Posts tagged wall street journal
Betraying trust as a business model
Apr 30th
I’ve found out I can become a ‘premium influencer’ on Twitter.
Right now MyLikes, a self described ‘word-of-mouth advertising platform,’ thinks I’m an influencer. Apparently this comes from sharing on Twitter information I believe is helpful to others. No question the more news, commentary and insight of others that I share with people on Twitter, the more people with similar interests who follow me on Twitter.
Until tonight though I never thought of becoming a ‘premium influencer’ by having advertisers pay me for sharing their adds with people who come have to trust me on Twitter. Trust I established by sharing information I thought my Twitter followers would find helpful or interesting.
Excuse me if I don’t understand what social media is all about, but I find the concept outlined in the below email I received from Michelle Matheus, the Marketing Manager for MyLikes, pretty disgusting.
Hello,
I am writing from MyLikes, an ex-Google social media/twitter advertising company that connects influencers on the web to advertisers. I wanted to send you an invite to be a premium influencer on MyLikes.
This is an invite-only program that allows power Twitter users such as yourself, to make money by creating Sponsored Likes/ads for advertisers you choose and post them to Twitter. You get to set a price per tweet and accept / reject advertiser offers and write your own Sponsored Likes/tweets. The minimum payout is extremely low ($2) and you get paid weekly through PayPal. You can signup at:
Let me know if you need any help in signing up for this program.
Thanks,
Michelle.
http://mylikes.com/about
Why disgusting Michelle?
- When I share genuinely valuable information with people who trust me, it’s repulsive to think I’d ‘slide in’ information I wouldn’t share otherwise, but do so because I was being paid by some company who doesn’t care about trust and doesn’t have clue what social media is. If I see helpful information in a blog, the Wall Street Journal, or the NY Times, I’ll share it with people who’ve come to trust me. The blogger, WSJ, or NYT doesn’t need to pay me. If I like a restaurant, I’l share word of it with people who trust me. The restaurant needn’t pay me.
- You tell me your company is ‘an ex-Google social media/twitter advertising company.’ Are you telling me that Google started or acquired MyLikes and spun it off? Maybe not – when I looked at your website I read MyLike’s founders just “previously worked at Google where they were some of the key people behind Gmail, Google Base, Google Docs, AdSense and Google Video.” But when you’re already playing fast and loose with trust, what’s a little stretching the truth to your advantage.
- You give me a link to your company’s about page where I can read “We have been covered by the New York Times…” Coverage that’s not all favorable. Robert Scoble, a leading technology blogger and author, told the NY Times Tweeting Ads “…interferes with your relationship with your friends and your audience” and that he “unfollows” people on Twitter who send him ads. But some folks won’t read the ‘coverage’ and what’s a betrayal of trust matter, when the business model of your company is to get people to betray the trust the others.
Companies with a moral compass the likes of MyLikes will always be around to try ruin a good thing like social media. Fortunately, most people are genuinely good and act in ways to earn the trust of others, not betray it.
We’ll never get the likes of MyLikes to see how misguided their business is. The opportunity to make a quick buck at the expense of others is just too great.
But you can decide like me not to sell ads on Twitter. And you can do as Scoble does and un-follow people who betray your trust by tweeting ads. Will it amount to more than a drop in a bucket as far as closing down these clowns and stop people from tweeting ads? Probably not, but we can still do what is right.
Should law reviews do more for law students by promoting blogging?
Mar 7th
I traveled to Atlanta and Emory University this week to speak at the Annual Emory Bankruptcy Development Journal’s (EBDJ) Symposium.
Turns out the EBDJ is the only national bankruptcy journal edited and produced entirely by law students. The symposium gave law students, especially those writing for the EBDJ, the opportunity to mingle with bankruptcy lawyers and judges from around the Eastern half of the US. Certainly an inside track for judicial clerkships and positions in large law.
As talented as those law students were, I couldn’t help but think two things. One, I hope my kids never end up chasing that kind of life. And two, was the law school by publishing a law journal in the traditional way selling the students short?
My kids part is easy. I hear from too many lawyers that they feel like a cog in a large corporation when practicing in large law. Amazing when you’re presented the opportunity to work with some of the brightest minds on the some of the largest and more interesting legal matters in the country. But after doing all they could in law school to get the most sought after positions they’re not happy. They feel trapped. I want my kids to be happy.
Second, a law student on the EBDJ who picked me up at the airport introducing himself as a ’2L’ went on to describe his aspirations of getting a particular article published over the next year. He and his advisor even discussed the possibility of getting an op-ed on the subject published in the Wall Street Journal.
Talking more though the 2L though seemed resigned that the op-ed was kind of a pipe dream. He also expressed a little frustration that though the subject of the article he was working on was timely today, it may not be by the time its published. Others could begin writing and talking about the issue while he’d still be working his article through the editorial and publishing process.
Seemed a little comical to me. Though I didn’t tell the 2L that.
Here he was one of the more gifted law students at Emory doing perhaps some of the best research in the country on a particular subject being held back by the system from expressing his ideas and collaborating with lawyers across the country. He wasn’t doing anything to engage reporters or editors of the Wall Street Journal that could make that op-ed a reality.
What if Emory law promoted blogging to its law review students?
The 2L could get his thoughts out now. Having blogged in a focused and engaging way for the last 7 or 8 months since school started he’d be well know among bankruptcy practitioners, law professors, clerks, and judges across the country. By referencing bankruptcy stories in the Wall Street Journal the Journal’s reporters and editors would have seen the 2L. He could have exchanged emails with the reporters and connected with them on LinkedIn – just as he would have with the bankruptcy lawyers, professors, and clerks he would have met though blogging.
Not only would his article, and others, be published in a more timely fashion through blogging, but the law student would be in a better position career wise. He’d be better known. He’d have connections across the country, some of whom may offer him a job. Anyone Googling his name would see citations to him and his blog by bankruptcy practitioners and professors who are blogging. I doubt the law school’s placement office is opening doors like that.
Having developed a personal brand through blogging, a graduating law student would control their future much more than other grads. Even those who were on law review, but not blogging. If they wanted to do a clerkship and proceed to large law, that’s great. If they wanted to pursue other opportunities, the door would be open. It could even lead to the grad being a little happier as a practicing lawyer.
Don’t get me wrong I’m not bashing big law, law reviews, or clerkships. There’s wonderful people doing great stuff and getting great experience in all three. Just thinking we as a profession and law schools could be doing more for bright law students than we are.
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Scalia and Ginsburg
Feb 4th
From the Wall Street Journal Law Blog:
The night of Bush v. Gore, Scalia called to see if Ginsburg was alright. She wasn’t. But the fact that he cared enough to call her demonstrates unseen inner workings of those who make up the highest court.
If a case goes to the Supreme Court, you can assume that reasonable minds can differ on what the outcome should be. In this case, if you want to predict how I would vote, pick however you think Justice Scalia would vote. And then put me down for the opposite. But some of the people I like the most have different political views than I do. So it is very cool to think there is real camaraderie like this on the Supreme Court between the two political extremes.
Related Blogs
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Social media works for law firms even though your clients do not use social media
Jan 20th
During my webinar about Twitter for law firm client development yesterday someone asked why they should use Twitter if their clients don’t use Twitter. Legitimate question.
I’m regularly asked why our law firm’s lawyers ought to care about social media and social networking – blogs, LinkedIn, Twitter, and the like when the vast majority of clients don’t spend their time using social media.
Yesterday, Hubbard One, part of Thomson WestLaw, released their social networking survey. Though I have requested a copy of the survey, I’ve only seen a summary so far. There’s little question that portions of that survey will be used by law firm leaders to argue that social networking/media is of questionable value as in-house counsel are not using social networking/media.
What everyone is missing is that it doesn’t matter if your clients are using social media and social networking? Social Media and social networking are still integral to any law firm’s client development program.
Why? Because you’ll be engaging the influencers of your clients, prospective clients, and referral sources. You’ll be building meaningful relationships with those influencers. The result is being viewed as a reliable and trusted authority, a leader in your field, and highly influential by those influencers.
Influencers include bloggers, reporters, editors, publishers, conference coordinators, and association leaders relevant to the industry you want to do more legal work for.
Who cares if in-house counsel are using Twitter, reading blogs or using LinkedIn?
- You get quoted in the Wall Street Journal in a story relating to the industry in which this in-house counsel works, your measure of influence is going up in that in-house counsel’s eyes.
- You present at an industry group conference attended by that in-house counsel and network with her afterwards, your measure of influence is going up in that in-house counsel’s eyes.
- You get cited in a leading industry blog that in-house counsel found when doing a Google search on a legal issue your measure of influence is going up in that in-house counsel’s eyes.
- When in-house does a Google search on your name and finds that you are cited routinely by legal and industry blogs, quoted in mainstream and industry publications, and regularly present at industry conferences, your measure of influence is going up in that in-house counsel’s eyes.
Those citations in leading blogs, interviews in major publications and speaking engagements at leading conferences don’t just fall into your lap. You need to go out and establish yourself as a reliable and trusted authority in your niche. You need to develop relationships with bloggers, reporters, editors, publishers, association leaders, and conference coordinators.
There’s not a better way to establish yourself as an authority and build relationships with these influencers than using social media and social networking. Through blogging, the strategical use of Twitter, and the effective use of LinkedIn, you establish yourself as an authority with influencers.
LexBlog has 3,000 authors on its blog network. I am regularly cited by bloggers as an authority on the use of social media for client development. I get regular calls from reporters working on stories relating to the work I do. I travel the country speaking at conferences in front of potential clients.
How did it happen? By using social media and social networking. I blog to engage the influencers. I use Twitter to build relationships with the influencers and further establish my expertise in the eyes of those influencers. I use LinkedIn to connect and network with the influencers.
LexBlog’s prospective clients are not heavy blog users. They don’t use Twitter. And many of them have never heard of LinkedIn. That’s okay. Word of our expertise is getting to our prospective clients by word of mouth via the influencers of our prospective clients.
It’s the same for your law firm. Use social media and social networking strategically. Identify the influential bloggers, reporters, editors, publishers, conference coordinators, and association leaders in the industry you want to do more legal work for. Then get out and engage those folks and build meaningful relationships with them.
Knee-jerk Positive Thinking Is A Mental Disorder
Jan 20th
In her new book “Bright-Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America”, social critic Barbara Ehrenreich lays out how an epidemic of postive American thinking from the Iraq War to the build up to the recent financial collapse has led to misery and brought us nearly to the brink of economic collapse.
Ehrenreich recently noted that, “two weeks ago, I was in Fort Wayne, Indiana, at a meeting where people who were about to be laid off told their stories. A woman next to me said that when her unemployment insurance runs out, she’ll live in her car. Then, another woman said, ‘Well, we have to remember to be positive, and that means don’t watch the news, don’t read the newspaper, just concentrate.’”
There is no shortage of postive thinking delusion when it comes to the law school scam. The Wall Street Journal for example did a front page story not long ago questioning the integrity of the post graduate career statistics at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. When it comes to delusion, facts and statistics apparently don’t matter. Just last week the ass clown career center dean of the law school (Graham Sherr) gave a presentation to the unsuspecting 1L’s in which he stated, “there are more jobs than there are of you, but you have to shun bitterness; bitterness is ugly.” He then proceeded to demonstrate how positive delusional thinking would somehow reach out and magically bend the supply curve in the legal marketplace. Apparently, it worked because several minutes later the same fraudulent, puffed up career stat numbers that were criticized in the WSJ piece magically appeared on the overhead screen.
Exiting the Legal Field Completely Isn’t For Me
Jan 20th
I’ve always believed that the efficient contract attorney can best improve his or her professional prospects by diversifying his or her skill sets and abilities, whether it be by acquiring an accounting background or improving a pre-existing language skill. I suppose another way to broaden one’s employment choices is to change fields altogether, although that’s something I wouldn’t consider myself.
I’m writing in response to today’s Wall Street Journal follow-up article on Monday’s piece regarding the dismal state of the legal employment market. The follow-up article reported that Seton Hall law graduate Scott Bullock, the first lawyer quoted in the original article, has finally jumped ship, quitting his law firm job and joining a former high school friend to work as an electrician. The article reported that he’ll be paid the same as his former lawyer job, about $50,000.
Contract Attorney Work Can Be A Great Stepping Stone
Is that how far the attorney job market has deteriorated? We now have lawyers quitting their jobs to become electricians. I wonder why doesn’t he work temporarily as a contract attorney until he gets back on his feet? Many contract attorneys perform document review work for short stints while they plan out their future. It is much easier to plan for the future when you are actively working and paying the bills than when you’re just sitting at home all day, moping about your plight. Performing contract work will keep you productive during the day so you don’t completely fall out of the legal loop. Despite what some may say, document review does entail the practice of law, albeit in its lightest form.
Working as a contract attorney is still a job, and indeed it’s a well paid job. The work is not particularly stressful and there is usually time after work to develop other side opportunities. The wage rate and hours are generally very good and the hours are flexible. Taking time to develop your side business or consider future projects can be performed during your non-working hours. I even see some do it at work during their breaks, talking on the phone to clients of their part time real estate business or like me, typing on this blog during my mandatory lunch break.
I know some contract attorneys have grown very disillusioned with being an attorney and have chosen to exit the legal market altogether. However, I am concerned that these people are wasting the time, money, and effort they previously invested in their legal education. Yes, a law practice is not for everyone, but that doesn’t mean you should ditch everything you’ve learned altogether and go become an electrician. That is, unless being an electrician was your original calling. But for most people, they should keep finding a way to put their education to good use. There are related opportunities out there.
I’ll admit, I haven’t decided exactly what my next professional move will be, but it certainly won’t be what the attorney in the Wall Street Journal Article did. I truly wish him well if that is what he wants to do, but as for me, I didn’t rack up law school loans for nothing! My future move might not necessarily be a legal practice but it will at least have some tenuous connection to my education and previous legal experience.
We All Knew This But The Job Market Is Tough For Lawyers
Jan 20th
If you’re an attorney, particularly if you’re a contract attorney, you must have heard or read about the recent Wall Street Journal Article regarding the lagging state of the legal employment market. There has been much debate and rumbling among contract attorneys on the matter. If you’re a new law school graduate or if you’ve been struggling to find legal employment, I’m sure the article confirms what we’ve all known for some time. Unless you attended a top tier school and you’re in the very top percent of your class, your legal employment life is going to be extremely harsh or even non-existent. Furthermore, even if you’re a top student from a top tier school, there is no real guarantee that your path will be paved in gold.
I’m currently a contract attorney. On my projects I encounter attorneys from all legal backgrounds and graduates from all law school tiers. However, whenever I bump into someone who was a great student from a top tier school like Georgetown Law, I always stop to think about how far the legal profession has fallen. Even these top tier law school graduates lament to me about how tough the market is and how difficult it is to find proper full time employment. They too are finding it extremely difficult to rise above the sea of attorneys. Many end up changing professions altogether or choose to perform temporary contract attorney work. Some toll away in jobs that pay the same as that of clerical workers as they struggle to find a way out. The drowning pain is further compounded by the often crushing student loan debt numbering in the six figures that frequently accompanies law graduates.
Too Many Law School Creating Too Many Law Graduates
There are simply too many lawyers out there and law schools are facilitating this never ending deluge of new attorneys by continuing to graduate more and more lawyers. Unlike other major professions, there are over 4 tiers of law schools and new law schools are added every year to keep up with the demand of students who blindly want to become lawyers. Many of these law school hopefuls hope to chase the commonly hyped fantasy of landing a big time job at a law firm working 40 hours a week and making millions. These law school hopefuls need to know that the legal market already has more than it can handle. There are better academic and professional options out there. Did you know there are only 1/3 as many medical schools as there are law schools? Do we really need so many lawyers? If law school bound college students only knew.
I’m glad the Wall Street Journal article was published. It helps to shed public light on a serious epidemic in the legal profession. An attorney is still a prestigious profession but when you have over saturation, it loses its prestige and you become a dime a dozen. You have all of these easy political science, English, and history majors enrolling in law schools because they don’t know what else to do with their majors. It will take time, but hopefully such discussion will cause a shift in the legal profession for the better. Despite my usual optimism, I don’t have much hope for this. There are too many stakeholders such as a large firms and law schools that will never want the lawyer making machine to slow down.
No More Federal Estate Tax
Jan 20th
The Wall Street Journal online reports that: “Senate Democratic leaders Wednesday failed in a last-ditch effort to pass a short-term extension to override the tax’s expiration, a process put into motion during the Bush administration. That virtually ensures that the tax will disappear Jan. 1.”
Nonetheless, California still requires in many situations the probate of an estate if you want to inherit property.
Speak to a probate and estate planning attorney to learn about your options. Call Mitchell A. Port at (310) 559-5259.