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Digital Marketing Your Law Practice

Today’s post on Digital Marketing Your Law Practice is not focused on addressing our current clients, rather to the professionals we’ve been in touch with for the past two years.  More specifically, this post is focused on attorneys and business professionals within medium to large law firms… 

To those we’ve been in touch with over the past two years, we know that you…your practice has a digital presence on your firm’s website…obviously…we’ve viewed your web page.

We found you NOT because our internet search led us to you, rather, one of our staff was commissioned to look at all the professionals in your firm.  This took valuable staff time researching and clicking through various links and pages to finally arrive at your web page. That is NOT how prospective clients (outside your firm/direct contacts) seeking the services you provide would likely find you.  It’s an EXTREMELY inefficient manner to find you if someone is seeking an attorney with your expertise.  You deserve better, and we can help your target market, prospective clients more easily find you…  Keep in mind, your direct buyer most likely isn’t conducting the search…  If they haven’t received a direct referral from one of their sources, then the search is being conducted by an associate.  How would they find you amongst the sea of attorneys in your location with your expertise?  Chances are they won’t.  We can help potential clients find you, AND we can help you better promote you/your practice to strategic contacts within your centers of influence.

So long as your firm permits you to independently establish a Digital Marketing (DM) Plan and supporting DM Campaigns for your practice that are compliant with firm policies and lead prospective clients to your specific web page within your firm’s website…then we can help you.  Our team of DM experts can design, develop, implement, manage and monitor laser-focused DM Campaigns focused strictly on you…your practice, your expertise, and your value-proposition to direct your target market to your specific web page within your firm’s website.  The DM Plan and Campaigns our team designs will result in an increased number of relevant, focused target market contacts contacting you, ultimately resulting in new clients for you.  And our support doesn’t stop there!

At GMS Business Consulting, Inc. we provide consulting services to help optimize how you manage, market and grow YOUR specific law practice within your firm through our Digital Marketing Services and Business Development Services.  To learn more about our Digital Marketing Services and our Business Development Services (using M.A.P.), please Contact Us…We would welcome the opportunity to speak with you.

 

GMS BUSINESS CONSULTING, INC. – provides lawyers and business professionals with Accounting Services, Business Development Services, Business Optimization Services and Digital Marketing Services to help business professionals successfully organize, grow, manage and operate their businesses more effectively and efficiently.  We do NOT provide investment advice.  Contact Us  if you are interested in learning more about our services, and in particular about M.A.P. (our 3-phase business development & management solution), designed to help you strategically focus and tactically grow your business.  We would welcome the opportunity to speak with you.

info@gmsbusinessconsulting.com

707-218-3135

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THE FACEBOOK SAGA CONTINUES…

Mark Schiefelbein/Associated Press

Mark Schiefelbein/Associated Press

The Facebook saga continues…  Hello everyone!  It’s quite clear (in our opinion), that Facebook puts profits ahead of preserving the privacy of its customers’ data.  Once an organization shares client data with any other organization, control (retaining and maintaining the privacy, security and integrity of that data) is lost…period.  Facebook cannot control third-party organizations and how they use/abuse/share the data once the data leaves its organizations’ infrastructure.  We’ll probably never know just how much individual personal data has been compromised by this social media giant.  Here’s the latest update in a New York Times article that Facebook itself states, “Facebook has data-sharing partnerships with at least four Chinese electronics companies, including a manufacturing giant that has a close relationship with China’s government, the social media company said on Tuesday.”

Does this surprise you?  It shouldn’t by now…at least it doesn’t surprise us.  In fact, it appears that there has really been no leadership within the Facebook organization from the beginning to current day who seriously spearheads organizational protocols for addressing customer data privacy, security and integrity.  What do you think would be happening if whistle blowers hadn’t come forward with this abuse of customer data?  Do yo think Mr. Zuckerburg would have come forward with his rather pathetic excuse/public apology for NEGLECTING the privacy, integrity and safekeeping of his customers’ data?  Or would they be rolling along as they have been for many years staying the course of business as usual?  We understand that Facebook most likely isn’t the only social media company that treats its customers’ data with such disregard of customer data privacy in exchange for revenue.  We’re sure there are others that do the same, perhaps they just haven’t been exposed…yet.

All said, it’s a lack of concern and at the least, a lax policy of safeguarding customer data privacy, as well as, perhaps taking advantage of using their Client Agreements to mask or bury the rights of what Facebook can do with customer data in the small print that is written far beyond the comprehension level of most its customers.  It’s practices like these that makes you wonder what else has been done or IS being done with our data without our knowledge?  The specific concern we’re expressing here isn’t so much focused on businesses using Facebook for business promotional and marketing purposes (it is important, but not the focus of this post), it has to do more with the individual personal users and the privacy of their data that concerns us the most.  Businesses are usually quite savvy and discreet when it come to publishing information on Facebook and other social media platforms, however the general public isn’t, and that’s where the problem and abuse of data privacy is of greatest concern to us.

We fully understand that there are challenges in how we function as businesses and as individuals in this digital age of social media communication (SMC).  As we all understand, SMC can be extremely powerful for business use and personal communication.  It can also be very destructive if abused by companies entrusted with the privacy and security of individuals data and the companies with which they share the data.  As time moves forward, and industry leaders think through and work through their business models and the responsibilities they have to their customers, and as the court rooms and congress begin to settle cases and draft legislation establishing boundaries of what are acceptable and unacceptable practices with consumer data privacy,  we are hopeful and optimistic that there will be better data privacy and security laws established and business protocols put in place , as well as greater transparency and responsibility regarding the privacy of individuals data.  That said, only time will tell… yet at what cost?  All we can say is be careful with the data (text and media files…all data files) you upload to Facebook and other social media platforms.  Do your own research into this problematic business practice of sharing your personal data with other organizations domestically and internationally without your expressed knowledge or consent, then use your own wisdom and discernment as to whether or not this is acceptable to you, and whether or not you decide to use the various social media platforms available that may exploit your personal data.  

GMS Business Consulting – provides lawyers and business professionals with Accounting Services, Business Development Services, Business Optimization Services and Digital Marketing Services to help business professionals successfully organize, grow and operate their businesses more effectively and efficiently.  We do NOT provide investment advice.  Contact Us  if you are interested in learning more about our services, and in particular about M.A.P.(our 3-phase business development solution), designed to help you strategically focus and tactically grow your business.  We would welcome the opportunity to speak with you.

info@gmsbusinessconsulting.com

707-218-3135

John 14:15

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The Coming Economic Crisis

Charles Schwab - Summer 2018 Issue - On Investing

Charles Schwab – Summer 2018 Issue – On Investing

Good morning everyone…this morning’s post is on how to prepare your practice for the coming economic crisis.  As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words…  The chart above is taken from the Charles Schwab Summer issue of “On Investing” (pgs. 20-21).  While we don’t give clients personal investment advice, we do guide clients through their business planning, strategizing and implementation through various economic cycles.  We have been warning clients for quite some time that markets are over-valued, and when they are over-valued, there is inherent risk…both to their personal net worth and to their business.  We guide clients to better prepare and position their businesses for economic upturns and downturns, and in our opinion, there is a looming monumental shift in our economy and in the financial markets on the horizon…

As the above chart shows, the stock market has gone to stratosphere levels during a time when interest rates (until VERY recently) have been at historic lows, yet the amount of U.S. and global debt has more than tripled since the 2008-2009 economic crisis!  Does this sound like a healthy economy?  Or does this better describe a stock market and an economy that has been inflated by excessive debt?

The tides are beginning to change…interest rates have been slowly increasing, and perhaps may even invert (signifying a coming recession…or perhaps worse), and costly fuel prices have been on the rise.  In our opinion, the stock/bond/real estate markets are all at frothy states of dangerous optimism.  Our advice to clients, family members and friends willing to listen is to:

  1. Shore-up your business and personal cash reserves.
  2. Re-position your business/practice Strategy to take advantage of the soon coming economic downturn.
  3. Re-position your business/practice Operations both offensively and a defensively to position your practice to survive and thrive in the soon coming economic storm.  (by implementing our M.A.P. solution)
  4. Re-position your business/practice Business Development initiatives both offensively and a defensively to position your practice to survive and thrive in the soon coming economic storm.  (by implementing our M.A.P. solution)
  5. Re-assess your business Value-Proposition to help your clients navigate a successful course through the coming economic head-winds.
  6. Define your desired target market industries within your sphere of professional expertise and influence that you can assist and add value to, then deliberately and consistently communicate your perspectives and value-proposition to them.
  7. Implement a M.A.P. (your Master Action Plan) to guide you step-by-step through all the fore-mentioned strategies, processes and procedures to successfully meet your clients needs, and ultimately meet your business goals and objectives.

To better understand how our M.A.P. can help successfully guide you and your clients through the coming economic crisis, Contact Us.  We would welcome the opportunity to speak with you.

GMS Business Consulting – provides lawyers and business professionals with Accounting Services, Business Development Services, Business Optimization Services and Digital Marketing Services to help business professionals successfully organize, grow and operate their businesses more effectively and efficiently.  We do NOT provide investment advice.  Contact Us  if you are interested in learning more about our services, and in particular about M.A.P.(our 3-phase business development solution), designed to help you strategically focus and tactically grow your business.  We would welcome the opportunity to speak with you.

info@gmsbusinessconsulting.com

707-218-3135

John 14:15

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FACEBOOK – HOW SECURE IS YOUR DATA?

Sandy Parakilas in San Francisco. ‘It has been painful watching. Because I know that they could have prevented it.’ Photograph: Robert Gumpert

Do you think your Facebook account data is stored, secured and kept private only at Facebook?  Think again!  This is not only a warning for Facebook users, this is a warning for all users of any social media platform or user of any other technology company’s software that we routinely and blindly grant permission and access to our personal data.  If you think this is just a Facebook issue…Think again.

Good Morning Everyone!  Think of all the information you post on your Facebook account or any other social media platform…  You assume that the only company who stores your account data and has access to your personal data is Facebook or the platform you’re currently using, right?  Wrong…  Do you ever wonder who else may have access to your data other than Facebook and why?   Why do they have access to it and what are they’re using it for…without your knowledge or permission?  You should be concerned.  We should all be concerned.  This ARTICLE  posted by (Paul Lewis in San Francisco – The Guardian – Tuesday, March 20, 2018) is about a former insider at Facebook who details the lack of security at the worlds most popular social media platform in the world.

We can’t adequately express our concern over data security at Facebook better than Sandy Parakilas, formerly the platform operations manager at Facebook responsible for policing data breaches by third-party software developers between 2011 and 2012.  The insight that Parakilas shares with us should be of no surprise to some of us.  However, the general public and the youth are most likely not aware of this issue that centers around data security and and privacy, and what breaches in these areas can result in further down the road, particularly in identity theft and abuse of our personal information.  Listen to this particular interview below with Christopher Wylie formerly with Cambridge Analytica (this interview is in the article itself too):

Today’s post centers on Facebook, however it has far broader implications that we’re drawing your attention to.  Daily, we download and update apps to our desktops and smartphones and post all kinds of information with a complete lack of understanding as to what we’re granting access to, and blindly granting permissioned access to second and third party organizations.  All the permissions and stipulations may be well buried in the details of the user agreement policy’s “fine-print” that we all so easily “Accept” as terms and conditions for using/downloading/updating our apps.

We’re really disappointed that the legal community hasn’t put all their brain power together to create and enforce “simple”, straight-forward options that on the one hand would protect individual users data privacy rights, and at the same time provide their clients with business opportunities to sell/share/market account users data (if granted permission by users in clearly defined options).  All that would be needed, is to REQUIRE all organizations wanting to sell/share or market their client data, to place two options before hitting the “Accept” or “Decline” options such as:

  1. An “OPT-OUT” option should be made available for personal data to NOT be stored/shared/used by any second or third party…and WITHOUT being denied use of the app.  In exchange for this option, the organization may provide a software version that has ads or they can charge a small fee to use the app w/all the updates and features.  These software options somewhat exist today with free or paid software on our smartphones.  HOWEVER… the lack of data rights is NOT spelled-out clearly and upfront, yet is buried in the details of user agreements, and if you don’t “Accept” the ENTIRE user agreement, then you can’t use the software.  This option would fairly address both sides of the issue.
  2. An “Opt-In” option should be made available for those individuals who don’t mind their data being sold/mined/shared/and marketed by 2nd or 3rd parties, and in exchange, they would have software apps that don’t run ads on their smartphones/computers or that this option allows them to purchase the app for free.

Again, these options somewhat exist today.  However, the one major component missing for the consumer is the ability to choose up-front, transparent “data privacy options” granting organizations permission as to how their personal data can be used, including storage/ sharing/ accessing/ mining/ selling/ and marketing of their personal data.  So, why not standardize the Opt-In/Opt-Out permission options?  Clearly stated data privacy options presented upfront and with transparency would allow consumers to better manage the privacy of their data privacy without denying them usage of software simply because they don’t want their data shared.  We think this is a reasonable approach.  What do you think?

Once again, this breach of data privacy at Facebook is only a wake-up-call… a warning to all of us to press companies and law makers to do a better job of securing our personal data, and give us the option to either opt-in or opt-out how our data can be used.

A second and equally important issue is, standardizing “how” businesses should secure client data…and our rights to data privacy, but these topics are for another discussion at another time…  Until then, we encourage you to read this Article from the Guardian to better inform yourself, then make a better decision as to how you use Facebook and other social media platforms and software going forward.

GMS Business Consulting – provides lawyers and business professionals with Accounting Services, Business Development Services, Business Optimization Services and Digital Marketing Services to help business professionals successfully organize, grow and operate their businesses more effectively and efficiently.  We do NOT provide investment advice.  Contact Us  if you are interested in learning more about our services, and in particular about M.A.P.(our 3-phase business development solution), designed to help you strategically focus and tactically grow your business.  We would welcome the opportunity to speak with you.

info@gmsbusinessconsulting.com

707-218-3135

John 14:15

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THE UNEMPLOYMENT RATE – FACT OR FICTION?

PHOTOGRAPHER: GREGORY HALPERN FOR BLOOMBERG BUSINESSWEEK

The Unemployment Rate being presented to the public…is it fact or fiction?

Good Morning Everyone!  We are amazed at how the mainstream media presents the unemployment rate in such a minimalist, general, uninsightful way.   We’ve all heard the saying, “There are lies and there are statistics.”  That is certainly the case when organizations present statistical information to the public.  Most individuals and organizations take for granted the information given to them, and generally trust the sources that deliver them…including the U.S. Government and notable news sources like Bloomberg in this recent Article dated March 15th.

What’s most important is to understand in any statistic released, is what are the assumptions made in developing the mathematical algorithms and equations that churn out this information.  That’s where alternate reliable sources of statistical information is helpful, such as John Williams’ website ShadowStats.com.  I’m not going to get into the details of how the unemployment rate is calculated…you can learn more about how the unemployment rate is calculated by going to websites like Quartz and The Balance.  The point is, whenever statistics are given by an organization, just ask yourself, how could this organization benefit from the information/statistic they present?  In many cases, the data may be skewed in their favor…to suit their purpose.  Data Analytic firm ShadowStats.com provides their subscribers with statistical data to help make better investment and business decisions.  They have no agenda other than building their subscriber list, based on the value and integrity of the data they deliver.  They gain subscribers based upon the accuracy of their data.  So there are some good organizations out there attempting to serve the public and their clients with unbiased information.  You just have to search and research those out there in the market place.

The unfortunate reality is that the mainstream media really doesn’t do a good job in researching the data given to them by most organizations including our own federal/state/and local governments, as well as, other business organizations.  So when you see “official” unemployment figures being presented by the media, just understand they’re most likely not presenting the entire picture.  As we always recommend, do your own research, ask questions, then make a more informed decision.

 

GMS Business Consulting – provides lawyers and business professionals with Accounting Services, Business Development Services, Business Optimization Services and Digital Marketing Services to help business professionals successfully organize, grow and operate their businesses more effectively and efficiently.  We do NOT provide investment advice.  Contact Us  if you are interested in learning more about our services, and in particular about M.A.P.(our 3-phase business development solution), designed to help you strategically focus and tactically grow your business.  We would welcome the opportunity to speak with you.

info@gmsbusinessconsulting.com

707-218-3135

John 14:15

GMS Business Consulting 89 Comments

Part 1: Out-Strategize & Out-Maneuver Your Competition

Business Development Services

Business Development Services

Hello everyone, and Happy New Year!  Today’s post is part-one of a three-part series on how to “Out-Strategize & Out-Maneuver Your Competition“.  After 30+ combined years of business and consulting experience, we have seen common threads related to business success and failure.  These common threads may appear to be quite simple at the surface level, however beneath the surface they may vary significantly in complexity depending on the nature of the practice, targeted clients (and their particular needs), and one’s ability to effectively reach & communicate your value proposition to them.  That said, the successes and failures all have a few things in common…right from the start.  That’s what we’re going to address today… Read more

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Business Succession

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Hello Everyone!  Recently, we met with a few attorneys with small practices, in their late 60’s with no plans of retirement, nor thoughts of business succession.  That’s a concern we have for many business professionals today who know better to plan for events like this, yet they don’t.  Over the years, we’ve seen many business professionals own and operate very successful practices/businesses, however we’re still surprised to see how many have not planned for their business succession.

If there is a younger family member coming into the practice or business, then that is a natural business succession, and the business owner has a whole lot less to concern themselves with.  Conversely, if there is no family member or young associate interested in taking over the practice some day, then that leaves a potentially valuable asset foregone and left behind, and clients that will still need to be served. Read more