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

Attorney bios are the most frequently visited pages on law firm websites.  Some of these visits are due to the simple fact that clients and potential clients are heading to bios for a particular attorney's contact information -- phone number or email address.    But many of these visits are the result of potential clients, reporters and conference planners flocking to bios in order to "cross check" a reference before making contact.  Either way -- each visit is a marketing opportunity.

Bio 1.0 is the traditional list of dull credentials -- a list that indicates what a lawyer does but not the unique value that a lawyer brings to the relationship.

Bio 2.0 is the persuasive profile that includes personal quotes, "case stories" that demonstrate how a lawyer solves problems for clients in a particular industry, a section on personal interests and a friendly photo.

Bio 3.0 is the customizable attorney microsite.  Instead of a bio "page," each attorney has his or her own mini-site within the larger website.  I wish that I could take credit for this idea (and I certainly intend to "pitch" it to my clients), but I read about it in the excellent Great Jakes blog.

Here's what Great Jakes has to say:

Imagine that one of the attorneys in your firm has written numerous articles and has made many presentations.  For this person's expanded bio, you'd include an "articles" page and a "presentations" page on his or her microsite.

Other attorneys might be frequent social media users.  In this case, a feed from LinkedIn, Twitter or a blog can easily be incorporated into his or her microsite.

Other attorneys may have special needs and make unique requests.  This is not a problem, as the microsite pages can be configured to accommodate practically any content (e.g., a photo gallery, video or interactive diagrams).

Most attorneys currently take very little interest in their website bios.  Think how this would change (at least for an ambitious few) if they could take "ownership" of these pages and use them to demonstrate value and actually interact with clients.

What an opportunity to own and build your online reputation!

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As my regular readers know, I believe that most attorney biographies are a waste of valuable online real estate that only hit on one persuasive cylinder -- and not very well at that.

Marketing tools (and I include bios in this category) work best when they demonstrate three qualities (first outlined by Aristotle in his Rhetoric)  -- intelligence, good character (shared values) and friendliness (concern for the client).

Most attorney bios attempt to demonstrate intelligence through a boring list of credentials, and totally ignore shared values and client-centricity.  Intelligence can be further enhanced and client-centricity demonstrated by the use of good "case stories" (more than simple case citations) that show how you solve problems for clients.  Shared values can be demonstrated by personal quotes that demonstrate your personal and professional character.

Lawyer and consultant Larry Bodine elaborates on this subject in an excellent recent article, "Turning your bio into a magnet for business."

Smart lawyers turns their bios into a marketing magnet that generates leads, as opposed to a mere resume or a CV, which recites only your education and epxerience.  The trick is to turn a feature of yourself into a benefit to the client.

Bodine continues:

You may have a great resume, but it will just list all the place that you worked.  But when you go into practice, your bio should answer these questions:  What have you done for people?  What have you accomplished?  How have you helped people?  Can you give me some examples?  Writing a bio is completely different from a resume.  it really requires a mental shift.

I agree completely.  Invest in the re-writing of your attorney bio as a persuasive marketing document -- and then post this "profile" not only on your firm Web site, but also on the full range of relevant social networking and content sites.  By doing this, you can easily and inexpensively "own" the first page of search results for your name.

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As a writer of copy and content for lawyers and law firms, I couldn't have said it better myself.  Jay Fleischman, author of the Legal Practice Pro blog, has posted an excellent article -- 11 reasons why content is king -- on the value on content in online legal marketing efforts.  He states:

Online legal marketing, if it's going to be effective, must be formed around a content-based strategy.  That's anathema to most lawyers because there's still that annoying voice in their heads that says:  If you give prospective clients a ton of information for free, why would they pay you for it?

Fleischman continues:

My law practice has engaged in online legal marketing using a content strategy for five years, and it's paid off in myriad ways:  people come to me with more information under their belt, a sense of confidence in my abilities and, to a large extent, a level of preparation I'd never seen before I started marketing my law firm with content.

Take a few minutes to read his post!  Each of the 11 reasons makes a lot of sense.

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Do you use LinkedIn Groups for legal marketing purposes?  There's been a heated discussion of the pro's and con's of this tactic in Larry Bodine's listserv (membership required).  Here's what I added today:

Funny that this conversation should be top-of-list today.  Yesterday I joined about ten additional LinkedIn groups -- mostly for the "branding" value of having their logos on my profile.  (I already belonged to six of them.)  I think that these logos can provide some sense of the field in which you are playing and willing to make a contribution.  For the most part, I only joined groups that showed up high in a search for relelvant legal marketing and socia media terms -- that also featured a significant number of members.

How do I use LinkedIn groups?  Mostly like I use my aggregator -- to quickly skim for breaking news and concepts.  Yes, there are a lot of annoying and blatant sales folks there.  Ignore them.  I comment now and then when I think that I can add value to a good conversation (most recently on the repurposing of lawyer bios as profiles for online marketing).  I have received numerous inquiries and some new writing work from LinkedIn groups.  I noticed that LMA (I am assuming) is adding chapter groups to foster intra-chapter communications and linking.  As a result of my day playing around on LinkedIn groups, I became just the second member to join the Rocky Mountain Chapter group!  Come on gang, let's get cracking!

 

I really think that it is too soon to tell.  Better (especially for lawyers) to find a few narrowly focused groups (or create one) and participate by adding high-value content to the discussion.  I have joined more than that because I am using these groups primarily for industry research -- not for promoting my own practice as a writer and ghostwriter for lawyers and law firms.

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