Bloggers: Your Audience Wants Real-time Conversation

With the Internet and social media spreading information in every direction how does a lawyer stand out? How do you get noticed among the 3 billion Google searches performed each day?

First, develop a sense for where your clients and prospects tend to gather online. Second, get a feel for why they congregate on one platform over another and how they like to engage on that platform. Being in sync with your audience sets the stage for you to connect in significant ways. That’s key for developing business with sweet-spot clients.

Consider the habits of investors as an example:

Five million affluent investors use social media to research financial decisions. Their preferred platform for interacting with financial companies is LinkedIn. And, what these investors “want most from social media is relevant and timely content, greater transparency and real-time interaction and conversation.”

This infographic may focus on the financial services industry but this is an open invitation to lawyers. These affluent investors also have legal needs. They require lawyers able to:

• Coach on an employment agreement
• Draft a will to minimize the negative impact of taxes
• Handle a business breakup

Think broadly–your audience isn’t just that high-net worth person but also the financial advisor who has that investor’s ear. Part of the advisor’s job is to help his client connect with competent lawyers, accountants and other fiduciaries. They need to make solid word-of-mouth referrals based on their evolving personal network. The research shows that these investors (and their advisors) want timely content and are more likely to trust articles (blog posts) shared on LinkedIn.

Your takeaway? Make sure you’re visible on LinkedIn in meaningful ways like these three lawyers:

1. Andrew Rodman who assists executives and HR professionals develop practical solutions to the range of issues they face. Andrew co-authors the BeLabor the Point blog for Stearns Weaver (110 lawyers, 2 blogs) in Miami.
2. Michelle St. Pierre who does estate planning and guides high-net-worth families and privately owned companies with their planning and business needs. Michelle co-authors the WealthDirector blog for Baker Hostetler (900 lawyers, 14 blogs) in Denver.
3. Peter Mahler who helps business owners resolve the complex problems that arise when disputing business co-owners need to divorce. Peter’s blog is New York Business Divorce. He’s with Farrell Fritz (100 lawyers, 9 blogs) in New York.

Andrew, Michelle and Peter understand the power of relationships. Having a blog and exposure on LinkedIn helps lawyers connect with high-net worth individuals and their advisors.

As you develop your blogging muscles, make sure to distribute your blog posts broadly but strategically. After I publish a blog post, I share that post on the platform where my audience tends to gather.

This post is an example of that. I’m sharing with different teasers updates on LinkedIn, Google+ and Twitter. I’m practicing the NPR’s content management strategy: create once and publish everywhere. Over time that accelerates word-of-mouth referrals for me.

You won’t get on a potential client’s radar unless you play in her sandbox and even then she needs to cross your path a few times to become familiar with you.

What starts the conversation about your passion, authority and expertise? What makes your audience want to engage?