here lawfirms.com 39 USA Free Click here lawqa.com 38 USA Free Click here lawyercentral.com 37 USA Free Click here uslawyersdb.com 37 USA Paid Click here lawfirmdirectory.org 36 USA Paid Click here lawlink.com 35 ALL Free Click here lawresearch.com 35 USA Paid Click here gaylawnet.com 35 ALL Free Click here legalhelpmate.com 32 USA Paid Click here lawyerlegion.com 30 USA Free Click here bailbond.com 28 USA Free Click here findacriminaldefenseattorney.com 28 USA Free Click here town-court.com 27 USA Free Click here dilawctory.com 26 ALL Free Click here alphalegal.com 26 USA Free Click here dilawctory.com 26 USA Free Click here findafamilyattorney.com 25 USA Free Click here getlawyersonline.com 25 USA Paid Click here courthousesquare.com 24 USA Free Click here legalwebfinder.com 23 USA Free Click here mylegalpractice.com 22 USA Reciprocal Click here lawfiles.net 22 ALL Free Click here ilawyersource.com 21 USA Paid Click here findabankruptcylawyer.com 21 USA Free Click here bestattorneysrankings.com 20 ALL Paid Click here lawyers-and-solicitors.com 19 UK Paid Click here lawyerprofiles.com 18 USA Paid Click here lawyersdb.com 18 USA Free Click here pathlegal.com 18 ALL Free Click here lawreferralconnect.com 18 ALL Free Click here truckaccidentlawyerdir.com 17 USA / CAN Paid Click here attorneyslawyer.org 17 USA Free Click here divorceattorneydir.com 16 USA / CAN Paid Click here aplawyers.com 15 USA Paid Click here familyattorneydir.com 14 USA / CAN Paid Click here domesticviolenceattorneydir.com 14 USA / CAN Paid Click here indexlawyer.com 14 ALL Reciprocal Click here bankruptcyattorneydir.com 14 USA / CAN Paid Click here usaattorneys.org 13 USA Free Click here usattorneynetwork.com 13 USA Paid Click here list-lawyers.com 13 USA Free Click here caraccidentattorneydir.com 13 USA Paid Click here caraccidentlawyerdir.com 13 USA / CAN Paid Click here injuryattorneydir.com 13 USA Paid Click here braininjurylawyerdir.com 12 USA / CAN Paid Click here lawyerucla.com 12 USA Paid Click here lawyersolicitor.co.uk 12 UK Paid Click here legalfeefinancing.org 12 ALL Free Click here —> Read Full List of Citation Categories  

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Google My Business (GMB) Marketing Tips

Featured Content, Google My Business, Google Places, Google Search Engine, Legal Internet Marketing, Legal SEO Marketing, Local Search Marketing /

Lawyer GMB SEO Marketing Tips Google My Business (GMB) is more important then ever and should be one of the first things that you do for your law firms Internet marketing strategy. Google is obviously the most important search engine but usually people think organic results and where your ranked for certain keywords.   Yet really its possible that even if your firm low or no organic rankings, you can possibly dominate the local seo results. What is Google My Business? Google My Business is a free service designed to make it easy for local businesses to manage their listings in Google search results. Anytime you search Google for local services in your area, you have likely seen Google My Business at work. It displays results on a map, and lists other important details about businesses, including their contact information, website, and even reviews. Since Google is the premier search engine online, listing your law firm with Google’s My Business is essential for proper search engine optimization, or SEO. A basic approach to Google My Business is to list your law firm’s name, address, and contact information. When someone searches your firm by name, your firm’s listing appears to the right of the Google search results. The display therefore gives your firm much more attention than a search link in a list of other firms. LAWYER GOOGLE MY BUSINESS MARKETING TIPS 1. Claim your Google My Business Profile If you haven’t claimed your law firms GMB profile, which stands for Google My Business – also known as the local 3 pack – then you need to get this done right away. GMB profiles are some of the first organic listings people see when searching for law firms. By default, many firms already have a GMB profile created by Google and sometimes you will find that certain lawyers will have a GMB profile that is created by Google, and sometimes your clients will find this and even though you haven’t claimed or verified this listing, they still can leave you a review. So it makes sense to claim these listings so that you can not only optimize it, but you respond to any reviews you might get. Walk through the following process to claim it: Search for your law firm or attorney name in Google When you see the Knowledge Graph card for your firm, click on the ‘Are you the owner?’ link near the bottom. Start the process of verifying the firm’s ownership. Note that Google will want you to verify ownership in one of two ways – either by phone or through regular mail.  Once you’ve verified ownership, you can edit your GMB profile. 2. Add Photos & Videos to your GMB Lawyer profile Make sure your GMB profile is complete and contains consistent contact information.  Then adding as many images as possible of your law firm can help it rank far better in the local 3 pack.    So add all the existing images you might have put on your blog and facebook. Then create more images and get creative.  Try to have a LOT of images, like 30 – 50! You can do it over time and it seems to make a difference. Here are some image ideas to get you started: show your legal offices on the inside and outside show your firms team, partners, and you describe the areas of law that you practice show your firms logo include your firms tag lines, quotes, or other marketing messages You do not want to put generic stock images or videos into your Google listing.  Google wants images that are related to your firm and what your firm does. So this means photos of the people who work at firm, photos of your locations and the type of law you practice. 3. Onsite Website Optimization Onsite SEO are the things done to your website structure to make it rank well, This is one of the most top tasks you can do to achieve good local rankings. Start with a location-based page: Create a location-based page for the keyword phrases you want to rank for. An example could be ‘Chicago auto accident lawyer’ or ‘Michigan Malpractice Attorney.’   Then you can create other location posts for all the different cities, zips, neighborhoods in your area and then interlink them together. Here are some other tips: Include the location in the copy of the page Include the keyword phrase in the title, the headings, meta description and URL of the page Include the keyword as an image file name of any images on the page Include the keyword in any alt attributes of images on the page Add your firms NAP (name, address, phone number) to the header: Your firm’s name, address and phone number should be on the header of every page, but especially on location-based pages or pages that link to your Google my business – GMB profile. This should also be the same information used in other listings around the web. Make sure it’s all consistent. Substantial quality content: Include a lot of useful content on your pages. Most short articles are like 300 words. So articles longer than 500 words is a good start and the longer the better. 2000 words is a really good start and if you are trying to rank for highly competitive keywords, then the longer the better. 4. Citation signals: Mentions of your firm NAP across the web Citations are like links and are the fuel towards getting higher Google local rankings. Building citations is one of the most influential strategies for ranking well in local search. Citations are simply mentions of your law firm’s NAP, which is Name, Address and Phone numbers on other websites such as directories, social media profiles, business listing websites, and data aggregators. You want to get listings at all of the obvious top directories like Yelp, Yellow Pages and a number of other places that will list your law firm.   Most of these will automatically create listings for your

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Responding to Google Reviews

Fake Reviews, Featured Content, Google My Business, Lawyer Reviews, Reputation Management /

REPUTATION MANAGEMENT FOR ATTORNEYS Google Reviews for Lawyers – Responding to Reviews Google reviews are becoming more important then most anything else.  The reason is because when someone GOOGLES YOU, they are going to google and plugging your name or firm name in the search box and usually they are getting back your Google my business listing, which will show your Google reviews right away with number of reviews and total review star average.  Then it will also list reviews from other key sites like Facebook, AVVO and Lawyers.com. With the reviews, it makes great sense to monitor them and RESPOND to any reviews you get.  If they are good 5 star reviews, thank the person. If they are bad 1 star reviews, express your concern and reach out to try and fix the situation.    If someone else is reading the review and sees that your on top of the situation and trying to make it right, it goes a long way and fixes some of the damage done by that 1 star review.    Either way, it shows that your on top of your reviews and a concerned business owner! HOW TO RESPOND TO A GOOGLE REVIEW Responding to a Google review will require that you have a Google my business account.  If you dont have this yet, that means you haven’t verified your business listing with Google yet and you must do that first.     If you have a Google my business account, then its a matter of logging in and responding to the review. Sign in to Google My Business. If you have two or more locations, click Manage location for the location you’d like to manage. Click Reviews from the menu. (Note that your business needs to be verified in order to respond to reviews.) Click Respond to respond to a customer review. Write a response and click Submit. REPUTATION MANAGEMENT FOR LAWYERS Do you need help with getting more Google reviews?  Do you need help in getting a fake review removed? We can assist your law firm with setting up a Lawyer Review Strategy for not only Google reviews, but also Avvo, Facebook, Yelp and other review sites.    Call us at 630-393-0460 or fill out the form below for more info. [Contact_Form_Builder id=”11″]

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How to Deal with Fake Bad Google Reviews

Fake Reviews, Google My Business, Google Search Engine, Lawyer Reviews, Reputation Management /

Reputation Management for Lawyers One Star Fake Google Reviews for Law Firms – It Happens! Getting Google Reviews is a KEY part of your online lawyer SEO strategy these days.   Sometimes you will get a bad 1 or two star review and thats just how it goes, you cant please everyone and some people will just use the review system to take out their frustrations with a possible bad outcome of their case.   YET you must monitor your reviews for possible FAKE reviews.     You should know anytime you get a new review, then its a good idea to read it and possibly respond to it. DO PEOPLE REALLY LEAVE FAKE REVIEWS? Yep. No doubt about it and usually this will be about people who decide to hire other people to leave fake GOOD 5 star reviews.  Yet those same people might also decide that getting a 5 star review for them is good, but how about trying to sabotage a competitor with some FAKE one star reviews?  It can happen and Ive seen it a few times now where a law firm all of a sudden will get a one star review that looks SUSPECT. Receiving a fake review on your Google My Business profile is not a rare occurrence. In fact, it is quite common and something many businesses have experienced. Both Yelp and Amazon have sued fake review posters and in New York the State Attorney General took action against 19 NY based companies involved in fake reviews back in 2013. Legal action hasn’t stopped or prevented fake reviews from continuing to be published, nor has paying huge fines, but that doesn’t mean as a legal business owner there is no way to fight back. How Can You Spot Fake Reviews? Well usually its obvious if its a review from someone you dont recognize and not the name of any past clients.  Also if they dont leave an actual review and just leave a 1 star review with no content, thats a possible sign it might be fake.    Google has a set of guidelines for reviews and if someone breaks them, then its possible to get review removed. Trying to have a fake or spammy Google review removed can sometimes feel as frustrating as receiving the review, however; it is still important to make attempts to have the review removed, even though there is no guarantee that Google will take it down. STEPS TO TAKE IN ORDER TO HAVE FAKE REVIEW REMOVED AT GOOGLE #1- Respond to the Review from your Google My Business account While you may not be able to have the review removed, you do have the ability to respond. Yes, if the review is indeed fake you will not be able to actually resolve the problem for this person, however; you can make it clear to other customers and prospective customers that you are aware of the review, you take what reviewers say seriously, and that as a business you are dedicated to remedying situations “like this.” Just as there are guidelines for leaving a review, Google has some tips for responding. Your response should not be defensive, keep it brief, and do your best to respond as you would for a negative review. #2 – Flag the Review You can notify the team at Google regarding a violation of their review policy by flagging the specific review. 1. Hover over the review in question and a flag icon will appear. 2. Click the Flag icon and you will be taken to the Report a policy violation page. 3.  Enter your company E-mail address and select the Violation Type Then you’re done. You will only hear from a team member if they require additional details from you or if they have information to share with you. When flagging a review: A) If you can, have several people flag the review in question. There is power in numbers and it’s possible it may help increase awareness and ideally action. B) Once a review is flagged try to wait a couple of days for a response or ideally for it to be removed, however; if the review is loaded with hate-speech, profanity, and/or has highly sensitive content, I would say escalate it immediately. Flag and report, then immediately contact a Google support team member. #3- Report the Review to Google Small Business Support If the fake review has not been removed using the flagging method, get in touch with a support associate. You can do this through: 1. The Google My Business Dashboard Log into your GMB page. Go to the Reviews section. Click on the home menu and select Support. Choose a method of Contact – Phone or Email. Fill in the necessary contact parameters, Add a screenshot of the review in question, and wait patiently (you should hear back within 24-48 Hours). #4 – Tweet the Small Business Support Team via Twitter The small business team is knowledgeable and also takes around 24 – 48 hours to get in touch with you (no guarantee though). Sign in to Twitter. Send a Tweet from your company account to the Google Small Biz team. Once you hear back from someone, explain the situation and go from there. ** Make Your Case Okay, so you have finally got in touch with a Google associate from the small business support team, now what? Well, you have to make a case and do your best to show why the review is false, how it violates their policies, why it should be removed, any images, links, or other details that backup your claim. After you report it to a support associate and make your case, they will advise you of whether or not they will escalate the review(s) to a “specialist,” this specialist makes the determines the outcome. Once a decision has been made you will receive a phone call or email confirmation from the small business support associate who was helping you. REPUTATION MANAGEMENT FOR LAWYERS Do you need help with getting more Google reviews?  Do

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Instagram Marketing Tips for Lawyers

Instagram Marketing, Law Firm Marketing, Lawyer Marketing Tips, Social Media Marketing /

Instagram for Attorney Marketing Lawyers should be using ALL forms of social media these days.  At the very least it makes sense to claim a listing at each of the main social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn).    Instagram has been gaining in popularity and its one of the most popular social sites for sure. Although Instagram might seem something kids will use, the fact is that Instagram is incredibly popular among consumers of all ages, cultures, and genders. As a result, many marketers and businesses are beginning to see the value of integrating visual content into their social media marketing strategy. One of the reasons why Instagram is so popular is because it is a simplified version of Facebook with an emphasis on sharing visual content, such as photography and images. Users can also communicate, “follow”, and interact with one another by commenting, tagging and private messaging. Regardless of whether your business sells a product or offers a service, you can use Instagram to build brand awareness, expand your audience, engage with your audience, and even generate leads. Follow these 5 easy tips to become an Instagram expert: 1.  High Quality Images. Your Instagram marketing efforts will only be as effective as the quality of your photos. One of the best ways to save time and compose better photos for Instagram is to shoot square photos, which is super easy to do from any Smartphone. This saves time from having to crop photos later. 2.  Hashtag This. Still confused by hashtags? Check out Instagram’s Explore feature to find posts related to trending hashtags before publishing your post. The goal is to use trending hashtags that are relevant to your brand. You can also now search trending hashtags by emoji! #legalmindblown 3.  Mix it Up. One of the best and most effective ways to make the most from Instagram is to create a blend of content with both images and videos. In fact, videos are shareable and more engaging, and can even generate three times more inbound traffic to your website than written content! Get rolling! 4.  Bring Your Story to Real Life. Instagram is all about visual storytelling. Not only can you use videos to bring your story to real life, you can also use video to bring a product to life without coming across as too salty! 5.  Make Your Content Shareworthy! Another easy way to engage your audience via Instagram is to add captions to your images. Try using attractive graphics with an inspirational quote or tip. Combine this with a trending and relevant hashtag and you have instantly made your content easy to digest and share. You want to use Instagram as another way to get the word out about your law practice. Its possible to use images and videos on regular basis to tell the story of your law firm and how it handles a bunch of different practice areas types of law.

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Google Local SEO For Attorneys

Google My Business, Google Places, Google Search Engine, Local Search Marketing /

Google Local SEO for Lawyers Local SEO for law firms is a different animal than organic SEO, it’s more about how your legal site comes up in the local search results. Usually it’s a reference to the Google Local Business directory listings that come up when a user does a search of a local area or zipcode. The Google Map comes up along with 3 listings, otherwise known as the Google “3 Pack”, this has changed over the years and keeps going down. You want your law firm to be in these listings for your local city and zipcode.    Visitors from your own city deliver high-quality traffic and leads to your law firm.  So you want to make sure for starters that your Google My Business is setup, verified and optimized.   Then there are a whole bunch of different business directories that you want to make sure your legal site is setup at.  Some are obvious like Yelp and AVVO, but there are 100’s of different possible sites that your site might already be setup at. YET the key with Local SEO is consistency and you want to make sure that your law firms NAP (Name, Address and Phone #) are all coming up the same at the different directories. This means the exact same spelling, same phone #’s and everything else. If you have older office locations still coming up, then you might have a more difficult time with Local SEO. You want to get “Citations” of your firms contact info.  Citations are mentions of your law firm with your contact info at different sites and directories.  The more citations you have at high quality sites, the better your Local SEO results will be.   Getting citations from local area businesses can make a big difference in your Lawyer Local SEO campaign. FREE ATTORNEY LOCAL SEO ESTIMATE Call us today at 630-393-0460 or fill out the form below regarding what kind of wordress service you need for your law firm.

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Social Media Management for Lawyers

Facebook, Featured Content, Social Media Management, Social Media Marketing /

Social Media Accounts for Law Firms Lawyers first off need to HAVE Social Media accounts, but once you do, then you need to have them managed.  You want to make sure that your updating these accounts on a regular basis, building new fans and followers and engaging with your followers.    Thats a lot of things to do! ** Special Social Media Management Campaign for Lawyers – First Month FREE Special ** —>  Call us at 630-202-9208 or fill out the Social Media for Lawyers contact form to take advantage of this deal ASAP. We have a special social media management program for lawyers that includes the following: Review and Optimization of your main 5 Social media Accounts (Facebook, Twitter, Google, Youtube and Instagram) Setup of any social accounts you do not have already setup – Includes graphic work for accounts. Setup of all social media accounts in special Legal Social Media Management Software that will keep track of all account, post content to all accounts. Creation of new Content to use within blog and social media sites (We can take existing content and images and create a video to use in a new post) Creation of high quality images to use in blog and social media accounts. Creation of high quality videos to use in blog, Youtube and Facebook. Curation of content to use from other related websites RSS feeds Setup of CONTENT QUEUES for different social media sites to post content automatically on a set 2-5 times per week. PRICING–> $500 FLAT Fee to Setup Program ; $250 per month for ongoing monitoring, content, images and more.  (*Additional social media accounts extra) —>  Call us at 630-202-9208 or fill out the Social Media for Lawyers contact form to take advantage of this deal ASAP. The main social media accounts every lawyer should have right now are: #1- Facebook #2- Twitter #3- LinkedIn #4- Instagram #5- Google #6- Pinterest #7- YouTube So first off you want to make sure these social media accounts are setup and optimized with images for your logo and banner. Then you want to make sure that you update these accounts. Now if you do this manually, it will take forever.   So you need to automate this process and have a Content marketing schedule and post content your sites blog, and then also to your social accounts. CONTENT MARKETING CALENDAR  There are a number of ways you can do this and I use a few different social media management programs that allow you to manage multiple accounts, post content on a regular basis and setup a schedule where you can post content from different sources to your different accounts.  Sometimes you can post every hour of every day, or just once a week.   The key is having the content and then setting up a schedule to have the content posted on certain times of certain days. MONITOR YOUR SOCIAL ENGAGEMENTS You also want to monitor your inbox and engagements of your social media content.   If people have questions and post to your wall, the sooner you get back to them, the better.    If people make comments, respond if you can and the more engagement that you can create, the better. CREATE UNIQUE CONTENT, IMAGES AND VIDEO Make sure you create a steady flow of new content, custom images and videos around the content.   You  can also currate content and find other blogs that have interesting or related stories and post those on your social sites.     You can create a content queue for your facebook account and just have content post to your facebook page, then have a queue for your Twitter account and all other accounts. —> fill out the Social Media for Lawyers contact form

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Big Facebook Changes for 2018

Facebook, General Search Engine News, Law Firm Marketing /

FACEBOOK MARKETING FOR LAWYERS Facebook is making a big update to how its going to rank and show sites in the news feeds.  Lawyers should take notice here. Every so often another social media channel changes their algorithms and leaves marketers scrambling to find the best ways to get maximum views and engagement. Usually, this creates a huge problem – like when Google changes their algorithm – but for this change, I think a lot of us have been expecting some of it. Facebook announced that the new feed will have display more updates and posts from friends and family rather than from the pages that you follow or from Facebook ads. What’s really interesting is that they are predicting that this will decrease the average time that people spend on Facebook? What? Why would Facebook want people to spend less time on the platform? The feedback from people has been pretty standard – that there are way too many sponsored posts and meaningless ads on their newsfeeds. And what ends up happening is that people endlessly scrolling through their feeds and not interacting with any of the content. So Facebook decided to increase their user engagement, decrease the newsfeed zombie effect, and show their support and appreciation for their diehard fans. Mark Zuckerberg explained it in a formal statement: “We built Facebook to help people stay connected and bring us closer together with the people that matter to us. That’s why we’ve always put friends and family at the core of the experience. Research shows that strengthening our relationships improves our well-being and happiness.” “But recently we’ve gotten feedback from our community that public content — posts from businesses, brands and media — is crowding out the personal moments that lead us to connect more with each other. … Based on this, we’re making a major change to how we build Facebook.” So what does this mean for marketers? A few things. First, this signals the almost certain death of organic reach for branded content. What companies need to do is to put more money into Facebook ads in order to get the same reach. Alternatively, brands need to put more time and energy into creating content that will truly engage with their audience and peak their interest. Remember, Facebook is going for engagement so if your friends are all commenting on a catchy post by Pepsi, chances are that you will see it. Smaller brands need to get better at creating engaging content and using Facebook ads. What’s really vital is for each company to really study their audience and understand what they are looking for. Learn their interests and problems and learn to provide the right solutions. What can brands do with this information? Strategically use influencer marketing Brands can best help counter the decrease in organic reach by strategically using influencers to promote their product, service, or message. Influencers have an engaged audience with specific interests, hobbies, and forms of content that they regularly consume. If a brand works with an influencer whose audience matches their ideal group of people that they want to promote to then they will be able to get more engagement and more sales in a shorter amount of time. Think about it, no organic reach means people will only see the post from the brands (or influencers) that they really engage with. So the best way to still get traction on Facebook is to work with those influencers. What other ways can you adjust to the algorithm change? Collaborate with others Facebook is switching to a ranking system where they rank those posts with the highest engagement (likes and longer comments) at the top. Find other brands or businesses and work with them to create thought-provoking posts that will get the engagement of both audiences. Focus on live video Zuckerberg announced that Facebook video reach will decrease because most people watch videos and never actually engage with them. That being said, it is very probable that a Facebook live feed, that actually brings engagement, comments, and conversation will get a lot of organic reach. So focus on live video, make it part of your content strategy. Also, always ask for comments and feedback in every video that you do, this will bring your rankings higher. Learn how to work Facebook ads It is going to be vital to learn how to advertise. Facebook Ads is a separate system than organic content and it looks like it won’t be affected by this algorithm change. So, learn how to advertise, you can higher a freelancer, learn it yourself, or even get a marketing agency to do it for you. Diversify your social media strategy Finally, please do yourself a favor and get on as many social networks as you possibly can. Make Pinterest, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Snapchat part of your social media strategy and learn how to maximize your reach and engagement on each platform. Remember, you need to honor the rules of each platform. Learn the best content types that work on each social media channel, learn the common forms to write things, learn how to display your content visually. Don’t just post the same piece of content on all of your networks, make it fit each one. Recap Facebook is changing and in a lot of ways, it’s becoming a more fun and more meaningful platform. That being said, lawyers need to learn how to navigate the new changes and shift their social media strategy to achieve the same engagement and reach.      Bottom line is that you need to do more here with Facebook, both with creating engaging content and doing more with Facebook ads.

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Getting Ranked in Google My Business 3 Pack

Google Search Engine, Lawyer Marketing Tips, Legal Internet Marketing, Legal SEO Marketing /

Lawyer Google Local SEO Marketing Is your law firm site listed on the Google maps when you do a search at Google for your location and practice area? You want to be found in the Google 3 Pack for local searches.   Google will show the map on MOST search keywords but not all.  So sometimes the map results will come up for one keyword but not another.  You want to make sure your firm is well ranked for as many keywords as possible.    Getting well listed at Google Maps is like getting ranked well at the organic listings, not easy! You have to take a number of steps in order to have your site come up in the local 3 pack including…. #1- Claim & Optimize your Google My Business Listing The foundation of a great local SEO campaign is an optimized Google listing.We have perfected the creation, verification, and optimization process for our clients. When it comes to local business advertising, an accurate and informative listing on Google is as valuable as having an ad in the yellow pages 20 years ago. SO here you must claim and verify your listing, then optimize it for starters.  You want to make sure you add as much information on your firm as you can, then also choose the right category and then add a lot of images to your listing.  Images of the firm, the office, the location your in and any images related to your practice areas.  #2-Claim & Setup other Business Listings at top Directories You want to make sure your law firm has verified listings at other top directories on the Internet.  YELP is obvious, Facebook business page is a must and the list goes on.   You want to not only claim and verify these listings, but you want to optimize them.  These listings are considered “Citations” which are simply mentions of your firms Name, Address and Phone #, AKA NAP.    If Google sees you have all these other listings setup and verified, #3- Do On Site Optimization with focus on Local You want to make sure that you optimize your site for Local by optimizing the Titles and Descriptions on certain pages for your Local area. You want to have a different pages for different locations including zip codes.  If your #4- CITATION WORK – Find existing citations, fix citations and get new citations #5- REVIEWS – We can help you get new reviews and help improve your local online reputation —-> Why getting Google Reviews for your Firm is Key —-> SPECIAL – Lawyer Google Review Campaign Signup —-> Getting 5 Star Reviews for your Law Firm Process [divider height=”30″ style=”default” line=”default” themecolor=”1″]  

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