Last week, Kevin O’Keefe (@kevinokeefe) caught my eye with his post "Social media for business development by lawyers is a big lie?" It was written in response to Conrad Saam’s (@conradsaam) post "Every Social Media Consultant is Lying to You." 

Regular readers here will know that I’m a big fan of social media, for lawyers and other business professionals. So I know you’ll expect me to refute the points in Saam’s post and support those in Kevin’s (and I will…maybe). 

But I want to start with this statement – I do not think social media is the be all, end all of business development or marketing tools. 

I never have. 

I even tell my attorneys: the likelihood that you’re going to start using a social media platform (like Twitter) and immediately get a client – or ever get a client – is incredibly small. 

Continue Reading Social Media Works for Lawyers…But It’s Just a Tool

In our second installment of Wondering Wednesdays, I answer the question "What is content marketing, and how can I use it successfully?"

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Content marketing is defined by the Content Marketing Institute as creating and curating valuable content to attract and retain clients. I would take it a step further and add that it’s also to become known as a thought leader, who is the go-to source for a particular subject. 

CMI says that it’s the

art of communicating with your [clients] and prospects without selling…Instead of pitching your…service, you are delivering information that makes your buyer more intelligent." 

With that said, my three tips for content marketing success (these are by no means exclusive) are: 

  • Focus on your audience: You want to make sure that any content you deliver is focused on what your audience cares about (so you have to know who they are, and what that is). This includes news items with commentary, the latest legal updates, how something might impact them, etc. 

    If you’re concerned that content marketing is giving too much information away for free, and clients won’t want to hire you if you’re doing that, think of it like being a doctor – just because someone can check their symptoms and "self-diagnose" after looking at WebMD doesn’t mean that people stop going to the doctor, who can work with them on THEIR symptoms and with THEIR medical history. Your clients and potential clients are the same. 
     

  • Know what content marketing ISN’T: Content marketing isn’t press releases, advertisements or news stories that announce that an attorney is quoted in an article. These things have their value as part of a full marketing package, but they’re not content. With everything you publish, you should be asking yourself "why does this matter? Why does my audience care about this?"
     
  • Repurpose what you’re already getting paid to do: Instead of worrying that you need to come up with original content, repurpose the things you’re already getting paid to do: 
    • Often-asked questions from clients: Take those questions that you can address in a couple of paragraphs, and share them in a blog post. 
    • Conferences you’ve attended: If you’re attending a CLE session, use your notes to write a brief blog post with the salient points. 
    • Speaking engagements: Take your presentations from speaking engagements and turn these into a post or series of posts. 
    • News items: Take the articles that you would formerly mail or email to a client with your two sentences on how it might impact them, and turn that into a post or article. 

      Each of these things is taking the work you’re already doing, and multiplying it – instead of you having to go out and market and network yourself, this is doing that for you without you even having to be there. 

Please add your tips for content marketing success in the comments, or let us know what you’re "wondering" about for our next Wondering Wednesday! 

Today’s Two for Tuesdays will be a little bit different, because I’m talking about tools rather than tips. Though using each of these tools is actually a tip…it’s possible I haven’t had enough coffee today. 

So, jumping right into the tools instead! The first of these tools is one I knew about, but didn’t understand the benefits of until recently, while the second is one I’ve been using for a while, but finally started to use a bit more fully. 

Tool One: Zite

The first tool I recommend is Zite. Yes, I know they were just purchased by FlipBoard, and ultimately, the technology will be incorporated into FlipBoard, but for now, I’m recommending Zite all on its own. If you read my recap of Kevin O’Keefe’s last webinar, you’ll already know that he mentions Zite as a tool that he uses as a blogger. 

Continue Reading Two for Tuesdays: Tools

Regular readers of my blog may be shocked when they read the title of this post – am I really suggesting that you should make relationship-building all about you? 

Yes and no. 

For the purposes of this post, let’s separate out the "you" and "them" of relationship-building. When you’re building relationships, the content has to be all about the other person: 

  • You let the other person do most of the talking, and you do most of the listening. 
  • You ask pointed questions about what is of interest to them. 
  • The content you share online and off is directed at what is most useful to your audience. 
  • You’re sharing some of your own content, but mostly others’, because that’s what’s most useful to those you want to connect with. 
  • You’re constantly revising your efforts to make sure they continue to be in line with what your audience/targets needs and wants. 

Continue Reading Relationship-Building: It’s All About You

We all know that images are incredibly important in this day and age. When you’re constantly bombarded with information all day long, a bold image can stop you in your tracks and help you to focus on the associated content. 

In fact, this infographic from mdgadvertising has some great information about how important images are in social media, including this tidbit: 

Articles containing relevant images have 94 percent more total views than articles without images, on average."

We’ve talked time and time again here about how important it is to include relevant images in your blog posts, and many, many people do that regularly. 

Because of that, there is rampant copyright infringement happening all over the internet, either with people who don’t understand copyright law, or those who just don’t have the funds to purchase the rights to an image and are just hoping not to get caught.  As a photographer, I’m seeing my own photos pop up more and more for both commercial and noncommercial use, without my permission.

So in a significant move yesterday, Getty announced that they’d be opening up a portion of their images free of charge, through their new embedding feature. Many bloggers and social media connections started jumping for joy…but wait, is it all good news? 

Continue Reading Getty’s New Embedding Feature – Don’t Get Excited Yet

Welcome to ILN-terviews, a series of profiles of ILN member firm attorneys, designed to give a unique insight into the lawyers who make up our Network. For our latest interview, we chose one of our newest ILN members, Kriton Metaxopoulos of our member firm, A. & K. Metaxopoulos and Partners Law Firm in Greece! Many of our attorneys will be meeting Kriton for the first time in Chicago in May, so this is a good opportunity to learn a little more about him first!

In one sentence, how would you describe your practice?
We are a traditional full service, but at the same time niche, Greek law firm with an international reputation and presence.

Who would be your typical client?
It is not an easy task, especially during this deep global financial crisis where legal services have been severely affected, to name a typical client. Our firm has maintained its ties with its “traditional” Greek clients, but has also built new relationships with international clients such as Adidas, Abela Group of Companies, Warner, Fromageries Bel, Thomson Reuters, Conde Nast and also distinguished law firms such as Baker McKenzie LLP, CMS, Lewis Silkin, Taylor Wessing and others.

Continue Reading ILN-terviews: Kriton Metaxopoulos, A. & K. Metaxopoulos and Partners Law Firm

Today’s Two for Tuesdays comes via a suggestion from my friend, Nancy Myrland (@nancymyrland), who is helping me battle today’s writer’s block! She recommended I look at two ways to build social equity – social equity is generally considered to be a term of use in social media, whereby you build your credibility online to increase your perceived value by others. But it can also apply in all networking and business that we do – how do we get people to perceive us as valuable to them? 

Tip One: Say Thank You!

This may be an obvious one, but I can almost count on one hand the number of times people have thanked me when I’ve helped them with something, so it IS a noticeable trait. And you can use it in a number of ways: 

  • When you ask someone a question, via phone or email – whether it’s for a referral, an answer to a query, or something else – just say or write "thank you" in return. It takes moments only, but it makes such a huge difference.  When someone thanks me for helping them, I know my work is appreciated, I’m more likely to help them again in the future (and do so in a speedy manner), and it raises my opinion of them. 

    Additionally, in this day and age, email is fairly ubiquitous. And although it’s become far more reliable, there are still many, many situations where an email will go missing and not reach its intended target. So the "thank you" not only expresses your gratitude, but it also confirms with the other party that you received their message and it’s not off floating unseen in the ether somewhere. 
     

  • When someone does something really nice for you – sends you a big referral, invites you to speak on a high profile panel, involves you in an event or conference where you meet some excellent contacts – go the extra mile and write a handwritten thank you note. I do this periodically after ILN conferences, and include some photos of the person that I took at the event. It’s a memorable way to show your gratitude – not only are you doing the right thing, and being nice, but you’re also standing out from the crowd, so that person will remember you the next time they are looking for a lawyer in that area, or someone to do a favor for. 
     
  • When someone shares your material online, by retweeting a blog post, posting your latest article on LinkedIn or Facebook, etc., make sure to take a moment to say thank you. Again, it’s just a way to build your social equity online, to show people that you’re not just a faceless internet account pushing out your own information and never engaging with anyone.

When you make "thank you" a regular part of your conversations, not only is it just the right and polite thing to do, but it raises peoples’ opinions of you, helps to make you more memorable, and takes almost no time at all. 

Tip Two: Be Helpful

Being helpful is another important part of building strong social equity – and this is again true of online and in-person situations. 

  • Share online: As Kevin O’Keefe (@kevinokeefe) said in his webinar last week (recapped here in case you haven’t seen it yet), if you’re not sharing other people’s insight online, it’s basically like walking into a cocktail party and reading your own content – sure, you’ll be remembered, but for all the wrong reasons. 

    If you really want to be considered a thought leader, someone who is smart and worth listening to online, you have to share everything that might be of use to your audience – that means some of your own material and a lot of other people’s material. Consider yourself to be a repository of information in your area of expertise, and share, share, share everything you can find in that arena. 

    This doesn’t have to be complicated or hard – as Kevin also explained in his webinar, you can easily set up searches in your RSS reader for sources and subjects, all of which will then be delivered to you, and you can pick and choose what to forward to everyone else. Easy peasy, as my mom would say. 
     

  • In-person: Don’t just leave this online though, be helpful in person as well!
    • Find an article that might be of use to someone? Cut it out and send it to them (you can also use that article as fodder for a blog post with your thoughts included, but that’s another post altogether).
    • When you see something that benefits someone, send them a quick email with the link and say you were thinking of them. 
    • Speaking on a conference panel that needs a few more smart people? Reach out to a colleague or friend who would make sense as another speaker to offer them the opportunity. You’re helping both that person AND the conference organizers. 
    • Know someone looking for more information on a subject, and know the expert in that area? Connect them through email or social media.

When you’re always looking for ways to help other people, either by connecting them with the right people, sharing information with them, or just doing them a favor, not only are you being a nice person, but you’re also raising your social equity. You’re making yourself memorable by being helpful. Not only will the other person remember you when something comes up that they might need your assistance with, but they also have a more favorable impression of you, which makes them naturally want to return the favor, look for ways to send you business, and help you to achieve your goals. 

In fact, although I have yet to read it, author, speaker, entrepreneur, and all around nice guy, Peter Shankman (@petershankman), recently wrote "Nice Companies Finish First," on the very notion that competition is out in favor of collaboration. So I’m not the only one to think that being nice will help you professionally, as well as let you sleep peaceably at night. I know Peter’s work well through his blog posts and social media conversations, so I know that his book will offer similar value. 

What are your tips for building social equity? Feel free to add them in the comments! 

Last week, I had the pleasure of attending LexBlog’s webinar "Daily Habits of Highly Effective Bloggers" with Kevin O’Keefe (@kevinokeefe). Kevin kicked off the session by saying that there is no perfect way to blog, but that over the past ten years, he’d develop some habits that work for him. 

The session covered: 

  • Essence of blogging
  • Listening tools
  • Posting
  • Complementary Social Media
  • Habits of LexBloggers

Continue Reading Daily Habits of Highly Effective Bloggers – A Webinar Recap

Like many people, I shop regularly at Target. It’s one of my favorite stores. So when I first heard news of the data breach they’d experienced, my heart sank. I am a Target Red cardholder, and had used my card to shop there three times during the time period identified. 

And then I learned about the full scope of the attack – that it affected shoppers who used ANY credit card at Target during that time, and involved more than just information about their card numbers. I saw many people panic, and agreed that if I had used my debit or another card there, I would have been canceling it immediately. 

From the breaking of the news story right up through the letter I received as a cardholder this week, Target has done a number of things – some good and some questionable – that affect their reputation. While law firms have different concerns and vulnerabilities than a consumer store like Target, mistakes, oversights, and crises can and do occur and we can learn from Target’s handling of the data breach. 

Continue Reading What the Target Data Breach Aftermath Teaches Us About Crisis Communications

It’s a little hard to believe, but today marks five years since I wrote my first blog post here at Zen & the Art of Legal Networking. 

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Since the traditional gift for a five year anniversary is wood, in honor of my five years of blogging, I made a donation to American Forests. The donation will allow American Forests to plant 25 trees in my name, which will result "in cleaner air and drinking water, restored habitat for wildlife and fish, and the removal of millions of tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere."

Also appropriately for today, I attended Kevin O’Keefe’s (@kevinokeefe) webinar on "Daily Habits for Highly-Effective Bloggers," for which I’ll be posting a recap early next week. Since that has me thinking about my own blogging habits, and because it’s our five year anniversary, I’m offering you my own five tips for effective blogging: 

  1. Create an editorial calendar: I started with this one from HubSpot, and I can’t tell you what a difference it’s made in my blogging. I used to be one of those "do as I say, not as I do" bloggers who would recommend the calendar, but didn’t have one myself. But now that I do, I have a daily writing prompt, it’s encouraged me to think outside the box on a regular basis about what I want to write and where I draw inspiration from, and it motivates me to write daily, which I struggled with last year.

    Rather than wait for inspiration to strike, or a block of time that you have free to write (is there such a thing?), give yourself assignments. It makes a HUGE difference. 
     

  2. Look outside your industry/expertise: While I draw great inspiration from the smart people I know in legal marketing and the legal industry, it can often be very limiting to focus just on the things and people I know. When I step outside of legal and look at what other industries and companies are doing, and then figure out how that translates to what we’re doing, it makes me a better marketer and sparks my creativity as a blogger.

    Take a look at current events and what’s popular to see how it might impact companies in your area of the law, or what lessons people can learn from some new idea or topic of conversation. We can all easily get sucked into writing the same thing over and over again, just using different words, and looking outside the industry can give us a fresh perspective (and on the plus side, it’s also different to what everyone else in your field is writing about). 
     

  3. Read, read and read some more: Listening is key, and that’s part of what Kevin talked about in his webinar today. When I regularly read what other people are saying (both in and outside of the legal industry), I have the opportunity to recognize the trends – I see what is important to people, and where I might have some feedback. That’s how I got started blogging in the first place – I would read other blog posts and people’s comments on Twitter, and I realized that I had a lot to add to those conversations. A lot more than would fit in a blog comment. So I started writing my own posts, referencing and responding to others.

    You can look for these kinds of "conversations" in articles, in blog posts, in facebook chats, around the watercooler, with your spouse – wherever they might appear. My blog would be very boring if I was trying to come up with something original (does such a thing exist?) and always talking only about myself. 
     

  4. Figure out when your best blogging happens: This will be different for everyone – some people are at their best first thing in the morning, while others need a bit more coffee before they can get started. Some people will do better using a weekend morning to blog, while others prefer to write in the evening, and schedule their post to publish the following day. I’m a post-lunch kind of gal – I focus more on the immediate needs for my day in the morning, like email and updating our website, checking in on various projects we have going, and then after lunch, my brain is functional enough for the more esoteric conversations that come from my writing.

    That schedule won’t work for everyone, but it’s what works for me, and because I’ve identified that, it makes it much easier to blog more regularly. If I tried to change that and force myself to write at another time of day, I might write less often, or not be able to get at the points I want to make. So look at when you’re most comfortable writing and make it part of your routine. 
     

  5. Just write something: There are many (MANY) days when I have writer’s block. I’ll sit at my computer and either draw a total blank, or not be able to cohesively translate the thoughts in my head to words on the screen. At those times, walking away sometimes helps (or having another cup of coffee), but a lot of the time, I just need to write something. Anything. I’ll take an idea I’ve had for another day and start to write about it, or focus on the post I’m doing for the following day. The posts may make no sense at all, and then I have the choice to save them to review another day, or totally delete them. 

    More often than not, the act of just writing something will get my creative juices flowing, and then I’m able to write the post that I really wanted to in the first place. I had a bit of that today – I started out knowing that I wanted to write about my blogiversary, but also to write a post with some substantive information in it. I didn’t know what that substantive information would be at first, so I just focused on writing about the anniversary in the hopes that something would fire up in my brain – and it did. Five habits for bloggers for five years of blogging. 

    And at the worst, maybe nothing comes out of your writing for that day, but maybe you’ve unblocked yourself enough to write something amazing the following day. For me, sometimes just taking action is enough, whatever that action may be. 

Those are the five tips for blogging that I have for you today! On Monday, I’ll bring you the recap of Kevin’s webinar, but in the meantime, add your own tips for blogging in the comments below!