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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Over the years, I have ghostwritten more than 15 comprehensive books on a wide range of legal and business subjects.  I recently persuaded a new client to go the ebook (rather than hard copy) route.  She liked the idea -- and now I must "walk the talk" by familiarizing myself with the process, including ebook compiler software.  Based on preliminary research, it looks like folks write in Word, transfer to PDF and then upload to a compiler.  Is this correct?  Any recommendations on process as well as ebook compiler software would be welcome.  Is there any software that lets you compose and publish in the same package?

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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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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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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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Once you have created a bio/profile that works as a persuasive marketing piece on your Web site, be sure to add that content to the full range of social networking and media sites.  I am constantly amazed at the results these sites -- with their robust RSS -- generate in search engines.  I write and blog constantly, and post my articles to a wide variety of online content sites, but my social media profiles still show up higher in search engine results than any other catetory of content.

When I Googled my name earlier this week, the top two results were my JDSupra and LinkedIn profiles -- which consistently rank even higher than this well-tended blog.  Making a surprising showing at Number Ten was my Facebook profile -- which has long been a secondary effort.  Even so -- it shows up in the first page of Google results for "Janet Ellen Raasch."

According to an article in Sunday's The New York Times business section, Facebook expects to register its 200 millionth user this week:  "This saggering growth rate -- doubling in size in just eight months -- suggests Facebook is rapidly becoming the Web's dominant social ecosystem and an essential personal and business networking tool in much of the wired world."

Anecdotally, I would have to agree.  I have received more requests to "friend" old acquaintances on Facebook in the past month than in the past two years.  Something is happening here.  I am going to pay much closer attention to "working" that profile.  So should you.

Lawyers should Google their names to see what shows up on the first page of results and make every effort to "own" that first page of results.  Post high-qualify, professional profiles on LinkedIn, JDSupra, LegalOnRamp -- and even Facebook.  If you focus on personal injury, estate or family law, you should probably be on MySpace. 

Look in your search engine results for directories like AVVO that have created pages for all of the lawyers in quite a few states -- entries that often include nothing more than your name and address.  There is a lot of debate over the propriety of AVVO's tactics (especially its ranking feature), but an empty entry looks bad -- plain and simple.  It looks like you are inactive.  Complete AVVO and any other blank directory pages to include the profile that appears on your Web site and other sites.

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One of the best ways to get publicity for yourself or you law firm is to insert your story idea into the context of something that already has the attention of the news media -- print as well as electronic.  In the parlance of journalism, this is called using a "news peg."

This week alone, there has been a lot of publicity about the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Wyeth v. Levine, which rules that federal law does not protect drug companies from product liability suits in state courts.  Today's The New York Times features a front page article on current layoffs and the WARN Act, which requires a 60-day notice of layoffs.

Most local media will be interested in interpreting this national news through the filter of "local impact."  If you practice pharmaceutical or mass torts law, or employment law, you should get busy contacting the media to let them know that you are available to comment on either of these two emerging news stories.  If your local business journal has a "professional services" special section coming up, you should contact the publication with a proposal to write an article for the special section.  If you belong to a trade group, you should offer to write an article for the newsletter -- or make a presentation at the next meeting.

When a subject has been in the news, people think it is important and want to hear more about it -- so any publication will be more receptive to a story idea along those lines.

You can also hang your online content onto this "news peg" by creating and posting articles and comments on these subjects to social media.  Clients will be looking for legal advice about how these changes/trends will affect them and their busiinesses.  The media will be conducting research for follow-on stories.  Both will use the Internet to search for resources -- using relevant keywords.  Your keyword-rich content and comments on Wyeth v. Levine or the WARN Act -- or any other emerging legal topic of national importance -- can lead them right to you.

Achieve publicity with a local or regional slant on breaking national news.

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Web site bios should be so much more than lifeless resumes -- they should be persuasive marketing documents.  At a certain point in a lawyer's career, professional competence is assumed.  Potential clients are looking for lawyers (and other professional services providers) who are not only skilled, but also good and interesting people with whom to build a close relationship that will last for many years.

One of the best ways to demonstrate that you are a good and interesting person is by the addition of personal quotes to an online bio.  Journalists know that quotes add life, urgency and authenticity to an article; quotes can add the same qualities to a Web site bio.

If short, quotes can be woven unobtrusively into the narrative.  If longer, they can be broken out and used as a graphic element to make the page more interesting -- indented, in a side bar or in a box.  If lawyers are uncomfortable with quotes on the main bio page (which they should not be, but often are), quotes can be accessed by a "more about Jane Smith" link.

A skilled interviewer can elicit good quotes -- from almost any subject -- by asking good questions and following up.  Over the years as a journalist and a writer, I have interviewed thousands of subjects -- and have found a way to make each and every one interesting in some way.  A journalist is trained to ask who, what, where, when, why and how.  Ask your lawyers:

-- Why did you choose this profession?

-- What was your favorite matter or case ever, and why?

-- If you had to change professions, what would you be, and why?

-- Which emerging legal topic is intriguing you lately, and why?

-- Other than your profession, what is the most interesting thing about you?

The answers to these and other questions will help you draft quotes that add an entirely new dimension to a lawyer's bio -- adding highly persuasive values, depth and character to an otherwise dry list of credentials, and clearly differentiating a lawyer from other lawyers being considered by a potential client.

Do not reproduce the quotes verbatim.  (This is one way in which you can differ from a journalist!)  Combine them to create an interesting narrative.   All draft quotes, of course, should be provided to the lawyer -- to be refined and "claimed" before they are posted, or before they are shown to anyone else at the firm.

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Good biographies and profiles are more than a list of credentials.  They can stand alone as persuasive marketing pieces.  Their narrative sections have news value.  They also use compelling case stories and personal quotes to persuade.

I am a big fan of the use of case studies (which I like to call case stories) in online biographies.  In the courtroom, lawyers are great persuaders.  They know that they need to use evidence to prove their cases.  The same is true on an electronic biography.  You can't just say what you do in generic terms; you need to tell stories that illustrate how you actually do what you say you do.

In addition, a case story is a good way to  ndicate not only your skills, but also your values and contributions to the legal system as a professional services provider.

And when it comes to telling stories, the simple listing of a case citation does not cut it in a persuasive application like this.  I have seen countless lawyer  bios that include a long list of such citations -- which make a reader's eyes glaze over and do not tell a persuasive story.

A good case study should not be long and should tell a compelling story about how the lawyer solved a particular kind of legal problem for a client in a particular industry.  Unless the representation is particularly complex, I try to limit the case study to three or four sentences.

When working with a lawyer to write these stories, I seek the answers to the following questions:

1 -- What was the problem giving rise to the legal action?

2 -- What was the solution provided by the lawyer/firm?

3 -- What was the legal result?

4 -- What was the positive business or personal outcome for the client (financially and to reputation)?

Here's an example:

Do universities have a legal obligation to supervise a student’s personal, off-campus recreational activities? In University of Denver v. Whitlock, the Colorado Supreme Court said “no.” When a student who had been jumping on a trampoline at night in his fraternity house was seriously injured, the lower courts awarded a multi-million dollar judgment to the plaintiff. The Colorado Supreme Court reversed this decision and absolved the University of any liability

Obviously, it is essential that a lawyer or law firm achieve, in writing, permission from any client before using the client's name and representation information in any case study.  This is required by both confidentiality and publicity sections of the ABA and state codes of professional responsibility.  Contrary to popular opinion, this is true even if information about a case is already public on a court database or has been covered in the media.  This can be time-consuming -- but the use of actual cases as evidence is very powerful and well-worth the effort.

Failure to get permission can have dire consequences.  Last week, the law firm Quinn Emmanual published the amount of a confidential settlement in in its business litigation newsletter.  Facebook paid the firm's client, ConnectU, tens of millions to settle lawsuits accusing Facebook 's founder of stealing the idea for the successful social networking site.  Within hours, the law firm's snafu has spread far and wide over the Internet.

If you cannot get permission, it is posible to make the case study more generic -- as long as you do not use enough detail that the unwilling client can be identified.  Also, I have used hypothetical stories to demonstrate how a lawyer would approach a type of case -- but these must be clearly disclaimed as hypotheticals.  Getting permission and using names is the better alternative.

It is a good idea to use just three case studies on the main page of a bio.  I encourage my clients to use cases that are recent, newsworthy, and relevant to clients in the areas where they are actively seeking more business.  Others can be accessed via a link to "More cases."

Once they are written, there are many additional uses for these case studies or case stories.  They can appear in a lawyer's bio, but also in the practice area and community services sections of a Web site.  There can be a "case study" section on the site, where all cases are aggregated and searchable.  They can pulled for use in proposals and other marketing materials. They can be posted on outside egal content sites.

Research shows that a compelling story is much more persuasive and memorable to a client, potential client or reporter than any list of credentials.  Be sure to tell stories in your bios.

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I encourage my clients to create online bios that are more than simple lists of credentials -- bios and profiles that can stand alone as marketing documents.  These generally include three categories:  a narrative, case studies and personal quotes.  This post talks about the narrative section.

Each narrative should begin with the law firm marketing statement.  It continues by placing an individual lawyer withing the context of that statement.  In other words, how does this particular lawyer fit into the big picture and contribute to the "whole" that is the firm?  It is important to include this information on each page of a Web site so that, once a bio or other item is printed out from the Web site, it can function as a free-standing marketing document for the firm.

In the next sentence, state the lawyer's practice area and unique focus within that area.  Then, proceed like a news story.  A news story always starts with a news peg -- what is currently most interesting about this lawyer and his or her practice?  The news peg is what gets a readers's attention and makes the reader want to learn more.

Think like a potential client who has printed out three bios of lawyers for a potential representation -- and is looking at these bios spread out on his or her desk.  How can you make yours stand out from the others -- and get the call?  Is your bio a routine list of credentials -- or is it recent and compelling.  Does it place you at the cutting edge of your selected practice area?

Most Web site bios today pull certain categories of routine information from a database -- items like "education," "publications" and "admitted to practice."  Because of this, there is rarely a need to repeat this information (which makes most readers' eyes glaze over) within the narrative -- unless it is particularly recent, unusual and newsworthy.  Don't distract readers from your message with these mind-numbing credentials that mean little to the average reader.

The only time I might duplicate database info in the narrative, for example, is if a lawyer not only graduated from law school, but graduated first in his or her class.  That means something.  (I will sometimes discuss law school info and awards in the narrative section of the bio of a young associate -- who has not practiced long enough to accumulate newsworthy professional accomplishments.)  I  might include a publication in the narrative if a lawyer who focuses on employment law recently spoke or published on the new amendments to the ADA, which took effect in January 2009 (with a link to the full text).  it has to amplify, not dilute the message.

Keep the narrative section focused on relatively recent accomplishments.  A narrative that is packed with old accomplishments (unless these remain truly newsworthy) leaves the reader with the impression that the lawyer has become complacent and is not at the cutting edge of his or her area of practice.  Clients want a lawyer whose skills are up-to-date.  This is valuable online real estate.  Once you have made partner, it is assumed you have many more interesting things to talk about than where and when you went to law school and the fact that you once wrote an article on environmental law (when you now practice professional liability).  That's old news.

Finally, use graphic cues to make the narrative section of your online biography easy to read.  All too often, Web site bios are one big chunk of text.  Online readers (and print readers, too, for that matter) want to skim -- not read.  If you don't make it easy, they will not read.  I can hardly plow through some of these bios -- and I am being paid to do it!  What will a client do?  The client will pick up and read the bio that doesn't look like hard work.

Use short paragraphs (no more than three sentences) with generous white space in between.  Use column widths that are not too narrow and not too wide -- but just right.  Use keywords to attract search engines to your narrative.  Keep the narrative section of your bio to 300 words or less (use internal links to other parts of your site when you want to amplify something).  Ideally, this first section will fit on one screen of text.  Never, never, never -- no matter what a graphic designer tells you -- put your bio text reversed in white on a dark background.  It is very hard to read.  Remember -- many senior executives in a position to hire you are older and may have bad eyesight!

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In my work as a writer and ghostwriter for lawyers, law firms and other professional services providers, I spend a lot of time doing research on the Internet.  I see a lot of service provider Web sites and online bios.  I see a lot "inside" Web pages -- including bios -- that do not include language that identifies the firm and what it does.  This is a mistake.

Not so long ago, most people would enter your Web site through its home page -- where they would discover what the firm does -- and click through to subsequent pages.  This is no longer the case.  Now that all pages of a Web site are optimized for search engines (as they should be), visitors can enter anywhere -- often skipping the home page entirely.  If they skip your home page, do they miss your marketing message?

Your firm's marketing message needs to appear on each page of its Web site -- preferably in the text itself, where it can be read by search engine spiders.  If your message is in "art" that automatically appears at the top of each page, the spiders are less likely to read it.

Your bios are the most-often-visited page on your Web site.  Each bio should begin with language that succintly describes the firm's (or practice area's) overall marketing statement.  It should continue with a statement of how the featured individual contributes to that overall effort -- and then the rest of the bio content.

In addition, since a potential client will often print a hard copy of an interesting bio for future reference (without its surrounding Web site pages), each bio must be capable of functioning as a stand-alone marketing document for the firm -- as well as the individual lawyer.

The same holds true when a law firm is posting lawyer profiles on social network or content sites.  If the firm is doing this on behalf of its lawyers (rather than the individual lawyers posting their profiles or content on their own time),  the firm will benefit from inclusion of the firm's simple marketing statement on each profile or item of content.

When it comes to getting your firm's marketing message across, and impressing search engine spiders, simple repetition is an important part of the game.  Make sure that your marketing message appears on each page of online content -- especially the popular individual bio pages.

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Lawyer biographies are the most underutilized real estate on any law firm's Web site.  According to Web site analytics studies, bio pages are the "most visited" pages on any site - and yet they are often thrown together as an afterthought, rarely updated and rarely enhanced with an RSS feed to atttract the attention of search engines.  This is a serious mistake!  Most lawyer bios will rank far below the same lawyer's profile on sites like LinkedIn, JDSupra or LegalOnRamp.

There is no better way to differentiate you and your firm from your competitors than a persuasive  Web site bio.  The best new bios will function almost like mini-Web-sites for the lawyer involved -- offering a wealth of links to text, audio and visual samples of that lawyer's actual work product.

This is the first in a series of posts on Web site bios for professional services providers.  In this post, I would like to discuss the bio as a persuasive document.  According to Aristotle (and all modern advertisers), effective persuasion relies on three factors:  logos (logic), ethos (values) and pathos (feelings).

Most lawyer bios consist of a long, dry list of qualifications.   In other words, these bios are using only "logos" to persuade -- and not very well -- completely ignoring  the persuasive value of client values and client feelings.  In the courtroom, any trial lawyer knows how to use values and feelings as well as logic in order to persuade a judge or jury.  Why do they forget this lesson when it comes to persuading clients via their bios?

A good bio is interesting -- putting the compelling "news" about a particular lawyer up top rather than a dull list of areas of practice.  A good bio includes brief, interesting case studies that engage the reader and demontrate how a lawyer solves problems for clients.  A good bio lets you know what kind of person the lawyer is -- by including outside interests and first-person quotes.

I like to call this the "bumper sticker effect."  When you are caught in traffic behind another vehicle, you can tell a lot about the person in front of you by the vehicle's bumper stickers.  You can pretty much tell if you could have a civil conversation -- much less a relationship -- with that person.

Law is a relationship-based profession.  Your bio is your vehicle.  What do your bumper stickers tell a potential client about what it would be like to work with you?

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Over the extended holiday season, all of us get to read a lot of holiday newsletters.  In our highly nomadic culture, an annual family newsletter is a great way to keep in touch with family and friends as the years go by!  When we moved to Denver from Milwaukee about 15 years ago, we started writing a newsletter to help maintain the wide network of family and friends we'd left behind.

On Christmas Day, when my three adult children spent an hour pouring over and discussing ("remember when?") our archive of newsletters from the past 15 years, I realized another purpose for the family newsletter.  Keep a copy of the newsletters you write and send out -- and use this archive one day as the basis for a family history project!

Good holiday newsletters include a photo and art, are limited to a single page and feature short paragraphs (pithily written) with a line of white space between each paragraph.  Your readers get lots of holiday newsletters at this busy time of year.  A long, dense newsletter will be set aside to "maybe read later, when I have the time."  A short, skimmable newsletter will be read  right away when it is opened -- and any interesting news shared out loud with others.

Structurally, I like a newsletter that starts with a paragraph on general "group" family activities, followed by paragraphs devoted to the activities of individual family members.  And don't forget to include contact information:  Names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses and URLs.  If you make it easy for your readers, they are more likely to follow up on your newsletter with a call or email.  After all, isn't that why you are creating a newsletter in the first place -- to keep in touch?

And remember -- the same rules apply to your business newsletters!

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The world of journalism has been revitalized by the input of enthusiatic citizen journalists writing for new online media.  This world will never be the same.  However, there are a few "tricks of the traditional trade" that would help these writers improve their posts.  One of these is headline-writing.

Back in the day (I taught journalism for ten years), "how to write a good headline" was part of the curriculum at any j-school.  Headline writers were the poets of the journalism world.  It was their job to condense the gist of of story into a certain number of characters that would fit meaningfully into an allotted amount of print space -- in a way that would attract the attention of the reader. 

The same rules apply to the headlines we write for blog posts and online articles (usually 160 characters) -- and especially posts on Twitter (140 characters)!  Many of these headlines appear in aggregators -- where they are skimmed by readers who make an instantaneous judgment about whether or not to open the headline and read further.  I have more than 100 blogs in my Bloglines aggregator -- which I use as a daily "newspaper" for my work-related news.  I can't tell you how many headlines I skim over each day (rather than opening and reading them) because the headline does not catch my attention as "something I need to know in order to do business."

Generic writing does not work in a headline -- in print or online.  Good headlines should let the reader know why they need to read further.  What is the news or value proposition you are offering in exchange for their time?  Use important nouns (keywords) and active verbs.

Bad:  New law takes effect in 2009

Good:  ADAAA takes effect Jan. 1:  Employers with disabled workers must make changes

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When faced with questions about writing style, lawyers tend to turn to The Bluebook:  A Uniform System of Citation.  Professional communicators, on the other hand, turn to well-worn copies of The Associated Press Stylebook.  In this 2006 article, which appeared in the Denver Business Journal, Janet Ellen Raasch discussed the differences between writing for the courtroom and writing for business or trade publications.

Courtroom or court of public opinion?  Your purpose should dictate your writing style

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