Constant Content : Legal Ghostwriting & Content : Janet Raasch : Copy for Lawyers & Attorneys, Law Firm Business Development

Here is part four of my article on broadcast journalism for lawyers and law firms:

Using the Internet, lawyers and law firms can bypass the traditional mainstream media entirely and self-broadcast their own video and audio – on their own Web sites or on sites that accept user-generated broadcast content.

 

When lawyers appear on television or radio, law firms can post links on their Web sites or blogs or even request the files for posting.  In addition, using inexpensive equipment and applications, they can easily create their own video and audio podcasts for download from law firm Web sites.  It helps to have a good video/audio editor on staff.  In this day and age, no lawyer presentation should go unrecorded.  Law firms can also “broadcast” these reputation-building podcasts to clients and prospects via email alerts.

 

Once created, law-firm-generated video and audio can also be posted on a wealth of online content sites, which provide automatic RSS feeds that attract search engines.  (RSS should also be added to any of your own Web site content.) 

 

The line between print, broadcast and online news has become increasingly blurred.  Print publications host audio and video on the Web sites – some of it generated by professionals and some of it contributed by “citizen journalists.”  Television and radio station Web sites also include text and photographs.

 

A law firm, for example, that cannot get the local TV station to cover the opening of its remodeled lobby can now make its own video and post in on the station’s well-optimized Web site.

 

All modern media sites host blogs by their reporters, which can include links to video and audio.  All of them offer versions for mobile devices.  All of them offer subscriptions via Facebook, Twitter, RSS, email or text.  All of them accept user contributions.

 

Law-firm-produced video and audio can also be easily posted on a wide range of social networking sites like LinkedIn, Facebook and Martindale-Hubbell Connected.  It can be added to social content sites like JDSupra, Legal OnRamp and HubStreet.  Legal Talk Network is a “talk radio” vehicle for lawyers and law firms.  Savvy lawyers and law firms are even posting their own videos (and broadcast ads) on YouTube.

 

Finally, use Twitter to send out a short notification and a link every time you appear in the traditional broadcast media or self-broadcast your own video and audio content.

 

Be that lawyer!  By consistently and carefully pitching, catching and self-promoting -- using traditional and online broadcast media -- lawyers and law firms can optimize search engine results and successfully spread the word about their professional expertise.

Here is a link to the entire article:

Lawyers and law firms:  Broadcast your expertise, build your reputation

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According to a post by Larry Bodine, an overwhelming majority of reporters and editors now depend on social media sources when researching their stories.  Larry gets his data from a national survey conducted by Cision and Don Bates of George Washington University.

89 percent use blogs for story research

65 percent use social networks for story research

61 percent use Wikipedia for story research

52 percent use microblogs like Twitter for story research

Mainstream media have clearly hit a tipping point in their reliance on social media for research and reporting.  What do reporters and editors find out about you when they search these sources while researching and writing an article?

Have you populated blogs, social networks, content sites, Wikis and Twitter with the kind of informative, useful content that positions you as a reputable source for a reporter or editor?

Create good content.  Post it on sites that accept user-generated content.

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In 2008, spending on content marketing comprised 11 percent of marketing budgets; in 2009, this amount tripled to 33 percent.  According to Joe Pulizzi, founder of Junta42, sixty percent of marketers plan to spend significantly more on their content marketing efforts in 2010.  (Only 7 percent are planning to spend less.)  A copy of this interesting survey of 259 marketing professionals can be downloaded from the Junta42 Web site.

The survey lists results (In decreasing order of use) for social media, e-newsletters, blogs, white papers, article marketing, case studies, online video, custom in--person events, microsites, traditional media, custom virtual events, ebooks, podcasts, print newsletters, digital magazines, custom print magazines and mobile content.  All of which needs to be written.

Interesting stuff!

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Martindale-Hubbell recently launched a social network that includes both public and private groups for marketing professionals.  This week, I am guest-hosting forum conversations on this site on the subject of the use of persuasive content marketing to position lawyers and law firms as experts on the Internet.  So far, I've started threads on ghostblogging and attorney biographies/profiles.  For those of you who are already members of MH Connected, check it out and join the conversation.  If you have not yet joined, give it a try.  You might have to wait a day or two to be approved.

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To understand what a news reader is, it helps to know what a news reader was.

Back in the day, a news reader was a person who read a mountain of newspapers, magazines and journals on behalf of a client, clipped out relevant articles, and circulated the articles to those who needed to keep up with developments in a particular subject area.  Sometimes this was done by an in-house person.  (In fact, "news reader" was my first job out of college in support of more than 100 individuals at the League of Women Voters National Headquarters in Washington,D.C.)  Sometimes news reading was done (for a hefty fee) by a PR firm or a clipping service.

By the time the article was written, printed and distributed by the publisher, and then read, clipped and circulated by a human news reader, the news could be many months old.

Times and tools have changed -- for the better.

Today, a news reader (or aggregator) is an Internet or desktop application that continuously searches the Internet (including blogs and other social media) for breaking news about a particular person, law firm, industry or subject area.  It automatically collects all of this information in one place.  It is a free, immediate and customized collection of the news and conversation essential to the success of any firm or professional services provider.

You can use a news reader to subscribe to the RSS feeds of resources like newspapers, blogs or courts.  You can also use a news reader to subscribe to saved searches for certain keywords.

You can save a search, for example, for your law firm's name.  If this name appears in the online version of a newspaper, magazine or journal; in a blog or comments to a blog; in a Twitter post; on a social network; or in RSS-enhanced content posted to any Web site (your own or others), that information will show up immediately in your reader -- where you can use it to support your daily professional and business decisions.  Searches can also be created for individuals, clients, cases, competitors, industries and subject areas.

There are a variety of news readers out there.  In the past, I have used Bloglines.  Currently, I am using Google Reader.  For a good tutorial on how to set up and use news readers, check out a recent Webinar presented by Kevin O'Keefe and the good folks at Lexblog.

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The good news is, lawyers and law firms seem to be increasingly aware of the value of blogs and other social media when it comes to establishing themselves as thought-leaders within a given legal practice area -- and showing up well in search engine results for these keywords.

The bad news is, many lawyers are having a hard time creating and posting the amount of content they need in order to maximize social media.

As a result, I am getting a lot of requests lately to "ghost-blog" -- requests that go nowhere once the lawyers realize the cost of creating a steady stream of good blog posts.  I counsel these would-be clients that it is almost always more time- and cost-effective for them to write and post their own blog posts.  It is also, in the spirit of social media, much more authenic.

I'm not saying I won't do it if the right project comes along.  I am just saying it won't be cheap.

Think of blog posts as poetry.  Fiction writers like to say that writing novels is hard, writing short stories is harder, and writing poetry is hardest of all.  I think that non-ficture writers would agree that writing books is hard, writing articles is harder, and writing good Web content is hardest of all.

To be a good ghost-blogger you have to be a good writer -- and know how to write for social media sites and search engines.

You have to take the time to know the client in order to "channel" his or her voice and values. 

You have to work with the client to develop a list of topics that will resonate with a target audience. 

You have to take the time to understand the subject matter and industry that the client is targeting. 

You have to create an aggregator to follow experts in these subjects and industries online so that you can comment on and link to their posts in your own posts.

You have to create at least one (and preferably more) posts each week, gain approval from the "author," post the content (including Tweets and social network links announcing new content) and monitor the post for any comments.

That's a lot of work for what might end up being relatively few words.  The traditional formula of charging "by the word" for books and articles falls apart when a writer is asked to come up with an estimate for ghost-blogging.  Lawyers and law firms should not be taken aback.

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Todd Defren of SHIFT Communications just posted an nice video (just short of 15 minutes) on his blog (www.pr-squared.com), in which he discusses the value of content marketing.  He describes content marketing as what you bring to the neighborhood pot luck.  If your neighbors are all lean vegetarians, you won't make a very positive impression showing up with a big platter of meat.  Do your research and provide a dish (content) that appeals to your neighbors (target audience).  He also discusses how social media allow entities -- like law firms -- to present content directly to the interested end-user -- completely bypassing the gatekeepers of the mainstream media.  The video itself is also a good example of how easy it is to record and post a presentation.  Here's the link:

Content Marketing

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Thanks to Mister Thorne of the Set in Style blog, who posted a nice interview regarding my practice.  Questions and answers include:

What does a ghostwriter do?

What are the ethics of ghostwriting for lawyers?

How do you "bridge the gap" between lawyers and readers?

How can attorneys get articles published?

What is it like to work with lawyers and law firms?

How does your journalism and teaching background affect your work?

What is an attorney's "on-line reputation"?

How important is design?

What are the elements of persuasive writing?

How can young attorneys use writing to enhance their careers?  Partners?

Who is your ideal client?  What is your ideal project?

What is the best part of your job?

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The Constant Content Blog is engineered and hosted by the wonderful folks at LexBlog.  Over the years, I have interviewed Kevin O'Keefe a few times for articles I was writing on social media.  He always had something pertinent to add to my articles and was always generous with his time.  When it came time to start my own blog, Kevin and LexBlog were absolutely "top of mind" in MY mind.  This week, the tables were turned.  My blog and the strategy behind it were featured in an interview with Lisa Kennelly on Kevin's own site, Real Lawyers Have Blogs.  Actually, because it was so long, it was featured twice -- in Part 1 and Part 2.

Thanks for the Google juice!

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Of the 75 percent of U.S. adults who go online, 35 percent currently are using social networking sites like LinkedIn, Facebook or MySpace.  This is up dramatically from eight percent of adults just four years ago.  The trend is obvious!  These results were reported by the Pew Internet & American Life Project and summarized in a Jan. 29, 2009, Associated Press article.

Even though most social networkers still skew young, this is also starting to change.  Just last week, I received a number of Facebook requests from old college friends who are -- like me -- awfully close to age 60.  The average age of someone on LinkedIn is 40.  Social networking is not just for kids anymore! 

Another interesting thing pointed out by this article is that many social networkers have more than one profile on the same site.  This is important for professional services providers to remember.  Maintain a public profile for your "professional" self and other private profiles for your personal life.  For marketing purposes -- since these results will show up in a Google search by a client or a potential employer -- it's usually a good idea to keep the two separate.

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Social media are based on user-contributed content.  A social site provides an online framework and then opens it up to anyone (like you!) who would like to contribute content -- usually for free at an entry level and for an additional fee for additonal enhancements or privileges.  But always at a far less expensive cost than print alternatives like advertising.

What does this mean for you as you market your legal practice?  It means that you can post your own profile and work product on the Internet for everyone -- clients, potential clients, the media -- to see when they search for information about you or a particular legal subject area or issue.  You can add your profile and content to existing social networks like LinkedIn or Facebook -- and participate in legal groups on these sites.  You can add content to legal-specific sites like JDSupra or LegalOnRamp.  You can create your own site to host your content (a blog, for example) and post comments on the blogs of others.

Posting original samples of your work product is a great and inexpensive way to establish your reputation as a thought leader on the Internet -- and to improve your results in the seach engines.

In 2009, resolve to post at least one new item of content each month on the Internet.

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