The Friday Five

Hot Tips: Be More Visible and Productive

By David King Keller

At the Legal Marketing Association’s 2012 Technology Conference West, held last week in San Francisco, a long list of experts and exhibitors were on hand to share their top tips with lawyers. The big focus was on sharing tech tips—of course!—that can increase your visibility, your productivity and, ultimately, your revenue.

Here are five of them.

1. Add slide sharing to your online marketing.

Sheenika Shah, Business Development Coordinator for Knobbe Martens Olson & Bear LLP, suggests giving SlideShare a try. It’s a nifty online tool for sharing presentations, documents and PDFs—which you can link to your website, send individually via email, and share on your social media channels, too. SlideShare is a free service, with a fee-based Pro option that allows you to track analytics. “This method of sharing information,” Shah says, “is in line with the trend toward media-rich content, which is great for SEO efforts.”

2. Use Reeder to get through your news feeds—fast.

Jeff Yerkey, Web + Interactive Director for Right Hat, says, “The single biggest workflow saver I use is the ‘lash-up’ between Google Reader and an iPhone/iPad app called Reeder.” Here’s how he works it in three steps: “I configure all of my news RSS feeds into folders through Google Reader. Then, in Reeder, I scan and read all my news feeds in record time. When I find a really long article, I send [it] to Instapaper to read it later on my computer, iPad, iPhone, or Android phone.”

3. Add a poll with a quick “doodle.”

Jacqueline Madarang, Marketing Technology Manager at Best, Best, Krieger LLP, and Jay Walsh of Ligature legal printing, love Doodle. “Doodle is free and radically simplifies the process of scheduling meetings and events,” Madarang says. “Whether it’s a partner, client, or practice group meeting—or dinner with friends—you can easily poll a number of people on different meeting time options.” Doodle is simple, quick, and requires no registration. “Simply set up a poll and send a link to all those whose input is required,” adds Walsh.

4. Try e-learning for better business development skills.

How about a coaching program delivered straight to your computer screen? Two options presented at the LMA conference come from Mike O’Horo of RainmakerVT and David Ackert of Practice Boomers. Both programs provide 24-7 access to business development training and deliver performance metrics to law firm marketing and development professionals. O’Horo describes his as “a game-like simulation and virtual coach that teaches you practice growth strategies from your computer.” Ackert offers a compatible program that uses a combination of video, podcast, and group conference calls to ensure implementation. You can see samples of the two approaches here and here.

5. Turn online lawyer bios into mini-sites.

Ready to ditch those staid old bios? Deborah McMurray, CEO and Strategy Architect for Content Pilot LLC, recommends “using your IT resources to create website bios that offer an interactive experience for your visitors. Rather than the standard bio on one long page, when a visitor clicks your name a mini-website appears with tabs to view various aspects of your skill sets, experience and personal interests, allowing you to showcase what’s best and most unique about you in a clean elegant fashion.” Check out an example here.

Bonus fun-fact: Event Co-Chair Adam Stock, of Allen Matkins, opened the conference with a humorous texting video that other meeting planners may want to borrow.

David King Keller is author of two books on how to grow law firm revenue, titled 100 Ways to Grow a Thriving Law Practice, and the ABA book The Associate As Rainmaker: Building Your Business Brain. He is CEO of Keller Business Development Advisory Group, which provides law firm business development training, 1:1 attorney biz dev coaching, and MCLE instruction on various topics. Contact him at david@kbdag.com.

Categories: Lawyer Organization, Lawyer Productivity, Lawyer Time Management
Originally published October 19, 2012
Last updated January 11, 2021
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