Over at BPOilNews.com, we’ve published over 200 suggestions submitted by the public for plugging BP’s Gulf oil leak, or for reducing damage from the oil spill. Now I want to make a suggestion of my own. No, I don’t have an idea for plugging the hole. But I do think I have a common-sense suggestion for cleaning up the spill in a way that also minimizes economic losses to people and businesses on the Gulf coast. (Go to BPOilNews.com to read the rest of my suggestion for the Gulf oil spill cleanup.)
Tagged as:
BP,
BP Oil News,
BP oil spill,
Deepwater Horizon,
federal government,
Gulf of Mexico,
Gulf Oil Spill,
oil spill,
oil spill cleanup
The oil spill suggestion box is still open at BP Oil News. We’ve received over one hundred suggestions, and more are still coming in. If you have ideas, please submit them at our Gulf oil spill suggestion box.
Tagged as:
BP,
BP oil,
BP Oil News,
BP oil spill,
Crowdsourcing,
Gulf Oil Spill,
oil leak,
oil spill,
Oil Spill Suggestions,
plug
Much has been written about the best blogging/content management systems for search engine optimization (SEO). For over a year I have been using WordPress and the Thesis theme for various websites, and I’ve found it to be very easy to use for SEO. And you don’t have to sacrifice in terms of style. The Wall Street Journal Law Blog and WSJ Magazine, plus a lot of other top-flight sites, use WordPress. The fact that my sites aren’t any prettier is a reflection of my desire to control my own work, and my lack of skill as a designer. But even for a design-challenged lawyer, I can publish a decent-looking website in a matter of hours. And the Thesis theme is designed from the start for SEO. [click to continue…]
Tagged as:
Alabama SEO,
Birmingham Alabama SEO,
Birmingham SEO,
blogging,
content management systems,
Google,
Search Engine Optimization (SEO),
SEO,
Thesis,
Thesis theme,
WordPress
A lot of people are trying to integrate Twitter into their marketing efforts or political campaigns. But the question arises, what is the best strategy for using Twitter to influence people to buy your product or service, or vote for your candidate? The conventional wisdom about Twitter has been that the more followers a person has, the greater that person’s influence. This belief has been so entrenched that some companies reportedly pay $5,000 to $10,000 to people with large followings (50,000 followers or more) for each tweet that contains a link to the advertiser’s website (pay-per-tweet). But now there’s a new study that says a large following does not equate to large influence. Meeyoung Cha headed a team at the Max Planck Institute for Software Systems that studied 2 billion follow links among the 54 million Twitter users (“Tweeple” in Twitter parlance). The result is a study called “The Million Follower Fallacy.” [click to continue…]
Tagged as:
BPOilNews,
evansmichaelj,
free Twitter tools,
http://bpoilnews.com,
influence,
Klout,
Max Planck Institute for Software System,
Meeyoung Cha,
pay-per-tweet,
Retweetrank,
The Million Follower Fallacy,
Twitter,
Twitter applications,
Twitter influence,
Twitter Marketing,
Twitter Tools,
Twitter track tools,
TwitterGrader
I’ve recently been blogging (with some help) about the Gulf oil spill at BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig. When I started the blog, I was struck by the fact that there were no pay-per-click lawyer ads when I used Google News to search for articles. But that changed in a hurry. Within a couple of days the lawyer ads began emerging in an ever escalating war to sign up claimants. When mass tort ad campaigns such as this start, I’m usually either involved in it professionally or I follow the campaigns because I find them interesting and, sometimes, educational. As of the time that I’m writing this post, there are seven law firm ads displayed on Google News when you run a “BP oil spill” or “Gulf oil spill” search. Seven law firms and one almost unnoticeable ad by BP.
Perhaps it’s the technology geek in me, or my interest in Internt marketing, but I enjoyed comparing the ads. The lawyer ads all utilized the top line of the ad well, with large blue letters proclaiming something such as “Gulf Oil Spill Lawsuit” or “BP Oil Spill Lawsuit.” BP’s ad, by comparison, simply said “Spill” on the top line. It’s as if they are ashamed to be associated with it, and don’t want to admit which particular “spill” it is they are talking about. But if BP is too embarrassed to shout out its message in a way that competes with the lawyer ads, why even buy an ad on Google? And if BP, a company which had profits of $6.1 billion in the first quarter of 2010, wants to run an ad on Google, why doesn’t it bid high enough to rank higher than sixth out of eight ads?
Somehow the fact that BP is inept in handling its PR makes me even less confident of its ability and intention to clean up the mess it’s making in the Gulf. I’ve written more at BPOilNews.com about BP’s poor PR, including its waffling and refusal to commit to pay for damages caused by the Gulf oil spill. You can also follow my posts about the Gulf oil spill at Facebook and on Twitter @bpoilnews.
Tagged as:
Attorney advertising,
BP,
BP oil spill,
Deepwater Horizon,
Google,
Google AdWords,
Gulf of Mexico,
Gulf Oil Spill,
oil spill
I’ve posted a new article at BPOilNews.com about BP’s history of lawsuits, fines and criminal convictions for oil spills and other safety and environmental violations. I was surprised to discover just how bad BP’s record actually is. Here are the first two paragraphs:
By now we’re all familiar with the latest national environmental crisis. An explosion on the Deepwater Horizon, a BP offshore oil drilling rig, caused the deaths of 11 workers, injured 7 more, and left an oil spill the size of Rhode Island drifting inexorably toward the Gulf Coast. But this isn’t the first time that BP has been responsible for an environmental crisis, or the first time that they’ve attempted to change the narrative when accused of environmental malfeasance. [click to continue…]
Tagged as:
BP,
BP Oil News,
BP oil spill,
Deepwater Horizon,
greenwashing,
Gulf of Mexico,
Gulf Oil Spill,
oil spill
What can we do together? Since 1999 I've been using the Internet, websites, blogs, online video, Twitter and other social media to help thousands of injured people find great lawyers. We've organized national networks of lawyers in over forty states to take on Pfizer, Bayer, Yamaha and other multinational corporations. We've put consumers on a level playing field, and had fun doing it. If you're a great lawyer looking for more clients, contact me and let's see what we can do together.
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