Today, we’re bringing you a special guest post, from one of the ILN’s marketing professionals! Alina Crisu is the PR & Communication Associate with LLPO Law Firm in Cyprus and she’s got a thoughtful post on how to respond to trending topics.
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A topic recently came to my attention that was also brewing in my head: should marketers who work for law firms follow social media topic trends? The answer is simple but the reality is far more complex.Continue Reading Trending topics…a fool’s errand?
Now. Before you freak out and imagine that I’m suggesting that you become either a bard or a liar, just bear with me for a little bit to understand what I mean by “storytelling.” (Hopefully, you’ve also read last week’s post as well.)
Daily, we interact with lots of people – this happens in person, at our offices, in the coffee shop, at our kids’ sporting events, or in art classes. It happens online, through our group chats, text messages with friends, Facebook shares, LinkedIn comments, etc. We interact so much and so frequently, that we’ve reached a real saturation point with these interactions, and even with our professional messages, we can see a lack of care that a lot of us are giving to the details over the tools and the shiny new thing. Instead, we’re just blindly producing more and more and more and more, adding more noise (as Adrian Lurssen would say).
Continue Reading Lawyers: Develop Business with Storytelling
Bad news everyone.
There’s no magic bullet when it comes to LinkedIn. Or, for that matter, any business development or marketing tool.
There’s only strategy and hard work.
Anyone who tells you differently is selling something.
Are there instances where you’ll connect with someone and they’ll immediately buy your services or you’ll write a post and it will go viral? Absolutely! That’s down to luck (and sometimes, strategy and hard work behind the scenes). But it’s not because there’s some trick to it all. You’re not going to suddenly “figure it all out” and have one tool be doing all the work for you and bringing you lots and lots of clients. It doesn’t work like that.
Continue Reading LinkedIn for Lawyers: There’s no Magic Bullet
There is a lot of advice out there on how to use LinkedIn and why you should use LinkedIn and what’s useful about LinkedIn – have I used “LinkedIn” enough in this sentence yet?
I’ll begin at the beginning with a little story and without naming any names. About 15 years ago, when I was a wee baby and before LinkedIn was at all popular with lawyers, I gave a presentation to about 200 of my clients, extolling the benefits of the platform and why it was going to be the “next big thing.” At that time, it was nowhere near as useful as it is today because it lacked engagement, but I could really see the benefits. One of our very senior attorneys tapped me on the shoulder in the middle of my speech and in a stage whisper, told me that no one cared about what I was saying, and I needed to cut the rest of the LinkedIn stuff out because I was running too long. It was by far one of the most mortifying moments of my career.
Continue Reading LinkedIn: Three Actually Helpful Tips
Last week, I mentioned that I’d had the chance to sit down with LexBlog’s Bob Ambrogi to discuss all things ILN, podcasting, blogging and more. I wanted to share the full interview with you this week. You can check out a written digest of some of the highlights of the interview here, or watch
Last week, I had the absolute pleasure of speaking with LexBlog’s Bob Ambrogi on “This Week in Legal Blogging,” their new Facebook Live interview series. Bob and I discussed the ILN, running a legal network during a pandemic, and the eleven years that I’ve spent blogging here on Zen (how did that happen??). Two of his questions touched on tips for bloggers who were either getting started in legal blogging, or looking to focus or amplify their efforts, so I wanted to share them here with you! These are my six tips for legal bloggers:
Continue Reading Six Tips for Legal Bloggers
As I mentioned last week, it may not seem like the most important time to be digging into discussing content. But since many of us are publishing SO much of it right now, we want to make sure we’re doing it in a way that’s adding value and not detracting from it. Recently, I came across the “one content marketing question” that we should all be asking ourselves, and it really brought me up short. A reminder, when we talk about “content marketing,” we’re using that to encompass the universe of articles, blog posts, conference presentations, webinars, podcasts, informational videos, etc. – essentially all substantive content that is and can be shared with others.
These days, I think it’s safe to say that we’re pretty much all producing content. So what’s the one question we should all be asking ourselves?
Would anyone miss your content if you did not publish it?
Continue Reading Become the Beyonce of Legal Content with These Three Tips
People have remarked that the word “unprecedented” is certainly having a moment right now. I think that’s something we can all agree on. And one of the things that is truly unprecedented is the sheer amount of content coming out of law firms. While firms have long been known for producing a variety of client alerts, articles, blog posts, and more, the amount of information that is pouring forth from legal minds around the world is quite a torrent.
We’ve already talked about it in recent weeks here on Zen, and it has me looking back to some of our previous discussions around content marketing, and its best practices. That may seem a bit superficial at a time that is a dire as this one is, but we’re going to delve into some content conversations over the next few weeks and I’ll tell you why I think they’re essential for firms at the moment:
Continue Reading Fixing the Two Biggest Problems with Legal Content Writers Amid COVID-19
Now that it’s 2020, I think (read: I hope) that we’ve all come to the conclusion that it’s important to develop a strong plan that identifies the goals that we have for business development, and the tactics and strategies that we’ll use to develop those goals, right? I have a sneaking suspicion that there are still a few people out there who are throwing various ideas up at the wall with the hope that some of them stick, and this is the year to stop doing that. Really, I mean it.
In my post today, I’m going to talk a lot about content marketing, and yes, I know I’m using both the dreaded words “content” and “marketing” together, but stick with me, because we’re also going to look at how these tips impact the message that you’re sending out regardless of the activities that you’re pursuing. Why is that? Because no matter what you do, you’re offering a message about yourself. Talking to someone in line for coffee about how you help clients? I hate to tell you, but you’re marketing yourself (and by the way, that’s a good thing).
Continue Reading Lawyers: Stop with the Noise & Promote Yourself Specifically & Thoughtfully with these Two Tips
Among my most popular posts last year were those dedicated to talking about LinkedIn, which tells me that it continues to be the tool that resonates most in the legal industry. I know that it’s in part because it’s become such a robust and useful platform, but I also suspect that it’s in part because some of us are still hoping that there’s a silver bullet out there when it comes to networking and relationship building. I hate to tell you – there isn’t. Even when you’re using social media, which can supersize your efforts, you still need to have goals, develop a plan, and invest time and effort in order for it to pay off for you.
Continue Reading 5 Quick Tips to Leverage Your Use of LinkedIn in the New Year