Peer to Peer Magazine

PEER TO PEER: THE QUARTERLY MAGA ZINE OF ILTA 86 LESSONS LEARNED Building an Industry-Focused Mobile App About the Author Marika DaPron is the Director of Marketing Operations at Bracewell & Giuliani LLP in Houston. She manages the firm's digital, Web and print collateral operations, in addition to the firm's CRM platform. Marika has managed numerous blog launches, rebranding efforts and website launches, one of which received a Web Award in the Legal Standard of Excellence category. Contact her at marika.dapron@bgllp.com. The recent boom in hydraulic fracturing (fracking) stretches across several practices at Bracewell & Giuliani LLP, a leading international law firm with a focus on servicing those in the energy industry. Bracewell saw a need to use a mobile app to educate its clients and those in the marketplace on shale news, developments and trends. In developing and marketing our app, we learned several lessons that your firm can benefit from if you are also considering an app. BENEFITS OF AN APP With an interest in shale as one of our core strengths in energy and environmental law, our firm had been looking for a consolidated reference with explanations or information about shale plays and issues across the country. Finding none, we saw an obvious opportunity to fill this need and thus differentiate our firm further as providing thought leadership in the energy industry's emerging hotspot of shale. We determined that by building an app we could accomplish a few things: • Influence a target audience directly in a format that's available to anyone with a smartphone • Distinguish our firm as having a branded app related to a core practice • Further serve as a vehicle to deliver the firm's Energy Legal Blog and provide details about our experience in energy and environmental law matters The ShalePlay app is a comprehensive resource, offering news aggregated from a variety of key sources, the latest industry trends and updates, legislation and regulation information, shale studies, an interactive map of shale plays, a glossary of common terms, a historical timeline of hydraulic fracturing and analysis from Bracewell energy and environmental law attorneys and government relations professionals. ShalePlay is on the cutting-edge of law firm marketing and, regarding fracking, is the first mobile app of its kind. ShalePlay also supports the firm's interest in communicating to its audiences through the latest technology platforms. We already utilize blogs, videos, podcasts, LinkedIn and Twitter; an app was a natural next step for our firm. LESSON LEARNED A mobile app does not equal a mobile website. An app should provide unique value.

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