7/30/10

Public Domain - The Best Source for Images or Content to Use on Your Blog

What is the Public Domain?

The U.S. Copyright Office defines "public domain" as a work "...no longer under copyright protection or if it failed to meet the requirements for copyright protection."  The public domain also includes works where the creator has freely released the work into the public domain. 

On the web, lots of people freely release their copyright in order to expose their talent and their work as widely as possible.  Anything -- content, software, images, fonts, videos, etc. -- in the public domain may be used freely by anyone without contacting or gaining the permission of the originator.

Finding Images and Content in the Public Domain

1.  Searching for "public domain" along with various words or phrases that you are seeking is an easy enough way to find free images and content on the web. 

Looking for an image of Abraham Lincoln?  Google "public domain image Abraham Lincoln," and you'll find the photo of President Lincoln shown above.  (The Library of Congress has been kind enough to upload it for us.)

2.  Wikipedia has also provided an online list of links that provide free, public domain images -- a list that is continually growing.  It is an excellent resource.  (One of my favorites is Wikimedia Commons.)

3.  Again, Wikipedia provides a long and growing online list of links providing free, public domain content -- worldwide.  It includes links to huge public domain content collections such as Project Guttenberg. 

7/28/10

Fair Use of Another's Copyrighted Work is Defined in Section 107 of the US Copyright Act (17 USC 101 - 810)

The United States Copyright Office provides some guidance regarding the fair use doctrine, as do other sites including Cornell University's LII - Wex and UCLA's Library

What is the Fair Use Doctrine?

In sum, it is a fair use of another's copyrighted work if you are using the work in order to provide criticism, in commentary, as part of news reporting, as part of teaching, in some form of scholarship, or in a research endeavor.

If there is litigation, courts are instructed to determine if the use is fair by applying a balancing test made up of several factors.  

Is Your Use a Fair Use?
The obvious place to start when considering whether or not your intended use of another's work comes within the fair use doctrine is to read the statutory definition itself.  According to the US Copyright Act, fair use is:

§ 107. Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use


Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright.

In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include —
 (1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;

(2) the nature of the copyrighted work;


(3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and

(4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.


The fact that a work is unpublished shall not itself bar a finding of fair use if such finding is made upon consideration of all the above factors.


Two Things of Note After Reading the Fair Use Doctrine's Statutory Definition

1.  Notice that the statute does not give any set number of words that can be used before there is copyright infringement. There isn't one.

2.  Also, notice that if you give the hyperlink before the cut and paste of another's work, that's not addressed here. Attribution may help regarding a plagarism claim, but it's not going to be a solid defense against copyright infringement.

As lawyers and law firm write blogs and content for web sites, they may feel comfortable making their own legal call on whether or not their work falls within the fair use doctrine. Non-lawyers should seek legal guidance from an attorney to be on the safe side.

7/26/10

Get Some Marketing Inspiration from Google's 2010 Online Marketing Challenge

Google has announced the winners of its 2010 Online Marketing Challenge, and if you're interested in the details on how the winners were chosen (proprietary algorithm, blah blah blah), you can read all about that on the Google site.

Additionally, go read the site for the names of the Universities and individual students that worked so hard to win these awards. As for what they did, check out the actual winning sites for inspiration on how to boost your site or blog:

GLOBAL 2010 Winner
Charlie and Moon

Regional Winner
BustaGrooveDanceStudio

AMERICAS Winner
ThreadsforThought

EMEA Winner
Taniec (Polish Dance Studio)

7/23/10

Profiting from Copyright Infringement - New Vegas Company Sues Bloggers After Buying Media Copyrights

Beware. A new company based in Las Vegas thinks it's found the mother lode in media copyrights and the protections provided by federal law under the Copyright Act.

And after testing out their business model in Las Vegas, suing bloggers and website owners for unauthorized cut and pasting of work found in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, they're aiming for bigger game. National game.

Righthaven, which has only been in existence since March 2010, is busy every day apparently, surfing the web to find blogs and web sites where their news media clients' writing has been published, without permission.

According to Free Republic, they're busy suing without any advance notice (the proverbial "cease and desist" notice) and they're suing nonprofits like Ecological Internet.

Fair use?

Remember my earlier post -- I've already opined that the traditional media is really, really, really trying to limit (and by limit, I mean destroy) the fair use doctrine because of the crushing financial blow print media has felt from online publication.  

And, even if fair use is a valid defense to the allegation of copyright infringement in a courtroom, these actions will force bloggers and web site owners to hire attorneys and undertake the legal expense of proving their innocence in a court of law. 

Which maybe they can and cannot do -- it may be cheaper to settle than to fight for right.  Another common defense tactic, force the plaintiff to spend itself into submission, but this time a basic right -- fair use -- is at stake. 

Scary stuff, folks.

7/22/10

How to Back Up Your Blog - Don't Assume It's Being Backed Up Already

Backing up your blog is important - and it has to be done as a specific task. You risk losing all those blog posts, comments, and images if you aren't routinely backing up your blog (or blawg).

Blogging Services Do Not Automatically Back Up Your Blog

I've had clients assume that their Blogger blogs were automatically backed up by Blogger. No, they're not. Blogger does NOT back up blogs. Neither does WordPress.

Website (and Blog) Hosting Services May Not Back Up Your Blog, Either

Whether or not your blog is being backed up routinely depends upon the service you're using. LexBlog, for example, does back up. Nice, and important to do, for a paid blogging platform.

However, I know of at least one web design company that promotes blogs as part of law firm website design but those blogs are not backed up. I learned of this situation because, sure enough, a series of law firm blog posts disappeared and there was no backup to fix the problem.

Easy Solution: HTTrack to Back Up Your Blog

There's a free service, HTTrack, that has proven to be safe and fast for me in backing up blogs. It has received good reviews from both CNET editors and users. (CNET provides a safe HTTrack download along with its review.)

You can also use HTTrack to back up your website - or really, grab a copy of any existing website or blog on the web - to save offline on your hard drive. This might prove handy for your website, your client's website, or perhaps a website that you might want to use in litigation ....

Daily Measure: Have Your Post Sent to Your E-Mail Inbox

Your blogging platform should allow you to automatically send each post as it is published to an email address (several addresses, actually). Make sure you take advantage of this safety measure, as well as periodically backing up your blog in its entirety.

7/19/10

Duplicate Content, Google Penalty and JDSupra Publication of Law Firm Blog Posts

Recently, I was asked by a large law firm client whether or not the duplication of substantive, informative blog posts on JDSupra would risk the infamous penalty by Google for having the same content on two different webpages.  They were scared. 

While the client didn't tell me this specifically, I believe that a representative of one of the national website and blog providers for law firms may have been the source of the misinformation.  They were vying for new business with the law firm, and apparently this duplicate content warning came up during some dog and pony discussions. 

Misinformation on the Google Duplicate Content Penalty Abounds

I suppose a lot is fair in the legal marketing game, and while I also know that there is a lot of information out there regarding duplicate content concerns (Google addresses this issue much more often than they'd like), I find it irritating to put a law firm into some level of stress when the information that you're providing is just plain wrong. Shame on them.

Here's the deal:  you will not be penalized for putting your blog posts onto JDSupra.  In fact, you may benefit from JDSupra's ability to expose your work in ways that your blog or web site is failing to do. 

The only detriment that you may receive is having Google choosing to rank the JDSupra version over your blog's identical post.  As long as you've got your contact information clearly provided in the JDSupra document, then you're reaching the market. 

However, your blog isn't getting all the hits it would otherwise if Google picks JDSupra over your firm blawg (and that, of course, is assuming that it's getting recognized and respected by Google in the first place).  That's the risk with duplicate blog posts on JDSupra and your own blawg, and it's got zip to do with penalizing your page rank or Google taking other action against your site based upon manipulative practices. 

The Solution? 

Make sure your JDSupra document includes a link back to your original blog post.  And, tell Google your prefered domain for the content if you wish (see Google Webmaster Tools). 

Don't trust me on this.  Go read the Google webmaster page itself, with yellow highlights provided courtesy of JDSupra. 

For more information:
How Search Engines Work -2: Indexing and Ranking (Google Caffiene, Google Page Rank)
How Search Engines Work -1: Spiders That Crawl (Yahoo! Slurp, GoogleBot, BingBot)
What is a Pingback, a Trackback, or a Linkback?

7/15/10

How Search Engines Work - 2: Indexing and Ranking (Google Caffiene, Google Page Rank)

Once spiders (or bots) crawl your site, they take the content information they've discovered on your web site and place that information in a database.  In an organized fashion, of course.  This is called "indexing." 

Indexing Involves Organization of the Information Amassed by the Spiders

Your content will be indexed according to how informative and helpful the spider or bot determines it to be for a particular topic, when compared to the other sites that it has crawled and placed within its database.  Exactly how things are indexed is a big, big trade secret for each of the search engines. 

Especially Google.  In fact, last summer announced Google Caffeine - reportedly primarily a new twist on Google indexing according to Matt Cutts, although it also involves changes to Google crawling and ranking features as well. 

Last month, Google Caffeine officially debuted as a "new web indexing system" that the Google blog describes as:
50 percent fresher results for web searches than our last index, and it's the largest collection of web content we've offered. Whether it's a news story, a blog or a forum post, you can now find links to relevant content much sooner after it is published than was possible ever before.
In litigation terms, the spiders undertake discovery, bring back all the facts relevant to the subject matter, and proceed to categorize them for easy use and retrieval by the search engine's clientele.  Major witnesses and documents will be given priority over inconsequential sources of data that discovery has obtained.  That's where ranking comes into play. 

Ranking Involves Secret Decision-Making Protocols That Decide Who Gets Top Billing

Once the search engine has gathered all the data from the web, and then segregated that data according to subject matter, the major decisions must be made.  Which sites go where in the search results?  Which sites are going to be recommended to the search engine's clientele as the best sites in response to the client's search request? 

This is very important to the search engine, because its clientele depend upon its top 5 or 10 results to be the most informative sites regarding the query that has been made.  Bad search results, and the client can always use another search engine.  Google hasn't cornered the market because of its motto or the fact that its employees get to bring their dogs to work.  No.  Google has cornered the search engine market because it has been able to please more clients than the other search engines right here -- in how it ranks results.

Google Ranking Tactics: Page Rank Technology and Hypertext-Matching Analysis

Google in some ways doesn't try to hide the ball on ranking in its results.  According to its own Corporate Information, ranking is the result of:
1.  Page Rank Technology
"PageRank reflects our view of the importance of web pages by considering more than 500 million variables and 2 billion terms. Pages that we believe are important pages receive a higher PageRank and are more likely to appear at the top of the search results...." and
2.  Hypertext-Matching Analysis
"Our search engine also analyzes page content. However, instead of simply scanning for page-based text (which can be manipulated by site publishers through meta-tags), our technology analyzes the full content of a page and factors in fonts, subdivisions and the precise location of each word. We also analyze the content of neighboring web pages to ensure the results returned are the most relevant to a user's query."
Search Engine Ranking and SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

No search engine freely discloses how it makes its ranking decisions.  And, of course, savvy web surfers know that true research means using more than one search engine -- because they rank sites differently.  The same search in Google may not give the same results in Yahoo or Bing. 

Ranking isn't the last stop in search engine inner workings.  However, understanding crawling, indexing, and ranking are the basics one needs to understand when writing blogs or web site content for the web. 

You're not just writing for your intended reader, be it a colleague, a referring attorney, or a potential client.  You're also writing to please the spiders -- if you want to successful index and rank in the search engines.  And most do.

Search Engine Optimization

Which is where the field of search engine optimization comes into play.  SEO undertakes to strategize on how to achieve placement in the top search engine results of the various search engines for a web site through an understanding of crawling, indexing, and ranking techniques used by the various search engines.

SEO involves many things.  Content, design, coding, advertising, and more.  SEO can involve paid marketing strategies (pay per click, etc.).  SEO can include design strategies implemented with certain search engine policies in mind. 

SEO can incorporate tactics within the coding of the site ("source code" or "HTML code") -- which may or may not be visible to the site visitor.   "Black hat" SEO is an example of hidden coding unwelcomed by the search engines.  For example, hiding favorable keywords or key phrases within the coding of the site - where it remains unseen by the reader of the content - is clever optimization tool that will get a website penalized. 

SEO can also include optimizing the content placed within the site to make the site's content "search engine friendly." Here, key words and key  phrases are placed within the content, as well as other SEO strategies to encourage high rankings of the site itself.

7/13/10

What is Great Writing: The New Rules for Judging Great Content Because the Traditional Rules are Dead

As promised, Ben Elowitz at Paid Content has defined the four rules that he thinks must be used to judge great writing in the digital age in his May 2010 article, "The New Rules for Judging Quality in Published Content."  

This is the second part promised in his earlier article discussing how the traditional methods for judging great writing don't work in a world where content appears on the screen instead of on the page.  Making such broad statements as being published in the New York Times isn't a big deal anymore did bring Mr. Elowitz some flack.  After all, weren't we all raised to think that having your work appear in the NYT was the ultimate accomplishment?  Well, at least one of them?

Elowitz's Four Rules for Great Writing on the Web

I wasn't too sure if I agreed with Elowitz after reading his first piece.  However, I'm in total agreement with the four rules he provides us as the "New Rules," which are -- in my words, not his:

1. relevance to the reader, not the editor -- the content needs to be focused upon the reader's wants/needs.  What do those surfing the web want or need to know? 

2. technological component -- content can, and should, creatively include those benefits that the web has to offer (visuals, links, etc.) (Elowitz calls this co-dependence an "experience").  Consider the podcasts, videos, audios, etc.  I just saw an article in the Texas Tribune, for example, that made audio excerpts of an interview available at the end of each content paragraph, in case you wanted to listen to the question and answer as well as read about it. 

3. perspective -- the same information can, and will, be provided in many different places on the web, so great content must have its flair - a twist that makes the reader want to read its version of the story over another option out there.  He uses Huffington Post as an example here.  I'm thinking it's the reason why TMZ survives right alongside E!, Popsugar, and all the rest. 

4. buzzability -- the content has to invite sharing on the web via tweets or stumbles or diggs or "like it!" as well as being search engine index friendly (SEO is important, people!!!!).  It's true that content I find interesting is something that I want to share -- and I'm annoyed if it isn't easily tweetable.  It's also true that great content that isn't search engine optimized probably isn't getting read by anyone, because no one knows it's there to read in the first place.

Is Elowitz right?  Google and Yahoo seem to think so .....

Before you dismiss Elowitz as trendy or foolish or naive, consider that Google News now allows its readers to personalize the version of the Google News page that they see when they click on the site.  Readers are choosing what they want to read on the news site, not editors. 

And, consider Yahoo!'s new blog, The Upshot -- where eight journalists are essentially going through the Yahoo! News results, and blogging about the upcoming, trending stories.  The journalists aren't deciding what's going onto the blog -- the people surfing the web and going through the Yahoo! news search engine are collectively deciding its content. 

Me? What do I think about Elowitz's Four Rules of Great Writing?

I think Elowitz is right on the money.  And, as for Google vs. Yahoo ... well, I've personalized my Google News page.  I have never read much less bookmarked the Upshot.  I don't feel the need for a blogger to feed me the news via blog post. 

Why not?  I can surf thru the stories just fine, all by myself.  Which is the attitude and ability that is fueling this entire metamorphosis, isn't it?

7/12/10

How Search Engines Work - 1: Spiders that Crawl (Yahoo! Slurp, GoogleBot, BingBot)

You want your web site or blog to be in the top search results at Google, Yahoo, Bing, Ask, etc.?  Well, to accomplish that goal you need to know a bit about how search engines work.  Let's start with crawling.

What are spiders in search engines?

Each search engine has its own software tools that crawl the web (let's ignore the fact that the Internet and the WorldWideWeb are not synonymous for now), looking for content to provide its readers in search results. 

Yahoo! Slurp is the name of Yahoo! web crawler.  Googlebot is the name of Google's spider. Right now, Bing is using MSN's old msnbot, but starting in October 2010, Bing will crawl the web using its new, fancy BingBot.  (BingBot is in beta now.)

These "spiders" (also known as software robots or just "bots") are really computer code that reviews your site, analyzing all the content that is contained on your web page or blog.  Your content is coded to allow the spider to do this.  It can be coded by you or coded automatically by your software, like Blogger is doing for me right now as I type in Compose mode. 

The spiders go through the content, word by word.  Or almost word by word.  (Their overall, global job is to find and organize every word they find on the Web, building lists of these words -- that's the big Web Crawl function.)  Google may exclude little words like "a" "the" etc., while AltaVista indexes every word found on a site page.  No search engine crawler crawls exactly the same as its competitors do. 

The spiders also jump to your links.  The spiders, or bots, will check out both the internal links you've placed on your site linking your content to other pages on your site, as well as those external links where you've connected your content to outside sources of information.   

This is called "crawling" your site. 

And, those spiders don't do this just once.  No, no.  They'll be back.  They'll pop back over and check your site periodically, just to see if things have changed.  Have you added new content?  Do your links still work?  They'll also be looking at how your words are being used on the page:  titles, subtitles, headings, meta tags, etc. will be given a special tip of the hat as the search engine prioritizes your site. 

Why do you care about spiders that crawl?  Because they teach you that it's important to (1) have content; (2) have sufficient content - 250 words or more; (3) have quality content; and (4) have links that work so that the spiders have something to index and rank from your site.

Index? Rank?  More on that in the next post. 

7/8/10

What is a Thought Leader? A Rose By Any Other Name Should Use the Other Name

The term "thought leader" is attributed to former Harvard Business Review editor in chief Joel Kurtzman.  When Kurtzman was editor-in-chief of the magazine Strategy + Business, he first used the phrase in 1994, labeling those he interviewed for their forward-thinking, savvy business ideas as "thought leaders."

Today, "thought leader" is a phrase that has been so overused and misapplied that many find its use suspicious.  Use it, and be ready: for many, it sets off the internal "BS alarm." 

Last year, Rob Cottingham at Read.Write.Web. suggested that "thought leader" be one of those buzzwords we no longer use.  Once useful, Cottingham finds its had all its life sucked out of it by overapplication.

I agree.  Don't get me wrong:  I like the phrase.  I like it.  Problem is, so many have used it and so many have stuck it on folk that are so obviously NOT thought leaders that it's just not valuable any longer - at least not in a good way. 

It reminds me of fajita tacos.  Boy, were they great when they first arrived.  We'd all go to the restaurant downtown and await the hissing cast iron skillets as they sojourned through the dining room to our white linen tabletops.  Beef, chicken, onions, bell peppers, charred and lovely and steaming. 

Now, you drive through any taco franchise and order a couple of fajita tacos and they arrive in a paper sack, with some salsa and guacamole on the side if you're lucky.  Still tasty, but just not the same.

7/7/10

Twitter is a Bigger Search Engine than Yahoo or Bing: How Many Law Firms are Excluding Themselves From the Search Results?

This morning, I learned via a tweet from Ford Motor Company's social media guru, @ScottMonty, that there was an article worth reading over at Fast Company.  As usual, Mr. Monty proves he knows his stuff.

Austin Carr's article, "Twitter Now the World's Fastest Growing Search Engine," is definitely worth your time.  Carr is reporting from the Aspen Ideas Festival -- and he's giving the information shared there by Twitter co-founder Biz Stone. 

Twitter is getting 800 million search queries every day. Do the math, and Twitter search exceed 24 billion/month -- according to Stone, that number is higher than the total monthly searches at Yahoo and Bing combined.

If you want to get down and dirty about what all this means, SearchEngineLand's Danny Sullivan has a great article written back in April 2010 giving lots of the details here, "Twitter Does 19 Billion Searches Per Month, Beating Yahoo & Bing, Sort Of."  In his post, Sullivan quotes Doug Cook of Twitter as predicting they'll hit 1 billion searches per day very soon. 

Wow.

For lawyers and law firms, take the hint.  It's important to be included in those Twitter search results, and unless you have one or more Twitter accounts, you're excluding yourself. 

For an easy step by step, practical guide for lawyers and law firms on Twitter -- how to join, how to tweet, etc. -- please feel free to download my free e-book, Twitter Nuts n Bolts 4 Lawyers: a How-to Guide for Law Firms.  The price is right, and I hear good things about this short little book being very helpful.

For more information:

Web 2.0 for Lawyers: What is "Social Media" for Law Firms and Why Bother?

Attorneys Take Note: Major Corporations Pay People Just to Tweet

Twitter for Biz Pros: The Debut of ExecTweets

Attorneys Take Note: Yesterday's Reputation is Today's Personal Brand

7/6/10

Lawyers and Social Media: Examples of Law Firms on LinkedIn

When it debuted, LinkedIn was a free online service focused upon helping employers and employees: members could search the site to find new jobs or new hires. LinkedIn was smart to change with the times, and not limit itself to a job search site.

Today, LinkedIn is more of a professional networking service. Most larger law firms and legal professionals are likely to have a LinkedIn membership.

On LinkedIn, professionals “connect” with each other and the LinkedIn service then notifies its members of those who may know each other – or have connections with friends of friends. You link with an old friend from law school, and suddenly, you are given lots of potential "connections" through that friend's network of contacts. LinkedIn afficianados can have 500-1000 connections.

LinkedIn information such as Specialties, New Hires, Firm Size, Firm Revenue, and individual resume pages of firm partners and associates are provided for marketing purposes via Linked In.

Examples of law firms currently on LinkedIn:

Baker & McKenzie
http://www.linkedin.com/companies/baker-&-mckenzie

Clifford Chance
http://www.linkedin.com/companies/clifford-chance?trk=co_search_results&goback=%2Ecps_1269812930126_2

Holland & Knight
http://www.linkedin.com/companies/holland-%26-knight-llp?trk=co_search_results&goback=%2Ecps_1269812930126_1

Jones Day
http://www.linkedin.com/companies/jones-day?trk=co_search_results&goback=%2Ecps_1269812930126_2

WilmerHale
http://www.linkedin.com/companies/wilmerhale?trk=co_search_results&goback=%2Ecps_1269812930126_1

For more information:

Web 2.0 for Lawyers: What is "Social Media" for Law Firms and Why Bother?

Facebook and Divorce: the new AAML Study and the Need to Know Client Web Chatter

Attorneys Take Note: Major Corporations Pay People Just to Tweet

Twitter for Biz Pros: The Debut of ExecTweets

Attorneys Take Note: Yesterday's Reputation is Today's Personal Brand

7/5/10

Jackson Walker on Twitter: Example of How Law Firms Build Reputations via the Web

The internationally known law firm Jackson Walker has been aggressive in building its Twitter presence.  By entering the game early, Jackson Walker was able to create separate Twitter accounts for each of its practice areas, using topic headings for the Twitter names. 

Brilliant. 

Now, anyone looking on Twitter for things like “ERISA” or “First Amendment” will quickly come across the Twitter feeds of Jackson Walker.

Currently, Jackson Walker is tweeting as follows:

Jackson Walker (News about the firm)
http://twitter.com/Jackson_Walker

JW Law (Legal updates in all categories)
http://twitter.com/JW_Law

Corporate Law
http://twitter.com/JW_CorporateLaw

Energy Law
http://twitter.com/Energy_Law

Entertainment Law
http://twitter.com/entertainlaw

Environmental Law
http://twitter.com/Enviro_Law

ERISA
http://twitter.com/ERISA

Financial Recovery Solutions
http://twitter.com/FinanceRecovery

First Amendment
http://twitter.com/FirstAmendment

Health Care Law
http://twitter.com/HealthCareLaw

HIPAA
http://twitter.com/HIPPA

Intellectual Property Law
http://twitter.com/JW_IPLaw

International Law
http://twitter.com/InternationLaw

Labor and Employment Law
http://twitter.com/LaborLaw

Litigation Alerts
http://twitter.com/LitigationAlert

Media Law
http://twitter.com/Media_Law

Real Estate Law
http://twitter.com/RealEstate_Law

Tax Law
http://twitter.com/Tax_Law

Technology Law
http://twitter.com/JW_Technology

Wealth Planning
http://twitter.com/Wealth_Planning


JacksonWalker tweets within these separate Twitter accounts with bits of information pertaining to that topic, focusing upon educating or informing others.  Check it out.

For more information:

Web 2.0 for Lawyers: What is "Social Media" for Law Firms and Why Bother?

Facebook and Divorce: the new AAML Study and the Need to Know Client Web Chatter

Attorneys Take Note: Major Corporations Pay People Just to Tweet

Twitter for Biz Pros: The Debut of ExecTweets

Attorneys Take Note: Yesterday's Reputation is Today's Personal Brand

7/4/10

The Declaration of Independence: Full Text - Happy 4th of July!

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.


The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world. (continues after "read more")

7/3/10

Law Firms on Twitter

Here are a just few examples of law firms actively using Twitter in their marketing:


Akin Gump (@akin_gump)

Ballard Spahr (@ballardspahr)

Bernstein & Maryanoff (@bernsteinmaryan)

Fulbright & Jaworski (@fulbright)

Fulbright & Jaworski’s IP section (@fulbrightIP)

Simmons Law Firm (@SimmonsLawFirm)

Vinson & Elkins (@vinsonandElkins)

For more information:

Web 2.0 for Lawyers: What is "Social Media" for Law Firms and Why Bother?

Facebook and Divorce: the new AAML Study and the Need to Know Client Web Chatter

Attorneys Take Note: Major Corporations Pay People Just to Tweet

Twitter for Biz Pros: The Debut of ExecTweets

Attorneys Take Note: Yesterday's Reputation is Today's Personal Brand

7/2/10

Web 2.0 for Lawyers - What Is "Social Media" for Law Firms and Why Bother?

Web 2.0, otherwise known as "social media," is the second generation of internet marketing, where legal service providers communicate directly with clients and potential customers, building personal relationships as well as growing a web presence and expanding their brand and business reputation. For attorneys and law firms, Web 2.0 can be a unique marketing opportunity.

Blogs ("Blawgs"), Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn

There are various components to Web 2.0; however, for the legal profession, the top four internet social media platforms are: (1) blogging; (2) micro-blogging via Twitter™; and the interactive websites of both (3) Facebook™ and (4) LinkedIn™. Currently, most law firms prefer the more professional atmosphere of LinkedIn™ to the privacy-challenged Facebook™, but many firms are taking advantage of the Facebook™ option of creating a "company page" on the Facebook™ site.

Why do law firms spend valuable time and money on social media?

Through social media, law firms (and individual attorneys) can do four important marketing tasks:

(1) build their brand;
(2) market their business to potential clients and referring attorneys;
(3) network with colleagues; and
(4) gather and share information regarding their practice areas and specialties.

For more information:

Facebook and Divorce:  the new AAML Study and the Need to Know Client Web Chatter
Attorneys Take Note: Major Corporations Pay People Just to Tweet
Twitter for Biz Pros: The Debut of ExecTweets
Attorneys Take Note: Yesterday's Reputation is Today's Personal Brand