CruiseLaw Meets LexBlog
Last week I met Kevin O'Keefe. Kevin is the genius behind LexBlog which designs and creates law blogs and supports legal bloggers like myself. If you like the design and functionality of this blog, thank Kevin. His
team designed it.
Kevin's company also runs LexMonitor, the best round-up of legal blogs around, as well as LexTweet which tracks lawyers who use Twitter. Kevin also has an award winning blog "Real Lawyers Have Blogs" which is something every ahead-of-the-curve-lawyer should read.
Kevin was in Miami speaking at a convention and announced an-after-hours "beer for bloggers" get together at Tobacco Road via his blog and Twitter page. For those of you not familiar with Miami, Tobacco Road is the oldest bar in Miami, with liquor license no. 001, and a relaxing place to hang out.
It was a nice time. Some of the lawyers drove for a couple of hours to Miami to make it.
Legal marketing expert Paula Black, virtual law firm DirectLaw entrepreneur Richard Granat, international business lawyer Santiago Cuerto, estate planning lawyer David Shulman, business lawyer and Gulf War hero Juan Antúnez, and criminal defense lawyer and super-blogger Brian Tannenbaum all showed up.
Kevin is an inspiring story. He was a real life lawyer and trial attorney in rural Wisconsin and then created Prairie Law (which he sold to Lexis). He hit his stride by moving to Seattle to create his LexBlog success. His company supports something like 3,000 law firms, from blogging law students to solo lawyers to the Am Law 200 big law firms. LexBlog is an impressive network and helps small law firms like mine be the proverbial big fish in the small pond.
I remember last year when I was searching for a company to host my blog. I emailed and then spoke to the people at LexBlog. I thought that I was interviewing them to see if they were going to meet my blog requirements. Half-way through the 30 minute conversation, I realized that
they were interviewing me to see if I met their criteria.
There are a lot of top notch blogs and lawyers on the LexBlog platform - like Bill Marler's Blog which has expanded to include the NoroBlog and the Food Poison Journal which have touched upon cruise ship norovirus outbreaks.
My first blog on Lexblog was on September 10th last year. Things started slowly. Maybe only 20 or 30 people a day stumbled on to my blog, probably by accident. But I'm now 171 days and 173 blogs down the road (who's counting?) Last week alone, over 14,000 different people viewed over 25,000 pages on this little blog. Not bad.
More importantly, the blog has been cited in national law journals, local newspapers in Florida, and news sources in Europe and the Caribbean.
Thanks LexBlog. And next time I'll buy the beer at Tobacco Road.
To see what other lawyers are saying about Kevin and LexBlog, consider reading "God Bless Mrs. O'Keefe" (pretty funny) by a South Carolina trial lawyer, David Swanner.
Credits:
Tobacco Road Kevin O'Keefe
in describing this monster-of-cruise-ship is hopelessly intertwined with obtaining commissions by selling cruises.
revolutionary." Can you imagine a business editor anywhere writing such drivel? The article contained quotes only from other cruise enthusiasts, travel agents and the cruise line's CEO, Richard Fain.
Twitter. These unique awards are for the Twitter community, by the Twitter community."
140 characters of advice for a new user?
Jim Walker has always been ahead of the curve.
Jim Walker: I became a blogger after becoming addicted to Twitter earlier this year.
I wrote a blog post about the experience -
written 100 articles. My articles are too long, too. I can’t help it – I come from a family of story tellers. I feel sometimes like I am making a closing argument and I can’t stop myself. I struggle getting to the point.
requires an interactive exchange. So I am trying to use my blog to provide the most current and relevant information in my specialized field of law.
The Herald is a provincial newspaper, with a travel fanatic as the business editor. The paper is entirely beholden to the local cruise lines which pay the Herald for advertising and invite the Herald "reporters" to free cruises and parties where they hob nob with the executives and promoters. In return, there is a quid pro quo where the Miami Herald looks the other way when stories break which could embarass its cruise lines friends. 
handled the problem with sexual assaults on its cruise ships even worse. I also think the Oasis of the Seas is a boondoggle.
article written by John Honeywell a/k/a "
paperwork. Very innovative.
defending the case to make certain that an American flag was positioned behind him as he sat in front of the videographer. They didn't have a flag so they had to go and rent one for the afternoon.
At this moment, the Oasis of the Seas is sailing with newspaper reporters, travel writers, cruise bloggers, and other cruise enthusiasts. They are tweeting their observations on Twitter under the hashtag
1. Does the Oasis of the Seas discharge wastewater/sewage (whether treated or outside 3 miles of shore or not) during the cruises?
have found when female passengers are at a higher risk of being assaulted?
should be reading every perspective to develop a complete understanding of international issues.
In mid-September of this year, the Cruise Line International Association ("CLIA") launched a web site called "
Cruise lines which are in touch with their market understand the need to be versed with all aspects of Social Media 2.0. Twitter, FaceBook, Flickr, and YouTube all present an inexpensive and highly effective way to get a company's message out to the public. This is particularly important in times of crisis management, such when a fire breaks out or a bout of swine flu is running its course on a cruise ship.
Princess Cruises' sister brand P & O Cruises knows what it is doing in the world of social media. P & O Cruises has had more than its fair share of bad things happen on its cruise ships. It is best known for the tragic death of Dianne Brimble, who died due to a toxic mix of alcohol and a date rape drug several years ago. The brand was known for heavy drinking, out of control parties and general debauchery.
P & O went on the offensive. CEO Ann Sherry began giving short statements on the cruise line's blog. The
When the flu passed its course, the next ship blog, entitled "Clean Ship," showed photos of the Captain and crew having fun in the disco, smiling and laughing. The message to the public was quite effective - everything is fine, come on aboard.
I first became intrigued with Twitter when I watched President Obama’s State of the Union speech in February of this year. The galley was filled with people twittering away on their Blackberries and iphones, sending out their own spin on the President’s speech. CNN covered the story and added their own perspective via
Lawyers USA Weekly recently ran an interesting article by Sylvia Hsieh which featured four lawyers who successfully turned their tweets into clients. Unfortunately, the article is no longer available on line without a subscription. But Bruce Carlton (

