The following is an exerpt from a project of over 20 pages of content written for a search engine marketing and search engine optimization project on the subject of SEM's benefits for those in the legal profession. I took the lead on this particular project and will continue to contribute relevant blog entries on an ongoing basis. Please visit Best Legal Marketing to view the full copy.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Social media can’t be taken lightly anymore; the collaborative spirit of community and the rapid sharing of information that sites under the broad social media umbrella encourage is one of the defining characteristics of Web 2.0 culture.

Not only is information shared, it’s ranked and rated, commented on, bookmarked, and linked to.  If you can carve out your niche as a trusted legal resource in the social media market, there’s no limit to what you can achieve in the internet marketing realm.

There are many avenues you can pursue when venturing into the realm of social media; you can produce informative videos or audio casts and share them on user-produced content sites, or you can choose to blog about legal news.  You can supplement this activity with micro-blogging – and you can optimize all of the content you choose to display with these various outlets to gain yourself higher organic search results.

The growth in the spread of information on the internet has been furious thanks mostly to popular social media practices.  To stand out from the crowd, you need to provide accurate and useful information – something you certainly have a great background in as an experienced law professional.

Establish Your Reputation as a Resource

You can use social media to distribute information on your behalf in order to identify and establish yourself as the go-to attorney for your area of practice.  Your content should be simple, easy to digest, and communicate well to your target audience.

The advantage of social media as a tool to deliver your content is that it moves so fast – so you can provide relevant content and get it seen or heard right away by plenty of target internet users.  If you can commit to updating your blog or micro-blog on a regular basis with timely information, or having a marketer perform the updates on your behalf, you can preserve your place in the limelight. 

– Carrie Struble