July 14th, 2008

Should you put a link to LinkedIn on a biography page of a law firm website? That was the question posed recently on the Legal Marketing Association (LMA) listserv by Gail Lamarche Director of Marketing at Henderson, Franklin, Starnes & Holt.

I opined that, for professional services firms such as this law firm, the attorney biography page is the best thing we have as a “money page” on the website. Therefore, driving visitors away from the money page was, strategically, a bad idea. Moreover, it seemed if there were really content on LinkedIn that was valuable to the site visitor, then that information should be on the bio page. And if it wasn’t there, the bio page was somehow deficient.

Smug I was in the righteousness of my response. But I got an earful of dissent from LMA listserv contributors. The arguments are worthy of consideration:

Jayne Navarre, LawGravity, presented these points persuasively:

• Branding – The LinkeIn link is like a hip badge of Web 2.0 awareness
• Connections – LinkedIn provides a transparent view to an attorney’s connections, arguably a value to any prospective client
• Authoritative - Access to the LinkedIn Questions & Answers provides additional proof of the attorney’s authority

Heather Milligan, Director of Marketing at Barger Wolen emphasized that LinkedIn:

• Human - helps make the attorney “dynamic, human, liked”( in case we have any residual concerns about their humanity) and helps the attorney pass the “known, liked & trusted” test of prospective clients.
• Dimensional - And in rebuttal to my “bio is deficient” comment, Heather notes that to maintain a certain appearance consistent with other bios and the overall website, “the firm bio is controlled for content, style, etc….(while) LinkedIn is the perfect place where an attorney can bring together their outside interests and professional careers, making them more human and likeable.
• Connections - Perhaps the most valuable feature, LinkedIn is fundamentally a connecting tool that might serendipitously reveal a third party connection to the site visitor which presents all kinds of opportunity for real introduction.

It’s not a slam dunk either way. The answer to Gail’s original question seems to be, “It depends.” The circumstances dictate the strategy. I’ll give it a nod of possibility and something worth trying.  Yes, I know, “first I was against it, now I’m for it.” Thanks to the enlightenment of my marketing peers.

But I’ll have this last (never!) word.  Think doubly hard about sending your site visitor from the most valuable conversion page of  your site to an information wasteland. Don’t do it unless the LinkedIn profile to which you are sending visitors:

• provides a rich set of business connections
• demonstrates some effort to contribute authoritatively to the online Q&A discourse
• otherwise expands on the website attorney bio page
• (if possible) provides a path back

And whatever you do, measure the results. Professionals keep score.

Now you can link away to my LinkedIn profile.

Back in 2002, the engineers at IBM were already talking about location-based services on mobile phones. They envisioned scenarios where you could access information on the go, informing you if there was a traffic jam ahead, or helping you find the location of the nearest bakery. But they were working with WAP (wireless application protocol), which did not end up taking off as expected. Mobile web browsing was slow and the user interface was not ideal for displaying lots of information.

Last week, activation issues aside, the launch of the iPhone 3G and App Store breathed new life into location-based services. According to Matt Dickman at Fleishman-Hillard, the “single most important element of the new iPhone 3G” is GPS. “For the first time ever, GPS will be fully integrated on a user-friendly consumer device,” he wrote. Even more important, developers are also able to create applications using the GPS technology. (Note: old iPhone users can still download 2.0 firmware, but location-based services will use the less accurate tower-assisted AGPS - thanks Jough!)

What this means for social media:

• Mobile social networks may increase in popularity

When Twitter was first launched, I remember thinking it was both creepy and unnecessary for people to know what I was doing at that moment and vice versa. But over time, microblogging sites have evolved into useful communication devices. News stories sometimes break on Twitter before hitting the mainstream media, companies are using Twitter for customer service, and Twitter even helped a student when he was arrested in Egypt.

Similarly, while it may seem creepy to be asked “Where are you now?” the potential for location-based social interaction to take place may later have us wondering how we lived without it. Mobile social networks to check out: Loopt, Brightkite, and Whrrl.

What this means for marketing:

• Higher level of customer engagement with the ability to deliver more relevant, location-specific messages

Another dimension of customer segmentation is now available to marketers – exact current location. An obvious use of this information is to offer an opt-in program to receive coupons for a specific store when the mobile device is within close proximity to the store. Some Asian countries already have such programs in place.

The possibilities are endless. Someone at Duo suggested a store-specific Starbucks application that will alert the store when you are two blocks away. By the time you arrive at that Starbucks, your drink will be ready and waiting for you to pick it up and go.

With 1 million iPhone 3Gs sold in the first weekend and 10 million App Store downloads, it will be exciting to see how the implications of location-based services continue to grow.