Recently, I attended Startup Grind’s NYC talk with Jon Steinberg, the President of BuzzFeed. BuzzFeed appears to have mastered the “art” of creating viral content. They unveiled “CNN BuzzFeed,” a YouTube channel based on content from CNN, including archival and current content, that is designed to be shared across social networks.

During the talk, Mr. Steinberg stated that he wished he had a law degree (even over his MBA). Why? Because he devotes endless hours reviewing contracts. He expressed dismay about what to look for.

Here are 10 things you should check before signing a contract: (more…)

Our aim at the Legal Productivity blog is to provide practical, actionable productivity tips for law firms, lawyers, legal professionals and anyone kind enough to visit our site. We get inspiration from a number of sources including our own experience, the social channels and other productivity blogs. Here’s a roundup of the top 10 productivity blogs that we check out daily in our RSS reader or follow on Twitter and Facebook.

Get ready for some productivity porn.

1. Lifehacker – The grandaddy of productivity sites, Lifehacker has a one-line description of its site that says it all: “Tips, tricks, and downloads for getting things done.” This is a long time favorite of mine.

2. Time Management Ninja – Craig Jarrow’s shared love of Evernote got me to the site and I never left. Along with time management and Evernote advice, Craig offers tips and insights on iPads and iPhones, email, and getting organized.

3. Zen Habits – This blog is all about simplifying your life. Author Leo Babauta, a decluttering evangelist, practices what he preaches.

4. The Positivity Blog – Henrik Edberg shares personal development advice gleaned from his own experience. Learn how to live a happier life, increase confidence, reduce procrastination and become more productive.

5. Pick The Brain – Over 200 bloggers from around the world contribute self improvement content with a focus on personal productivity, motivation and self education.

6. Harvard Business Review – @HarvardBiz‘ vibrant social media presence powers awareness of its awesome blog content on management techniques, best practices and innovative ideas. (more…)

Facebook took a page from Twitter and got hashtags. Facebookers were using it anyway, but now it’s official and searchable. A hashtag is a word or a phrase prefixed with the symbol # that is usually related to the topic of your social media status update. Hashtags are searchable across the entire platform (not just those you’re connected to) by simply clicking on it.

Since Facebook hashtags are now clickable and discoverable via search, what does it mean for the typical user?

Marie Smith, who knows all things Facebook, offered the following information via, of course, a Facebook status update:

• Hashtags work on personal profile posts, fan page posts, group posts, event posts, and all comments.
• As with all personal profile features on Facebook, privacy settings prevail.
• If you publish a post on your profile to friends only, and the post contains a hashtag – yes, the hashtag will be clickable and open up to display all other posts on Facebook containing that hashtag.
• But, ONLY friends can see friends-only posts that show up in hashtag searches.
• Public posts—with or without hashtags—are public.
• Private (friends-only) posts—with or without hashtags—are just that: private and visible to friends only.
• Even when friends include hashtags in comments on your friends-only thread, your post is still private and visible just to your friends.

(more…)

Vacation season is upon us and flights to and from our destination can either delight or put an ugly mark on our trip.

TripIt beautifully solves the problem of keeping our flight, hotel and car rentals handy via our mobile devices, but SeatGuru goes one step further to help us get the best airplane seats.

SeatGuru offers travelers over 700 seat maps for nearly 100 different airlines. It crowd sources seat information from thousands of flyer reviews, analyzes the information and assigns a color code. You’ll want to pick a “green” seat.

Check out the photos submitted by flyers and the location of galleys, exits and restrooms. Find seats with outlets for your phone and laptop and seats with more leg room.

For a more enjoyable plane ride, check out SeatGuru the next time you book a flight.

Available: iOS, Android (more…)

Facebook has Insights, blogs have Google Analytics, even Pinterest has its own web analytics tool. Now here comes Twitter, late to the party, but welcome, even if the free analytics is a stripped down version of what big-spending advertisers get.

Sign in with your Twitter credentials at ads.twitter.com. In the top menu, you’ll find two choices: Timeline Activity and Followers.

Timeline Activity provides analytics for mentions, follows, and for the first time, unfollows. Regarding unfollow numbers: Lots of spammy Twitter accounts unfollow you a few days later if you don’t follow them back, so don’t be too concerned about the pink (or is it magenta?) color that identifies unfollows. If you see an unusual number of unfollows, check your Twitter stream for that day – it could be due to tweeting frequency (too many tweets) or an update about a controversial topic. (more…)

The latest in our Keyboard Shortcuts series.

Keyboard shortcuts let you access frequently used features with a keystroke, and with your fingers never leaving the keyboard to use the mouse on your computer, saving time and increasing productivity.

Many applications have scores or hundreds of shortcuts, but who can remember them all? Instead of an exhaustive list, we’ve chosen 20 essential shortcuts to more commonly used features and functions.

Here is the WordPress edition: (more…)

Join us for another exciting episode of Internet Marketing Game Show for Lawyers, an hour of qwazy quizzes, website competitions and fun prizes. Along with the fun, discover practical internet marketing tips and techniques to help grow your practice.

When: Wednesday, June 26, 2013 2:30 PM – 3:30 PM EDT

Click here to register

We’ll share proven tactics – and a few awesome secrets – that will make it easier for new clients to find you online.

By popular demand, we’ll also lead a LIVE website and Internet marketing analysis. See two websites from our attendees reviewed side by side in our WEBSITE SMACKDOWN to see who will take the grand prize. (more…)

With a nod to pathological hoarders, getting rid of clutter is one of the easiest ways to get organized and increase productivity at the office. Here are a few tips.

Dumpster Day – Dumpster Day is exactly what you think: a day dedicated to cleaning out the office and dumping things you no longer need. Schedule a monthly Dumpster Day where everyone is encouraged to go through their desks, files, bookshelves, and purge themselves of stuff they don’t need anymore. If there’s any doubt, toss it.

See: Dumpster Day: Make Your Law Office A Less Cluttered – And Happier – Place To Work.

Declutter your phone – Does it take ages to locate an app or access basic functions on your mobile device? Clean up your phone. Too many apps takes up precious storage space, drains the battery and wastes your time. Delete unused apps and group the rest into folders. Do the same with your computer by purging old documents, videos, images and applications or move them to the cloud.

See: App Fatigue? Clean Up And Speed Up.

Declutter your desk – “If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?” ― Albert Einstein’s insinuation aside, and the suggestion that we keep our office messy or neat to match our cognitive style, I’ll go out on a limb and say that most of us would prefer working (and work better) at a clutter-free desk. Four items help me keep my desk clutter-free: scanner, adequate drawer space, wastepaper bin and a bookshelf within reach.

See: Seven Ways to Increase Productivity at Work (video)

Clean up your social media accounts – There are few things more noisy and time consuming online that a cluttered Twitter stream or Facebook wall. Unfollow Twitter accounts and unlike Facebook Pages (and people) that are no longer useful or that post too much. Create lists instead. (more…)