Freezing Photo Shoot in the Name of Charity

If you read my blog then you already know about Latimer Hinks raising money for Help for Heroes and St Teresa's Hospice by way of hosting a Charity Ball.

If you don't know, then please click this link Latimer Hinks Charity Ball

In order to promote the event locally it was suggested a photo shoot was in order. Our PR company organised a jeep from the TA (for the military connection). Fine, no problems with that... but then they hit us with.... "perhaps some glamorous ladies from Latimer Hinks dressed in evening wear would like to pose with the jeep to provide a juxtaposition of images!"

It took a little convincing but I managed a trio (2 ladies and one gentleman) to agree. I was also roped in providing 4 representatives from Latimer Hinks, as well as representatives from Help for Heroes, St Teresa's Hospice and the TA!

The day of the photoshoot dawned and it was freezing! The TA representative was fine, dressed in his khakis ready for whatever the weather might throw at him. Also, Help for Heroes and St Teresa's were sensibly dressed.

Enter the Latimer Hinks team "dressed to the nines" in glamourous evening wear. Not the type of attire suitable for spending 20mins posing in the cold weather (i swear my hands were purple!). Add that to the request that we sit ON the jeep - have you ever tried climbing in an evening gown? - not a pretty sight! and nigh on impossible without the help of the TA!!

The resulting photo should be worth it! It better be!!

We've received more donations for the Latimer Hinks Charity Ball, our thanks go to:

• Durham Road Physiotherapy
• Bamburgh Castle
• Anson Photography
• Jamie at Home
• Durham Cathedral

ASSIST - Social Networking & How it can Work for You

I believe i've mentioned before (a few posts earlier...) that I am on the committee of ASSIST (a support and networking group for professional ladies in the Tees Valley area).

For March, our event is entitled Social Networking and How it can Work for You

Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Blogs…..Social Networking is changing the way we market/promote business and we want ASSIST members to be aware and partcipate in these changes.

Jonathan Wheatley Managing Director of MC Ware Ltd & HD Forensics (sponsors of ASSIST), will give a short presentation on the benefits of Social Networking.
Jonathan will explain how social networking can help:

· build loyal customers with online communities
· market your product/service
· find partners to enhance your product/service and enhanced creditability
· find employees

The morning will start, as usual with a networking game to break the ice. ASSIST believe the networking game to be a unique selling point of the group. Many members have commented on how the games enable you to feel more comfortable and lessed "stressed" in a networking environment.

If you are a professional lady from the Tees Valley area and are interested in attending simply visit ASSIST and register. Places are limited

New Rules Leads to New Partner at Latimer Hinks

New rules under the Legal Services Act allow UK law firms to take on non-lawyers as partners.

Latimer Hinks Solicitors took advantage of the new rules to bring on board Andrew Way as partner - a move which recognises the enormous contibution Andrew has made over the past 30 years.

Congratulations Andrew!

Blogging Benefits - identify yourself as an Industry Expert

Blogging, like any marketing or networking activity is about building your brand. With lawyers and other professionals that means showing your expertise, engaging in conversations about your expertise and publishing your expertise.

Blogs allow all of this and certainly do a better job than most firm's rather static websites.

Over in America a new study by eMarketer shows a further benefit - 38% of reporters rely heavily on blogs for finding new story ideas and 29.5% use blogs to locate experts in particular fields. Reporters will search Google blogs to find an area of interest - they will then call/get in touch with the author of the blog.

This is great FREE publicity -it obviously takes time, effort and considerable patience to set up your blog, but this far outweighs the benefits.

So, if you have not yet started to blog, now is the time to consider the idea. Your name in print identifying you as an industry expert should be enough to "spur you on"!

Promotion Through Good Old Snail Mail

Good old mail shots as a method of promotion are often forgotten. Web 2 and social networking has a lot to answer for... but I've recently sent letters to businesses/organisations offering FREE presentations on a variety of subjects.

One of the main advantages of using "Snail Mail" is that in some cases email is becoming less effective. Spam filters will block anything that remotely looks like a marketing ploy.

Snail Mail should also make our offer "stand out" - we have taken the time and expense to mail the offer, the reader will appreciate the effort.

The other reason is "burnt fingers"- in the past i sent out an email campaign (see entry Tale of 1000 emails) and it was a nightmare week. Computers crashed, we received claims for compensation etc etc.

On this occasion our target audience (carer support organsiations) will appreciate "snail mail" - and i won't have to worry about 1000+ emails appearing in my inbox overnight.

The FREE presentations can be tailored to the businesses/organisations requirement. At the moment we will be keeping the presentations within the North East/North Yorkshire area - but who knows, if they are successful we could maybe hold some online.

Topics include:

• Wills
• Powers of Attorney
• Longterm Care Issues
• Asset Protection
• Trusts
• Public Guardianship Office (Court of Protection)
• Affairs of the Elderly/those with Disabilities
  

The aim of the excercise is to educate people of legal issues which may affect them and in turn offer advice/solutions on issues that may be of concern.

The presentations will provide the opportunity to :

• create awareness of Latimer Hinks Solicitors
• raise the profiles of fee earners involved
• show Latimer Hinks as knowledgable in the above areas
  

My first mail shot has been sent to groups providing help and advice for carers. I shall keep you informed of the progress.

If you know of an organisation/business that may be interested in educating it's members/employees on any of the above subjects please contact me, we can tailor our presentations to suit your requirements.

Why we Blog

Applause
Originally uploaded by hi-tekznologik

If you regularly read my blog, you'll know that now and again i'll update you with the progress and success of our blogs. This time it is the turn of Judith's Divorce Blog.

Judith, and other family law blog writers were recently asked to submit an article on blogging by Delia Venables, editor of Internet Newsletter for Lawyers.

Judith explained why Latimer Hinks decided to "blog"

Judith's Divorce Blog is a random collection of stories which I describe as reflections and emotions as perceived by an experienced divorce practitioner but perhaps presented from a slightly different angle.

Private practice is obviously getting to me because i've begun to experience divorce in everything i see or do. I try to intermingle press releases from Resolution within it.

It began in June when our in-house marketing guru (that's me!) approached me about a course she’d been on, highlighting the benefits of social networking. I was hardly enraptured by the idea which sounded as far removed from being sociable as I could imagine and was apparently based on a United States perspective where you join sites like Linked-In and business just happens!

Anyway I had a look at a number of these sites and suggested to her that if she wanted to network, I would assist by giving her a blog to refer to.

Initially I experimented for a few weeks on Yahoo 360 but, as interest grew, set up a page on Blogspot which clients could bookmark. Despite my initial reservations, I’ve enjoyed finding what I’d like to describe as a literary side to my nature, although I suspect that those who read my offerings may well disagree! I've also undergone a steep learning curve so far as widgets, blidgets, RSS feeds and analytics are concerned.

I only discovered the other family law blogs after beginning to publish mine, so was very relieved to discover that they all have unique angles and i hope that i'm not treading on anyones toes.

As well as the social networking which the guru is dabbling in, I’m using Feedburner to distribute entries to the Blog and one of our regional newspapers has contacted me about featuring it in a regular weekly section and on its website too (now up and running here).

Essentially I see it as a promotional tool rather than a marketing exercise in its own right.
At the moment I’m thoroughly enjoying what I regard as an experience in rediscovering my imagination and, unless I find a better outlet for my creative self, am confident that I’ll still be blogging for a long time yet.

Whilst Blogger isn't perfect, it is user friendly. There are some slight irritations but you don't get everything from a free service.

At the moment I am thoroughly enjoying what i regard as an experience in rediscovering my imagination and, unless i find a better outlet for my creative self, am confident that i'll still be blogging for a long time yet!

Latimer Hinks Blogs
Social Networking Guineapig was born in early July— as you can see, the blog chronicles the trials and tribulations of a technophobic marketing exec in her quest to promote Latimer Hinks via social networking—with a few press releases thrown in along the way.

Anne’s Tax Planning Blog also began in July—everything you need to know about tax planning and more, again with relevant press releases intermingled.

Statistics for all three of the blogs are going pretty well although Judith's Divorce Blog is the most successful and has created "spin-offs" (as mentioned above) for us to further promote the blog.

Top Ten Tips - Blogging for Beginners

I recently posted a question on LinkedIn, a business networking site. To say that i am exceptionally pleased with the response is a slight understatement!

I have compiled the responses to give you a Top Ten Tips for Beginner Bloggers.

1. Promote and claim your blog through Technorati. The more you are mentioned in other blogs, the higher your Authority.
2. Bookmark you blog/entries to sites such as digg, del.icio.us, stumble, facebook etc
3. Include an RSS feed (i use Feedburner to publish my feed (it's free))
4. Check for keywords related to your blog topics. Use them in articles and titles of posts
5. Post comments on related blogs with links back to your blog
6. Partial quote other relevant blogs and add content of value
7. Make use of Feedburner PRO services. They are now free and can optimise, publicise and monetise your blog
8. Ensure you have something worth reading
9. Update regularly
10. Ping your blog

And, as an added extra, for loads of information on blogging visit Problogger

I wish i'd known all of this when i first started my blog. Many many thanks to the LinkedIn members who responded to my original question

Legal 500 - bible of legal business recommends Latimer Hinks

The Legal 500 is the most widely used legal directory in the UK and is considered to be "the bible of the legal business". The Legal 500 ranks law firms in terms of their expertise and performance.

Latimer Hinks has once again achieved recommendation.


Agriculture and Estates
Latimer Hinks acts for the smallest farmer to the largest country estate. As well as inheritance tax issues, the team has experience in advising on environmental land use and land use diversification. Anne Elliott is well respected for her agricultural expertise.

Commercial Property
Latimer Hinks offers the full gamut of property expertise and acts for a wide range of clients.

Commercial Litigation
Latimer Hinks Mark Gardner is an experienced practitioner and provides advice on a range of litigation and dispute resolution matters.

Corporate and Commercial
Darlington-based Latimer Hinks’ M&A practice also wins plaudits, with Nick Poole recommended.

The Right Place at the Right Time!

The press have recently covered a story about a young girl being "spotted" by model agency Storm (same one that spotted Kate Moss) in, of all places, Primark!

She has since gone on to model for Benneton and is also one of the stars of London Fashion Week.

She was in the right place at the right time!

Now getting press releases, blogs etc in the right place at the right time can be a time consuming process - but well worth it in the long run.

By submitting press stories to relevant web based PR companies saves an awful lot of work. Sending press releases by email attachment is not always the best way.

Common Craft have produced a video for their Client PRWeb - this explains everything very simply - i'm a great fan of the style of Common Craft videos, they remind me so much on my Blue Peter and sticky back plastic years!

To Sleep or not to Sleep..

L'il Monster and Dramaqueen went back to school today - yeah! Not without a fuss i might add.

Dragging them out of bed (even though) they had an early night is such a chore.

Why is it that on a weekend when we would really LOVE a lie in - that the little imps are wide awake and dressed before 7 o'clock?

Li'l Monster wants to go out to play with his friends, but for some reason - they aren't up! He's not allowed to knock on doors until after 10am, when hopefully, they are up and he doesn't disturb those exceedingly lucky parents who manage to get a lie in.

They must surely have some kind of bedtime concoction or Harry Potteresque potion that keeps children under the covers until a reasonable time.

Whatever it is - i want some and if i ever manage to get some i want everyone know.

I promise i will spend my nights blogging about this fabulous miracle potion/concoction to ensure that everyone knows about it - and what better way to do it than through social networking.

So, if anyone out there does have the answer to desperately required lie-in - LET ME KNOW!!

Essential Articles Every Serious Blogger Should Read

I have been advised by John of Family Lore that the best way to gain more hits to my blogs is to create links (and he should know as Family Lore receives around 2000 hits per month - he's obviously doing something right).

I also came across an article by Matt Huggins - 55 Essential Articles Every Serious Blogger Should Read via Del.ici.ous and have been slowly going through the list. Most of the information is very straight forward and there are further links to relevant sites. It's an excellent list as everything in in one place.

Take a look and i'm sure you'll discover something you didn't already know!

Blogging - slowly but surely there seems to be a pay off!

We've now been blogging for over a month now and Judith's Divorce Blog is finally gaining recognition.

The last time i spoke with Judith she'd had over 900 hits on her Yahoo 360 blog (which contains the same information as her blogspot blog).

The blogspot blog has been mentioned in various other family lawyers blogs, so many thanks to them - Family Lore & Bloody Relations both excellent blogs in their own right.

I've also managed to have Judith's divorce blog highlighted as a "featured external blog" wikivorce. I'm now in the process of trying for the same on Infolaw. *Update* Judith's Blog is now on infolaw!

Due to the success of this trial blog we have decided to start up another. This time to promote the Private Client side of Latimer Hinks Solicitors. Wills, trusts, probate, inheritance tax planning, estate planning etc etc.

The blog is called Anne's Tax Planning Blog and will advise on all aspects of "planning for the future". Again, i have started the blog in Yahoo 360 - we like the community based blog providers and hope to gain traffic through Yahoo and direct it to the blogspot blog of the same name.

I like the blogspot sites as you can add widgets, set up RSS feeds and monitor through google analytics, which seems to be a problem in Yahoo.

I will keep you updated

Blidgets and Widgets!

Some form of new insect/disease? Not at all, simply take your blog, make it into a widget and share it with the widgetsphere.

What’s a blidget?
A blidget is a widget that contains your blog. Other people can place your blidget on their sites, increasing your exposure.

Why should I want a blidget?
A blidget drives readers to your site.
Many bloggers like to show support for the other blogs they read, and like to provide their readers with related articles they might like. Everyone who goes to their blog is instantly given a sneak peak into yours.
Some of our blidgets quickly gain hundreds of subscribers — that is, hundreds of people put your blidget on their site, providing their readers exposure to your content.

I decided to give it a go.

If you look at the right hand side of my blog you will see Judith's divorce blog's blidget. What a mouthful! Judith made her blog into a widget and i was able to add it to my blog. Any changes that are made should show instantly.

It's a direct link to Judith's Divorce blog and whatever topic you wish to view if you click, will take you directly to that topic.

I think that this is a great way to share promotional tactics. Any thoughts?

PS: the widget/blidget came from Widgetbox