The rapid growth of social media is creating information overload for many Internet users, and instead of ignoring it, attorneys and law firms must embrace these new technologies and learn how they can help develop your business and client relationships. Social media is not a magic bullet, nor will it replace your traditional marketing activities. It is, however, an important part of your strategy, and lawyers must understand how these social media tools operate to better your business and law firm.

A
AVVO – An online directory for attorneys. Clients and users can rate attorneys, seek legal advice and participate in a forum for legal dialogue.

B
BARD Marketing – Your legal marketing and social media experts
Bebo – A popular social networking site that is more popular internationally than in the U.S.
Blawg – Slang for “law blog”
Blog – Short for weblog. Blogs are websites with that contain self-published content on specific topics, updated frequently. Blog posts are dated items of content in reverse chronological order.
Blogosphere – The totality of blogs on the internet.

C
Craigslist– A central network of online communities, featuring free online classified advertisements divided by city with jobs, internships, housing

D
Digg – An online community where users share content and vote on their favorite content, whether it’s a blog, video, article or other. The most popular content is featured prominently.
DAO – An acronym for digital asset optimization, which is the process of getting search engines like Google to pick up all of your content, from videos, podcasts, blogs, images, newsletters and more

E

F
Facebook – The largest social networking website in the U.S. that was originally used solely by college students, but it is now open to anyone over the age of 13.
Flickr – An online gallery for photos and images where you can create a profile and upload your images to share with other users
FriendFeed – Central repository that allows you to create your own and subscribe to others feeds of various networks, including Twitter, Facebook, etc.

G
Google – A popular search engine. Google can also be used as a verb when searching for information on the internet with this particular search engine

H
HARO – An acronym for Help A Reporter Out. It’s a system created where journalists submit queries for sources, and emails are sent to thousands of public relations, marketing, and media professionals around the world

I
Instant Message – An immediate way to “talk” with someone online. Also known as an “IM.”

J

K

L
Lawyers.com – An online attorney/law firm directory from LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell that is designed specifically for individuals and small businesses
Lawyrs – A social / professional networking site focused on the legal community
LinkedIn – A professional networking site that is open to anyone in any profession. Shows you how your contacts are interconnected and allows you to make new contacts through your existing network
Listserv – An email list software application that manages your email addresses for contact lists

M
Mashable – Online publication that provides readers with all that is new in social media
Metafilter – Also known as MeFi, it is a community weblog whose purpose is to share links and discuss interesting content that users have discovered on the web
MySpace – A popular social networking website that offers users the ability to create a personal profile and interact with other users in the network

N
Newsreader – Software that collects updates from websites to which you subscribe and aggregates them into a news feed
Nolo – A publisher of legal “self-help” information and a consumer website providing legal information

O

P
Podcast – An audio broadcast that has been converted to an MP3 file or a similar audio file format for playback on a computer, iPod or other mobile device
PopURLs – A website that aggregates up-to-the-minute headlines from the Internet’s most popular news and social media websites

Q

R
Reddit.com – A website that gathers information that is new and popular online. Users can cote for links they like or dislike and help decide what’s popular. Users can also submit their own content.

S
Scribd – A document sharing website where users can upload content to share
SEO – An acronym for Search Engine Optimization, or the science behind getting your website to rank well in search engines
Snapfish – An online gallery for photo and photo album sharing
Social Media – A term for the tools and platforms people use to publish, converse and share content online.
StumbleUpon – An online service that helps users discover interesting new websites by suggesting sites based upon personal preferences

T
Tags – Keywords that help search engines find specific content such as a video, blog posting or web page
Twitter– A social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read other users’ updates, which are known as tweets

U

V

W
Web 2.0 – A term used describe blogs, wikis, social networking sites and other Internet-based services that emphasize collaboration and sharing, rather than less interactive publishing Webinar
Wiki – A web page or set of pages that can be edited collaboratively
Wikipedia – an online directory of user-generated content that can be edited by anyone

X
Xanga – A website that hosts weblogs, photoblogs, and social networking profiles

Y
YouTube – A website exclusively for sharing video. Users can upload, view and share video clips

Z

Beyond All Reasonable Doubt Marketing is experienced in developing and executing strategic marketing (including social media) programs for law firms of all sizes and varying budgets – and learning more costs you nothing but the time it takes to contact our agency.

Contact us online or call us at 1-561-774-2133.