Whatever, here's a report into Above the Law from last week.

'Howrey is doing a film shoot in the lobby of its DC office... Multiracial attorneys in suits everywhere... Looks serious.'.....'A few minutes ago, I walked through my building's lobby to go out and get lunch. On the way, I was surprised to find the lobby lit up like a movie set. A few dozen young folks in suits -- many of them holding cell phones -- stood in a big group, listening to some guy shouting some directions. I chatted up the security guard at the front desk, who told me that Howrey was shooting a commercial.'

'From what I can tell, the whole scene will make for a fairly lame ad: 'Hire Howrey -- we stand around in suits, smiling and cell-phoning.' Perhaps the worst-case scenario would be Howrey trying to play off of the Verizon cast-of-thousands ads....'

'On my way back, I noticed that they have stacks of life-sized photos of people up against the wall. Maybe they decided to replace their associates with cardboard stiffs? (Some would say that, at Howrey, they did that years ago.)'

You guys at large law may think video is giving you an edge, but it's entirely possible, your target audience is laughing at you behind your back. Above the Law is probably the most widely read blog or news website in the profession.

And despite Martindale-Hubbell telling you online video is Web 2.0 (whatever Web 2.0 means), online video has been around for a while. It's just not been vogue enough for legal vendors to sell video production to law firms for big dollars.

Online video for law firms has its place. But the video, like other relevant resources on the net, is going to need to focus on the value to your target audience. A focus on the law firm and it's wonderful people is misguided.

I agree [with Hubbard One] that web video can be extremely compelling. Sadly, Hubbard's video advocating the use of video is of such low quality it will probably discourage a lot of prospective clients.

For law firms, web video has to be extremely well produced and must deliver something of real value to clients and prospective clients. It can't just be eye candy. The law firm has to deliver really compelling and useful information and create a reason for website visitors to return, learn and ultimately hire the firm.

Video on law firm websites needs to offer useful information to lay people about the legal issue facing them. Otherwise, Hubbard One and Martindale-Hubbell, also hawking law firm video for websites, are just generating incremental income for themselves from their unknowing law firm customers who believe video will generate more legal business.

At least Martindale-Hubbell, which has not produced informational video that I know of, agrees with me that law firms benefit much more from video relevant to the law firm's clients needs.

Give advice; answer basic questions; describe what typically happens in relevant matters; provide value with timely commentary. As with all good marketing, if you can put yourself in the shoes of the buyer and empathize with them and give a little value, you're more likely going to win the business.

My guess is that if we're going to see informational video, it's going to come from the firms themselves using YouTube, as opposed to companies like Hubbard One and Martindale. Hubbard One and Martindale are likely to charge a hefty price for video. The result being not much video, video which will stay on the website for months or years, and video being focused on the law firm and its lawyers.

And that's not my characterization of law firm video. This from a marketing technology person at one of the largest firms in the country commenting on the mounting evidence that blogging really does work (nice coincidence).

As pressures increase, whether from competition or clients, the need to differentiate and offer value to clients becomes important. Rather than spending $75K on a video for your Web site, try a professional blog. Not only is it substantially less expensive, with one post per week it offers continuing relevancy.

A couple months ago Martindale-Hubbell and their public relations company, Ogilvy PR, announced Martindale's new video on law firm websites service saying in part:

Lawyers are increasingly embracing new ways to differentiate themselves and attract new business while consumers and small business professionals are eager to learn more about a lawyer or firm's philosophy and demeanor prior to hiring the firm.

Take a look at the video on this law firm website (believe its one of the Martindale ones). Does anyone really think a video of lawyers standing around talking at each other, a framed certificate of admission to the Supreme Court, what looks to be an yellow page ad, and some newspaper headlines is going to incent clients to call them?

Martindale is not alone in selling this type of video as 'Web 2.0' technology that law firms are ready for. Look at the video on this law firm website. The theory is that paying a few grand for a video of lawyers talking about the things they do in front of courthouse pillars gets people to stay on the website longer than another website that does not include video.

So what? People staying to watch a TV ad on the Internet. What's the value to prospective clients and people looking for legal information?

Video yes. But let's offer something of value. How about lawyers answering legal questions in their niche? What about doing that on a weekly basis? That's value. That's a real differentiator - lawyers showing they care by taking the time to help people for free.

Those type of video's will also have a viral marketing effect being talked about online, passed to friends, and even displayed on other websites and blogs if archived at YouTube.

Law firms historically believed they needed to hire a professional video crew and run only the highest quality video. However, you can now turn on CNN and find that they've picked up amateur video from a viewer highlighting a breaking news story. Some of the Fox News shows even have their anchors filming stories using amateur video equipment. The reason being to be more like citizen journalists. As a result, your law blog's readers are receptive to reasonable quality video, though it may not be as good as if you used a professional video person.

This opens up some great video opportunities for your law blog. You can record short vignettes about a particular item that relates to the topic of your blog. Store it at YouTube and then take the YouTube HTML and put that in your blog. That will display a "YouTube TV set" in your blog so that your readers can push the play button and view it on your blog.

Using YouTube allows you to syndicate your video so others may play your video on their blog or news web site. Let's say you put up a video on timely immigration legal issue and it's 2 ½ minutes long. Someone who also publishes a blog watches it and knows they can click on the little YouTube logo, take the HTML code from the YouTube website, and embed that video to be played at their blog.

Now they've got you addressing a niche news issue on their blog. It's like YouTube is serving as an Associated Press clearing house of news video. You're the reporter.

To get this viral marketing bounce, you've got to be producing video that is valuable and/or timely. You can't sit there and talk about all the wonderful things that you do and that you provide service just above average when compared to other firms.

YouTube also has other advantages. Videos at YouTube are getting indexed in Google's regular search. Title and tag your videos properly and they may get picked up on relevant searches at Google.

And again if you're titling and tagging properly, you're picking up an additional link to your blog. That may help with the search engine optimization of your blog.

You may need to invest $500 to $1,000 in equipment and learn a few things relating to editing and uploading video, but it may prove worth your while to start using YouTube.

Here's Neil's paraphrased list with a few of my comments.

1. Hire a professional. Hire a professional filmmaker, and it could be any film school graduate to create a storyboard, direct, and edit.
2. Optimize for search engines. When you upload your video to YouTube, carefully write your description with Google searches in mind and link back to your site. I've found Google indexing YouTube video's right along with other web content. But unless you create a title that describes the nature of the video, ideally including keywords relating to your niche area of the law, the video will never be found.
3. Promote your video. You must then execute a promotional plan to drive traffic to your video. At the very least, let your clients know about the video and encourage them to send the link to others.
4. Go local. YouTube's embedding code allows you to place the video you have uploaded at YouTube on your own blog or web site. It's free. If you're concerned about the YouTube brand there are other services that allow you to do the same. With the trust factor with Google's YouTube brand running high and most folks knowing you can click on the YouTube video on your site to get the code so it can be run on their blog, I'd use YouTube.
5. Make sequels simultaneously. Leverage your investment by producing several videos at the same time for release at different times.

Technorati Tags: YouTube, video

Looking decidedly YouTube-esque, Choate Hall & Stewart LLP in Boston has relaunched the career portion of its corporate Web site to include spoofs of the Mac vs. PC commercials that pit 'Choate vs. Megafirm' as well as video footage of summer associates discussing esoteric topics such as their favorite horror films and Swedish singing trios. The video effort underscores the premium Boston firms are placing on landing young legal talent......'We hope it helps law students to see that there are some differences in our model and our approach,' said John Nadas, a managing partner at Choate, which has about 200 lawyers. 'We like to think that we're relatively innovative, energetic and youthful. By seeing clips of the associates talking about themselves, recruits will get some sense of our character and our culture. We're having fun. Frankly, we find the Web sites of other firms not that entertaining.'"

New grads and seasoned lawyers with innovative clients are drawn to law firms who mirror what's going on in society. Law firms willing to take a chance like Choate Hall, and admittedly the risks are very low, are going to shine in the eyes of those recruits.

Technorati Tags: law firm video