Chuck Newton

Google +1 Button

 

 

Google's promotional video for the +1 button, above, explains the social feature thusly: "When you click +1, you're telling your friends, your family and the rest of the world, 'this is something you should check out!'"

I guess, then, the Google +1 button is similar to Facebook's "Like" button, which I have always thought a bit strange when you push "Like" as to something that is terrible.  You post that you were just involved in a tradgic accident, and one of your friends clicks the "Like" button.

Instead of your "Likes" being posted to your Facebook profile, your +1's are collected in your Google profile and displayed when people within your Google social circle search for something you have recommended.

Here is how I think it works, if you opt in via Google Labs, you'll see a translucent +1 button appear to the right of your Google search results. When you mouse over the button, it becomes solid and you can click it.  Each +1 is logged in your Google profile. There, you can manage what you've +1'd and choose whether or not you want to make this information public.

I do not know really how this benefits a law firm or lawyer except to ad the +1 button to your posts on your blog.

We will just have to see how it takes off.

The Law Firm Of Home, Broadband, Google & Free

Yes, it is a play on how most people expect a law firm to be named, but it does make the point.

Of late I have read a number of articles and have watched a video of the "No Money Man", who has lived for 14 months without any money.  Now I am not that extreme, but I have often thought that someone can start up and run a law firm with no extra money should they so wish.  And, in fact, most of the money that I spend, as with most law firms to varying degrees, is for services perceived as luxuries.  Most often I and the other law firms are wrong in our analysis of need, but the money is spent, the earnings are lost, and we are not better off personally as a result.

The first place an attorney would start in the quest of the no money law firm would be to cut the office overhead to nothing by moving the office home.  It is true that an attorney is likely paying rent or a mortgage and taxes, but creating a small space for a law firm at home adds little if anything to what it already costs the lawyer to live away from the office.

The same is true for office furnishings and a computer. A lawyer likely has a computer, and furnishings for a surface on which to work and sit are easily available at home, from a garage sale, of with the castoffs of relatives and friends.

Broadband is necessary. It can be expensive. But, the truth of the matter is that most of us have broadband in one form or the other at home already. After all, we cannot be expected to miss the big game, or our favorite cable show. Those lawyers who are right wing fanatics cannot miss Fox News, for example, or for liberals MSNBC is a must have. For me and my girlfriend, it is HGTV and Food Network all the way. Many of these broadband services now provide you a wireless router. If wire is what you need, it is not impossible for you to string some Cat 6 through the walls to the router.

With the overhead annihilated, the thing to worry about are ongoing monthly cost. These costs can add up quickly. In almost every instance there is a low cost or no cost solution that will provide you 90% or what you think you need.

Law, like it or not, is all about drafting -- pleadings, briefing, and billing. With some adjustment, however, this can all be accomplished with Google Docs. In that this free service is in the cloud, so to speak, it allows you to collaborate on matters with other attorneys, such as in preparing things like joint pretrial orders and statements.

Law is about collaborating, but as such it is also about communication with clients, opposing counsel, the courts, agencies, referral sources, and the like. With the expansion of efiling, it is increasingly possible to greatly reduce, if not eliminate mail and postage. Here too, Google mainly has you covered. For email there is Gmail. Like most everything Google, it is free. You can attach documents in PDF an TIFF for others to view. There is software online to convert documents to PDF for free. You have been able to receive free phone calls in the past with Google Voice, but now you will be able to make calls out through Gmail. With the combination of Gmail and Voice you can conduct conference calls, including video conferencing. I presently use Skype. It is cheap, but I am cheaper. I intend to lose that service for Google in the near future.

One problem concerns those few attorneys, courts and clients that still cling to faxing. It is frustrating. Except for communicating with these people on an immediate basis, there is no reason to send on outgoing fax. Needing to provide someone an incoming fax in this day and age is just frustrating. My first thought is to simply refuse to have a fax number, but you want to be accommodating. In this day and age it is a little like relying on Pony Express or maintaining a devise to read smoke signals. You can apparently fax out with Google Voice, although I have never done it. Also, since faxing is becoming more rare, there are some free limited fax services such as FreeFax.Com, although you are limited to the number of faxes per day.

Marketing or advertising a law practice is a necessity. I still think what works best is shoe leather and networking aggressively for referrals. But, you need a way to keep in touch with referrals sources and to stand out. You need extra marketing avenues. Almost all of these are free. It just take some time and effort. It is possible to build a free blog, for example, but you do have to stick with it. Blogger and WordPress are examples of his. Then of course there is social media, including Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Twitter and others. Some of these can act as advertising sources as well if you can get your organic listing on Google high enough. Then, of course, there are pure solicitation sites such as Craigslist and YouTube.

Legal research is often necessary, but in reality, unless you are in the field of drafting briefs of one kind or another on a regular basis, a dynamic research site is likely a waste of money. Believe it or not, if it is just a matter of reviewing the basis of a pleading, you can almost always find the relevant law on Google.  If not basic Google, then Google Scholar. If it is a matter of keeping up with the relevant law for general application, you can program FindLaw to notify you of relevant court decisions in your practice area when handed down, and you can get alerts from Google when a news or blog story meeting your criteria is posted. Then many bar associations and other groups of which you are already a member provide access to free or cheap legal research databases. If intense legal research is occasionally needed, there are any number of free libraries in most areas, including law school libraries, bar associations, other law firms and courthouses.

I am afraid that when it comes to office supplies I am a bit too much like the No Money Man. First, I try had not to use office supplies. You can wean yourself from this nasty, clutter task. If you learn to operate on your laptop, it might not be possible to be paperless, but it is possible to use substantially less paper, for example. I do not buy pens, pads and the like. I gather them at seminars and meetings for free.

I tend to get my CLE one of two ways. First, I take advantage of all of the free CLE credit out there, including the self study allowances. Courts, law schools and groups often host meetings in which the CLE is provided free for just showing up. My law school, STCL, often hosts documentaries or debates by the anti-defamation league and the like, which are free and  open to the public, and which results in CLE. I learn a lot and I take advantage of it. I also work for my CLE by presenting papers and speaking at CLE events. Both of these avenues also offers extraordinary marketing opportunities. Also, many bar associations have complimentary courses.

I continue to hear that meeting space continues to be a problem, but in reality there are a lot of options for free or inexpensive meeting space, if you care to be upfront with your clients. In the past I listed many of these in "Where Do You Meet With Clients When You Want To Work From Home?" Although this list is long, courthouses, coffee shops and libraries are often free and available.

The bottom line is that you spend money to start up or operate a law firm because you want to, and not because you have to. Complaining about the cost of operating a law firm is a matter of the image you hold for yourself as a lawyer. To complain about the cost of starting or operating a law firm is a little like complaining about all of the sex and violence on your DVD player. It is of your own making.

Clients are the main thing, but what you have to realize is that soliciting clients has little to do with the inner workings and cost of a practice, and it has everything to do with the lawyer doing what is necessary to naturally get their name and services before those that need them. It is kind of like recitation in law school. It is what concerns you on a day to day basis, but it has very little to do with preparing for and passing your law school exams or the bar. Soliciting clients often does not take money as it does time, intensity and purpose on the part of the lawyer. Unfortunately, lawyers convince themselves, for some reason, that things that increase start up costs and overhead can be substitutes for the hard work of finding clients. This theory, however, just does not compute.

Android Surpasses iPhone In One Respect

I like Google. I like their open source cell phone software, Android. I carry a Droid with me. I am a connected, carpet commuting, third waving kind of lawyer, and I am serious about my phone.

I guess Apple should be given credit for increasing the smart phone market. It is a leader to be sure. But, the cost of its phones, its chosen service provider, and its closed architecture is reason for concern. We do not live in an Apple world. We live in a Google world, and design and momentum plays just will not hack it.

Now, according to Fast Company, although Android still lags behind the iPhone in market share (iPhone has been available much longer), Android has passed the iPhone in mobile web use recently. In the USA Android accounted for 46% of online mobile traffic, compared with Apple's 39%. And, this is despite the fact that iPhone has two and half as many users as the entire Android galaxy.

Deep Dark Dirty Secret About My Business Card

Here it is -- I DO NOT HAVE ONE!

You read this correctly.  I do not have a business card.

Am I crazy?

I do not think so. I just think that business cards have been held in such high esteem for so long from a marketing standpoint, people do not understand how this is possible.

Oh, I use to have business cards and I would hand them out every place. And, frankly I did not mean to stop using them.  

It is not really a matter of money for business cards were never that expensive to print. The truth of the matter, however, is that we all concentrate and worry too much about our business cards. They take up more time in thought, preparation and gaming that one would think. But, that is not the reason I do not have one.

I just ran out of cards, got busy, and never replaced them. I guess I never replaced them because after I ran out nobody really much asked for one. That says something about how successful business cards really are in this day and age.

What I have come to find out (or at least suspect) is that these small rectangular pieces of cardstock with your name, phone number and any stupid or cute thing you might think to add are going the way of the land line and yellow pages for lawyers. Business cards are just not that effective any longer.

Here is the truth of the matter. Only old dudes like me still try to keep up with cards. I can hand out a bunch of business cards at a meeting or conference, for example, but I later find them on the floor and in the trash. Hardly anybody holds on to business cards for any length of time.

The reason is that Google is the new business card. If people want to find you they do not dig through a drawer or business cards. they Google your name. This is the reason it helps to have a blog, Facebook and other social network sites. People need to find you when they need you, and business cards no longer hack it.

It use to be that I would hand out tons of cards to my referral sources to hand to their clients, and that use to work well. People would show up to meetings with the cards. Only two problems exist now. One, I rarely meet with clients in person. Two, referral sources do not meet with clients as often either and, when they do, they no longer hand out my business cards. Referral sources are more likely to tell the client over the phone to contact me and they will provide them my URL.

The courts in which I appear say they want business cards before a hearing, but they really do not. They have problem giving up paper and they want to make sure they do not have spelling and memory issues later concerning the court's record. So, they ask for a business card with the case number written on it, along with who I represent. Then they complain because they cannot read the handwriting on the card. So, I never end up in court by accident. When I know I am going to court I print off an appearance sheet with all of the information court personnel could possibly want. It turns out they like this better.

If I make a contact, I give them my URL. I also collect their contact on my phone or somewhere and then put them in my system. First, I send them a follow up email, and this has my contact information. Second, I might call them to follow up, but this is not always certain. Third, I establish their email and fax number so they start receiving email and fax blasts from my office on a regular basis.

As for the business cards people give me. More often than not they do not make it back to the office with me. I record information and throw them away. I sometimes forget business cards in my pocket and they tend to get washed or dry cleaned. Most business cards are of little use after this point.

I participate in a lot of CLE and seminars. I meet people afterwards. But, my contact information is plastered all over the printed material or the PDFs provided to the participants.

Wow! I finally got that secret out. I have been keeping it to myself, but now I feel better. I feel some relief getting that off of my mind. I know, I am a radical. I hope you will not think less of me because I have abandoned a tradition and do not have a business card.

(Video) Leadership Lessons From The Shirtless Dancing Guy

Strange video about the quality of leadership as illustrated by a shirtless dancing guy. Pretty fund and interesting all at the same time.

Google Goggles - Visual Search Engine

We certainly live in the age of Google.  I use it in everyday life.  I now use it every day with my DROID.  Although not yet perfect, Google Goggles is pretty amazing.  A visual search engine in the making.  It is the way of the future.  View this video.  By the way, this video is from YouTube, Google's video search engine.

Saturday Night Live Highlights iPhone Problems

The Defamation Of AT&T Wireless By iPhone Fanatics?

I am not a techie.  I do not claim to be.  My hit and miss experiences with tech, combined with my skinflint ways, have carried me to looking at the practical application of cheap (or cheaper tech) in the Third Wave practice of law.  The fact is that if it is too hard for me to figure out, requires something more than some simple advice on how to implement and use it, or is too expensive, then technology might be groundbreaking, but it is presently useless. 

I figured this out back in the mid 90s when my large firm at the time paid IBM over $100,000 to install an AS400 (a huge piece of iron) and to connect all of the offices and computers with simulation software, T1 lines and the like so that we could achieve, in theory, what we can do easily today for the investment of a couple of grand.  And, despite all of the bravado on IBM's part, all of the sloganeering, it could not make it work after it spent months getting it place.  AT&T could not make the phone lines operate properly either, even though their service costs thousands of dollars a month.  I now replicate what AT&T proposed today for $99 per month with a virtual PBX.

For real people, the issues for them are not tech issues, as it is application and workability issues.  After all, most of us do not design system as we pick and chose what is available off the shelf (or increasingly off the cloud) and try to implement it efficiently in what we do.

The greatest difficulty for Third Wavers is a lack of accurate information or the understanding of what techies are saying.  Because of this (the ability of tech devices that look just alike to actually represent apples and oranges inside), deception among providers and others runs rampant.  This means there is not a lack of information for most of us.  It means there is an abundance of deceptive information. 

Since we are still visual beings, we favor design over an intangible things like broadband, the Internet and Google.  We want to believe in design and as a result the application and pricing of a tech product is often overlooked because of the wow factor involved.  In my estimation, to succeed cost effectively in the Third Wave practice you have to get past the wow factor and you have to look at products and services realistically in terms or cost, compatibility and how it serves your practical needs.  That is what you have to focus on.

Partly what I mean by practical needs is that, for example, connectivity in smart phones is more important than an app for the product that makes the phone sound like a fart or appear as a class of beer being consumed.  This is child's play, much like the the attorney I contacted on his iPhone (I know because he made a point of telling me it was an iPhone) recently only to be met by a very suggestive Barry White sounding recording asking me to leave a message.  I first thought, this is a professional trying to represent serious people with serious problems.  Then I thought, that was a good use of an investment that cost so much money and a service plan that costs thousands of dollars a year.

I digress some, but what I found interesting in this regard was the New York Times article explaining how AT&T is taking the blame for the inferiority of the iPhone.

Now, for the reason stated above, I have no great love for AT&T, but I do use its U-verse service in my home and office, and it is very good.  At least it is light years better than Comcast.  (Do you not feel sorry for NBC).

What the NYT article states is that when looking at independent data to confirm the superior performance of Verizon’s network, AT&T seems to have the superior network nationwide, and the problem in reputation for AT&T might actually be the performance of the iPhone.  Apparently, the electronics in the iPhone that connect it to the cell towers, has shortcomings that affect both voice and data.  But, since in the eyes of the design mavens that flock to Apple believe the iPhone and their purchase choices are infallible, the AT&T network has been tarnished with the iPhone.  Of course, AT&T cannot publicly defend itself without insulting its provider.

The issue is an important one because it demonstrates the problem in our line of work with form over function - design over workable tech.

Admittedly, it is a problem that pervades all areas.  I read recently about green washing of building products for consumers, and in particular to use of bamboo as a design elements to cover up more environmentally hazardous manufacturing processes than what is typically associated with wood products.

Look, I understand that most of us guys are going to chose to go out with the drop-dead-gorgeous girl with the overbearing personality over the moderately beautiful lady that is simply delightful to be around.  And, there is something to be said for the need for the better products to concern themselves more with design as Apple does.

This has a place in home marketing as well.  The staged or model home sells better, more quickly and for more money than the similar house not staged.  Yet, nobody is actually buying the staging.

My point is that if you want to succeed at cheap tech, if you want to succeed at functionality that makes you life better and more rewarding, you have to look below the plastic casing.  Beauty is really more than skin deep.  That is true for tech and cell phones as well.

I have reached a milestone where I have to buy a new smart phone that better works with me in the tasks I have to perform to make a living as a virtual lawyer.  Whatever that choice, I have pretty much decided that it will not be an iPhone for a couple of reasons.

First, I like the pretty girl as much as the next guy.  However, there is, as they use to say, a difference in the type of girl you are willing to go out with, and the one you are willing to bring home to meet your mother.  Apple is the first girl.

Second, like it or not we live in a Google world.  We are there not just because Google is becoming dominant, but because it has achieved this right for the free and cheap services it has time and again provided us what we need to live and work better, more efficiently and cheaply.  Apart from its logo, it is not about outward design.  It is about function.  It is also about the cost.  Therefore, my choice will be an Android phone.  It will not buy a phone from a company deeply rooted in myth, design and is not based on free software.  Google believes in freeware and providing those the tools to develop functionality.  The opposite of Apple.

I am not saying Google is perfect or flawless.  I am saying it generally respects the future and how it needs to develop, and in the process it has produced good (and sometimes great) products that make it possible to do what I want to do in life and in a living  Further, it does so with the littlest of cost to me.

(Video) Social Media - Are You Up To It?

I have to admit it.  I have been slow to social media.  No so much in failing to use it, but in failing to use it effectively, across the spectrum, to not so much promote (although I guess you can call it that), but to display my business and my cause and my law firm.

As far as I am behind the curve, much worse are most attorneys.  Blogs might be the hub of the new social media scene, and most lawyers are stuck with a little used Facebook site and a static website, and typically a crappy website at that.

As much as I hate the overt hucksters that send me blatant advertising over Facebook, the truth of the matter is we are living with abundance in social media.  It is abundant because it is cheap and easy to use.

It is not being used because to do it effectively requires the use of a scarcity known as time.  The web and social media might be abundant, but the time to manage it is not.

I think what we all need to realize is that the scarcity of time or not, we have to focus on what is important, and in the overall scope of things, this is important if you want success in your profession.

Most Attorneys And Law Firms Have A Website But They Are Not Really Online

I like Duct Tape Marketing And John Jantsch, and he has reminded me about a concern I have about the web presence of most attorneys and law firms.

Almost every lawyer I run into these days has a website either for themselves or their law firm, and they think that represents an online law practice.  But, does it?

Of the dozens of attorney websites I see everyday, some are quite beautiful in design.  Some are rather average.  Regardless, most of these websites are simply static.  They are written in a tone that can only been viewed as, well, manufactured.  Come on, who writes most of this stuff.  It is not generally that informative, and it is terribly generic or merely customary.  There is a page about how the firm is better than everyone else for no apparent reason stated.  There is a review of the lawyer, and why he or she is unique like everyone else.  There is the contact page, which provides them an address and phone number.  That is good.  Then there is usually a practice area page that explains that if you have a little money the attorney will practice in any practice area you request.  Then throw in the clip art of a building in which the attorney does not office and a bogus picture of smiling staff that does not really represent the staff that work at the firm.  And, ... Well, you get my point.

It is not that this information is not marginally important.  After all, with the decline in phone books, potential clients and existing clients need to be able to fine the attorney, but it cannot be said that the law practice is online.

John Jantsch states it accurately and states it this way -

"Even though you may think you have one of the world’s coolest websites, if you aren’t constantly adding educational content, finding new ways to connect with your markets online, building community around your ideas, and ultimately using your website as a tool to convert know, like and trust into try, buy, repeat, and refer – then you stand little chance of competing in your chosen industry these days.

I know you’ve heard plenty of late about social media, but this is really a bigger idea still. What I’m talking about is the total integration of your online and offline activity through the use of a primary web hub".

This "hub" idea I have advocated for a long time.  Your website needs to be the place where you bring all of your content together.  All attorneys have it.  They just do not expose it to the world.

I am still not sure about all of the new social media, but no attorney needs to be falling behind this curve.  Social media feeds can be added to a site.  There needs to be a blog as part of a site.  If the site has a blog, someone needs to be actually blogging.  What about a video channel?  This needs to be embedded in the website.  What about e-books or white papers?  Those need to be there.  Do you have forms that need to be filled out?  Put them here.  Have a speaking engagement?  Put it there.  The bottom line is that clients and potential clients that might be interested  want to get both a feel for the attorney, firm and the law represented.  So, give it to them.

And, if you want a chance to learn a little more, John Jantsch has a FREE webinar sponsored by Verizon on September 23 at 2:00 pm eastern time, entitled "How to Get More from Your Small Business Website."  JUST CLICK HERE TO ENROLL.