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Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Legal Blog Watch

Legal Blog Watch

Building Relationships to Build Business -- and Using Facebook to Do It

Lawyer-client intimacy sounds like something forbidden or inappropriate. But the kind of lawyer-client intimacy that Arnie Herz discusses in this post at Legal Sanity is anything but: Herz suggests that lawyers should try to forge a personal bond with clients as a way to build a healthy, lasting and trusted relationship. He writes:

As I've noted before, and as Keith Ferrazzi points out in his bestselling book, Never Eat Alone, many people shy away from the idea that intimacy is key to successful business relationships. By intimacy I'm referring to a willingness to get to know the human being behind the issue or need that comes across our desk (or the airplane call button). It's basically the same kind of intimacy that fuels healthy connections to family and friends. Many lawyers find it hard to drop the mantle of authority and really get to know their clients as human beings who have fears, hopes and challenges. But, this kind of sincere human-to-human exchange is what compels prospects to become clients and compels clients to stay with us and refer us more business.

Interestingly, Herz's post on lawyer-client intimacy coincides with blog posts by Kevin O'Keefe and Ernie the Attorney about Facebook. Traditionally viewed as a social community, more professionals are turning to Facebook to connect with each other, O'Keefe writeshere:

Facebook should not be dismissed as some web site or social community where our kids hang out. Not only am I seeing a growing number of innovative lawyers and business people networking via Facebook, but Facebook is also adding an executive team that ain't joining to keep things as is.
The Wall Street Journal reports (sub req'ed) this morning the latest to join Facebook is CFO Gideon Yu, formerly with Google's YouTube.  Mr. Yu's appointment follows the hiring this month of Chamath Palihapitiya, an investor for the Mayfield Fund LP venture-capital firm, as vice president of product marketing and operations. Blake Ross and Joe Hewitt, co-founders of open-source Web browser Mozilla Firefox, are joining Facebook as part of its acquisition of their Parakey startup.

Ernie Svenson compares the differences in the more whimsical Facebook and the serious networking tool Linked In in this in this post:

I think that the differences between Facebook and LinkedIn reflect a similar sensibility in the world of online marketing or networking.  It's important to have a professional appearance, and LinkedIn is wonderful in that regard. But, it's also important to show a more human side.  People like to deal with people they feel comfortable with.  Professional networks emphasize one's professional skills.  Social networks like Facebook emphasize the personal touches.  I've known Marty Schwimmer for many years.  I've read his blog for 5 years, and I trade emails with him regularly.  I know a lot about Marty.  But I didn't know, until he became a "Facebook friend" that he was taking bass guitar lessons.  Or at least that's what his 'status page' said last Saturday.  Maybe he was kidding but that's okay too.

Looking for ways to build connections with other lawyers and potential clients is a win-win for all. As Ernie points out, "people like to deal with people they feel comfortable with" -- which means that building connections can help make money. And more importantly, even if you don't get that new client or account, if you've built a relationship with a prospect, at least you can feel that you've come away with a new friend even if you didn't win the business. And that kind of consolation prize helps make marketing and even rejection more palatable.

Posted by Carolyn Elefant on July 25, 2007 at 04:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Saludos
Rodrigo González Fernández
Renato Sánchez 3586 of. 10
Telefono: 2084334- 5839786
santiago-Chile
www.consultajuridicachile.blogspot.com
www.lobbyingchile.blogspot.com
www.biocombustibles.blogspot.com

Dispatches from the new world of work

Dispatches from the new world of work

A Company Gets It

We know that the women's market is booming and that many haven't taken full advantage of this market. Not so Harley-Davidson. They've noticed that there is a huge market of women who are buying motorcycles—about 100,00 a year. As stated in the New York Times today, "'Fifty percent of the population is female and there is pent-up demand,' said James L. Ziemer, Harley-Davidson's chief executive. 'We need to remove barriers.'"

Companies that remove the barriers and recognize the power of women buyers can cash in on a great market, but I think Tom's been saying that for awhile now.

How does your company take advantage of today's key markets, boomers/geezers and women??

Val Willis posted this today.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: http://www.tompeters.com/

Saludos
Rodrigo González Fernádez
Renato Sánchez 3586 of. 10
Telefono: 2084334- 5839786
santiago-Chile
www.consultajuridicachile.blogspot.com
www.lobbyingchile.blogspot.com
www.biocombustibles.blogspot.com

Law.com Home Legal Blog Watch Home About The Bloggers

Law.com Home Legal Blog Watch Home About The Bloggers
Legal Blog Watch

Poverty as a Defense to Crime

At Crime & Federalism, Mike Cernovich asks whether poverty should be a mitigating factor in criminal sentencing. He cites new research suggesting a link between lead poisoning and criminal behavior and another study showing a link between diet and criminality -- specifically, that people who eat diets low in essential fatty acids are more likely to commit crimes.

Given that children do not choose to live in lead-paint-tainted homes or to eat diets low in essential nutrients, what does this say if those children grow up to commit crimes? If someone slips a drug into your drink and you do something wrong, Cernovich notes, your involuntary intoxication is a mitigating factor at sentencing. Should not the same be true for children involuntarily intoxicated by lead or poor nutrition? As Cernovich puts it:

"Given that poor children are the ones who were most-frequently exposed to lead paint and the ones most likely denied essential nutrients, does it make sense to have a general poverty-as-mitigating-sentencing factor?"

And shouldn't schools be required to serve nutritious food in order to vaccinate children from certain crimes?

Posted by Robert J. Ambrogi on July 24, 2007 at 01:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

What Is a Blog?

In posts here and here, I've attempted to identify the first legal blogger. In response, I have received e-mails from several bloggers suggesting either themselves or others as possibly the first. These e-mails highlight the primary problem with identifying the first legal blogger -- first you must define "blog." Two of the e-mails I received warrant mention, because they are both from people who have been active in publishing online for the legal community since the earliest days of the Web and who are both highly regarded for their work.

The first came from Bruce W. Marcus, a veteran legal marketing consultant who in 1994 went online with his newsletter, The Marcus Letter on Professional Services Marketing. He wrote, in part:

"The earliest blog serving the legal profession? The Marcus Letter on Professional Services Marketing went online in 1994, following several years when it was published in hard copy. It sprung from my first book on marketing professional services, in 1982. It offered some of the earliest advice in marketing and managing law firms -- as it does today-- and in analyzing the ramifications of the legal profession. Many articles have been reprinted elsewhere, frequently."

The other e-mail that warrants a mention was from Sabrina Pacifici, who writes the blog beSpacific and who, in 1996, founded the Web journal LLRX.com. She points to an LLRX.com feature called Newstand, which made its debut in January 1997 and continued to run monthly. Here is how LLRX.com described this feature:

"In this column, we list selected articles from computer-oriented publications, such as Database, Online, PC World, PC Computing, Internet World, PC Magazine & Searcher as well as business magazines such as Forbes, Fortune & BusinessWeek. If you come across an article of interest that is not on our list, please choose 'Add Comments' at the bottom of this page, and tell us about it. All citations will be archived in the Library one month after posting."

Thus, well before the word "blog" was over coined, both Marcus and Pacifici had created Web pages that featured regularly updated content of interest to the legal profession. Which begs the question, what is a blog? I put that to Pacifici, and here was her response:

"Regularly posting current, topical material to the community, on law and technology related issues -- free, unsponsored, unbiased, independent. In any case, it predated 'blogs' per say, and fits the definition of regularly updated content. And since I am the only one, I think, who has been continually publishing on these topics to this community for 10+ yrs, it may merit a mention."

I don't know if anyone has heaped as much praise on LLRX.com over the years as I have. I have given it top rating in my book, The Essential Guide to the Best and Worst Legal Sites on the Web, and it was regularly selected as one of the "Best of the Web for Lawyers" in my former newsletter legal.online, as this March 1999 column of mine shows. But by that definition, I predated LLRX, since I have been posting my monthly column online since March 1995. I do not mean to take away from either Marcus or Pacifici their well-deserved status as trailblazers and innovators. I have the highest regard for the work of both, and they each deserve prominent places in the legal-Web history books. In my opinion, however, they were both publishing newsletters or e-zines online, not blogs, when they launched their respective features in 1994 and 1997. What's the difference? I'm not sure. Maybe it's frequency, maybe its intent. But for now I'm sticking with my original choice for first legal blog.

Posted by Robert J. Ambrogi on July 24, 2007 at 01:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Saludos
Rodrigo González Fernádez
Renato Sánchez 3586 of. 10
Telefono: 2084334- 5839786
santiago-Chile
www.consultajuridicachile.blogspot.com
www.lobbyingchile.blogspot.com
www.biocombustibles.blogspot.com