THAT
In just about every instance, you can remove the word “that” from your sentences. Instead of “He said that his lawyer helped him create a will” say “He said his lawyer helped him…”

OF
This one sneaks in all the time in places it shouldn’t. Instead of “The contract of mine is on your desk” use a possessive statement like “My contract is on your desk.”

UTILIZE
The ultimate fluff word. It does nothing good old “use” doesn’t do, and certainly doesn’t make you seem smarter. So strike out “utilize” and replace with “use” and you’ll have cleaner, tighter statements immediately.

VEHICLE
Always replace “vehicle” with what it really is: a car, a truck, etc. Instead of “Lili took her vehicle to get washed” say “Lili washed her car.”

TOGETHER
This common word has legitimate uses, however, in a sentence like “the shareholders gathered together to meet” it’s cumbersome. See how much clearer “the shareholders met” sounds?

TO BE (and it’s variations: IS, AM, ARE, WERE and WAS)
Make every effort to banish as many of these words as you can, sentence by sentence. Dropping “to be” and it’s variations isn’t easy, and you can’t get rid of them entirely, but when you do, your sentences come alive. “Kevin is running to the store” is passive and awkward. “Kevin ran to the store” is active and alive. Another indicator is to look for sentences beginning with “There are” or “There is” since you can always rewrite them more powerfully. When you eliminate “to be” and it’s variations, you’re forced to think about the sentence and improve your verbs.

So make an effort to tighten your copy with these guidelines, and sell better with clean, clear and powerful sentences.

Photo credit by Cieleke.

First, and without question, your profile should be 100% complete. School, work, past work and other relevant information assists others searching for contacts, and helps build your own network. Next, add a profile photo. Your picture triggers recognition and makes networkers feel like they are connecting to a real person. Then optimize your summary section with relevant keywords. Use Google’s Keyword Tool or Wordtracker for your research. This particular section of your profile is often indexed fully by major search engines.

Potential SEO Benefits?
Take a look at this screenshot, which is a portion of my public LinkedIn profile. There is speculation (and some confirmation) the items in this section helps with organic search engine optimization.

• Add your website, link to your blog and link to your company. Make sure you further “edit” each by giving it a name other than the defaults provided by LinkedIn. As you can see from my list, I’m hyperlinking phrases such as “Marketing Blog” and “Consulting Services”.
• If you’re on Twitter, be sure to add your Twitter profile, and connect the accounts together. Under your profile, click on Edit and look for your Twitter settings. You could also try this link when logged in to LinkedIn.
• Always choose a real name or variation on your name over the default format LinkedIn provides for you. This certainly feeds your organic name optimization and enhances your online reputation. As you can see, my profile link is my full name “brianjfarrell”.

Connecting with Twitter
This image below shows my Twitter settings — my account name (@findtheclient), my privacy settings, and the most important section, whether or not all or select Tweets should show on my profile. When I first set this up, I sent all Tweets to LinkedIn. Since I’m on Twitter often, this amounted to sometimes a dozen or more updates in a single day. When friends said they couldn’t keep up with me, I changed this to show only Tweets with the “#in” hashtag. Much better results, and I can leave up new blog posts or polls for a longer period of time.

Build Your Connections
Once you’ve done the above, it’s time to build your network. Start with people you know, such as co-workers, clients and colleagues. Also look for connections by company name, under the “Companies” tab. Once you’ve built up this initial base of connections, ask for and make recommendations. But before you do this, read as many as you can. You’ll quickly see what makes up a good (or bad) recommendation. It also helps to personalize your request for a recommendation rather then sending out the canned form letter provided by LinkedIn.

Finally, updated your status often, since it appears on LinkedIn as well as in network updates to your connections. Updates should be considered a professional status, not what you’re eating for lunch. And if you haven’t done so, let’s connect on LinkedIn!

So restrain yourself from trying every new marketing idea under the sun. Don’t jump from a website this month to dropping flyers the next. Take your time when considering the various approaches. Stick with one medium, preferably inbound marketing, and only change once it becomes a predictable, reliable source of business.

For those of you just starting out, particularly all the young lawyers, and newly unemployed, ex-large law attorneys, concentrate on one core practice area. For example, it’s far easier to make a name for yourself and build referrals if you’re known for being the “auto accident attorney”. You’ll also build up precious knowledge faster, which ultimately becomes more and more valuable down the road. If you’re having trouble figuring out what your core practice area is, ask yourself these three questions:

• What is it I’m really selling?
  Don’t define this as legal services, declare it in terms of a solution for your clients. For example, life insurance professionals don’t sell policies, they sell peace of mind. If you can’t figure out what you’re really selling, how are you going to focus and attract those who really want it?
• Who are you really selling to?
  Demographic targeting aside, the answer you’re looking for are the kinds of problems they have (that you solve). This is what your clients really want, and will pay to get.
• Why should they hire me?
  Do you have what it takes to solve their problem, and give them what it is they really want? Speak with conviction and authority when meeting with prospects. Don’t tell them what you can do – show proof (where allowed) with testimonials. The easiest way to win trust from your clients is to sell something you personally believe in.

Inbound marketing is a long-term project or investment, so treat it that way. Be patient, stay focused and you’ll get great results.

Photo credit by a_kartha.

Chuck Sacco, Sr. VP of Sales for Movitas, spoke for more than an hour on mobile marketing. First, he set the stage for mobile, as modern cell phones accommodate all major forms of media (think print, recordings, movies, radio, Internet and of course, voice). Chuck then focused on how important it is for business marketers to specifically target campaigns for mobile devices. Chuck also touched on the regulatory challenges and privacy concerns mobile marketing poses for business owners, since our cell phones are personal, always with us and always on.

Clearly, cell phones are not just for making voice calls anymore. And, as bandwidth improves and the promise of faster networks (4G anyone?) becomes reality, mobile devices could unseat the PC as our most important tool to communicate, interact and engage with friends, family, social colleagues and businesses.

Hosts Todd Cohen and Manny Rechani once again delivered a great speaker, a timely topic and a fun networking opportunity. The next Innovator’s Club event is in March, titled “The Eye of the CIO.” The roundtable format promises to give club members the opportunity to hear from a panel of locally based CIO’s, and their view on hiring and the IT market.

Photo credit by mihow.

But, before writing one word, think about the focus of your blog. Ultimately, you’d like your blog to build word of mouth marketing and your social following, so carefully tune your content toward the people, and work, you’d like to do. For example, I set up this blog to provide marketing information and advice to professional service providers (attorneys, lawyers, doctors, and the like).

So Who’s Reading This Stuff?
Although I’m targeting professionals, it’s likely their support staff, spouse or business advisors are the ones reading this blog. So my content is mostly professional, with a lighter tone. The material comes from my real life experiences and appointments, so often, I’m answering a question or addressing something that came up in a real client setting. The blog is my ongoing seminar to clients, prospective clients and potential referral partners.

Benefits of Blogging
Your blog is a very effective way to raise visibility, both online and offline. It also strengthens your online reputation, and positions you as an accessible, helpful resource on your specific topic or niche. If you write valuable posts, and share within your social network, you’ll likely attract new fans, new comments and new leads.

From a technical perspective, blogs beat websites because they have a built in feed. Every time you post a piece of content, your blog sends notice to search engines alerting them to the new material (unlike your traditional website, which often has to wait for the search engines to come back, and hopefully find your new page). The more you post, the more active and attractive your blog becomes to search engines. I should mention that quality matters more than quantity — a blog full of relevant information is much better than hundreds of random posts.

The best part about blogging is potential for engagement with your audience. Real success comes from creating conversations with your readers. Not only do I read every comment (and also thank publicly and privately for their contributions), I often send requests to connect on LinkedIn and when appropriate, meet in real life.

Social marketing, and blogging in general, isn’t about the technology you use (I prefer and use WordPress, but just about any solution will do). It’s about engaging people, clients and prospects – and building relationships with them.

Photo credit from the Chandos portrait, as found on Wikipedia.

Keys to Success
Good consultants solve problems. But great consultants understand their clients. They help them think things through vs. diving into their pitch bag and layering the attorney’s desk with brochures. They’re in it for the long haul, and don’t get discouraged or disappointed when clients don’t buy (translation: you just haven’t shown enough value yet!).

Each attorney said the key to breaking through their busy schedule is persistence. If you have a solution or idea they need to hear, schedule a 10 or 15 minute appointment. And be prepared to wait. Just don’t wait too long — this could be perceived as a hard sales pitch. Instead, reschedule. Lastly, don’t just drop off free gifts. If you have something important, which will help their business, they’ll want to hear about it, so make the appointment.

One lawyer on the panel made it very clear what he wanted from his consultant — lunch. Since we all eat lunch, at least a few times per week, who’d say no? Especially if you have something of value to bring to the table, besides picking up the check!

Photo credit by somnyus.

Twitter
How do you cultivate relationships in 140 characters or less? Not sure it can be done, but I’m going to focus more on @ replies and direct messages with new and existing followers. Second, to create more fun and interaction, I’m going to add polls, quotes and other things of interest more frequently. I don’t have the biggest following, but of the people I follow who do, it’s an endless barrage of self-promotion, MLM offers and the like. I’d rather tweet the same interesting post 3-4 times a day than blast out marketing messages. Third, and maybe this should have been first, I’m going to focus on Twitter lists targeting my geographic area, monitoring for tweet-ups and participating in real world networking. It’s much easier to connect with someone when you meet face to face.

Facebook
Right now, my blog posts automatically feed to Facebook, and I’ve installed the Selective Tweets application so I can tag choice tweets to appear on Facebook. This passive approach hasn’t created much interaction, other than lots of “likes” on my posts. Instead, I plan to offer exclusive material to my Facebook fans. Also, and being really careful not to abuse, send messages and content to them directly via the messaging center on the fan page. An ideal outcome would be a combined tweet-up and Facebook meet-up in the Lehigh Valley (where I live).

LinkedIn
I used to feed my Tweets directly to LinkedIn as status updates, until a close friend told me he couldn’t keep up with me anymore. If he felt that way, I imagine many others did as well. So I’ve changed the application to only accept tweets with the #in hashtag. This way, I can be much more selective, and when linking to a recent article or post I’ve written, can leave it on LinkedIn as a status update for a day or so to get maximum viewership. Going beyond a commitment to write more recommendations, I plan to answer more questions and be more than a lurker on the groups I belong to. Finally, instead of waiting for an introduction, I’m going to turn the tables and introduce people to my network.

Blogging
This goes beyond my own blog, and maybe should be labeled “commenting on blogs”. Every blogger out there, regardless of fame or perceived fame, is driven hugely by their ego. I’ve always wondered who’s reading my blog, and the only proof I have, beyond what Google Analytics tells me, are the comments made. I can assure you, I will read each and every comment that comes in. Even some of the ones Askimet marks as spam. I’d venture to guess other bloggers do the same thing. So, I’ve reached a simple conclusion — the best way to engage with someone is to leave thoughtful, meaningful comments on his or her blog. It’s also proof you’re reading the material, and regular comments on blogs are a sure sign you value and appreciate the writer’s hard work. I doubt this will go unnoticed. If you have only limited time in your day for social marketing, I’d focus 95% of my efforts on entering thoughtful comments on blogs. It’s that powerful.

So there you have my two month plan. Lots of writing, reading and typing. Buying coffee for fans and friends who want to meet in real life. And truly enjoying social marketing. Will you join me?

Photo credit by eduardtrag.

When I host evening networking events, I like to lighten the atmosphere. Instead of speaking for 30-40 minutes and then fielding questions, we ran a little contest. Since everyone attending received a raffle ticket for our door prizes (Amazon & Palm gift cards, and an iPod Touch), I thought it would be fun if I handed out extra tickets for good questions. This worked very well, and yielded more than a dozen on inbound marketing. “Do directories work?” came up repeatedly. I’m not sure if they were planted by our local field sales team or not — but I mentioned how critical it is for lawyers and attorneys to be listed on a directory like Lawyers.com, where they instantly benefit. I also talked about directories in general, and how they validate your credentials (to a degree), yield leads very quickly, and how they capture searchers early on in their hunt for a solution.

We were joined by more than a dozen attorneys, including:

• Miki and Joe, from the Gilbreath Law Firm
• Laura Cavaretta from Plunkett & Gibson, Inc.
• James Wheat, a criminal attorney
• John Mead, a divorce attorney in Bexar County
• Bill Baskette, an Attorney (and former Judge) near the Bexar County Courthouse
• Lea Ream, Leslie Luttrell and Steve Pena of Davidson & Troilo, a law firm representing municipalities, utilities and financial institutions throughout San Antonio and Austin.

Photo credit by coopgreg.

I’d really like to thank Debbie Gordon, Executive Director, for her hospitality. We had a fun group, and were joined by:

• Travis Charles Smith, an immigration attorney
• Jeffrey Crain, an attorney with Rainey Martin, LLP
• Ron Collier, a Social Security Disability attorney
• Jerry Shiles, an elder laywer

The questions were deep, and revolved around the technical aspects of search engine marketing. The best were after the seminar ended, when Travis and I discussed his plans for using social marketing to attract new sites. We talked about his website, blogging, Facebook (he landed a new client from a referral!) and using Twitter.

All in all, an enjoyable hour of conversation around inbound marketing.

Questions You Should Answer First

• What are my goals? Better positioning on search engines is an “ok” goal. But it’s more valuable to you if the goals are specific (and realistic), such as “20% more inbound leads” or “50 requests for more information per month.”
• How will I measure the success of this campaign? I work almost exclusively with law firms, and it’s common for lawyers to want double or triple firm revenues as a result of an SEO campaign. But in nearly all cases, this isn’t realistic, since contested matters could take many months or even years to yield fee revenue. Instead, refine your goals a step further and look at total number of cases or files working as a good indicator of success (at least early in the campaign).

Questions Good Consultants Will Ask You
There are hundreds, if not thousands, of people selling SEO just looking to get rich quick. Most don’t have a clue about your business and very few even understand the basics of website optimization. The best, most capable consultants will ask questions like these:

• How much can you afford to pay for a lead, subscriber, download, etc.?
• What’s worked best (and least) in the past to generate the above?
• How will you measure the success of this campaign? The consultant is looking for realistic, measurable goals, which you’ll have already prepared.

Questions to Ask Your SEO Consultant
Finally, the time has come for you to examine the qualifications of the consultant. Ask some or all of these questions to help make your decision the right one:

• Do you have proof of your work? You’re looking for the consultant or vendor to have or quickly produce client testimonials, case studies, and sample rankings for firms similar in size and scope as yours.
• What results can I reasonably expect? And how long will it take? Demand to see or have prepared a detailed game plan. Get vague responses explained., and avoid any consultant or vendor promising specific placements (e.g. “We guarantee first place results for keywords on Google”).
• What is your experience in my industry? Work with a specialist. You wouldn’t go to a general practitioner for your heart condition, and neither should your law firm or other professional practice go with an all-purpose vendor.
• What techniques do you use to achieve results? What is the overall strategy? Anyone who mentions “meta-tags” as their first answer should be shown the door. You really want to hear them say things like “produce high-quality content” or “develop relevant inbound links within your industry.”
• When do I get updates? How often do you communicate to me? Who can I call with questions? At minimum, monthly reporting on progress and monthly reports on positions achieved should be the norm. And every program should have a point-person or main contact person, since most vendors use a team of specialists, strategists and analysts to fulfill your objectives.

Armed with these questions, you’re certain to catch most consultants (even the good ones) off-guard. Listen carefully to the responses, and if you get resistance, move on.

Photo credit by svilen001.