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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Here is part three of my article on broadcast journalsim for lawyers and law firms:

 

In the case of a breaking news stories, news directors and reporters often come to you – looking for a comment (if you are directly involved in the story) or background (if you are an expert in a particular subject area).

 

If you are involved in a newsworthy event, understand that “no comment” is a terrible response to a media inquiry – especially if you are captured fleeing on camera with your hand in front of your face.  If the case or matter is truly newsworthy, the story will appear with or without your input.  Strategize with your client and, with the client’s permission, make sure that your client’s point of view is included in a dignified fashion in the report.

 

If you are asked to provide background on breaking news in which you have no direct involvement, it is usually because you have let the stations know ahead of time that you are an expert, are available to comment, and can speak coherently and intelligently in front of a camera or microphone.  Do not be afraid to make this contact.  Broadcast reporters are always interested in deepening their pool of qualified legal experts.

 

It never hurts to be on-site, either.  When terror suspect Najibullah Zazi was inside the Denver Federal Courthouse, hundreds of reporters were waiting outside for hours in the frigid winter weather.  Local lawyer and media commentator Craig Silverman was not sitting behind his desk waiting for the phone to ring.  Instead, he braved the weather to circulate in the crowd of local, national and international reporters.  As a result, his face and voice were all over the evening news.

 

Be aware of a major change in the way modern news directors and reporters “catch” their stories and expert commentators in the Internet age – Google and other search engines.  According to recent reports, 85 percent of all reporters use Google on a daily basis.  If you want the call to comment on a particular legal development, your name must show up in Google results for the keywords used by a researching reporter.

Here is a link to the complete article:

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

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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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