It has been a fun week in the legal industry. There are some really great blog entries out there from the last week, and here are just a few of them:

• Boy Suffers Serious Head Injury During Sleepover - A child was awarded $850,000 in damages for what was deemed a foreseeable and preventable incident. From The Injury Lawyer Directory.
  
• Actor Dennis Quaid Settles Medical Malpractice Lawsuit Involving Children - Once again, an incident involving celebrity children brings an important issue to the forefront when Dennis Quaid's twins nearly died because they were given lethal doses of Heparin, a blood thinning agent. The hospital recently settled and the twins recieved $500,000. From PersonalInjury.com.
  
• Wrongful Death in West Palm Beach, FL - Craig Goldenfarb, P.A., releases information on what constitutes a wrongful death for his firm. Truck accidents, emergency room medical malpractice and anesthesia malpractice are some examples of how wrongful death can occur.
• What is a Class Action Lawsuit? - A great definition of a commonly misused term from the Findlay Law Offices.
• U.S. Supreme Courts Holds: Lab Reports Are Testimonial - Differing opinions on the use of lab reports and results in Supreme Court proceedings, from Coxwell & Associates, PLLC.
  

Should your firm consider jumping on the Twitter band wagon? Absolutely.

It's easy to use and can be a great marketing and branding tool if used strategically. But, if you're not careful, the micro-blogging platform can actually hurt you.

Consider the following:

• Always give before you take. Make an effort to share information and news that is useful and relevant to your followers. And don't advertise for yourself until you've built a relationship with them. It will turn them off immediately.
• Don't spam your followers with useless Tweets. They don't want to know where you went for lunch, as much as you don't want to know where they will go for dinner. Spamming your followers will result in losing them altogether.
• When using hash tags, make sure that they are relevant to your tweets. It is very inappropriate to use a popular, albeit irrelevant, hash tag in an effort to make your tweet more visible. For example: some users have been caught using popular hash tags such as #iphone or #Iran, even though they're tweeting about something completely unrelated. 
• Give credit where credit is due. If you copy another users tweet, simply include their username and the word re-tweet (or RT) in your post.

The Twitter community takes their practice pretty seriously, and for good reason. When used correctly, it can be an incredibly valuable communication tool. But when used inappropriately, it can do more harm than good.  Just be sure to remember your Twitter manners.

The recession has had a substantial impact on social media marketing. People are relying heavily on online word-of-mouth when trying to find an attorney to fit their needs. They are depending upon the blogs they read and the reviews they find to point them in the right direction.

Social media marketing has become an essential legal web marketing strategy for acquiring clients. Your future clients need to know that they can trust you, research you, and relate to you. What better way than social networking?

LinkedIn allows people to view your impressive credentials, while blogging gives you the chance to establish yourself as an industry expert. Facebook offers your past clients the opportunity to publicly thank you—something your future clients are sure to notice. Looking for something even more specific? Try DoctorsNLawyers.com. These tools are essentially free, with the exception a small time commitment. I think the ROI speaks for itself.

I read this quote today from Search Engine Watch: 

"Most search marketers are used to looking at things from a single perspective: that of a search marketer. Some of the more savvy marketers know enough to look at things from the perspective of end users as well, since those are the people they are ultimately trying to influence. The savviest of search marketers know that it's also important to step back from time to time and try to think like a search engine engineer."

 It is so true.  I am constantly amazed by the lawyers I speak with who want to show up for searches that consumers would never even consider typing in.  If you are a lawyer, you have to remember that your training and experience put you in a whole different place than your clients.  They don't think like you do - and they don't search like you do. 

 Consumers are hungry for information - so give them information.  Provide them with relevant and useful information about their injury or condition.  Provide them with resources.  Become the resource so other websites provide your site as a resource.  Then consumers will find your site and, when they are ready to hire a lawyer, they will contact you.

 It's simple, just stop thinking like a lawyer.

Dan Goldstein
Page 1 Solutions

We just got back from the Spring 2007 meeting of the American Association for Justice. Miami was nice, but it rained and the winds were blowing from Sunday afternoon on through yesterday. We met with some potential new clients as well as a couple of our existing clients. I'm happy to say that it was a productive meeting.

Check out a few pictures on my blog:

http://www.page1solutions.com/Blog/Jonathan/ 

Jonathan Fashbaugh
Internet Marketing Consultant
Page 1 Solutions