Throughout the next few months, check back here regularly for updates, additions and more. Plus, our speakers will be blogging leading up to ROI2012, May 2-5.

Also, don’t forget – hotel rooms are limited. Be sure to reserve your room now! Call the Sandpearl at 877.726.3111 and use the promo code “ROI2012″ or “Radius of Influence 2012.”

For questions, etc., contact Stephanie Andre at sandre@clarislaw.com. 

Winter’s tale is emotional and amazing, but it’s also a story about how word-of-mouth marketing can go a long way. So much so, that it could bring about opportunities one never thought were possible.

Krista Rosado arrived at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium in Clearwater, Fla., at a time when the facility was in financial trouble. Shortly thereafter, they took in a dolphin named Winter who lost her tail at three months old when she was caught in a blue crab trap off the coast of Florida and the blood supply to her tail was cut off by the rope.

Through word of mouth and careful pitching and outreach to media and the community, Rosado caught the attention of the Today show.  From that report, a prosthetics business contacted the aquarium and created a custom tail for Winter.

This time, Winter’s story caught the attention of movie executives and an offer was made. The result was Dolphin Tale, released in September 2011. The movie debuted at number one that weekend.

Come to ROI2012 to meet Rosado, director of marketing and advertising for Clearwater Marine Aquarium, where she will share how filming Dolphin Tale impacted the venue and the community, and how the right word-of-mouth approach played a role in bringing attention to Winter’s story in 2006 – long before the movie was developed.

To register, click here.

Self-proclaimed ActiveWords evangelist and small-town Minnesota boy Buzz Bruggeman is speaking at ROI2012.

Those who know of Bruggeman will no doubt be excited to hear what the “geek wannabe” predicts the hottest — and least likely — tech trends may be for this year and beyond.

For a bit on Buzz, take a peek at his talk at ROI2011:

To register for ROI2012, click here.

It being about 4:00 PM on a Friday, most of the group was tired, but I was exhausted. Tom had asked me to share some of the non-traditional marketing techniques that I employ but none of which I consider to be advertisement.

But first, I had to get something off my chest. I had witnessed a sudden and catastrophic physical breakdown of a lawyer against whom I had spent several hours litigating the day before. I had thought at the time I made my speech he had already passed away. The experience, gave me pause and an opportunity to reflect on the enormous pressure we all put on ourselves to advertise, market, tweet, blog, Facebook and get high search engine optimization (SEO) placements on Google. It made it all seem just “less urgent” when, in the end, anyone of us can get in our car, drive to the office and just … die.

And if you are still reading this, I imagine you too are focused on how you can market without advertising. This blog post, like just everything I do in terms of “marketing,” is part catharsis, part pleasure and part pain. In other words, I try very hard to communicate everything I do from my heart. It will defy those things that true “marketing geniuses” will tell you about the latest “keywords” or the newest “social media trick.” It’s just to be me. It may or may not make a lick of sense to anyone–and it may not even work–but I suspect it does.

So I wrote a book, not because I imagined it would become an Amazon Best Seller, but because I wanted to inspire kids from my heart to become lawyers. I wrote “Sara Rose, Kid Lawyer” to express to my own kids and their friends what daddy does for a living. All they see each morning, if they are even awake when I leave, is a daddy gulping down coffee and running out the door in a loud suit and pink tie. Occasionally, they will see me on the evening news talking about this injustice or that — when I force them to watch, that is. But why, how and who becomes a lawyer is a thing that most kids don’t know.

I decided to donate the proceeds of the book to a charity, Lawyers to the Rescue. I created my own charity because I was not “feelin’” that any other group I belong to was doing what was needed: changing the general public’s perception that lawyers are ambulance chasing scoundrels. Lawyers to the Rescue is a not-for-profit. It operates a free legal clinic for the homeless inMiamiand helps provide relief to those around the world when catastrophe strikes. We work with local law schools and their students who participate in our clinics get credit as well as the opportunity to work with lawyers side-by-side. More importantly, we hope to inspire law students (soon-to-be lawyers) to consider public service as a payment back for the blessings of having a law license.

I wrote a second book, “Make It Your Own Law Firm,” to give hope and direction to the thousands of law students who are graduating from law schools without jobs or any hope of ever becoming a lawyer. Having worked with Lawyers to the Rescue’s efforts across the country I find it to be a sad irony that so many people cannot get access to lawyers with so many lawyers unemployed. How is this possible?

Many people are amazed at the amount of publicity my cases garner. The truth is that to most effectively use the media, it has to be done as a public service and in your client’s best interest. Nobody but you is probably going to be interested in an old lady slipping on a banana peel at Wal-Mart, but if there have been an unusual number of falls, at a particular place, or an effort to conceal a danger at a hospital or by a manufacturer the public will want to know. Be careful not to try the case in the media; don’t push your story but the danger to the public.

And be careful. Most defendants do not want to see their name in the papers or on TV. They will try to buy you and your client’s silence with confidentiality agreements and then later claim that the event never happened. The media is a weapon and a tool, but not a marketing advantage. It should be used cautiously and only for the greater good of the public.

Spencer Aronfeld is the founder of Aronfeld Trial Lawyers in Miami. For more information, visit www.aronfeld.com or check out his blog at www.floridainjurylawyer-blog.com. 

Remember: it’s not too early to start planning for next year — ROI 2012 is May 2-4 at the Sandpearl Resort in Clearwater Beach, FL. Register now by clicking here.

To date, more than 30 firms have agreed to work with KidsAndCars.org as local spokespeople for the organization. After some initial training, many firms have already taken the next step — connecting with the community and speaking with local media on behalf of KidsAndCars.org.

In fact, Robyn Madden, an Injury Board member and attorney with Strom Law Firm in Columbia, S.C., recently spoke on camera with ABC News Columbia after an 8-month-old boy died of vehicular heat stroke just two weeks ago. In the report, she was able to offer tips for avoiding such tragedies.

Another way to serve as an expert in your local community and educate the public is to create your own public service announcement. Mike Lewis, an Injury Board member and attorney with Mike Lewis Attorneys in Winston-Salem, N.C., created his own PSA about the dangers of leaving children in vehicles. See the clip below.

For more on Fennell and her organization — or to learn more about teaming up with her group — please visit KidsAndCars.org.

ROI 2011: Janette Fennell – Framing Your Identity: Getting Involved at the Local Level from ROI 2011 on Vimeo.

Extreme Heat Threatens Children, Pets, ABC Columbia

After Child Deaths, KidsAndCars.org Renews Challenge to G.M., New York Times

Group Urges GM To Recall Cars After Kids Die In Trunks - Wall Street Journal

Website Strives to Keeps Kids Safe Around Cars – Fox News, Kansas City

By Mark Wolfe

Marketing experts tell us that the most effective from of “advertising” is “word-of-mouth advertising.” This makes sense when you consider consumers’ main fear when hiring a service provider: that the service provider will not fix the problem.

Consumers looking for a service provider often seek advice from friends and family to assuage this fear of making a bad choice. With so many attorneys using mass media (TV, Internet, print, etc.) to advertise their services, consumers needing legal representation are often overwhelmed with choices.

This can be a benefit to you if you have properly and effectively harnessed the power of your Radius of Influence to secure recommendations and referrals from your contacts in the community.

REPUTATION + RELATIONSHIPS = RECOMMENDATIONS.

However, before your contacts can recommend your legal services to their friends and family, they must remember you.

Our egos as lawyers tell us that our clients and contacts in the community will never forget us. But this is simply not true. Once we, as lawyers, have “fixed” a problem for the client, they move on. Yes, some clients will always remember you, but a vast majority will not. This leads to missed opportunities for new business.

Staying connected to your contacts is critical for securing future recommendations. A law firm newsletter is an excellent tool to stay connected. It keeps your name and/or your firm’s name in front of your contacts on a regular basis.

A good newsletter will also spotlight your activity in the community and serve to better “personalize” you with your contacts. It also provides an opportunity to express your desire to help those people in the community with certain or specific legal problems.

Finally, an effective newsletter will provide helpful information to your contacts about safety and legal issues of concern for your community.

Mark Wolfe is managing partner for Botteler, Finley & Wolfe.

This post is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:

Password:

Remember, it’s never too early to start planning for next year — ROI 2012 is May 2-5, 2012 at the Sandpearl Resort in Clearwater Beach, FL. Registration is now open at a special early bird rate — a $300 discount!

Don’t forget to reserve your room at the Sandpearl Resort. We have negotiated a rate of only $229/night. These rooms will sell out! Make your reservations today by calling 877.726.3111.