Our friends at Jaffe PR are always working on new ways to help lawyers promote their firms. In this issue of Tech Central, we highlight a recent Jaffe PR white paper on infographics. Some interesting excerpts are below. For the full paper, visit http://t.co/E57o3j5r
It's awfully noisy out there.
Between Facebook and Google+, LinkedIn and Twitter, Digg and Reddit, there's a whole lot of information flying around the Internet and in social media. With each passing day, it seems to get harder and harder to cut through the clutter and make your firm stand out. The avalanche of words threatens to overwhelm us; who has time to read all that stuff?
But everyone has time to look at a graphic. Perhaps that explains the surge in popularity of infographics. You've seen them: clever, visually appealing graphic representations that are meant to take the place of 1,000 words each. The appeal isn't really hard to understand: infographics can help break through the noise, explaining complex topics in ways that are quick, simple and easy to understand.
Increasingly, companies are finding ways to use infographics as marketing tools, positioning them as thought leaders in given fields, raising their profiles and reputations, and directing traffic to their websites.
Can law firms benefit from infographics? Absolutely. Here are some of the ways:
- Infographics can make complex issues simple. Lawyers routinely, and increasingly, have used graphics to convey information to other lawyers, judges and juries. From there, it's not a big step to creating an infographic that's designed to educate the public and potential clients on a particular aspect of the law or of your practice. Imagine, for example, a graphic that explains the pros and cons of writing your own contract, or one that walks readers through the maze of trying to incorporate a business. That same information in written form - say, as a blog post - might require a few thousand words and take an hour or more to read, assuming any reader would be willing to make the effort. Our world is increasingly visual, and people are growing accustomed to getting information that way.
- Infographics position you as a thought leader. An infographic on a particular law topic on your website makes you look like the authority in the field. Moreover, if potential clients are searching for that topic via a search engine and your infographic turns up, they'll appreciate the ease of getting the information graphically.
- An infographic can be a gateway to viral marketing. Infographics are much more likely to be spread quickly around the Internet than articles or even blog posts. When people share your infographic through social media and link to it from other stories, it raises the profile of your firm.
- Because law firms have been slow to adopt this approach, a firm that creates an infographic now can be a leader, not a follower. Being on the cutting edge isn't right for every firm or type of practice. But getting in early gives you much greater opportunities for creating buzz around a well-designed, informative graphic. Right now, the door is wide open for smaller firms to embrace this medium.
- An infographic can bring you attention from other media. Newspapers, magazines, television and other traditional media may pick up on a well-done graphic if it tells a compelling story in an eye-catching way. Again, because we're not yet saturated with law-related infographics, it may be easier to garner that kind of attention now than it will be in the future. Think USA Today.
- An infographic is a "soft sell" for your business. Although an infographic ultimately serves a marketing purpose, it's more about educating than selling. As such, it falls somewhere between advertising and networking - with the effectiveness of the former and the connection-building
of the latter.
The paper goes on to discuss the key considerations for law firms in determining whether infographics are the right marketing technique, and other tips for creating effective infographics. Jaffe PR's ultimate conclusion: "Law firms must take advantage of all aspects of digital marketing, including creating infographics that will have broad appeal. Social media is not the flavour of the day; it's the reality of the decade."
Sample Infographic:
