Two for Tuesdays

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photo-1417024321782-1375735f8987It’s not always easy to find content inspiration.

We’ve talked about a few different ways you can stay up to date on the hot topics of the day, and find inspiration for your next post, but some days, it will be a struggle and you know that you need to find something to get your creative juices flowing. Earlier today, I was reading a piece on 5 Unexpected Places to Find Inspiration for Your Blog Content. These were pretty far out of the box, and I could just picture the faces of my own lawyers if I tried to suggest any of them find inspiration in a stock photo site for their next post.

But it did get me thinking about two places lawyers CAN find inspiration for their next post – they’re not unexpected, but you will find them legitimate, I promise. 
Continue Reading Two Places to Find Inspiration for Your Blog Content

iStock_000003908491_LargeThere are some days when I struggle with writing another post about content marketing – while it’s still a topic of great importance, especially in the legal industry, it can feel overdone. I don’t want to keep repeating what I’ve said before (though there’s a lot of value in repetition in content marketing, because you have new people in your audience, or people suddenly reading your words with fresh eyes). I also don’t want to come off as a clickbait lecturer – “do these 5 things and you’ll be the best content marketer there ever was!” Uh, no.

But I think it’s important enough to continue having conversations around it, and I read two things today that really resonated with me that I’d like to share with you.

The first is actually a post that offers The 5 Best Content Marketing Tools You Aren’t Using (and maybe they are, and maybe they aren’t, read the post and see what you think!). What strikes me as being really important about this piece isn’t the tools themselves; it’s what the author says right in the early part of the post:

When content marketing works, it’s an incredible way to build relationships and share knowledge without pitching your services or products. But here’s the thing:too many businesses are still equating content production with hard sales, especially the content that’s on their business blogs. When I advise startups and small businesses on content marketing, I always come back to this essential truth: successful content is content that empowers, excites and educates. It connects and builds relationships. It tells a story.”

For law firms and lawyers, this is KEY. 
Continue Reading An Uncomfortable Conversation About Content Marketing

photo-1439556838232-994e4c0d3b7cAlthough we’re well into 2016 now, it’s not too late to make some resolutions for your content marketing. I came across this Forbes article from the end of last year with 6 Content Marketing New Year’s Resolutions to Make This Year, and there is some great food for thought in there that I’d like us to consider. As it’s a Two for Tuesdays day, we’ll focus on two of them to start with.

Why content marketing resolutions at all?

It’s easy to get too into the weeds with content marketing, and be so focused on the process of producing and distributing content that we forget to take that step back once in a while to make sure that we’re sticking to our strategy, working with a strategy that makes sense for us, our practices, and our firms, and continuing to produce and distribute content that meets with what our audiences really want to consume.
Continue Reading Two Content Marketing Resolutions for 2016

photo-1418225162054-0f773a996f9eAlthough you may be expecting our final Two for Tuesdays post of the year to focus on content marketing, I’m actually going to take a surprising break from that today in favor of sharing with you a couple of networking tips instead (try not to fall over in shock).

This time of year is perfect for networking because we’re all thinking of fresh starts and how we can make new business development connections. And, of course, you’re all joining me for our January LinkedIn Challenge, right?

Since it’s easy to get bogged down in the usual ideas of “okay, so I have to go to more networking events?” and “do I really have to revisit my elevator speech again?” I’m always looking for new and unique ways to breathe some life into my networking efforts without having to get too uncomfortable. I happened to come across this article from HuffPo the other day through Klout – and a quick aside on Klout. Typically, those of us familiar with Klout have long thought of it as a place for egomaniacs, because it’s a service that provides you with a “score” for your social media activity. It’s also generally accepted that this “score” is not altogether accurate – while it does a nice job of feeding your ego, it doesn’t always accurately reflect the quality of what’s being shared, or the level of engagement happening, and a number of us in the social media space were more than alarmed when some companies were hiring based on someone’s Klout score.
Continue Reading Networking Hacks from Undergrads

yJl7OB3sSpOdEIpHhZhd_DSC_1929_1It’s that time of year again, the time of year when every post is a round-up, or a look at trends for 2016. We’re saying goodbye to the old, and ringing in the new, as the close of a calendar year has taught us to do.

Like everyone else, I’ve been thinking about what 2016 will have in store. While I won’t be doing any typical “top ten” posts this year, I am using today’s Two for Tuesdays to look at two goals I have for content marketing (my own and the ILN’s) in 2016. I’ve been thinking about these for a while, and fortunately, industry trends seem to be bearing them out. We’ll get to what they are in a moment, but first, I’d like you to think about what your content marketing goals are for 2016 – I read a great quote in an Inc. article this morning that reminded me that we all have to up our game:

A client, whose company was in a very fast growing industry, once said that as their market matured, they would be forced to become better marketers, not simply capturing new and pent-up demand. The same holds true for content marketing. Those who make the effort to do it right–assigning dedicated resources, developing written business plans with clear goals, leveraging tools like Buyer’s Personas to develop content for the customer’s benefit rather than the brand’s and producing a variety of content types–will continue to drive heavy engagement.”

We’re at that jumping off point in the legal industry as well. Content marketing isn’t new to us – we’ve been doing it forever. In the last year, we’ve seen more strategy implemented around it, and moved into an era of more sophisticated tracking. We use data to inform our next steps in what content we produce, and the channels we use to distribute it. There are a few firms lagging behind, but they’re catching up. We’re all being forced to be better marketers, and it’s fantastic – I love listening to brilliant colleagues doing creative, interesting things. 
Continue Reading 2 Content Marketing Goals for 2016

iStock_000016006182Small“Social media.”

“Content marketing.”

These terms are thrown around willy nilly these days, because in addition to everything else we’re doing in our daily professional lives, the accessibility of LinkedIn, Facebook, blogging platforms, SnapChat, Vimeo, YouTube, etc. has turned us all into social media and content marketing practitioners.

But while social and digital media are inextricably linked with content marketing, it’s important to distinguish them – they are NOT, in fact, the same thing, and shouldn’t be considered interchangeable. In today’s Two for Tuesdays, while it may seem a bit elementary to some of you out there, it’s come to my attention that there’s some confusion around the difference between social media and content marketing. We’re going to look at the difference between the two (I’ll start with the short version, then delve into the long one), and why it’s important not to confuse them. 
Continue Reading Content Marketing ≠ Social Media

twofortueToday’s Two for Tuesday’s post comes to you from high above the clouds, as I’m flying home from a two and a half day trip to London. It will be a bit late because there’s no in-flight wifi this time (a pity, though it does prevent me from doing more work than I probably should anyway), but I will try to keep it short for you, since I hope that in your spare time, you’re working on your 2016 planning!

Our tips today focus again on content marketing, and may be things that you’re already doing as part of your content mix – but in case you’re not, these are two ways that you can freshen things up a bit, and add in some additional opportunities for people to engage with your content. And if one of your content marketing goals is to build relationships with your target audiences, then that’s exactly the type of thing you want to be doing!
Continue Reading Inject Your Content Marketing With New Life in 2016

twofortue
Last week, we took a look at two mistakes that may be impacting your content marketing, giving up too early and not marketing your content. Continuing with our theme, and thanks to Content Marketing Institute for their inspiration, we’re going to look at another two mistakes today.

Mistake Number One: Your Offerings Have Become Passé

This mistake is really about two things – not producing enough new content, and not thinking outside of the box with your existing content offerings. Both can be problematic.

Not Producing Enough New Content

I am a firm believer in quality over quantity when it comes to content. Yes, I write a lot myself, but that doesn’t mean I advocate it for everyone – it’s just what works for me.

But when you’re producing content, it’s all about “what have you done for me lately?” If you’re not reminding people that you’re out there, and providing them with value, they just won’t think about you at all. It’s as simple as that.

So you may not need to publish a new blog post or produce a new video every week. But you can’t let months go by without offering NEW content of value. And there is SO much that you’re already doing that can be fodder for good content that there’s really no excuse.

  • Sit down and give yourself the writing prompt “I am often asked…” What is it that your clients regularly ask you about the law that you’re always answering for them? Turn that into a blog post or a whitepaper – if a few of your clients are always asking you something, the likelihood is that others who are NOT your clients but are in the industry are wondering the same thing. Why not share your wisdom and expertise with them?
  • When new legislation comes out or cases are decided, do you email some of your clients with the impact that will have on their business? Take the content of those emails and turn it into a general article or blog post that you can use to explain to a generic company in the industry how the same legislation or court decision may impact THEM. It just takes some tweaking and removing of any confidential information to repurpose something you’re already doing.
  • If you’re speaking at conferences on a subject, take your presentations and share them on SlideShare. Turn them into a series of blog posts. Pull out the most salient points and create a short video around them.

Continue Reading 2 [More] Mistakes that Are Killing Your Content Marketing

LJIZlzHgQ7WPSh5KVTCB_TypewriterRecently, someone said that “content marketing” is a recent phenomenon in law firms. And I almost fell out of my chair.

Content marketing is NOT new to law firms. In fact, law firms are some of the original content marketers – firms have been producing content for years! What IS new is producing strategy around it, and formulating distribution plans that are measured and further refined based on those measurements. We’re getting more strategic, and it’s that strategy that’s new.

But that doesn’t mean that the road isn’t rife with mistakes – it is. The Content Marketing Institute recently published a book with 13 Content Marketing Mistakes, and highlighted a few in a recent blog post – we’ll be taking the next few weeks to look at these in the context of lawyers and law firms.
Continue Reading 2 Mistakes that Are Killing Your Content Marketing

photo-1416339426675-1f96fd81b653Among my friends, it’s no secret that I love Instagram. It’s my favorite social media platform – more than Facebook, more than Twitter. I love looking at everything from beautiful images from talented photographers around the world to photos of friends’ kids and pets and vacations.

And I’m not the only one who feels that way.

It’s this passion for the visual that companies are capitalizing on today in their content marketing, and drawing people in. You may think this only works for big consumer brands like Pepsi or Zappos, but it’s just as effective in offering a well-rounded (and often very professional) look at your practice and law firm as well. 
Continue Reading Why Visual Content is the Secret Ingredient