Facebook | Law Marketing Tips

In my last blog article I made mention of websites that have mobile capability. If you don’t remember reading this then I will take us back a little bit with some of the statistics that I shared in my previous posting.

So, we have 955 Million users to date that are active users on Facebook. 543 Million of those users are mobile. This means that these are the people that are accessing the world’s most popular website through the use of a cell phone. Now, this is a huge number of people that potentially will be able to see your information. Have you ever tried to access a full website on a cell phone? On most cell phones now there is the ability to view and entire website which is great if you have yet to invest in someone designing a mobile access website for you. However, now times have changed and a lot of mobile users are experiencing a huge phenom which is that the largest cell phone provider in the world, Verizon, has moved away from unlimited data. This could be a huge impact on the way that you are coming across to your potential clients because downloading everything needed to view a full sized website will eat up the precious data that they have paid for. Where does that leave you?? Up a creek, that’s where.

What is a mobile website??? Well, let me give you the definition. According to the Inerenet Marketing Dictionary: A Mobile Site is a website which is specifically designed for optimum performance when viewed not on a regular computer screen but on a small mobile device such as a cell phone, a PDA etc. Low bandwidth for mobile web access brings back a problem from the dial-up-age that seemed overcome with the advent of broadband connections for regular computers. A huge page size would not only make the site loading very slowly in mobile browsers, it would also cost the phone user more money as the fees for wireless data transfer to mobile phones are considerable.

This tells us two things: I told you. And I am right. Now that I have finally gotten that out of the way. Let me tell you a little bit more about why this is super important for you. An article in DailyTech states this: According to the IDC’s Worldwide New Media Market Model, more U.S. internet users will access the web through mobile devices rather than through PCs or wireline services by 2015. If you don’t have a mobile website then you are behind.

As I am writing this blog, on the train on the way to Washington, DC. I have noticed something pretty amazing. That I can actually get some things done on the train on the way up to our capital. But, most of the people in the business class car are using some type of mobile device to surf the internet with. For example the lady next to me is using an Apple iPad, which can view both mobile sites and full websites. I happen to be one of the people who is using my smart phone and my computer at the same time. That’s my inner nerd talking now. So my point is, take a look around you next time you are in a public setting like on your commute to work if you take a train like I do. You will be surprised to see how many people occupy themselves with the internet.

Really quick before I end this, if you were someone who was in an accident and were standing in the middle of the street with no computer…but the first thing you needed to do aside from call the police was contact an attorney because you know this accident was/was not your fault. How would you find one while you are waiting on the police to write any citations? Heaven, forbid that ever happens. But I’m just saying, 99% of people that are right minded after an accident will probably think immediately about obtaining an attorney. How are you going to make sure this person is going to be able to get a hold of your firm’s information on their smart phone? That’s right…mobile capability. Google will actually direct the smart phone being used to conduct the search to mobile friendly websites before showing one that is a full website. Bet you didn’t realize that.

Now that you know a little bit more on what you are missing out on…which potentially is 543 Million people. What are you waiting for? If you are wondering, the answer is yes, I can help you with that.

As always, if you need me. let me know. I am always here.

Signed,

The Attorney’s ATM Gal

I am sure that many of you have been approached by someone in your firm about social media. Maybe it was a younger intern, or a seasoned pro that has brought this up. Many law firms do not participate in this type of marketing because it simply is not something that is well versed in the legal profession.

Your marketing efforts have produced some pretty great results right? How many people are actually mentioning your law firm on the internet? If you remember in my last post; the most important thing that you can do for your law firm is approve all of the information that makes its way out onto the internet. What about those things that you have no control over? What about postings on Facebook or Twitter? Not sure who pays attention to that stuff? Well, Google and the other big search engines pay attention to everything.

If you haven’t already started some type of social media in your law firm or you have no idea who is working on that for you…you may want to find that out or start working on it.

Now there is a list of a few different social media sites that you might want to start up and keep up with it. Yes, we can help you with that. First, I am going to tell you a little bit about what you can see statistically with some of these sites in order to track how many people you are reaching with every post, update and any change you make to your information on these social media sites.

What I am going to show you is one site that has become one of the most widely used website in the world. With even more daily visits than our beloved Google, Facebook has over 955 million registered users as of June 2012. (Facebook Key Facts) That’s pretty impressive for a website that started in a college dorm room in 2004. If your law firm’s website can keep up with Facebook then I need to speak with you directly because I need to be able to buy your secret sauce. For those of you who knew me back in my Google days understand that I am a statistic junkie. Did you know that of those 955 million users on Facebook 81% reside in the United States and Canada? 543 million of those users are mobile! Have you made sure that your website is mobile friendly? You probably should. We will discuss that a little more in next weeks article.

So, now we have the statistics. What is 81% of 955 million??? How many of those users do you think will need an attorney to represent them in the near future? A lot of them. How many of those people do you think that you have reached out to?

Now, I know exactly what you are thinking: “But Rachel, I already made time in my schedule to make sure that I approve all of the information that goes out about my law firm. Now, you want me to make even more time in my schedule to post more information?” Not the end of the world I promise. Just two more minutes is all that I ask. Really, I want you to add these two minutes to the few minutes that you should already be taking to blog once a week. If you are not already blogging then we will need to have a different discussion. If you are not able to blog once a week, that’s not a big deal because I don’t even have enough time to sit down and write a quality blog once a week. But now that I have written this article I will make sure that I definitely start practicing what I preach.

If you haven’t thought about signing up for social media, you are missing out on thousands of potential clients. If you need more help with how to reach out to these millions of people that are viewing just one of these many social media websites then give us a shout.

As always, if you need me. let me know. I am always here.

Signed,

The Attorney’s ATM Gal

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Category Archives: Facebook

Mobile Websites. Why They Are A MUST!