David King Keller surveyed a few of us at the Legal Marketing Association’s Tech Conference in San Francisco on October 10-11, 2012 and published an article on the Attorney at Work Blog. The focus of the conference was for speakers to share big and little ideas that “can increase your visibility, your productivity and, ultimately, your revenue.”
In a separate post, I’ll share the website biography trends and best practices that I presented in a panel at this conference called, “LMA Top Chefs.” Burkey Belser, Jeff Yerkey, Kalev Peekna and I donned white aprons and chef hats and presented our recipe for a perfectly crafted section of a website. Moderated by able chef Maggie Watkins, Chief Marketing and Business Development Officer of Best, Best, Krieger, we all worked diligently to present the smartest and most cohesive combination of website ingredients.
Here are David King Keller’s favorite top five tech tips:
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.
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.