Michael J. Evans: Law + Technology + Marketing
How lawyers can use the Internet, social media, online video, and technology to attract clients, be more effective, make more money, and have more fun.
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I just drove past a Blockbuster Video store with a big “Closing” sign across the front. It reminded me of the time I was in San Francisco and I noticed the Virgin Records store in Union Square was going out of business. Across the street was an Apple store with long lines of customers waiting patiently to plunk down their money. The irony wasn’t lost on me. Now, I believe that online video is to Blockbuster what Apple was to Virgin. [click to continue…]
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I’ve written before that attorneys who market over the Internet can gain a huge advantage from the use of well-optimized video. As I mentioned in a post on the “Easiest way to a First Page Rank on Google“, Forrester Research has performed tests that show a video is 50 times more likely to be found on the first page of Google than a text page.
This has been consistently borne out in my own use of video in online legal marketing. I’m involved in a project with other lawyers to represent victims of Yamaha Rhino rollovers. We’ve posted two videos in connection with the project. According to recent Wordtracker reports, the search term “Yamaha Rhino recall” is by far the most frequently searched term associated with Yamaha Rhinos. I ran a Google search for “Yamaha Rhino recall” on October 7, 2009, and our two videos appeared in the top five results on Google’s first page.
Here’s a screenshot:
First page of a 10-7-09 Google search for "Yamaha Rhino recall"
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A recent report from The Nielsen Company contained some interesting statistics. It found that viewers of online video increased 12.8% in May vs. last year. Over the same time, total video streams watched increased by 34.8% and time spent per viewer increased by 48.9%. This shows there are more users, watching more videos, more often. The 20-page Nielsen report on The Global Online Media Landscape is available free, online.
The Pew Internet Home Broadband Adoption report found that 63% of adult Americans now have access to broadband , compared to 55% in May, 2008. Together the two studies suggest that lawyers would be well-advised to incorporate online video into their marketing strategy.
I have found that online video can be a very effective way to communicate with potential clients. Lawyers who use online video to communicate with clients can actually give the potential client a better “feel” for the lawyer, making the potential client more comfortable contacting the lawyer (provided that the lawyer communicates well). Additionally, because viewers have come to expect funny and/or outrageous videos online, it may be possible to create a video that makes your point more vividly in an online video than in a television or print ad. For example, we posted a satirical video which made a strong statement about Yamaha’s failure to adequately deal with the safety problems of the Yamaha Rhino. The video resulted in many views, plus favorable commentary in an article published on News.com.au.
Our thanks to Mediapost’s Video Insider for pointing us toward the Nielsen and Pew studies.
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An interesting article in Online Media Daily discusses a report released Wednesday by The Nielsen Co. Charles Buchwalter, SVP of research and analytics at Nielsen Online, said “In recent years, the Internet has changed dramatically as people seek more personalized relationships online. In particular, time spent on social networks and video sites has increased astronomically.”
More from the article: ” Internet users today tend to prefer sites that contain more specialized content, according to Nielsen. This change in preferences is seen in the fact that video and social networking sites have moved to the forefront, becoming the two fastest-growing categories in 2009.
The number of U.S. consumers who frequent online video destinations has climbed 339% since 2003, while time spent on video sites has shot up almost 2,000% over the same period. In the last year alone, unique viewers of online video grew 10%, while the number of streams grew 41%, the streams per user grew 27%, and the total minutes engaged with online video grew 71%.”
With these numbers, it’s not surprising that we are seeing some lawyers turning to online video as part of their marketing efforts.
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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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