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Despite being a long-time blogger and follower of Kevin O’Keefe on social media, I always learn something new when I attend one of his webinars.  Today, I was able to participate in "Blogging: Greater Returns with Less Effort," which was excellent and I’d like to share my recap with you. A full recording of the webinar will be available in the coming days on LexBlog’s YouTube channel.

Usual Starting Point

Kevin began at the beginning, so to speak, with the questions that he normally gets at the outset of a firm or attorney beginning their foray into blogging: 

  • How frequently should lawyers blog? 
  • Should we have a group blog to take the weight off of one person? 
  • Should we have an associate write the blog? 
  • Should we have a ghostwriter? 

Continue Reading Blogging: Greater Returns with Less Effort – A LexBlog Webinar

As the remnants of Hurricane Isaac are sweeping through my little town today (just a big thunderstorm, fortunately!), my mind is on blogging. So let’s jump into the second half of LexBlog’s Blogging Best Practices for Lawyers webinar! (Check out the first half here)

Effective Editorial Content

The next topic that Colin and Helen covered was effective editorial content. Colin said that he looks over every post that comes through the LexBlog network, and as he does, he’s looking for people who write like people. So often, bloggers just take their firm’s legal alerts and put them on their blog – but it would be more effective to add some personality instead, because it makes the posts more readable. Continue Reading Blogging Best Practices for Lawyers – A LexBlog Webinar Recap Part II

I’m full of the recaps lately, and I promise I’ve got some more original commentary coming up for you all as we get into fall. I’ve mentioned before that I love September, and the feeling of a fresh start that it gives me. For that reason, now is as good a time as ever to take a look at what you’re doing in your blogging – to see what’s been successful for you and what you can tweak. 

With that in mind, I bring you some excellent tips from LexBlog’s own Colin O’Keefe and Helen Pitlick – and I don’t say that just because they so kindly mentioned this blog. It was a great refresher for me, and whether you’re just thinking about getting into blogging, or you’ve been at it for a while, you’ll find something of value in their comments. Since there are a lot of great tips here, and I want  you to think about them a bit, I’m splitting this into two posts – the next one will follow after the holiday weekend here in the States.Continue Reading Blogging Best Practices for Lawyers – A LexBlog Webinar Recap Part I

After sharing all of their valuable content with us, Kevin and Lee were happy to answer some questions from the audience. 

What’s the correlation of a strong brand with online lead generation? 

Lee clarified the essence of the question as being "how is your brand going to impact your lead generation and online presence?" Kevin said that he wanted to say that larger brands would have more impact, but he wasn’t sure that this was true. He used Coca Cola as an example, saying that if they didn’t form the right strategy online with the people who want to drink Coca Cola, they’re not going to go anywhere. 

In a lot of ways, the internet is the great equalizer (I say this to my attorneys all the time). If you take the time to craft a good strategy, understand what makes you unique, and demonstrate what your value is, you’re going to be effective and your brand will become stronger. You may even develop a stronger brand as an upstart than an old traditional company. Continue Reading Blogging for Clients: How Online Relationships Lead to Real-World Clients (A Re-cap) Part III

On Tuesday, we jumped into the first half of Kevin McKeown and Lee Frederiksen’s webinar on Blogging for Clients. Today, we’re looking at the second half! 

Developing your Strategy and Tools

Lee said that when you look at online marketing at a macro level, there’s not one technique that says "this is the one to use." There are a whole bunch of techniques. So how do these fit together – how do you make sense out of this about what you need to do, and when you need to do it? 

He showed us a slide with the content marketing model, which shows how the various techniques fit together. It was a series of steps, with escalating levels of interaction and trust with the client – it goes from the point where they’ve never heard of you all the way to they’re a client. Lee said that marketers may look at this as their marketing funnel, and business developers as their pipeline. Continue Reading Blogging for Clients: How Online Relationships Lead to Real-World Clients (A Re-cap) Part II

Recently, I had the chance to sit in on a webinar with Kevin McKeown of LexBlog and Lee Frederiksen of Hinge Marketing, as they discussed the topic of blogging for clients, focusing on how online relationships can lead to real-world clients. 

Since this is a meaty topic, I’ll be breaking this up into multiple posts.

The speakers started by letting us know what the planned to cover in the webinar: 

  • The economic case for online marketing
  • How trust is developed online
  • Developing your strategy and tools
  • Implementing your plan

Continue Reading Blogging for Clients: How Online Relationships Lead to Real-World Clients (A Re-cap) Part I

Today, while everyone is posting about the SCOTUS decision to uphold the PPACA, I thought I’d talk about Adrian Dayton’s webinar to the Legal Marketing Association’s Social Media Special Interest Group. 

Adrian’s webinar focused on "how to get your firm blogging," and the invitation to the SIG members described the session as: 

Drawing from the bestselling book The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg and from over a dozen case studies within law firms, join us for 60 minutes on the 22nd of June as Adrian Dayton, author of Social Media for Lawyers: Twitter Edition (2012, 2nd printing) and LinkedIn & Blogs for Lawyers (West 2012, co-authored by Amy Knapp) shares three keys to moving lawyers from neophites to habitual bloggers and social media users.

Included in this webcast you will learn:

  • How to persuade your lawyers to start blogging
  • Helping overcome common objections to blogging
  • Three steps to forming habits
  • Internal implementation strategies
  • Case studies from medium to large law firms

Continue Reading How to Get Your Firm Blogging – A Webinar Re-cap

In Monday’s post recapping Adrian Lurssen & John Hellerman’s recent webinar, we talked about their advice to see the world from your audience’s point of view. Today, we’ll look at their next point, to think like an editor.

Adrian kicked off this section with a quote from Barger & Wolen’s Heather Morse:

What are your competitors writing about? What new cases have been decided? What news articles are trending? What are the other bloggers saying? Any new legislative actions? I subscribe to numerous RSS feeds and have them all categorized so I can quickly scan to see what’s happening in our industry sectors. I can then relay story ideas to our team of bloggers.”

This is excellent, excellent advice. Heather is suggesting that you use various sources to stay on top of what’s happening in the marketplaces that your attorneys work in, and then filter through to them the story ideas that they can write about. You can then send them follow up topics.Continue Reading Think Like an Editor – A Webinar Recap

There are some truly brilliant people in our industry, and the week before last, I was fortunate to hear two of them present in a webinar:  JD Supra‘s Adrian Lurssen and Hellerman Baretz Communication‘s John Hellerman.  The webinar addressed the topic of using editorial focus and insights to create content that gets noticed. 

They kicked off the webinar with the advice that we should be looking at the world from our audience’s point of view. Since there’s a lot of meaty information in the webinar recap, I’ll break the post up. Continue Reading Use Editorial Focus & Insights to Create Content that Gets Noticed – A Webinar Recap

This week’s Ask Friday! answers the question of what blogs I read.  I’ll break this down into three categories – ILN member blogs, the blogs I read for professional reasons and growth, and the blogs I read for fun – feel free to add your favorites to the list in the comments!

Professional Blogs:

  • Above the Law – often funny, always irreverent, they’re often at the forefront of legal news.
  • Bad for the Brand – after I got back from LMA 2011, I started religiously reading Jonathan Fitzgarrald’s Bad for the Brand. Every time I see a new post, I drop whatever I’m doing just to read it – they’re that good.
  • Bill’s Blog – written by Bill Pollak of ALM, it’s a helpful look at the legal publishing industry from an in-house perspective.
  • Case in Point – a cartoon series that "illustrates the lighter side of eDiscovery."  Those of you who know me well know I’m a sucker for legal cartoons!
  • Corcoran’s Business of Law Blog – I read this not just because I know Tim, but because he’s always got thoughtful, thorough insights that push me to be a better legal marketer and not just go with the status quo.
  • Escaping Mediocrity – if you’ve ever wanted more than where you are right now, Sarah’s blog is the one to check out – she’ll push you and get you thinking.
  • Patrick Lamb’s In Search of Perfect Client Service – who can’t use tips on better client service? 
  • In-house ACCess – I admit to mostly scanning these in-depth posts, but the insights from in-house counsel who are part of the ACC can’t be beat.
  • Martindale.com Blog – always touching on topics of interest to me as a legal marketer.
  • The Matte Pad – after making a splash at LMA 2011, I wanted to see what else Tom Matte had to offer. His posts are thought provoking and always useful. 
  • Myrland Marketing – you already know I’m a huge fan of Nancy Myrland, and her blog is a great reason why – Nancy always has actionable tips not only for strategic social media, but also for legal marketing and business development.
  • Outspoken Media – not a legal blog, this was recommended to me during the Social Fresh conference I went to last year in Portland – it’s a fabulous blog on internet marketing that gives me great food for thought in all areas of my work.
  • Real Lawyers Have Blogs – I’m always interested to hear what Kevin O’Keefe is thinking about and seeing in the legal sphere, and he doesn’t hold back.  Plus, the blog showcases their tops blogs of the day, which helps me see what else is out there.
  •  Social Media for Law Firms – Sam Collier gives the Canadian perspective on social media for law firms, and often gives step by step tips and tutorials for how to make the most out of your social media efforts.
  • The Legal Watercooler – Heather Morse’s Legal Watercooler was the first legal blog I started following, and it’s never disappointed.  Heather ties in whatever she’s thinking about or going through with how we can make ourselves better legal marketers in a way that inspires me.
  • The PR Lawyer – great posts from Furia Rubel on public relations and strategic marketing in the legal world.
  • The Virtual Marketing Officer – Jayne covers a variety of topics focusing on marketing and business development strategies for law firms – definitely a must read!

Continue Reading Ask Friday! The Blogs I Read Edition