Self-Proclaimed Social Media Expert Criticizes Seattle Personal Injury Attorney for Using Facebook Fan Page l Seattle Accident Attorney

I recently became aware of a negative blog post by a self-proclaimed social media expert named Kevin O’Keefe.  He came across a Facebook Fan Page of mine that featured one of my books that I wrote for accident victims. 

O’Keefe criticizes my book without ever reading it let alone physically holding it in his hands.  He condescendingly calls the book a “pamplet” when in fact it is a small book totaling more than 100 pages.  The book actually took me more than 4.5 months to write by the time it was published in January 2007. 

Aside from getting his facts wrong, O’Keefe writes that I’m an “over zealous lawyer who is in over [his] head when it comes to social media.”  He goes on to state that he’s “terribly disappointed” because I simply do not know how to use the internet, let alone social media.  His biggest complaint?  That the FB Fan page has posted one article (out of 7 total) that discusses the facts of a car accident in Seattle.  He declares that this one article is demeaning, and that this kind of marketing sinks to the level of a “7th grade marketing class.”

O’Keefe ignores the fact that the page contained just one post about an accident, compared to 6 other posts addressing various studies and articles of interest to accident victims.

I don’t know, maybe O’Keefe’s criticism is one way how he markets his own LexBlog.  I’ve seen him attack other lawyers for posting statistics about accidents, and then lambast them for not “properly using the internet” or failing to “write a correct blog.”  Yet, I can tell you that O’Keefe and his staff has contacted my office at least 3-4 times per month over the last 6 or 7 months asking me to purchase his company’s LexBlog site (we always refuse because you can get the same value and SEO rankings by using a free site like Wordpress).  Like my criminal justice law school professor liked to say, always consider the source, incentive and motive of your accuser.  But I digress.

O’Keefe doesn’t get it.  First, the FB page is devoted to my book, not me as a practicing attorney.  We give the book away for free to accident victims and their family members.  Our research shows that many accident victims search for their own accident report over the internet.  So what better way than to show accident victims that a free 100+ page book exists that may help explain common questions we receive every day.

Every month we hear from at least two dozen or so accident victims that they were searching for the details of their own accident when they “discovered” my book, and then promptly ordered it.

The book has also proved quite popular.  We give hundreds of books away for free every month.  And it’s not cheap.  It costs thousands of dollars, and the return on this expense is quite low.  Most of the people who request the book (98%) never call back, yet they keep the book.  And believe me, we get lots of comments from people telling us they were so glad that I wrote the book, and how it has helped them settle the claim on their own, or give them enough information to really understand what information is important in their claim.

I should also point out that until O’Keefe’s blog post, my office has never received a complaint from a non-lawyer or a lawyer about how we market or display the book.  In fact, O’Keefe (a former attorney) is the first person to ever criticize our efforts. 

O’Keefe also responds to one of his blog commentators by stating that I’m an embarrassment and “black eye” of my profession.  Really?  I spend thousands of dollars to give away hundreds of books for free to those who want them so they can begin to understand the insurance claims process, and I”m a bad guy? 

How many other lawyers spend thousands of dollars to give away free books and other information to help people in their community?  I will tell you not many. 

But because my FB fan page posted about the statistics of one accident, and also included a whole lot of other valuable information, like studies, research, reports, and other noteworthy data that may be of interest to accident victims, you have the temerity to accuse me of demeaning a profession that I have spent the last 15+ years serving and thinking of ways to make better? 

No O’Keefe, YOU DON’T GET IT. 

And I take enormous offense to someone who purports to be an expert on how to use the internet or social media for that matter.  Who are you to instruct others, let alone suggest, how to use the internet?  Particularly when it is someone who had never before worked in the hi-tech field until quiting his job as a lawyer and then moving to the very state where I have lived all my life. 

My wife Mischelle Weedman-Davis (who incidentally IS a brilliant social media expert that has worked in hi-tech for 15 years with the likes of Steve Ballmer, Paul Allen, and other brilliant executives at some of the most noteworthy companies around like Microsoft, Vulcan, Wall Data, Primus), likes to tell me that everyone always knew who the ignorant one was in the room – the person who tried to teach or tell others how to use the internet. 

And did I mention that my wife has also authored and published a book on social media that has proven immensely popular with lawyers all across the country?  The book, Facelift: The Practical Facebook Marketing Guide for Professionals, has been hugely successful.  I’m sorry O’Keefe, but when it comes to social media, especially for lawyers, I’ll listen to my wife any day of the week before I even consider your comments.

Here’s my belief: the internet is to be used how it is actually being used in that moment.  If what I do is so despicable and demeaning, then I will suffer for it either by a decrease of attention (website visitors), customers, clients or whatever maintains my business or profession.  But guess what?  I’m not suffering. I’m actually thriving by using social media in the way that my wife and I have done over the last 6+ months.

Perhaps O’Keefe and Al Gore have more knowledge than the rest of us.  But I for one believe that social media is so new, and still in its development, that no one, not even the so-called experts like O’Keefe, know where it is going, and where it will end up, if at all.  That’s why social media is so exciting, and why it holds enormous potential to professionals like lawyers and doctors to name a few.

Finally, I really take offense to O’Keefe’s accusations that I’m an “embarrassment” and “black eye” to my profession.  As a plaintiff’s personal injury attorney who fights huge insurance companies all day, I’m not one to back down or even ignore a baseless criticism especially if it is aimed at my integrity, or at how I conduct myself as a lawyer.  I fight back when that criticism is unjustified and way out of bounds as is the case with O’Keefe’s blog post.

What O’Keefe doesn’t divulge on his LexBlog site is that he himself has engaged in prior misconduct that actually has tarnished the profession.  When O’Keefe was a practicing attorney in Wisconsin (before he quit), the state bar reprimanded him for neglecting a client’s case which resulted in dismissal, for engaging in conduct that technically was a conflict of interest, and then for trying to charge the client money for unreimbursed costs (O’Keefe had to be ordered by the Wisconsin State Bar to pay the client back within 30 days).  

Maybe it’s just me, but when a lawyer engages in conduct that invokes the disciplinary authority of the State Bar to publicly reprimand that lawyer for the conduct, I consider that lawyer an embarrassment to the profession.  Now some of you may find this disclosure on my part vindictive, but it’s not.  If you’re going to publicly chastise another lawyer for allegedly tarnishing the legal profession, then you better have a clean record yourself.

I’m sure O’Keefe regrets it, and that the matter has been closed for years.  But I think it’s necessary to point out that there are far worse actions that a lawyer can commit which actually does tarnish the profession compared to how some of us may use a Facebook Fan Page.  Perhaps O’Keefe should focus on those in the profession who really do damage by violating the public’s trust.  I just think it’s more important when judging a lawyer to look at how that lawyer practices law and treats his or her clients. 

I just don’t believe that my book’s Facebook Fan page is something I should be embarrassed about. Quite the contrary actually.  And there’s hundred of individuals who contact us every month who feel the same way.  I’ll listen to them before I will ever consider the opinions of a self-proclaimed social media expert.  But that’s just me.