JD Supra & LinkedIN Change the Game
In a major blow to entrenched legal publishers Lexis Nexis and Thompson Reuters, in July LinkedIN chose to partner with JD Supra to supply content for Legal Updates. In one sense this partnership is like combining peanut butter and chocolate as Jayne Navarre describers, but in another sense it is kind of like Coca Cola deciding to partner with San Dimas High School over the National Football League. This was a great opportunity for the major legal publishers but they lost out to a small start-up named JDSupra that is far more agile.
Here is how legal updates work:
JDSupra collects written content from lawyers all over the world. They tag it, optimize it and display it on their website. Any corporate alert, amicus brief, white paper or blog post you create is given a second life through this site.
Here is why JDSupra’s marriage to LinkedIN is so crucial.
LinkedIN has more than 75 million members worldwide, including representatives of every Fortune 500 company. There are more than 1 million lawyers on LinkedIN alone. LinkedIN knows a LOT about their users. Where they work, what they do, what type of experience and education they have. Most importantly, they can make a very educated guess about the types of articles GC’s, HR representatives and C-suite individuals find appealing.
Enter Legal Updates
When a professional signs up for Legal Updates on LinkedIN (this is done by clicking the “MORE” tab at http://linkedIN.com ———> click “Applications” ————–> click “Legal Updates” then click “Add”) they are sent targeted content on a daily or weekly basis.
To give an example of how this works, when the GC of IBM signs up for Legal Updates he will receive directly into his email box relevant articles written by attorneys that are submitting through JD Supra. GC’s, HR representatives and C-suite executives will received targeted legal content based on not only their preferences but also based on the information they have reported about themselves in their LinkedIN profiles. This is a big deal, like I often repeat: it isn’t about who you know, it’s about what you have to say.
Executives no longer have to look for information- it will find them.
Why should Lexis Nexis and Thompson Reuters care? Because they are being beaten at their own game. For years Lexis Nexis has survived by collecting and organizing content that they didn’t have to create! User generated content has kept Lexis Nexis in business for a very long time, but now they are being upstaged by a start-up that has a better grasp on organizing and distributing content.
When I asked Adrian Lurssen, JD Supra’s VP, why LinkedIN chose JD Supra he replied that it came down to their ability to tag and optimize content in a way that was attractive to LinkedIN. They were speaking the same language. If Thompson West and Lexis Nexis want to keep their spots as the top dogs, they need to start learning the language to.
40 hour workweek is a non-starter
Every once in a while a blog post drops that stirs up the hornets nest. After more than 100 comments in a few days, the ABA Journal online article entitled, “Why Lawyers Should Work No More than 40 Hours a Week” has really stirred up some strong sentiment. The article laid out a simple premise in less than 300 words. The bottom line is this: studies have shown that workers (lawyers included) are most productive and creative when working within the 40 hour work week. After 40 hours, the quality of work declines.
Makes sense right? Your best work is when you are fresh, not when you are pounding Red Bull and trying to keep your eyes open, right? Do these findings really seem that controversial? They certainly strike a chord. I think partly because we are powerless to stop it. Here are 3 reasons the 80-hour workweek isn’t going anywhere.
1. Lawyers are rarely in control of their deadlines
The most busy lawyers knows what it’s like to have an all-consuming deal or court case to handle. When a large merger needs to be closed, there is no asking for an extra month so that extra staff can be hired and the 40-hour workweek can be strictly enforced. When an unmerciful judge lays down an impossible deadline, there is no complaining to a higher judge. There are times when lawyers need to get it done. These are the rules of the game- and the lawyers that are putting their clients first aren’t complaining about it.
2. Law firms can’t justify hiring more attorneys for smaller weekly increments
The law firms have no incentive to have their lawyers work smarter in 40-hour weekly increments. The billable model discourages it in fact. If two lawyers each work 40 hours per week then the firm has to pay for office space, health insurance, secretary and benefits for each of them. In addition, the cost of training a partner lever attorney are substantial. If they account for the turnover, it isn’t a simple matter of doubling the workforce and reducing the hours of each individual. The 40-hour workweek just isn’t very practical for firms.
All of this has to play into the calculations made by firms. Even taking into account the drop-off in productivity after 40 hours the law firms still come out ahead having fewer lawyers working longer hours.
3. Ambitious lawyers want to work the 80-hour workweeks.
I don’t think the discussion is properly framed as talking about greed alone, nor does it do it justice to speak of busy lawyers as “doing what they have to do.” It is really an issue of priorities. Lawyers have a choice, and many of them choose to be workaholics. I use the word “workaholics” not to be funny, but because I believe it to be a true addiction.
I grew up with a father that was (and still is) a workaholic. His always had different excuses for coming home late from the hospital, but when it came down to it- he loved what he did. He loved the 12-hour operations, loved taking care of his patients and didn’t mind sacrifice other parts of his life to be a great surgeon. It was his choice and many lawyers have made a similar choice.
Conclusion
There is something else buried deep inside the more-than 100 comments on this ABA Journal article, and that is a tinge of jealousy. Many lawyers are barely hanging on right now- working a few hours here and there just to hang on. Perhaps they wonder, how are other attorneys finding 80 hours of work per week, yet I can only find a couple dozen? Unfortunately the business world is unfair that way sometimes, the work can’t be fairly distributed across all licensed lawyers- that just isn’t how capitalism works.
Not all great lawyers want to give up their lives for the practice of law though. I have observed a trend among some law firms to allow attorneys to elect to take on a substantially lower billable hour requirement. It stretches out the partner track, but many attorneys are ok with that. Hopefully this trend at least catches on, because I don’t expect to start seeing a strictly enforced 40-hour workweek in biglaw firms anytime soon.
Adrian Dayton is a lawyer and author of the book Social Media for Lawyers: Twitter Edition. Click here to sign up for his FREE business development conference calls.
The Parable of the Blogger
The Parable of the Talents is a simple one. The Master who must go away for a while entrusts three servants with large amounts of money or “talents,” as they were called in oldentimes. They must take care of this money while he is gone. To one servant he gives 5 talents, to another he gives 2 talents and to the final servant he only gives 1 talent.
When he returns and asks for an accounting, the first two servants have put the money to work- doubling the talents. For this the Master rewards them handsomely. The third servant is so fearful of losing the talent that he buried it in a hole, and returns the talent to the Master. The Master is upset, “couldn’t you have at least put it in the bank, so that I could have drawn interest?” he asks. The third servant is called lazy- and forced to give the talent to the servants who had been more responsible.
This story came to mind after finishing a six month training program with a group of very bright attorneys. They learned blogging, social media strategy and how to turn contacts into clients through online technology. In discussions with the Director of Marketing I apologized that although half the lawyers had very positive results, the other half of the group didn’t really accomplish much of anything. His reply?
“That is the way of big law firms, the attorneys that really follow-through see results. You will never get all the attorneys to do the things that will really be successful for them.”
This made my wonder, what is it that holds so many people back from really jumping in to social media?
I think it comes down to one thing- FEAR. Blogs are not easy to get started, they are time consuming and they require patience. Even more than any of those things though, they require courage. They require you to put yourself out there. A new friend I made online recently started blogging about social media for lawyers. She works at a law firm, and wanted to share the things she was learning. Within a few hours she was attacked on Twitter for trying to be a social media guru or for having some ulterior motives. That is just the risk anybody runs that decides to blog. You are exposing yourself, taking a step into the darkness- the great unknown. And you have no idea what awaits you on the other side. I find the whole process quite exhilirating, but to others it can be quite paralyzing.
What if nobody likes what I have to say?
What if people disagree with me?
What if someone at my firm doesn’t like my opinion?
What if a client dislikes my blog post?
What if I commit and then later get too busy?
There are plenty of things to be afraid of, but if you focus on those things you will never make it out of your front door in the morning. You might as well bury your talent for the month and stay home sick.
I believe everyone has some pretty fantastic abilities, but so often we are afraid to really let them shine. We worry too much about what people will think or say about us. We all have something unique to give and the social media world is helping us to understand that more than ever. It isn’t about what you do for money, it is about what you give away. This takes courage because it is a real risk to give and have faith that it will come back to you.
If you can’t stand the risk, go ahead, bury your talents. Keep them hidden. Keep them safe. They aren’t growing, they aren’t building or helping others but at least nobody can take them from you. It is up to you, but in my mind hiding your talents from the world is the riskiest strategy of all.
The UPS Store misses the mark
It was finally my turn, and as I walked up to the counter to send my two packages another woman came in from behind me carrying a FedEX box. She obviously had no idea that she was not welcome there.
“Excuse me, do you accept FedEX packages?”
“No we don’t,” frowned the UPS Store worker. Disgusted that she even had to dignify that question with a response.
“Well, do you know where they accept FedEX packages around here?” The woman asked cautiously.
“No idea,” the UPS worker said cynically, as if it was a completely ridiculous question to ask.
The Holy Grail of Blogging: Progress
“The workman of today works every day in his life at the same tasks, and this fate is no less absurd. But it is tragic only at the rare moments when it becomes conscious.” – Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus
The Harvard Business Review recently published a paper that challenges the way employers see motivation. They asked over 600 managers from dozens of companies to rank factors that have the biggest impact on employee motivation. Their choices were: recognition, incentives, interpersonal support, support for making progress and clear goals. 
“Recognition for good work” came out as a clear number 1. Unfortunately, the managers had it all wrong. In a separate, multi-year survey that tracked the employees thoughts and feelings (what a novel approach, eh?) it was determined that the one item Managers ranked dead last was the most important to workers- a sense of PROGRESS.
A close analysis of nearly 12,000 diary entries, together with the writers’ daily ratings of their motivation and emotions, shows that making progress in one’s work—even incremental progress—is more frequently associated with positive emotions and high motivation than any other workday event.
Progress matters more than anything else to us. This desire to grow, expand and overcome challenges is insatiable- and the managers that recognize this will have a much better understanding of how to encourage and motivate workers. But what does this mean for individuals? How can individuals gain greater self-motivation by understanding this principle? The answer lies in what progress means to each one of us.
When I talk to busy attorneys about desires when it comes to blogging, they have very similar concerns:
-Will blogging help me bring in business?
-Can blogging help me gain recognition for my expertise?
-Can this get me on the “short list” of experts?
-Is anybody I want to do business with reading blogs or spending time on Twitter?
What they are really asking is, can blogging help me make progress? Can it help me make progress with my network, progress in my business development and progress in the way I am perceived within my firm? If professionals don’t believe that blogging and interaction through social networks will help them progress in some way, it won’t be worth it to them. Blogging requires too much time and energy.
Progress really means very different things to different people. The #1 reason law firm lawyers cite as the reason they want to bring in more business? They feel it will substantially improve the way they are perceived within their law firm. For solo attorneys and smaller practices, they often want to blog to bring in more business because progress means survival to them. These large or small firm attorneys believe that bringing in business will help them advance the rock in one way or another.
If blogging won’t advance the rock for you, is it still worth it? Most will say no, others enjoy the connections and camaraderie that comes with blogging. The sense of feeling connected to other lawyers that are going through the same things make it worth it. In my opinion, blogging is way too much work for it to serve as nothing more than a glorified water cooler.
What does progress mean to you? If you don’t have a clear idea, you may not have what it takes to wake up again tomorrow and resume pushing that rock up the hill.
-Hat tip to Charles Green for pointing out the HBR article to me.
Why I un-followed 47,000 people on Twitter
Remember when the band members from Metallica all got short haircuts? I remember hearing people say, “those sell-outs” and “it just isn’t the same seeing them with short hair.” Did anybody consider that after having long greasy hair for almost two decades, they were ready for a change? Long hair can be hard to manage, and so can a huge Twitter following.
When I first joined Twitter I was trying to get a book published. I still have a few good friends from the old days when I was using a blogspot blog – http://adriandayton.blogspot.com. For those of you that knew me back then I had one goal- to get my first book published. It was a book about virtues, so I figured a bigger following was better. So I grew… and grew.. and grew my following.
Somewhere along the way I switched gears and started talking to other lawyers about social media. This was a far more narrow niche and required a very tight focus. For this very specific group a big following wasn’t nearly as helpful or attractive. Worse still, I was following so many people that my Twitter stream was filled with content that was at best irrelevant and at worse distracting. The biggest challenge for me was that I could no longer focus on new followers or qualified prospects because they were lost in the noise. It was time to get a hair cut.
Months ago I noticed that Alexis Neely had trimmed down the list of people she followed- so I asked her how that went for her. She responded, “I have no regrets.” Than I noticed that one of the nicest people I know on Twitter, Del Williams had done the same. She told me how great it was to no longer have so many auto-DM’s and the SPAM coming her way all the time. She told me about a program called http://unfollowall.com that let’s you un-follow everyone with a click of a button. If you have a larger following it takes about 15 clicks- but it sure beats going through them all manually.
Do I regret it?
Actually no, you see the people that CARE have sent me a message and I have followed them back immediately, the people that don’t care- well, why were we following each other in the first place? Seth Godin says the magic number is 10. I have written about this before, but 10 raving fans will make any business successful. By following 50,000 it was making it hard to focus on the 10- or 100 people that I really care about.
If you were un-followed in what I refer to as “The Great Cleanse,” please shoot me a message and let me know so that I can follow you back. And this time, my following you back will mean more. Please don’t be upset with me though, I would hate to have to “sleep with one eye open.” (that’s a Metallica reference if you didn’t catch it.)
Don’t Start a Blog You Can’t Finish
“Quitting smoking is easy, I’ve done it hundreds of times.” -Mark Twain
Starting a blog is easy. Finishing a blog, now that takes work. As I speak to attorneys all over the country about blogging, one of the #1 fears that I hear from them is:
“I don’t want to start something I can’t finish”
Two weeks ago I talked about Why anybody can blog, but most people fail. This week I want to talk about how attorneys can create an effective blog strategy AND have increased productivity. We are going to talk about how lawyers can create a process that will guarantee they can make their blog a reality.
The Devil is in the details
As professionals we work well under pressure. Deadlines, due dates and clients in crisis. These things don’t phase us, after all it is our job to make the problems of our clients our problems. This means that every client call is most likely urgent. There are always new fires to put out. It is impossible to plan for the calls, so we need to be ready to clear our schedule and help our clients solve their emergencies. This high volume of urgent and important matters can make it difficult to work on those things that matter the most to us. Some of the things that are the most important to us, aren’t urgent and certainly aren’t emergencies:
-watching your son’s soccer game
-dinner with your family
-date night with your spouse
-lunch with your best client
-follow up calls with your best prospects
None of these items are urgent, but it can be safely said they are all extremely important. Steven Covey describes the conflict of urgent/important versus not urgent/important with this 2×2 matrix
Our focus should be on the top right quadrant.
Sometimes we get so bogged down that when we finally have free time we spend it in the bottom right quadrant- doing things that are not important or urgent. Becoming “stuck” and living our lives in quadrants 1 and 4 is very common. There are four secrets to escaping them.
1. Have a clear vision of your future
What’s the point? Why are you creating the blog? What is your end goal? What matters most to you? Will your blog help you get there? If you can’t answer these questions- your blog will die an ignominious death. You won’t have the motivation to keep going.
2. Have a set time each week for planning
You’ll never find time for blogging. You can’t “make” time for blogging either. You need to schedule it, and that requires you to have a planning process. Set aside time each week to schedule your week and make it a priority to blog at times when you are less likely to have distractions.
3. Build accountability into your blogging goal
Who else knows about your goal to blog? Does your wife know? Does your boss know? Your business partner? Your coach? Make sure someone is checking up on you. Almost daily I hear professionals complain that they aren’t good at keeping regular commitments. Being accountable to someone else can help.
4. Make blogging a habit (this is probably the hardest step)
This comes as no surprise, it is difficult to start new habits.
“Man, I can’t floss my teeth. People talk about how hard it is to stop smoking; about as hard as it is to start flossing.” – Mitch Hedberg
If Mitch were alive today, may he rest in peace, I think he would agree that blogging is AT LEAST as hard to start as flossing. It takes commitment and dedication.
Ok, that is all I have to say right now. My wife is calling me, and it’s time to take my son to the park. Let me end by saying, if blogging is important to you, make it happen. If not, don’t beat yourself up for not doing it.
Are you like Madonna or Willie Nelson?
I think it’s fitting to start a blog post about Madonna and Willie Nelson by telling you a short story about my departed Grandfather. He would be 102 years old today. His wife, my Grandmother Lois, is still alive and turns 101 this January. I spent my summer’s working on a cattle ranch for my Grandfather- and he was constantly teaching me. He would tell me which plants were edible, how to move cattle and most importantly- proper dinner table manners.
“I’ll have the butter please,” my Grandpa said to me.
“Here it is,” I said as I quickly handed it to him.
“Now Adrian, good manners is not just about passing things when they are asked for, and saying ‘please’ and ‘thank-you.’ Having good manners means anticipating what people will need BEFORE they ask for it. When you see someone breaking their bread, go ahead and pass them the butter. If they don’t have anything to drink, offer to poor them some water.”
Anticipation is a powerful tool both for dinner-table manners and for business. Now on to the rock stars.
Madonna doesn’t have to anticipate. She is a pop-icon that is always recreating herself. She has such talent and charisma that whatever she chooses to be or however she choose to re-invent herself, people adore her for it. Or think about a production company like Pixar. Everything they create is solid gold, so they have the luxury to create from nothing something fantastic in every one of their productions. Unless you have CRAZY talent, you may not be able to be like Madonna. You may need to learn the art of anticipation.
Willie Nelson didn’t have crazy talent. At least not in the way Madonna did. Willie Nelson was an extremely talented song writer. He wrote big hits like “Crazy” for Patsy Cline. The problem was, he didn’t want to write, he wanted to sing- but none of the major record labels would sign him. They said he didn’t have the singing voice to be a star. Instead of trying to force it, he changed tactics. Willie noticed a movement in country music towards a little rougher cowboy. Call this the “Harley Davidson Movement.” He saw this growing trend, and he realized that it was going to be big. Maybe even bigger than country itself at the time, so instead of trying to create the new trend- he decided to ride the wave by writing music to resonate with this new growing market. He anticipated their needs before they knew they had them, and not only did he land a huge record deal and propel his career to stardom- he even got to sing and play the music his way.
How can you possibly anticipate the next big trend? How about anticipating the needs your clients will have next? Do you need to read their minds, or shuffle through their garbage? No, but I would recommend you start by listening to them. You need to be tuned it. Talk to them. Ask them what is keeping them up at night. If one client calls with a new concern, chances are there will be other clients with similar concerns. Find out from the source. It’s not the only way, but it gives you the best chance of success. Madonna’s are one-in-a-million but new smart business people that are able to anticipate are springing up everyday.
Anybody can learn to anticipate, but for starters take a lesson from my Grandfather, and pass me the butter.
Why anybody can blog, but most people fail
As I sat at the dinner table, picking at my meatloaf, my Father looked directly at me.
“Adrian, I hear you haven’t been practicing your piano. We’ve talked about this before.”
“Dad, I really want to learn to play piano, life is just really busy right now,” I argued.
“Adrian, we do the things in life we want to do.“
In dozens of conversations with busy professional I hear time and time again similar excuses to the ones I made to my Father as a kid.
“I’m too busy.”
“I barely have time to respond to all my emails.”
“I don’t want to commit to something I can’t stick with.”
Most people who try to blog fail for three major reasons. 1. They aren’t sufficiently motivated to blog. 2. They aren’t organized enough to blog. 3. They don’t know what to say.
Motivation
If you don’t believe that blogging will help build your business, build your reputation, or gain valuable exposure for you- you may not have sufficient motivation to make blogging a priority in your life. That is ok, blogging isn’t for everybody. Last week in my post: Do you believe in social media? we talked about this very point. If you really want to start blogging, these questions may help you: What will blogging mean to your career? What networking opportunities will blogging provide you with? How will landing a new client through your blog affect how you are perceived in your office? If answering these questions motivates you to start blogging, you are part of the way there. The next step is to make a plan.
Organization
“I’m just not good at keeping weekly or daily commitments.”
We all do the things in life we want to do. What do you want most? Do you want to write a book? Do you want to travel to Europe? Do you want to buy a rental property? Make it happen. Create a plan and follow it- but stop saying you really want to do something and start planning to make it happen.
When it comes to blogging you need a schedule. Set aside time every day or every week when you can blog free from distractions. If you don’t have any free time, reevaluate some of the other “essential” tasks that are filling your days and find out which tasks are keeping you from achieving the things you most want to accomplish. Eliminate the the time sinks.
I schedule time three days a week to blog, sometimes I only come up with 2 blog posts, some weeks I come up with 4, but it is part of schedule. One of the biggest mistakes people make that start blogging or using social media is underestimating the commitment. I’m not talking about wasting time on Twitter or Facebook. You can easily waste 2 hours each day on social networking, but that isn’t the point here. The point is schedule time in a strategic way so that when you write and when you spend time online you are maximizing that opportunity by either creating content, learning, or building relationships. Your time and energy are your most valuable resources, so use them wisely.
Figuring out what to say
What are you the best at? Where do you have expertise? What is a topic you are passionate about? What types of news articles make your blood boil? You always have things to talk about, you just need to start saying them online.
Another great way to get started is to blog about questions people frequently ask you, or questions you personally would like answered. If the questions are interesting and important to your clients, they will most likely be helpful to others as well.
When I know I have to blog on a regular basis, it changes the way I see the world. In the middle of conversations I will often say, “wow that would make a great blog post.” Blogging changes the way you think. Suddenly an idea can become much more. Your simple thought bubble makes for a compelling blog post. You just need to start writing them down.
Overcoming fear
What if people don’t like my posts? What if people don’t read them? What if people criticize my writing?
For most people the problem isn’t that they don’t have anything to say. The problem is that they are afraid. Fear can be crippling, and fear of saying the wrong thing keeps people from blogging. Overcoming this fear takes practice. Through repetition your confidence and skill level will grow and and your fear will dissipate. Learn by doing, and the more you blog the better you will be.
If you are motivated to blog, make it part of your routine and make it happen. It isn’t easy. It requires dedication, creativity and hard work. It can be amazing though. Blogging is great for so many reasons. Get over these major hurdles and blogging can work for you. Just remember what my Dad taught me:
“We do the things in life we want to do.”
52 posts = blog critical mass
“Lawyers don’t want leads, they want clients” -Anonymous
Lawyers sometimes act as if the rules of business don’t apply to them. They don’t need to market, they don’t need to calculate the cost of goods sold, they don’t need to project manage and they certainly don’t need leads that may or may not convert into any real business. It is time that lawyers start to pay attention to insights from the rest of the business world. Last week Andrea Stimmel, Marketer of the Year, shared with me her opinion that for lawyers to stay on top of the latest trends they need to watch what other industries are doing with social media. Hubspot’s inbound marketing survey of 1,400 small-to-medium sized businesses allows you to do just that. You can see the entire report here.
Before I share with you what I found to be the most relevant statistics to lawyers, I just need to clarify one thing. This report speaks a lot about “leads” – not necessarily about new clients. Leads take two forms- (1) potential clients that come to your blog or website and call you to ask you questions, or (2) potential clients that “opt-in” by submitting their name and email address on your site. If your site isn’t set up for that, fix it. Leads drive appointments and appointments drive new engagements.
Now for the good stuff.
1. Businesses that used blogs brought in more business, but only after reaching a critical mass of posts. The magic number when it comes to blog posts is 52. Businesses that reach 52 posts double the number of leads they bring in each month according to the report.
So why 52 posts? The report provides a number of different reasons. Companies that hit the big 52 have a commitment to posting regularly and they also have a critical mass of pages indexed by Google- this helps boost their search engine results substantially because it helps them rank for dozens if not more than a hundred different key works.
2. Twitter matters. Businesses that used Twitter on average doubled the number of leads in comparison to those that didn’t use Twitter. Another interesting fact, you don’t need a huge following on Twitter. In fact those businesses with 100-500 followers on Twitter fared extremely well – better than those with more than 501 followers. This shows that quality not quantity matters on Twitter. A few hundred targeted followers is all your business needs. ”Customers with large numbers of followers are probably attracting viewers who are exclusively interested in the content,” the report explains. A gigantic Twitter following is great for sites that are trying to generate traffic, but not so much those trying to bring in leads.
Twitter takeaway: “Follow to get followers. Build your Twitter reach by following companies and individuals related to your industry. They will likely follow you [back].” It is worth it, at least until you reach a few hundred followers.
3. Increase the number of indexed pages on your site. Simply put, you need a critical mass of content on your site and that content needs to be tagged appropriately.
Conclusions:
-There is a clearly defined business case for blogs and social media- but you need the appropriate strategy behind it. Use your blog to generate leads, and then create a process for follow-up so that your leads are converted into new clients.
-Use Twitter. It helps people find your site and has been shown to substantially increase the number of leads generated.
-The rule of 52. You need your blog to reach 52 posts as quickly as possible. If you are blogging once per week, this will take a year- twice a week, 6 months. You get the idea. If you can find ways to bring in guest bloggers, task associates with creating the content, or even brining on an intern to research blog topics for you, it makes sense.
Do these statistics apply to lawyers and law firms? The practice of law is different, right? Just keep telling yourself that, and wait for the phone to ring. In the meantime for those that are looking to actively market and build your business, learn from these statistics. Hat tip to Stephen Fairley from the Rainmaker Institute for pointing out the Hubspot report to me.
If you don’t think these statistics apply to the legal market, tell us why. Share your experience. I’ve spoken to a number of lawyers that have never found a single client through blogging or Twitter. Most of them gave up too early. Did they reach 52 posts? Was their site designed to generate leads? Please share your experiences and insights here.
To help you remember the number 52, I’ve also included a little music video to help you get ready for the weekend.
