One indicator of such misleading marketing tactics is when the offered plan is just too good to be true. And because of the implementation of ‘lock-in’ rule, wherein beneficiaries are not allowed to switch plans; all the more that this misleading advertising poses a great threat to the public than ever before.

Here are some marketing tactics HMOs use to lure beneficiaries to sign up for coverage:

• Unlimited prescription drug coverage. Consumers must be warned about this unlimited generic and brand name prescription drug coverage offer by several HMOs. The ‘unlimited’ catch is misleading since most HMOs cover only medications listed on a formulary or preferred drug lists.
• Better than Original Medicare. Some medical plans are actually offering more benefits than Medicare but they are not really for free. They come at a cost.
• $0 Premium offer. Plans often boast of a $0 premium while in fact individuals are required to pay their Medicare Part B premiums, done monthly at $78.20.

There are I guess a lot more, but the point here is that beneficiaries should really be on-guard against these marketing tactics. A nationwide list of healthcare specialist attorneys is available for those who might need some assistance in this particular issue.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fx–jNQYNgA

The video looks as though it could have been shot at almost any sleepy corporate seminar in the country, with one camera panning between a man in a suit and tie standing at a podium and others seated nearby. But the dialogue is riveting: It’s a group of lawyers openly discussing strategies for helping their clients pretend that they’re trying to recruit American workers—as required by law—while they, in fact, hire cheaper foreign workers. 

“[O]ur goal is clearly not to find a qualified and interested U.S. worker,” says Lawrence Lebowitz, director of marketing for the Pittsburgh law firm Cohen & Grigsby, before an audience of employers at the firm’s conference. The seminar provides details on how employers can meet the government’s requirements for the Permanent Labor Certificate program (PERM), which lets employers sponsor foreign workers for permanent residency if they can demonstrate no U.S. worker can fill a job. The trick, according to Cohen & Grigsby attorneys, is to only go through the motions of hiring Americans without ever intending to.

The video, which has been posted on YouTube (GOOG), is now sparking a sharp backlash. On June 21, Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Representative Lamar Smith (R-Tex.) fired off a letter to Cohen & Grigsby demanding an explanation for its advice, as well as going so far as to ask for the names of its clients. “Your firm’s video advises employers how to hire only foreign labor, while making it nearly impossible for a qualified American worker to get a job,” they wrote. “We look forward to hearing from you on how such advice is ethical and does not undermine the programs by enticing fraud and misuse.” (See the lawmakers’ letter here.) A public relations firm representing Cohen & Grigsby did not return phone calls seeking comment.

WASHINGTON, DC — (MARKET WIRE) — 04/04/07 — The American Bar Association’s Law Practice Management Section will commemorate the 30th anniversary of the seminal law firm marketing case, Bates v. Arizona, on November 8-9, 2007 in Washington, DC with its first-ever Law Firm Marketing Strategies Conference.

The event features a number of all-attorney panels that will provide practicing lawyers with the most comprehensive look at how law firm marketing has evolved and where the profession is heading, as well as programs aimed at assisting lawyers and firms with improving their business development strategies.

“Bates set in motion an entire industry that continues to define the legal profession,” said Micah Buchdahl, Conference Chair for the Law Firm Marketing Strategies Conference. “It’s time to take a step back and look at what is working for law firms and examine where we can make strides.”

The two-day event will feature some of the most relevant and integral law firm marketing experts in the country, including Van O’Steen from Bates v. Arizona to talk about legal ethics; strategic communications specialist Chris Lehane and Infinite Public Relations’ Jamie Diaferia to talk about crisis communications, as well as a program on the impact of diversity initiatives on law firm business.

“The concept of law firm marketing continues to be an enigma to many members of the bar,” Buchdahl said. “This conference will address concerns, but also teach ‘best practices’ for moving forward with smart initiatives.”

Other panels will address some of the most pressing marketing issues faced by law firms of all sizes, including business development spending and technology marketing. In addition, the Conference will include two Extreme Marketing programs featuring ten speakers talking about ten topics for ten minutes apiece. These programs will feature partners from 20 national law firms.

The event will be held at the Omni Shoreham Hotel from 9 a.m. on Thursday, November 8, 2007 through 2 p.m. on Friday, November 9. A room block has been secured at an ABA LPM rate of $239/night.

For more information about the event and how to register, please visit www.lawpractice.org/marketingconference.

ABOUT THE ABA LAW PRACTICE MANAGEMENT SECTION

The mission of the ABA Law Practice Management Section is to provide innovative and practical information on marketing, management, technology, and finance, enabling legal professionals to better serve clients, achieve career goals, and balance their lives. The American Bar Association is the largest voluntary professional membership association in the world, with more than 400,000 members.

CONTACT:
Micah Buchdahl, Esq.
Conference Chair
American Bar Association - Law Practice Management Section
(856) 234-4334

Carey stressed that this focused communication is important in order to help CEOs properly address their corporate obligations. He noticed that most CEOs arrive to take on a very challenging responsibility without enough preparation. And that even those who have been carefully groomed for succession suddenly realized that their experiences were not enough to fully be armed for the special job circumstances that face the new CEO.

Senior Managers may have been responsible for a small unit of the company, but they were members of the chain of command, not really the ones making those big decisions. Aside from that, most new CEOs have never tried presiding a board meeting. According to Dennis Carey, these, and other pressures confront CEOs and they can better serve their companies when they have been formally prepared for these issues and how they can properly cope with the pressure.

Carey understands the difficulties CEOs go through as they fulfill their responsibilities and the encourages CEOs to help each other by sharing their thoughts and experiences so that other CEOs, especially the new ones, can learn and deal with their concerns in a most efficient manner.

“That is why we have come to believe that CEOs need to learn what they can from others who have acquired, largely by trial-and-error, insights into how to run a company. We believe there is an immense and largely untapped body of knowledge on these subjects. It resides among the fraternity of experienced, seasoned, and retired CEOs who have been working in the trenches for many years. They may well be the best “executive education” resource for current and future CEOs.” – Dennis Carey

More about Dennis C. Carey - Books by Dennis Carey: Here, Here, and Here

A list of 15 rules for clients. This is brilliant.

The George Lindemann Jr pro blogger program just doesn’t seem to offer any substance. George, if I was going to do an all in one blogging program (and I’ve thought about it before), it would go something like this:

• Two Options: Hosted or Host yourself
• Hosted - Change templates to fit your ideal look and feel, preinstalled tools and plugins, monetization, etc.
• Host yourself - a plugin pack included in the plugin directory, optimization guide (simple, effective), monetization optimized templates, etc.

I would also talk about building real links. George Lindemann Jr’s program focuses on social media links which aren’t that effective (not from those sites anyways).

I’m strongly considering a full on legal blogging package.

Which brings me to the question: With blogs, should frequency of posting trump the quality of posts?

In some senses, I think so. First, frequency of blogging is often tied into attracting a following. I know that personally, as I tend to visit blogs that are updated daily (or at least a few times a week) over blogs that are infrequently updated yet have quality posts.

However, in the end, it is the quality of posts that make the blog. If the information I’m reading isn’t interesting and informative, it could be updated every hour- I’m not coming back.

So, I think there’s a balance. Keeping a blog that is updated regularly even when the author does not have a completely original, informative post. But at the same time, I truly believe bloggers should stay away from “forcing it.”

To me, “forcing it” happens when you do not have a topic to write about, yet you try to produce a post anyway. When that happens to me, I usually just link to something else I’ve found interesting. If I’m really uninspired, I’ll go into photoshop and make a picture of something ridiculous and post it without any explanation. Like this:

From it:

If one person can produce ineffective crappy marketing, imagine what a committee can do.

On LexBlog, Kevin O’Keefe points to a study by my alma mater, Northeastern University, on “What Makes a Successful Corporate Blog?“

The study identified five factors as important to the success of a blog:

1. Culture- If you’ve got culture traits that are interesting to people (think Google) or if you’ve got culture problems (think Dell or Microsoft), showing what your company’s culture is really like is a great reason to blog. With the Google scenario, you’re giving customers a glimpse into a fascinating company, and giving behind-the-scenes info on a universally loved brand. On the other hand, when you’re dealing with consumer distrust or bad PR, blogging (if done correctly) can help repair a tainted reputation.
2. Transparency- Blog readers want to read authors they can trust. They don’t want to read blog posts by a company that is trying to take a thinly veiled approach at hawking their products. It really is a balancing act. Sure, your company’s blog can help sell products/services. But at the same time, you don’t want to seem like like you’ve got too much of an agenda.
3. Time- It takes time and research to write a worthwhile blog.
4. Dialogue- You’ve got to talk with your audience. You’ve read the cliche “Blogs are a conversation.” Well, they are. And successful blogs are conversations between the audience and the writer(s).
5. Entertaining writing- When the blogger brings a unique style to the blog, it makes the blog so much more interesting.

How does this relate to law firm blogging?

Culture- I don’t see how law firms would offer a glimpse inside their inner workings on a blog. Unlike Google or Microsoft, law firms aren’t trying to persuade the masses  to use their products. A law firm’s target is much more narrow in scope, and would not likely benefit from showing how business is conducted (not to mention issues of confidentiality).

Transparency- Law firm bloggers have seemed to do a great job with transparency. Rather than having huge, blinking ads saying “BE A CLIENT!!!!!! WE’RE THE LAW FIRM FOR YOU!!!!!!!”, attorney blogs are best when they establish the author as an expert on an issue. And since that expertise is essentially the service clients are purchasing, there is more benefit in the content and the writing than advertising the firm. Am I saying attorney bloggers should get rid of any mention of their firms, or get rid of links and contact information for their firms? Absolutely NOT. That’s the point. But the idea is to gain trust, then gain the clients.

Time- This is a big issue with law firm bloggers. When the time you spend writing can be so easily calculated into opportunity cost figures, the question of “is it worth it?” will always come up.

Dialogue- For the most part, law firm blogs are good at encouraging conversation. When the attorney is an expert on an issue, they’re likely to embrace discussion.

Entertaining Writing- Without style, reading a law firm blog, regardless of the expertise of the author, can be, well, boring. But when you have a writer that can make a sterile subject seem interesting, you’ve got something.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted something for legal bloggers (and with a name like LawFirmBlogging, I probably should post on-topic articles from time to time), so today I’d like to share a new site with you.

Zippy.co.uk is a technorati-like search engine for blogs, but it has a LOT of information. Type in the URL of your blog, and you’ll get the following information:

• Internal Links
• External Links
• External/Internal Link Ratio
• Total 2 Word Phrases
• Total 3 Word Phrases
• Total 4 Word Phrases
• Textual Content
• Alexa Ranking
• Google PageRank
• Google Backlinks
• Number of Indexed Pages in Google
• Yahoo Backlinks
• MSN Backlinks

Aside from providing a way to centralize data from the different search engines, the 2, 3, and 4 word phrase count is especially useful. Since most people only enter 2-4 words in their search engine queries, knowing your keyword density is very important. Clicking on the Total 2,3 and 4 word phrases reports will give you a rundown of your frequently occurring keywords, with both a count and the keyword density.

If you’re looking for a quick, dashboard-like application that gives a very good overview of how your blog is performing, it’s worth doing a quick search with Zippy.co.uk