How Do I Get More Comments on My Blog Posts?

In a recent presentation to a large group of lawyers in Sydney, Australia I decided to try a different approach in my presentation.  After a brief introduction, I simply asked the audience, “what would you like to know about social media for lawyers?”

There was brief pause and silence.  Inside I wondered, would anybody have a question to ask?  Would the deafening sound of crickets chirping force me to change my strategy?  Then the floodgates opened.  The questions began.  We ended up having outstanding questions that directed what I feel like was one of the better sessions I ended up running.

The session was great because I wasn’t telling the audience what they needed to know, in my opinion.  It was a conversation, and their insights drove the content.  So how do we create blog posts that START conversations?  How do we take advantage of the wisdom of the crowd?

Some bloggers are experts at this.  Seth Godin writes three sentences with a good question and can get over 100 responses.  We may not get Seth’s traffic – but we can learn a few great lessons from the way he strategically generates conversation.  From everything I have read there is one general rule I can share:

GOOD QUESTIONS ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN GREAT ANSWERS

To be honest, I am still figuring out what makes good or even great questions.  In live presentations open ended questions work well- but sometimes on blogs simple yes or no questions can generate real conversation.  What types of questions really engage people in discussion?  What has worked for you?

While in College I was blessed with the opportunity to work for Clayton Christensen, Harvard Business School Professor and author of The Innovator’s Dilemma.  He told me about his first few days as a student at Harvard.  He didn’t have the fancy degrees or prep school past of his peers, but he did have a great curiosity and desire to keep up.  So he listened intently to each comment made by a fellow student in class, went back home, reviewed what they had said, and asked himself- what question led that student to make that comment?  Taking it one step further, what question was behind that question?  By figuring out THOSE questions, Clay was able to gain powerful insights into the material- but also to make sure he was learning what his peers were learning.  Before long he gained a powerful understanding of the material because he figured out the right questions.

Any other ideas on generating comments, please share.

You Could Learn a Lot from Deep Blue

In the classic case of John Henry versus the steam engine, I remember as a child watching the chess master Garry Kasparov lose in chess to a machine created by IBM that went by the name of Deep Blue.  The human mind, handling at most a few calculations per second, was no match for the millions of calculations that Deep Blue could handle in a few moments.  Fast forward 13 years, and now something different has happened in the chess world.  Now some chess masters are playing matches where each player brings along their own super computer.

Malcolm Gladwell says this has created a completely new game.  Now the chess masters don’t need to focus as much on calculations- instead they can completely focus on strategy.  They can focus on the subtleties and art of Chess that a computer could never comprehend.  This is a powerful combination of technology and art, but can it extend beyond the chess world?  Can lawyers and other professionals trust computers and “systems” to augment the quality of their work?

The threat is obvious.  Take the company Legal Zoom for example.  This company IS the machine.  They have created over 1 million Wills, Corporations and LLC’s, yet they don’t offer legal services.  They provide forms that can be easily filled out in a decision-tree like fashion.  (Think Turbo Tax).  This company is killing many family practices because of it’s cold, calculated, and mechanical efficiency.

So what is the standard reaction by lawyers to Legal Zoom?

“They don’t add any value!”

“No real business person should trust a computer to create your Will or form your company.”

“I am constantly cleaning up the mess left behind from Legal Zoom.”

These lawyers are missing the point.  They don’t need to defeat Deep Blue.  They don’t need to kill this powerful machine that could be their ally- they need to embrace it.  Lawyers will be able to add far more value to their clients if they can automate certain tasks through software (just as Legal Zoom does), and handle the rest themselves.  This may not work for EVERY practice area, but if Legal Zoom or other similar companies are stealing away your market share and turning your legal offering into a “commodity” (I know how other lawyers hate to hear that term.)  It may be time to add some computing power yourself.

Deep Blue was a powerful computer, but it would be no match for a comparable computer run with a chess grand master at it’s side.  Similarly, Legal Zoom would be no match for a savvy attorney with similar technology by their side.  The attorneys that figure out how to make that happen will not only survive, but they will be guaranteed to never become obsolete.

Adrian Dayton is a New York attorney and author of the book Social Media for Lawyers: Twitter Edition You can join him for his free conference calls Friday mornings at 10:00 AM EST to learn more about building your practice with the help of new technology.  To sign up for these FREE calls, CLICK HERE.

How to Get Paid

“I love what I do”
“Would you still love it if they didn’t pay you for it?”
“Well I don’t love it THAT much.”

We all like to get paid, it does not matter who we are or what we do for a living. As consultants, attorneys, or as professional service providers we all enjoy seeing the money roll in. So what is the secret to maximizing accounts payable? How can we create relationships where money is not a sticky subject? Can alternative fees help? Finally, how do we handle clients requesting discounts to their fees?

Now that I am back and settled from my trip to Australia, we are ready to get our Friday calls rolling again. This Friday morning at 10:00 AM EST we will have joining us on the call attorney and billing consultant Allison Shields, esq. I first met Allison when I was fortunate enough to hear her speak at the Get A Life Conference back in April of 2009, and I am thrilled to finally have her share some of her proven techniques with all of you.

Allison speaks all over the country to lawyers looking to improve their receivables through best practices. She learned these strategies as an Administrative Partner for a mid-sized law firm in NY/NJ where she worked for over 12 years. Since then she has spoken on the topic all over the country and written articles for numerous publications. She is near completion of her latest book, Alternative Fees which should be completed in the next few months. If you are interested in getting paid, you don’t want to miss this call.

If you have questions for Allison, or just want to listen in, please join us for the call this Friday at 10:00 AM EST. To sign up for the free call, please CLICK HERE.

iPhone vs Palm Pre – Who wins?

How I ended up with an iPhone in Australia

  ”Do AT&T data plans work in Australia?” I asked curiously, taking advantage of this rare opportunity to pick the brain of an AT&T VP.  

 ”AT&T has data coverage in over 140 countries.” He replied.  I was honestly just trying to figure out how I would stay connected while in Australia, little did I know that this conversation would lead to AT&T providing me with free international data while I was in Australia.  The free service would also lead to me finally getting a chance to try out the iPhone for myself. 

 ”Why don’t we just provide you with a free card for your trip? Think of it as a sample,” he told me. 

In the end I was sent an AT&T Sierra Air Card, and a sim card providing me with unlimited international data for my entire month in Australia.  In addition, I was provided with a SIM Card that I was able to insert into an iPhone (which I had to purchase myself)- and was basically able to try out AT&T’s service and the iPhone for the month of March.  Special thanks to AT&T for the sample data card and sim for my Iphone- it greatly enhanced my trip to a foreign country having coverage.   The service was great all through Australia, except in Queensland- but as most Australians will tell you- nothing works quite right in Queensland.  

Most importantly I was able to evaluate the pro and cons of the iPhone versus the Palm Pre.  The results were quite suprising- I love the iPhone, but after trying them both out- they each have some uniquely awesome characteristics.  For those of you considering the iPhone or Palm Pre, this breakdown may be helpful to you: 

Advantages of the iPhone

 1.  The iPhone has thousands and thousands of apps.  While I don’t need thousands of apps, I do need Tweetdeck- an awesome app for using Twitter- and it is currently not available on the Palm Pre.  This feature alone is the single biggest motivator for me to switch to the iPhone.  

 2.  iPhone has a much bigger screen, so viewing streaming video on the iPhone is better than the palm pre.

 3. iPhone has a longer battery life- although this is helped by the fact that iPhone can only run one application at a time, at the end of the day the iPhone is working while the Palm Pre is a useless piece of plastic. 

 4. The iPhone has predictive text so even though the keyboard is harder to use than the palm pre- many time the words will be completed for you.  This sometimes annoying when maybe 10% of the time the keyboard predicted the wrong words, and I had to end up erasing the words. (so maybe this isn’t as much an advantage as somewhere in the middle) 

 5.  The iPhone works EVERYWHERE- 140 countries with data service, over 200 countries with phone service.  For globe trotters- this is a big deal.  It is a hassle to track down which phone works where each time your travel.  AT&T certainly has the better international service offering 

Advantages of the Palm Pre

 1.  When dialing on the Palm Pre you can see though the dial pad to the document that you were last working on.  This is REALLY cool for taking a phone number from an email (if it isn’t hyperlinked- or if it is hyperlinked but has an unnecessary area or country code.)  This was my big frustion about the iPhone while I was in Australia- I couldn’t see the number so I had to memorize it- or write it down on paper.)

2.  The Palm Pre calender interfaces seamlessly with Gmail calender.  Perhaps I simply had a bad experience with the iPhone, but I could never get the phone to change the time zone on the iPhone calender, so all of my Australia appointment were transposed into Eastern Standard Time.  Luckily I was aware of this from the beginning, so I made sure that I simply used the Gmail calendar interface through a browser.  I’m sure there was a way to change this- but it was not obvious, as there was no “settings” feature in the Calendar itself.  The palm pre changes this automatically when you change time zones. 

 3.  The Palm Pre has a keyboard.  For better or for worse, the real application of this is that with the Palm Pre you can text while you drive with one hand.  This is far more difficult, and more dangerous with the iPhone. (Note:  not that I would ever text while I was driving, I’m just saying- if you wanted to…) 

 4.  Multi-tasking.  You can have multiple browsers open at once- this is a really cool feature.  As I said in part one- it is especially helpful if you are taking work product from one document and transfering it to another one.  After using the Palm Pre for about 10 months, it was frustrating to lost that funcitonality. 

 5.  Contract is less expensive.  According to my estimates a data + calls plan with Sprint is roughly $40 cheaper than a comparable AT&T plan.  (To switch to the iPhone it would also require me to break my contract with Sprint- which would cost me somewhere between $300-500) 

iPhone users scoff at the idea that the Palm Pre is competition for a product designed by their sacred Steve Jobbs, but the truth is that the Palm Pre is potentially a real match for the iPhone.  But what about the apps?  Great point, and I will tell you honestly, if we took all the apps out of the picture (and international coverage), I would pick the Palm Pre hands down.  I have spent more time with the Palm Pre, but even in the first month- the Palm Pre was a better user experience for me.  What about when we put apps back in the equation? Different story altogether.  I love Tweetdeck, a great app for the iPhone, but more importantly the Mac has an army of 3rd party developers building awesome stuff for the iPhone.  I was hoping Sprint would create a similar environment for the Palm Pre, but it just hasn’t happened.  A year later, and there is still not a good Twitter app for the Palm Pre.  I would imagine this is the case for tons of other apps for various industries.  All the developers are focusing on the iPhone, so the coolest stuff is created for the iPhoneplatform.  

 Decision Time 

 Am I missing something?  What other advantages are there for the iPhone?  In the next week I need to make a decision as to whether I sell the practically new iPhone back, or if I break my contract with Sprint.  I honestly haven’t decided what I am going to do (although if breaking my old contract weren’t an issue- it would certainly sway me towards the iPhone)  Any huge Palm Pre lovers out there?  (feel free to post anonymously if your are afraid of nerd backlash)