Zen & the Art of Legal Networking

This week’s rainmaking recommendation from expert Jaimie Field covers one of my favorite topics, content marketing!

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Content Marketing has been around for quite a while now.  For those lawyers who are confused as to what content marketing is I love this definition by Joe Pulizzi, the creator of the Content Marketing Institute:

Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.”

It’s true – running an organization that is built on in-person personal relationships has it’s challenges. But what doesn’t have its challenges in 2020, right?

A couple of years ago, I wrote a blog post about how lawyers and law firms can leverage their referral networks to achieve more value, whether these networks are formal or informal (I happen to run a formal one). There’s no reason that this has to stop because in-person events have been put on pause; in fact, many of our members have said they’ve never felt their membership has been more valuable than it has been this year. In part, that’s due to the historical relationships that they’ve built over many years. But we’re welcoming new firms too. And it’s possible to forge new relationships and create new business – it simply takes a little creativity.

Last week, I mentioned that I’d had the chance to sit down with LexBlog’s Bob Ambrogi to discuss all things ILN, podcasting, blogging and more. I wanted to share the full interview with you this week. You can check out a written digest of some of the highlights of the interview here, or watch the full conversation below:

Rainmaking coach and trainer, Jaimie Field is letting you in on a secret today. And it’s one I completely agree with too. Read on…

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Shhh… I’m going to tell you a secret.

Lean in a bit closer so I can YELL this in your ear! The most important secret to Rainmaking success is . . . .

Last week, I had the absolute pleasure of speaking with LexBlog’s Bob Ambrogi on “This Week in Legal Blogging,” their new Facebook Live interview series. Bob and I discussed the ILN, running a legal network during a pandemic, and the eleven years that I’ve spent blogging here on Zen (how did that happen??). Two of his questions touched on tips for bloggers who were either getting started in legal blogging, or looking to focus or amplify their efforts, so I wanted to share them here with you! These are my six tips for legal bloggers:

If you’re likely to be in quarantine for a while, or even if it will be a long time before you can travel to your firm’s other offices, read on to see Jaimie Field’s suggestions for better connecting with your colleagues. (Hint: these can be used to get to know your ILN colleagues better too!)

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It doesn’t seem like we are going to go back to the office anytime soon.