Staying with our theme of content marketing, today, I want to look at what happens once you’ve produced your content. It’s not enough just to write, present or produce something smart and insightful – you’ve also got to promote it. 

That may feel a little bit icky, but it’s important – it’s not about tooting your own horn; it’s about making your content available to those who may not be able to find it otherwise. And there are ways to do it without being pushy or obnoxious (which is very important). 

Through my RSS reader, I found a great website that offers a number of posts related to content marketing. Recently, there was one focusing on this very idea – "The Three Step Plan to Increase Your Content Marketing Reach" from Samantha Ferguson. 

Because it’s two for Tuesday, we’re just going to focus on the first two – but also because I think the third point might be pushing it a little bit for this audience. Let’s not reinvent the wheel just yet! 

Before we get into the tips, I want to start with the why. Ferguson does an excellent job of explaining why promoting your content is so important: 

Continue Reading Two for Tuesdays: Promoting Your Content

And here we are, at the last of my Superbowl Commercials posts. We’re talking about the worst of the worst of this year’s Superbowl Commercials and while there are only a couple for a change, they are really doozies. 

I’ll start with the least terrible of the two, to ease you into the cringing. 

T-Mobile: #KimsDataStash

https://youtube.com/watch?v=ZTwzsV3I3OQ

Continue Reading Superbowl Commercials: The Ugly of 2015

I’m rather liking this theme of content marketing for our Two for Tuesdays posts, so we’re going to be sticking with that for a while!

Since the post I linked to last week offered us four mistakes to avoid when doing content marketing, and we touched on two of them, it only makes sense to revisit it to look at the final two in this week’s post. As a reminder, the post was by Amanda Jesnoewski, owner of Velocity Media + Communications, on Startup Smart, who discusses "Four content marketing mistakes you need to avoid." Let’s dive in.

Tip One: Write Your Own Content…But Use Others for Inspiration

This is a fine line – the best bloggers out there are the ones who are able to find inspiration in someone else’s content and put their own spin on it (and subsequently create relationships with those amplifiers and influencers whose content they’re linking to). 

But it’s a delicate balance.

 

Continue Reading Two for Tuesdays: More Content Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

Our firm of the month will also be welcoming us to Shanghai in just about two weeks for the ILN’s 2015 Asia Pacific Regional Meeting! Congratulations to Zhong Lun Law Firm!

   

 

 Member of the International Lawyers Network

The ILN is proud to announce our latest "Firm of the Month" – Zhong Lun Law Firm, China! 

Founded in 1993, Zhong Lun is a leading full service PRC law firm. With over 200 partners and 900 professionals strategically located in eight of China’s key corporate and financial centers and four international offices including Hong Kong, Tokyo, London and New York, they are consistently chosen as legal service partner by clients who require comprehensive services in an increasingly complex legal environment across the vast geographic area of China. Their major practice disciplines include Real Estate and Construction, Corporate Financing and Capital Markets, Mergers and Acquisitions, Private Equity and Venture Capital, Foreign Direct Investment, Banking and Finance, Structured Financing and Securitization, International Trade and WTO, Technology, Media and Telecommunications (TMT), Intellectual Property, Bankruptcy and Corporate Reorganization, as well as Dispute Resolution.

They are proud to serve a broad range of blue chip clients that include numerous Fortune 500 companies, banks and financial institutions as well as international organizations and government authorities. They strive to provide quality, efficient and practical legal advice on complex business transactions in China. Their outstanding work has achieved broad recognition. Their practices and lawyers are frequently cited and recommended in their respective markets by publications such as the Chambers Asia Guide, Asian Legal Business, Asia Law & Practice, International Financial Law Review and others.

 Full descriptions of Zhong Lun’s services, expertise, and lawyer profiles are available on their ILN profile.

Lindsay Griffiths
Director of Global Relationship Management
International Lawyers Network

Lindsay Griffiths

 

Learn More

 

Main Contacts: 

Scott Guan

Scott Guan

Email: scottguan@zhonglun.com
Telephone: +86 21 6061 3068

Practice Groups:
Mergers & Acquisitions, Dispute Resolution, Capital Markets/Securities

Steven Huang

Steven Huang

Email: stevenhuang@zhonglun.com
Telephone: +86 21 6061 3085

Practice Groups:
Mergers & Acquisitions, Capital Markets/Securities, Private Equity & Investment Funds


 
Alan Griffiths

“Zhong Lun Law Firm is a truly excellent law firm, and a valued member of the ILN. All of us look forward to traveling to Shanghai in March as they host the 2015 Asia Pacific Regional Meeting." 

Alan Griffiths
Executive Director
International Lawyers Network

+001.201.594.9985

www.ilntoday.com

 

With this year’s crop of commercials, there actually weren’t too many that fell into the ‘bad" category – the commercials were either pretty good or really terrible. But I did manage to find a few that I wasn’t happy with. 

The first one on my list will surprise many people, because it made a lot of "good" lists and seemed to be a popular favorite: 

Snickers: The Brady Bunch

https://youtube.com/watch?v=rqbomTIWCZ8

Continue Reading Superbowl Commercials – The Bad of 2015

I’m finally back with another Superbowl commercials post! In today’s post, we’ll cover my second tier commercials, those I’m calling the "good" of 2015. I’m going to look at three of them, as well as the lessons that lawyers and law firms can learn from them, and then I’ll list the other commercials that I liked and would consider worth a watch. 

Always #LikeAGirl

https://youtube.com/watch?v=XjJQBjWYDTs

Continue Reading Superbowl Commercials – The Good of 2015

Focusing on content marketing for last week’s Two for Tuesdays worked so well that I’m doing it again this week. Today, we’re looking at mistakes that you want to avoid making in your content marketing. I found this great piece by Amanda Jesnoewski, owner of Velocity Media + Communications, on Startup Smart, where she discusses "Four content marketing mistakes you need to avoid." 

Her piece is excellent, but all of the marketing speak may scare of some lawyers – I’m here to tell you that her advice applies to you too. We’re going to focus on two tips today. 

Tip One: Think Like a Publisher, Not Like a Lawyer

How many times do you watch a medical show on television, and see someone ask the doctor to "tell it to them straight," meaning  give them the diagnosis in layman’s terms without all of the medical jargon? Lots, right? 

It’s not because the person isn’t smart enough to understand what a subdural hematoma is, it’s just more efficient to tell them that it’s a brain bleed. 

 

Continue Reading Two for Tuesdays: Content Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

During the Legal Marketing Association’s Social Media Shared Interest Group’s 12 Days of Social Media last year (say that three times fast), my friend Lance Godard predicted that 2015 would be the year of content marketing. And he’s one smart guy, so I always listen to him. As he says: 

After all, content marketing has been around forever (long before that’s what we were calling it that, anyway). And we’ve been talking specifically about content marketing in the legal profession for a year or two at least. So why do we think it will change your life in 2015?"

Because it’s catching on in a big way (think LinkedIn Publisher, for starters)… And that means law firms – and legal marketers – are going to have a lot more competition for their written materials in 2015. They’re going to have to stop taking a haphazard, ‘let’s-keep-tweeting-and-posting-on-Facebook-the-links-to-our-content" approach to getting their work in front of the people who buy their services. They’re going to have to write better, to tell better stories, to articulate the skills they have to solve the problems their clients face, using the very language that those clients use to describe their problems. They – and that means all of us, too, – are going to have to get better at this, to spend more resources, to develop stronger strategies, to stop doing the things that don’t work and start doing more of those that do."

Continue Reading Two for Tuesdays: Content Marketing

It’s one of my favorite posts of the year – my recap of the Superbowl commercials! Recall, if you will, those Staples commercials with "It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" playing as parents ride shopping carts gleefully through the store followed by glum kids, and you’ll have some idea of how excited I am over the superbowl of advertising. 

Before I jump into my absolute favorites (instead of just "The Good" this year, I’m splitting it into "The Great" and "The Good"), I wanted to make an observation – social media is a big part of any viewing experience for me, and the Superbowl was no different. While watching the game, I was also checking in on Twitter and Facebook, and it was interesting to gauge the reactions of the people I follow and engage with to the same commercials I was watching. 

Often, I would have one reaction to something, and then others would have a completely different reaction, and I’d find myself getting sucked into "groupthink" a little bit, and changing my mind. So I’ve worked hard to bring you the commercials that I like best, and offer my lessons for legal marketing. I heard several times last night that people were generally unhappy with last night’s crop of commercials, but I thought that while there were a few major duds – we’ll get to those in later posts – they were mostly very, very well done for a change. Now, on with the great! 

Continue Reading Superbowl Commercials – The Best of 2015

Today, I’m bringing you the final installment of my recaps from the Viewabill webinar (recording and audio available here). We’ve learned some really interesting things about what both inside and outside counsel are thinking these days in this climate of change, and the conversations around all of these issues should continue – the one lesson we should all take away from these is that communication among all of those involved in legal services is paramount. 

Thanks to Viewabill for inviting me to listen in, and giving me the opportunity to get a preview from a couple of their panelists! I look forward to the next session.

The final session of the morning was "Legal Tech and You:" 

Lawyers are looking for new ways to compete and position themselves as being at the forefront of an oversaturated market, and clients are demanding more efficiency, transparency, and affordability from their legal service providers. What do you look for when considering implementing legal technology and where do you see the next phase of innovation headed?"

Continue Reading Legal Technology – What’s Next?