PhotoOne of the greatest criticisms you hear for legal content is that it’s lacking in personality. Lawyers have the talent and the intelligence to communicate their valuable legal expertise, but often, their passion for the subject doesn’t translate well for someone who’d prefer that they “give it to them straight” instead of filling an article, post, or video with legalese.

But what does that mean – “add personality” to your content? And how do you do it?

The Content Marketing Institute’s Sarah Rickerd authored a great post this week with 10 Tips to Pack More Personality into Your Content, and two of them really stuck out for me. Before we touch on them, I know your first question is going to be “why bother?” The reason is simple, and Sarah addresses it early on – it’s about engagement.

We’ve talked before about how short our attention spans are today – ideally, the right audience would see your post, realize how important your message is for them, and hang on every word. But the reality is that we’re all busy people, and unless we’re engaged in what we’re reading, we’re going to move on to the next thing in seconds. Your audience may save your content for another day, when they have “more time,” or with the greatest of intentions of reading or viewing it, or they may never pay attention to it at all. Continue Reading Two Tips to Add Personality to Your Content

photo-1457213453084-d386450c6252Next week, I’m heading to Tokyo for our Asia Pacific Regional Conference, and the following week, I’ll be off to Austin for the Legal Marketing Association’s Annual Meeting (and yes, I’m running my half-marathon in between those two, in a city that is not my home). Because of this, I’ve got conference networking on the brain. Much of what I want to say about conference networking I’ve already said here at Zen, so instead of rehashing it, I want to round-up some of my favorite posts and advice for networking at conferences right here for you. I’m also throwing in a couple of posts related to general networking, and adding in how you can apply the advice to conferences:

Networking Hacks from Undergrads

The two tips in here are to embrace Facebook (really, social media in general) and that business cards are back. In terms of social media, you want to be using this before, during and after a conference – before the conference, use the tips suggested in the post to find and connect to the speakers and attendees at the event that you’d like to meet, and set up networking opportunities. While things can happen organically, wouldn’t you rather make sure that you didn’t leave them up to fate? During the conference, do the same. When you  meet someone, or see a speaker that you like, add them to your LinkedIn connections with a personalized note reminding them of your connection or complimenting them about something that they said. After the conference, add anyone that you missed and arrange to follow up with them where appropriate. Ensure that you have plenty of business cards with you, that they’re up to date with your current information, and are memorable – people were clamoring for my unique cards at the recent awards ceremony I went to in London, even though they were already members of a competing network. Continue Reading The Value of Conference Networking

Run1If you’ve been spending any time with me lately, you know that I’ve been running. A lot.

I’m training for my first half marathon, which is in two and a half weeks, and yes, I’m nervous about it. I’ve never run that far (“that far” being 13.1 miles if you’re not familiar with the half marathon distance). I’ve done several 5ks, and one rather dubious 10k in the rain, where I ended up walking a lot due to a lack of training, but this time, I’m serious.

I’ve been serious about my training, my rest time, my nutrition, the whole kit and kaboodle.  Continue Reading Two Ways Content Marketing is Like Running

Today, I’m bringing you a reprint of my friend, Lance Godard‘s latest blog post on 3 reasons every lawyer should study JD Supra’s Readers’ Choice Awards. The awards came out earlier this week, and while you may be inclined to dismiss them automatically as something only to celebrate for those who were honored, you’d be wrong. There are actually a number of important reasons you should be focused on the information revealed in these awards, and Lance is here to tell us why.

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[Guest perspective by Lance Godard, Client Relations Manager in the Ohio offices of employment law firm Fisher & Phillips.]

JD Supra just published their inaugural Readers’ Choice awards, featuring top authors and top content across 26 categories in 2015. The accompanying report provides critical insight into who’s reading what – and in which industry – that every lawyer should know. Some observations:

Clients Read What They Need To Know

First, the awards make clear that the “secret” of leading authors on JD Supra is to give the people what they want. These authors are writing about the issues relevant to the companies they want to reach. That may seem self-evident, but it’s not. Because it means you have to step away from your perspective as advisor, as someone who knows what her clients SHOULD be worrying about, and step into the shoes of those clients trying to understand a hundred different and diverse legal issues all at once. Of course you can (and should) write about issues you think your potential clients need to know. But if you’re not analyzing the developments they think are important, you’re not going to gain the credibility that will lead them to take your word for it.

…step away from your perspective as advisor, as someone who knows what her clients SHOULD be worrying about, and step into the shoes of those clients trying to understand a hundred different and diverse legal issues all at once.

Continue Reading 3 Reasons Why Every Lawyer Should Study JD Supra’s Readers’ Choice Awards

business people in a series with a casual guy doing the headstand

Last week, I was speaking with one of my lawyers about content marketing and social media, and he wanted to know whether “all this blogging and social media stuff” really brings in work for lawyers. It’s a question I get a lot from my lawyers, and one that ties in nicely with an article I was just reading this afternoon, so I thought I’d share my answer with you here as well.

While there are those one-off stories that you hear, when the timing is just right that a lawyer blogs about a topic and an in-house counsel is looking for an expert in that area at the same time, and they find each other and a matter is secured, that’s certainly not the norm. I’ve never suggested to my lawyers that they engage in social media because it’s going to directly lead to more work coming in. What I do tell them is that it enhances their existing word-of-mouth reputation. When I was speaking with my lawyer last week, I said to him what’s much more likely to happen is that a potential client will be looking for a referral, and someone that they know, like, and trust will give them a name.

As we all do these days, the potential client will then Google that lawyer. When they do so, if what comes up is a series of well-written, thoughtful blog posts on the subject matter that the potential client is interested in, a robust LinkedIn profile that showcases the lawyer’s expertise in the area, and a Twitter feed that shows that they engage with thought leaders in the industry and share relevant content (both their own and others) that puts them on the cutting edge, then the potential client will feel more confident and comfortable in giving the work to that lawyer. It’s human nature – we want to have our choices confirmed so that there’s as little risk as possible in making them.  Continue Reading Two Ways Content Marketing Can Advance Your Professional Brand

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March/April 2016

The ILN is proud to announce our latest firm of the month, Abe, Wada & Watanabe – Tokyo, Japan!

Abe, Wada & Watanabe is an internationally oriented boutique law firm based in Tokyo, Japan. Their attorneys have considerable experience representing a wide variety of corporate clients, including foreign multinationals in Japan (inbound work) and assisting Japanese companies that do business abroad (outbound work). All of the partners and many of the associates at Abe, Wada & Watanabe have worked in the legal profession overseas and understand the needs of overseas clients.

Abe, Wada & Watanabe’s clientele consists entirely of corporate entities, multinational businesses that lead the automotive, aircraft, strategic consulting, telecommunications, high technology, sporting goods, medical equipment, information services, transportation and the food and entertainment fields. Their practice areas include Intellectual Property, Corporate, Commercial, and Employment Law.

One unique aspect of their firm is that many of the world’s large international law firms, even those with local offices in Japan, seek their advice on transnational negotiations, dispute resolution and litigation in Japan – when the lawyers at the world’s top firms look for advice in Japan, they often turn to them.

With this background, Abe, Wada & Watanabe is uniquely positioned to assist ILN members and their clients in navigating an array of Japanese and international transactional legal matters.

Main Contacts at Abe, Wada & Watanabe and More…

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Learn More…
Full descriptions of Abe, Wada & Watanabe’s services, expertise, and lawyer profiles
are available on their ILN profile.
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Wada Nobuhiro
Telephone: (+81) 3-3512-3711
Practice Groups: Corporate & commercial law, employment
ILN Executive Director, Alan Griffiths says…
“As one of the original members of the International Lawyers Network, Abe, Wada & Watanabe have shown an unparalleled commitment to the ILN. We look forward to joining them in Tokyo in a few short weeks for our Asia Pacific Conference, graciously hosted by their firm.” 

1928e537Litigators: a recent survey by public relations firm Greentarget highlights the opportunity to be proactive with your clients, says Senior Vice President and head of the firm’s Crisis & Litigation Communications Group, Larry Larsen.

The survey itself focused on the intersection between communications planning and reputation in high-profile lawsuits, and revealed that a lack of planning outside of the courtroom, not surprisingly, can lead to damaging a company’s image. From Greentarget’s press release:

[W]hile senior legal officers acknowledge the importance of communications with stakeholders during high-profile lawsuits, the majority have outdated strategies or no strategies at all to direct communications outside of court.

This lack of preparation leads to an overly conservative approach defined by decisions and actions that are often impulsive and governed by the fear of negative media attention. Ironically, these instincts can compound the likelihood of reputational damage.

This vicious cycle – an increasing number of high-profile lawsuits, deficient planning, conservative approaches, and the resulting potential negative attention – is exacerbated by the lack of accountability at most organizations.  The majority of respondents said that they are not ultimately responsible for communications strategy outside of court. They stated that other senior leaders in their organizations have final authority and that their CEOs were either actively involved throughout litigation or at least engaged major decisions.”

Continue Reading Crisis Management: An Opportunity for Litigators to Be Proactive

photo-1452690700222-8a2a1a109f4cRemember the good old days when we just did a bunch of things and didn’t have specialized terms for them? Yep, these aren’t them.

“Social media marketing” came about when social media platforms were introduced and we learned how to use online technology to build relationships that we’d previously been building offline (that’s tremendously simplified, but you get the idea). Then “content marketing” came along to describe what many law firms had been doing for years – writing about the law and its impact on their clients, and then sharing it with them. As a term, content marketing is broader than that, but in terms of the legal industry, that’s pretty much the short version.

As we worked through the introduction of the terms, we separated people into two camps: the “broadcasters” and the “engagers.” The “broadcasters” treated social media and content marketing as a means to spread their message around, but without the end goal of developing community with anyone. This isn’t a bad thing, it’s just a different valuation – some of the goals that firms/lawyers who embrace this philosophy might be pursuing are reputation enhancement, being considered a thought leader on a particular subject, etc. Many firms/lawyers have been successful, and even built a large following this way, and spend little or no time engaging with their audience. Continue Reading Two Ways to Translate Content Marketing into Relationship Marketing

photo-1433170897235-615700336230Of all the social media platforms out there, I’d venture to say that LinkedIn is the one that lawyers are most comfortable using. It has a reputation for being the most professional, and as a result, it’s had the widest adoption within the industry. In recent years, LinkedIn has really expanded their offerings, and provided a robust, deep platform that allows us to engage in new ways, all which make it an even more valuable platform than it was at the beginning.

Like any social platform (or any tool, really), LinkedIn is what you make of it – you can treat it as a place to broadcast from, and as long as you have something valuable to say, you may find that many people are listening to you. But if you want to use it as a business development tool, then you need to get serious about the steps that you take to leverage its features. I read a great article today over on Inc which talked about three ways to use LinkedIn to attract your ideal customer. Since “sales” is a dirty word for lawyers, we’re instead going to talk about using LinkedIn for business/relationship development (which, by the way, is really the same thing, but said in a more palatable way).

Since it’s our Two for Tuesday day, we’ll just presume that you already have a robust LinkedIn profile. I promise that at some point this year, I will update my LinkedIn for Lawyers book, which is a step-by-step process for setting up a profile, but for the moment, let’s set aside that tip and focus on the other two that Inc author, Bill Carmody, suggests.  Continue Reading Two Ways to Use LinkedIn to Attract Your Ideal Client

photo-1451653500993-04a9a6368221Although it’s officially tomorrow, I thought I’d use today to mark Zen & the Art of Legal Networking’s SEVENTH “blogiversary.” It’s hard to believe that it’s been seven years since I started blogging, and even more, that I’m still enjoying it. Here’s a roundup of the anniversary posts that I’ve done:

The 7th anniversary gift is typically copper or wool, and a fun fact for those of you who may not know me well is that I am a very fast crocheter. It’s a skill I learned from my grandmother at a young age, and one I’ve kept up through the years, often making gifts for family and friends. A GREAT way to take advantage of a love of crocheting is by donating your time (and wool!) to some excellent causes, which is something I do on a yearly basis. Two things I do are crocheting scarves for our troops (although it’s often warm during the day where they’re deployed to, the dramatic temperature drops at night, and in the winter, mean it can get a bit cold, so they do actually need scarves) and crocheting hats for cancer patients undergoing chemo who have lost their hair.  Here are the links for those who’d like to use their own knitting or crochet skills to do the same, or who’d like to make a monetary gift to support these awesome causes!

Continue Reading Happy 7th Blogiversary to Zen & the Art of Legal Networking!