White Papers

The most valuable asset for any business today is its good name: its brand and reputation. This holds just as true for law firms as it does for consumer packaged goods companies or service businesses. Consumers of goods and services turn to the Web to confirm their buying decisions. According to a recent report published jointly by the World Economic Forum and a major U.S. PR firm, three-fifths of CEOs surveyed believe that corporate brand and reputation represents more than 40 percent of a company’s market capitalization. Today, it is more critical than ever for law firms to pay considerable time and attention to maintain or elevate the value and reputation of their brands. This White Paper not only examines the unique marketing situation that results from a merger of law firms, but also relates to any law firm that wishes to be a true competitor in the legal marketplace. The bottom line is that many things measure a law firm’s public reputation, but in most cases, it now begins with Web site content. ... Read More

Recently, Jaffe PR published a White Paper: Twittering For Lawyers, Part I. We hope you found it useful and that you’ve had a chance to join the conversation on Twitter. Even if you’re not conversing on Twitter, perhaps you have set up a Twitter profile and explored the site. You wouldn’t be alone in your curiosity. According to comScore, Twitter had 32 million global unique visitors in April alone and the number of Twitter users grew to 17 million in April, from 541,000 a year earlier. If you’re a lawyer and wondering what all the fuss is about and whether or not you should join the Twitter conversation, you can be reassured, despite what some critics are saying, that lawyers are using Twitter in productive ways. They’re using the microblogging service for networking and information gathering, as well as for sharing, branding, and marketing. In 140 characters or less, lawyers across the country are tweeting about new court cases, monitoring conversations about their firm’s and their clients’ reputations, following breaking legal news, and even researching deponents. ... Read More

You’ve likely heard the news media all atwitter over Twitter (sorry, we couldn’t help ourselves). The power of the Twitterverse has been known to kill advertising campaigns (Motrin moms), wreak havoc with consumer brands (Domino’s), and provide up-to-the-second insight into breaking news stories (US Airways plane lands on the Hudson). Twitter is where it’s at online. Everyone is on Twitter, from President Obama to Shaquille O’Neal, from Lance Armstrong, Britney Spears, Barbara Walters, and Oprah Winfrey to the guy who runs your research library. Over 20 million people are now reported to be using Twitter. With the service growing so fast, it might seem as if it’s too late to jump in, join the conversation, and start moving the needle for your law firm or your personal practice. ... Read More

For the past ten years or so, issuing a press release has been pretty straightforward. When law firms had newsworthy announcements, they issued a written press release to stand as an official record, and the press used the release as a source for stories. Then, the release was archived on a law firm’s Web site for the rest of the world to see. But all that has changed with the advent of Web 2.0: first, the audience for press releases expanded; citizen journalists and bloggers are now mainstream. Today, a press release properly optimized for discovery by search engines will pop up on Google and Yahoo under “news,” effectively reaching journalists as well as interested clients and consumers. ... Read More