Law Firm Blogging: Types of Posts

I wrote a post last week on how to get started creating a blog for your law firm / law practice. On the subject of training attorneys on how to write for a blog, I mentioned that, as part of my attorney training curriculum, I identified categories of blog posts to help them get off the dime and start doing some writing of their own. Here they are:

The Humble Brag

Have you been quoted in an article? Use this as the cornerstone of a blog post. Include your quote as an indented highlight. Summarize a long article, and provide real-world examples that highlight the issue being discussed.

• Here is an example from attorney Scott Godes' The Corporate Insurance Blog

Personal Commentary

Tell a personal story, something that happened to you. It will make what an attorney does for their clients real, without offering opinions or legal advice.

• Best for a hot-in-the-news topic, such as legal issues that arise from a natural disaster.
• Example: A personal look at the effect of BP Oil Spill on Clam Farmers in the Florida Panhandle by Brian F. LaBovick of LaBovick & LaBovick.

Initiative Awareness

Think of these as “Did you hear the one about…” stories. Point out key legal issues, tell readers why they should care about this area of law. Quantify the risks if possible (share real losses).

• These posts are not case-specific, they promote specific interest areas of the law, and are real world stories (which people love).
• Here's a good example on Steptoe & Johnson's CyberBlog

Case Update

Give an update on the facts and progression of a current case.

• Good example: Vioxx MDL Judge Enters Judgment Against the State of Louisiana in Redhibition Claim by Russell Jackson.

Conference Wrap Up

You attended an industry conference and came away with information valuable to your clients; this type of post can be created whether or not you actually spoke at the event.

• Summarize hot topics, list out key takeaways
• Include a graphic of the conference's logo, if possible
• If you were a speaker, include your slides / video (post on SlideShare and include a link in your blog post)
• Here is digital native and brilliant attorney Erin Webb's blog post, written after a speaking slot at an industry conference (on my firm's Policyholder Informer Blog).

Aggregation

Has there been a flurry of public interest on a topic related to your area of law? Summarize the best / most interesting writing on the topic, providing links to relevant material.

• Highlight important points within a long article that tells the story on a more readable (and relevant to your clients) way.
• Positions you as the go-to resource for topical issues.
• Great example here from my firm's weekly blog post summarizing activities of State Attorneys General.

Client FAQs

Address commonly asked client questions and provide insight on how your practice would handle it.

• Example: How Much Client Contact Should Should Be Expected In Litigation? by Maxwell Kennerly of The Beasley Firm.

Top 10 Lists

These kinds of posts are always popular, and you may find bullets easier to put together than a few paragraphs of copy.

• The end of the year / beginning of the new year are ideal times for looks back/forward.
• Here's a Top 10 in Law Blogs from Jim Walker's Cruise Law News Blog.

Top Influencers

Your blog doesn't always have to consist solely of your own original content. Who are the authoritative resources in your industry? Provide your clients with resources you, the insider, find valuable for keeping on top of the issues.

• Share a post that impresses you or directly affects your clients. Your readers will appreciate the access to a resource that they might not have known about before.
• Be sure to credit the writer and link back, so your clients know where the content came from
• Check out Forbes contributing Editor Ben Kerschberg's Eight Great Law and Technology Resources post.

Legal Industry Insight

When you can help prospects understand your business -- give them sound advice on how to choose a firm / lawyer, explain the finer points of a new law -- you’re building trust and understanding. It's a great starting point for a professional relationship.

• Example from employment law firm Smith & Lo

Obviously these are not the only types of blog posts, but I've found these examples are a great way to make the whole blogging thing real to attorneys.

Getting Started on Twitter - A How To for Attorneys

I've been spending more and more time lately working with attorneys on how to use Twitter for business development.

 

Why should attorneys use Twitter?

• Stay up on trends in the legal industry and in their clients’ industries
• Push out alerts and other publications
• Curate / aggregate information related to their practice area
• Get noticed as a thought leader
• Get on journalists' and conference organizers' radar
• Follow clients in the news (and in the zeitgeist)

It is not often an easy "aha moment" kind of thing for most attorneys, partly because lawyers never say something in 140 characters (I think the snark punch line goes something like "...they get paid by the word"). So I encourage new Twitter users to start by using it as simply a listening platform.

Before following any of these steps, however, attorneys need to read their firm's social media policy as well as simply abide by the basic "don't be dumb" rule. As  momma always said, don't publish  anything you wouldn't feel comfortable seeing printed on page one of the NYT. But the first step is to see if your firm is ok with you even being on Twitter.  Some firms are totally down with using it as a way to get on the radar of both GCs and publications, but others still live by the formal rule that everything must be vetted through 3 layers of marketing and risk/compliance departments, which is the death knell for a time sensitive medium like Twitter.

Here is a brief version of my Twitter tutorial for lawyers:

1. Crawl, walk, run. Stop worrying that you need to have something earth-shattering to say. Just start by establishing a basic profile, and getting comfortable with the medium. Follow your clients and prospective clients. Listen to what is being said, and note how they are saying it. 
2. Get to know the players. Follow journalists and thought leaders in your area of law. Not sure who they are, or how they are listed on Twitter? Take a look at your competitors' profiles. Who are they following? You won't find everyone in one sitting, but if you keep your eyes open, you will quickly start gathering up a good set of handles to follow.
   
3. Identify your space. A few months in, you've been listening and taking note of what this new beast is, and have some ideas on how to use it to your advantage. Now comes the time to decide who you want to be (on Twitter) when you grow up. "An insurance coverage lawyer" is too broad a swipe; why not "an insurance coverage lawyer focused on cyber security coverage"? Or, rather than "an IP lawyer" you might say you are "a patent litigation attorney".  I've seen great success by attorneys who follow a specific area of government (e.g., the FDA). The important thing is to hone in on what you are passionate about.
4. Start sharing.  Lawyers new to Twitter are often worried they will spill something they shouldn't - so I suggest you start tweeting by simply sharing news items that you find interesting. Unless you have a hankering to start posting ill-conceived selfies, or your name is Weiner, it is pretty tough to get into trouble by posting a link to a business news story or supreme court decision.
5. Be human. We all know that people hire people, not automatons. Don't be so stiff in your tweets that no one can tell who you are. I love seeing weekend tweets from a high powered litigator who gets excited about his son's little league win. If you support a charitable cause in your community, why not give them a little love by tweeting a link to their donations page? Caveat: don't be too human and share personal data such as phone numbers or email addresses on Twitter (unless you want the world to have access to this content). A lesson celebrity chef Bobby Flay learned the hard way.
   
    
6.  Play well with others. Twitter is about connecting with people and sharing value -- not about using it simply as a megaphone through which to broadcast your brilliance. I'm not saying an attorney should never send out a tweet linking to something they wrote; what I am saying is that simply tweeting "I was quoted in this article" adds no value to any conversation. Tell people why they should care about that quote.
7. Leverage your channels. Once you have a Twitter account up and running, make people aware of it. Add it to your LinkedIn profile, include it in your email signature, add it to the footer of your slides so audience members can credit you when they tweet takeaways from your presentation.(If you think this isn't a "thing," you haven't been paying attention.)
8. Go easy on the hashtags. Hashtags help categorize your content (e.g., #iplaw) and should be used sparingly. Don't use #law or # business - these are so generic as to be useless. Find out what hashtags are used in your area of law. In my early days, it didn't occur to me to look up hashtags to ensure they meant what I thought they meant. For example, I thought #AG referred to Attorneys General. Nope - Agriculture. I've seen several attorneys make this mistake, with embarrassing results. Lesson: do your homework.
   
9. Don't automate your tweets. If you are so busy that you need to set up a program to automatically send out tweets on your behalf at specific times of the day, then I submit you aren't managing your time well. And automating your tweets means you might be the guy tweeting about his article opposing teacher pay raises at the same time the Sandy Hook shootings were all over Twitter. I'm not making this up, I really saw this. By handling your account yourself you won't run the risk of tweeting inappropriately while the rest of the world is riveted by an unfolding tragedy.
10. Use humor sparingly. We all know from email that it is incredibly easy to get in trouble when you start using humor in electronic communication. On Twitter, it is even dicier because you have no idea who might see your content. Tread carefully.
11. Learn from the best. There are plenty of folks out there doing it right, and it is about this time of year that publications start putting out their "Best of" lists. Look for the best in your area of law, and see how they are doing it. Examples: A2L Consulting posted "50 Best Twitter Accounts to Follow for Litigators and Lawyers", and Copyright Litigation Blog posted this list of the Top 40 IP Lawyers on Twitter.
12. Understand basic etiquette.If you retweet something but need to modify it in order to add your commentary, include "MT" (without the quotes) after your comments. This means "modified tweet". If you reference someone's content, include their Twitter handle. It is easy to find by simply Googling their name and the word Twitter - e.g., "Cyndy McCollough Twitter" will yield the following: 

It is also not a bad idea to scan Twitter's glossary of terms. You may want to #FF someone some day. (I'll let you look that one up.)

I could go on about getting started on Twitter, but at this point I encourage those of you thinking about getting on Twitter to -- at the very least -- sign up and establish a basic presence. I will follow up with a "Twitter for Attorneys - Part II".

Please post any questions in the comments section -- and have fun!

Making the Most of LinkedIn

Fitting social media into your day doesn't have to be a daunting task.

Since part of my job involves working with attorneys to help them create a strong online presence, I thought it might not be a bad idea to write a outlining a typical day on Linkedin.

 Morning Coffee (10-15 minutes)

Right after I get to my desk, I open my browser and see what's new on my various social accounts. This includes reading my LinkedIn home page and scanning for new posts in my LinkedIn Groups. Sometimes I comment on a thought-provoking article or provide my opinion on a Group poll. I will send notes of congrats to those in my network who have changed jobs / been promoted.

Afternoon Break (5-10 minutes)

Many of us get hit with a bout of food coma at around 3pm. I don't smoke, so a smoke break is out. I do my best to avoid the afternoon Starbucks run (I admit, not always successfully - I'm not made of stone, people). Instead, I check back into Twitter to see what has been going on. I start with the list of my attorneys' accounts, because I like sharing the Twitter love and retweeting a colleague's tweet. Then I read tweets from legal marketing thought leaders and publications I follow. If I find something of interest, I will share their tweet on my LinkedIn account (in the "Share Updates" field on the home page). Note: always include the relevant account handles to indicate where this information was found.

Evening Commute (10-20 minutes)

I take metro home from my DC office, so I have all kinds of free time to revisit my LinkedIn home page and see what my network is talking about. I rarely post anything in the evenings - this is all about reading and catching up on the day's happenings. Honestly, I spend most of my commute time on Twitter, and will "Favorite" a tweet if I think it is something my LinkedIn network will find interesting. The next morning, I review these flagged tweets and post links to the information on my LinkedIn profile.

Rules of Maintenance

• Connect the dots: make it easy for people to find you on the social web by including your Twitter, blog, (and, if you're a lawyer, your attorney bio) links on your LinkedIn profile. I also have a url to my LinkedIn profile on my Twitter page.
• Strut your stuff: whenever I speak at an industry event or publish an article (not that often, maybe twice a year) I add these to my Publications section. Presentation materials and how-to docs are always appreciated by your peers. Additionally, this content tells conference organizers that you know you your business, and it may lead to additional speaking opportunities.
• Play well with others: I know, we are talking about your profile, so shouldn't it be all about you? Well, yes and no. You don't want to come off a gasbag, and besides there is plenty of smart information out there aside from yours. Share the content you find valuable/interesting. This is not only the right thing to do, but it shows that you have a wide net and are open about reading what's out there. It also puts you on the radar of the person who wrote the content (not a bad thing, as they may return the favor some day).

So there you have it. No magic. No time suck. No gaming the system by trying to get 5000+ connections. And no massive content creation effort. Just daily attention to my network. Which, when you think about it, is something we should all be doing anyway.

I'm sure there are other ways people have been successful on LinkedIn, and would love it if you shared your suggestions in the comments section.