I recently reviewed a presentation to law firm marketers examining how firms can leverage their brand by hopping on the information highway. This is the topic — and opportunity — du jour, of course. But it's a complex proposition; social media scares lawyers for legitimate and serious reasons.
We can overcome. And, we can leverage. But we need to think through the risks and rewards the way lawyers think about them.
Lawyers are careful. The lawyer favors control above all other things. Control requires a thorough examination of possibilities, precedents and risks. Legal writing, for example, is tedious because it must be. A case analysis grows from a paragraph to the length of an ancient scroll because a lawyer builds positions from the ground up with precise and comprehensive engineering.
All of these qualities seem to run counter to the aggressive social media-teur. For one thing, blogs and tweets demand brevity and punch. And, most importantly, speed. Fresh content is fast content, whether to draw traffic to a site by "newsjacking" or manufacturing news by announcing a successful transaction, court decision or fleshing out a complicated regulatory development.
And what to do about the preponderance of "communities," those vast web-based factions built around interests, industry, any number of affinities? Communities are also scary. Lawyers join lots of LinkedIn groups, but few comment on articles or posts apart from the neutral, "Well done!" And lawyers rarely post their own blog posts or articles to groups because of positioning concerns. If I take this position, I may turn off a prospective client on the other side.
But the fact is, if content is king in this new digital universe, then law firms are already royal. In some respects, content (words on paper) is really a lawyer's commodity. To be sure, law firms generate massive amounts of content that currently exists in the form of news alerts and press releases, accolade announcements, court decisions, articles and CLE materials. The missing piece here is how to repurpose that content to maximize its value, enrich the firm's name recognition and capitalize on new opportunities.
Here are some suggestions on how to do that by taking the boo factor out of content marketing:
1) Start Small. Create a blog tied to a key practice. Posts don't have to be exhaustive legal briefings. Rather, focus on short posts on hot-button issues, trends or recent developments. Every single day in every state in the union, for every practice known to lawyers, there is something to blog about. Don't say it all, because you can point to white papers, articles, press releases or just encourage phone calls! In blogging, we say: flirt, don't marry. By continuously engaging and addressing topics that concern your clients and targets, you build credibility and position the firm as a thought leader.
2) Link Up. Clients, potential clients and referral sources are on LinkedIn. Everyone is on LinkedIn. As a professional forum for industry professionals to share ideas and network, the site provides the opportunity to establish an attorney as the go-to resource on specific topics. Attorneys should have "expert" level profiles. Firms, too, should have a page — organization pages have a lot of followers and offer a platform to regularly post content and more effectively cross-market. Familiarize yourself with groups, learn what a specific group is interested in, which discussions are most popular and engaging. Join, but comment and post with care. Best of all, watch who is watching you. It's nosy and entertaining and might give you a reason to call someone.
3) Hello, Hollywood? My Lawyer's Calling. Data shows that audiences spend more time, and click more often, on websites that contain multimedia elements, such as videos, photos and charts. Videos, in particular, are game-changing legal marketing tools. Use videos to engage an audience on timely issues, commercial developments, attorney expertise, even a firm's culture. Lawyers happily maintain control because they can script and practice and edit the video ad infinitum. Viewers are happy because instead of a document jockey, their lawyer is a dynamic person. A note on production: Keep it short. Script it well. Be creative and never use "lawyer speak." Never record a video seated in front of volumes and volumes of F.3d's. And consider outsourcing to professionals. In the end, the investment will be the gift that keeps on giving.
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