crowd sourcing · •enables you to build a strong brand •allows you to establish yourself as a...
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P R E S E N T E D B Y
@ StefanieMarrone
CROWD SOURCING: HOW TO STAND OUT IN THE CROWD WITH THE BEST USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA
Stefanie Marrone @StefanieMarrone
With more than 15 years of experience in professional services marketing, Stefanie Marrone leads the business development, marketing and communications functions for Tarter Krinsky & Drogin LLP. She works with firm leadership and lawyers to develop and implement strategy around client and business development, marketing, communications and media relations.
Stefanie is the secretary of the Legal Marketing Association’s Northeast Region and chairs the Communications Regional Working Group. She lives in New York City with her chubby French bulldog, Charlie.
Today’s Program Will Cover…
• How law firms (and lawyers) use content to build
their brands
• How clients consume content
• Content marketing trends
• How to create relevant and engaging content to
stand out from the competition
• How to build an effective content strategy
• Editorial/content calendar examples
Why do law firms use social media?
•Engage with target audiences (clients, prospects, alumni, recruits, media, etc.)
•Build visibility and professional brand
•Build online presence
•Be seen as a thought leader
• Improve SEO
•Generate leads
•Lead to new business
Keep in Mind: We are all legal solution providers
• Adding value every day to clients should be at the heart of every single thing a law firm does.
• Think of yourself and your lawyers as legal solution providers.
• For all firms, the goal of social media marketing is lead generation and business development. How you get there is by building targeted relationships, providing helpful content and consistently adding value.
Some Powerful Stats
For many Americans, social media has supplanted the newspaper and television as their leading source of news. • 96% of lawyers say they use social media
o 84% use LinkedIn
o 80% use Facebook
o 59% use Twitter
• 70% say social media is part of their overall marketing strategy
• Facebook is the most regularly used platform (48%)
• Platforms most successful for bringing in business: Facebook (31%), LinkedIn (27%), Twitter (5%)
• 38% use social marketing tools like Google Analytics, HootSuite, Buffer
• 94% of solos use social media, up 10% from last year
o 82% of solos use LinkedIn
o 78% of solos use Facebook
o 60% of solos use Twitter
• 40% of all respondents use paid social advertising; 50% of those use Facebook ads
Some Powerful Stats
Some Powerful Stats
Why Use Social Media?
• Enables you to build a strong brand
• Allows you to establish yourself as a leader in your field
• Provides opportunities to stay top of mind with your clients/contacts
• Presents opportunities to build a stronger professional network
• Stand out from competition
• Enables you to build and grow relationships faster than you can offline. Relationships are how lawyers grow their book of business.
• Content is the currency of networking — of building relationships.
• Social media is the great equalizer. Never before could an individual lawyer build a name and relationships as fast as they can with social media.
Top Content Channels*
*Often free!
Twitter: I’m eating a #donut
Facebook: I like donuts
Pinterest: Here’s a donut recipe
Foursquare: This is where I eat donuts
Instagram: Here’s a vintage photo of my donut
YouTube: Here I am eating my donut
LinkedIn: My skills include donut eating
Google+: I’m an authority on donut eating
Flickr: Here are my photos from the donut eating contest
How to Develop a Successful Social Media Strategy
• Define your audience – you must be completely client-confused and targeted
• Select your platforms (LinkedIn, Google+, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram)
• Plan Your Approach
• Set clear, measurable goals tied to business goals
• Create and share content
• Create policies (firm social media policy)
• Build an editorial/content calendar
• Train lawyers and staff on using social media effectively
• Implement an employee advocacy program to increase engagement
• Use best practices in SEO
• Find leads, build relationships
• BE PATIENT!
Be authentic, clever, creative, promote good works and demonstrate your market-leading position through value-added content.
The current social media landscape
How content is consumed has changed dramatically due to mobile devices, irrespective of age
More than 70% of all visits to law firm web sites originate from Google
• Visitors looking for you often don’t go directly to your bio on our web site
• They search for you in Google
• Your LinkedIn profile is usually one of the top three search results, underscoring its importance
LinkedIn is the most important social media channel for law firm
business development and professional networking
More than
500 million photos are shared on social media each day.
This is a vicious dog.
This is a vicious dog.
How do in-house counsel use social media?
What types of law firm-generated content Do you find more valuable?
The invisible user trend: 73 percent of survey respondents said they use social media in listen-only mode – to stay informed on news, developments in the law and career moves – while only 27 percent are disseminating information and engaging with other users.
On a scale of 1 to 10 being excel lent how would you characterize the overal l value of the content produced by outside law f irms (cl ient alerts,
newsletters, blogs, ETC)?
How can law firms develop an effective
social media strategy?
At the Outset of Developing a Social Media Strategy. . .
• Determine your overall goals.
o What are the firm’s business goals and can they be supported through content?
o What does the firm want to accomplish using content?
o What are your firm’s key differentiators?
o What do you want to be known for?
• Key industries/practices
• Timely issues
• Remember: You can’t be everything to everyone
• Who is your target audience?
o Which social networks will work best to reach your target audience?
o How and when is your target audience engaging on social media?
• How comfortable are your lawyers with social media?
o If they aren’t savvy, develop a training program/cheat sheet. You need access to their professional networks to amplify the message.
How do firms get maximum engagement on social media?
• Educational or valuable content
oExplain and anticipate what developments mean to your audience
• Client-centric
• Timely
• Visual content (infographics, icons, stats)
• Clever
• Emotional
• Hashtags
• Calls to action (CTAs)
• Use video and podcasts
• Use paid/sponsored content
Always think about show vs. tell in content
COPE Create Once, Publish Everywhere
Create an Editorial/Content Calendar
• Tracks date and manages content you’re planning to publish (as well as content ideas).
• Track events, holidays, award publication dates, key legal developments and other things that may impact the content you want to share and when. Enables you to target content by practice, industry, region, etc.
• Helps to repurpose content internally and externally across channels (ex: plan a series of blog posts or videos around a white paper or case study with an accompanying webinar).
Social Media Best Practice – Share at the Right Time
• Content shared on LinkedIn between 10:45am and 4:30pm get far fewer clicks per share.
• Share in the morning or in the evening during commuting hours.
• The best windows of time to share on LinkedIn are: • 7:30am
• between 9:45 and 10:30am
• 5:30pm
• after 7:30pm
• Social sharing platforms such as ClearView Social, Hootsuite and Buffer let you choose scheduled times to post content.
Content Strategy Best Practices
• The content you produce and share should be client-focused and value-added, highlighting your key differentiators.
• Show readers how issues impacts their business.
• Include share buttons on all content, craft strong headlines for all blog posts/articles, be visual and interactive, and repurpose and curate as much as possible.
• Manage the expectations of your lawyers – content strategy is a long-term endeavor. It may not show ROI for some time.
Content Strategy Tips
• Include share buttons on all content
• Craft strong headlines/titles
• Be visual
• Repurpose content
• Maximize every event/sponsorship • Make yourself part of the conversation not just an attendee by writing a takeaways
piece
• Take photos at every event & repurpose on social media
• Have a combination of evergreen and timely posts
• Use a powerful mix of earned and owned media
• Use firm history to your advantage
• Capitalize on holidays and milestones
Content Strategy Tip – Use Analytics!
• Use analytics. Create more of what works well and less of what doesn’t.
• Readership data is powerful.
• For your content strategy to be successful, you must be committed to assessing its performance on a regular basis.
• This will enable you to refine your content.
• Make sure to provide your lawyers/content producers with analytics after each alert/campaign. It will motivate them!
• Consider sponsored content posts on LinkedIn to extend reach.
• Consider using content syndicators such as JDSupra or Lexology.
How are law firms using content to reach their
target audiences?
Most top U.S. law firms use social media
100%
94%
90%
64%
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Google+
Am Law 100 Firms With Social Media Pages
Small-/Mid-Size Firm Perspective
• Less content
• Reuse and repurpose
• Create once, publish everywhere
• Visual content strategy
• Show vs. tell
• Client-centric content
• Evergreen
• Less bureaucracy provides the ability to take more risk
Owned Media: Don’t just go to an event – become a part of it!
Owned Media – Make Your Client Alerts Pop with Custom Graphics
Owned Media – Use Holidays to Inspire: Women’s History Month Campaign
Owned Media: Feature Key Practices & Matters
Client-Centric Social Media Approach
Your Signature Block is a Powerful Content Tool
• Promote recent or upcoming awards/recognitions
• Publicize a blog or thought leadership piece or client tool
• Link to your LinkedIn account, web bio and the firm’s social media channels (LinkedIn, Twitter) – everyone should do this.
• Announce an office move/new office opening
• Spread the word about a major sponsorship, event or conference
(re)use & (re)purpose
Social media and PR campaign on a study of in-house labor counsel on delivering value
Smartly Repurpose Photos
Owned Media – Smartly Repurpose Quotes
Owned Media/Evergreen Content: Share Your History
Giving Back
SHOW vs. TELL
Using Instagram at Events – User-Generated Content
Morrison & Foerster LLP 2013 Holiday Card
Blah blah blah, yawn, yawn
Putting it All
Together
• Think client-centric
• Know your audience
• Use a combination of owned and earned media
• Use visuals when you can – utilize tools such as canva.com, Picstitch, free photo resizing tools, take photos at every event
• Make yourself part of the conversation – don’t just go to an event, write about it.
• Be authentic, memorable and creative
• Create once, publish everywhere
• Show vs. tell
• Repurpose existing content
• Use analytics to tailor and refine content
• Promote content via your social channels and encourage employee engagement
• Train all employees on the do’s and don’ts of social media, and how to share/create posts
• Create a content calendar
Putting it All Together
