Getting The Most Value From Legal PR

Well, it's back to the LexRex blog after a foray back in time over on the VicMoffatt blog last week.

This week I started thinking about the clients I work with at the moment, and the law firm clients that I've previously managed in an earlier life working in PR agencies. This made me think about 'value' and how lawyers can ensure they get the most of this from their legal PR activities.

I've always found that the most successful campaigns involve a combination of great PR expertise (that's a given), sparkling imagination and a sense of humour, and from the lawyers; interest, enthusiasm, a basic understanding of PR and a willingness to stand up and be counted.

To get straight to the point of this post; PR needs top-level buy in and continued support. That's the bottom line. So what can lawyers do to ensure they get the most out of their agency or in-house team?

1. Tell us about your business. We need to know what's going on - good and bad. If you're merging, making redundancies, or experiencing huge growth; then tell us. We can maximise the good news, and manage the bad. Trust us, it's part of our job to keep secrets.
2. Commit to regular (but effective) meetings. Ideally these should combine elements of review and forward planning and last no more than 45 minutes. Actions should be clearly defined and deadlined.
3. Respond to requests quickly and clearly. A 'yes' or 'no' answer is usually enough in the first instance. For example - do you want to provide comments on the Budget to one of the key local business publications? 'Yes' or 'No' = SIMPLES. A quick 'yes' allows your PR to approach the publication, write comments, seek approval for these, and amend them if necessary. Little effort required from you - just a few moments to review and approve.
4. Be enthusiastic. If you have something interesting and different to say, people are more likely to listen. We act as your media filter - say what you want in front of us, and we'll polish it and make it media-friendly.
5. Allow us to write content from scratch. Expecting us to rehash something you've written wastes both your time (scratching your head and then typing/ dictating) and ours (trying to polish your comments, whilst also avoiding offence). 
6. Don't be afraid to have your own ideas - but listen to us when we say no. We absolutely appreciate input, but trust us to know what works and what doesn't.
7. Expect and embrace targets. The days of 'we'll give you x days per month for £x' are over. As the client (of an agency or in-house team) it's reasonable to expect deliverables. Admittedly, PR success can be difficult to measure on a budget, but it is possible to set basic targets such as outputs, target publications, key messages, sentiment. And for social media such as Twitter - audiences, follower numbers, conversation levels and retweets. For those with more money to spend, it's possible to measure audience awareness on a 'before' and 'after' basis, as well as a whole host of other things.

All things considered, a pretty straightforward list of things to think about - so what are you waiting for?

By Victoria Moffatt.

For more information about LexRex and our legal PR service, please contact us at info@lexrexcommunications.com

A Slight Change...

A slight change in the usual running order... This week I've written a post on my other, personal blog. I decided to review my very first blog - written in November 2010. In that post I asked whether the legal profession in the UK was teetering on the edge of revolution.

So - have things changed since then? Only one way to find out...

A Review, a Rethink and a Rebrand

The Importance of Being Yourself on Twitter

Another week, another post on Twitter. They just keep on coming... Feel free to complain to the management. It's a pretty short one this time though.

Anyway, over the last seven days, I got thinking about Twitter (again) and in particular my most recent post about how I use Twitter to build lasting relationships. That particular piece made me stop for a moment, and think about the importance of being 'yourself' on Twitter.

So, do people do this? I'm not sure. I suspect that many of the lawyers I see on Twitter are there because they think they should be, and I do see a lot of streams that I just think - 'really - why bother'. They are typically made up of RTs, don't really involve any interaction with other accounts, are rarely used and are frankly boring. It's a bit like going to a party and refusing to speak to anybody - you're there, but you're not. If you see what I mean.

So in a roundabout way, I think what I'm saying is this: to be the belle of the Twitter ball, a sparkling, sociable Twitter-ite; just try to inject a little personality into your tweets. I know we can't all be on Twitter 24/7 - in fact, I often miss the 5 - 10 tweets per day minimum as spouted by a variety of social media 'gurus'...

Views, anyone?

By Victoria Moffatt

For more information about the LexRex strategic Twitter consultancy and training sessions for lawyers, please contact us at info@lexrexcommunications.com.

Building Lasting Relationships With Twitter

Last week I wrote about Twitter, and why I use it. This week I've decided to examine one of my points in more detail, that is; how I create and build lasting relationships with Twitter.

Twitter is many things to many people, but for me, it's really just a massive, ongoing networking event. When I say networking, what I really mean is 'socialising with a purpose'. In fact, that's pretty much how I define any of the networking activities I take part in. I'm not one for 'working the room' - I think it's cheesy and people hate feeling like they've been looked up and down, sussed out and rejected as a non-prospect.

For me, Twitter is the same. I will talk to anybody friendly, interesting, chatty etc. Sometimes though, I will have a conversation with a person I realise I would like to meet (and also that it's practical to meet - there are some fabulous people I've come to know well over the years that I would dearly love to meet, but who simply live/work too far away).

Anyway - back to my point. I've probably been in contact with this person over a fair amount of time, perhaps days, weeks or even months. They are probably somebody working in the same sector as me, I may be able to help them with something, perhaps it's somebody I can refer things to, or even somebody I can potentially work with. Either way, I'd like to meet them. 

Now - to me it's obvious, but in the same way as I would if I met them at a networking event, I ask them if they'd be happy to meet for a coffee. This can go one of three ways - they say yes, say no or simply ignore me. Well that's absolutely fair enough. Most of the time people say yes - apart from one chap who said no, because he thought I was asking him out on a date. Ouch. Maybe I should have been a little clearer in my approach on that occasion...

So once we've agreed to meet for coffee, it's email time and then meeting time. The relationship has now been taken offline and into real life. It is now 'proper'. It's also now up to me to maintain it and ensure it lasts. Twitter has done it's job.

By Victoria Moffatt

Twitter Strategy For Lawyers

This week - I'm all about the strategy. Twitter strategy for lawyers, that is. The past few years have seen a huge increase in lawyers and law firms using Twitter. Is this a great thing, or all just a terrible misunderstanding? Well... that depends.

Twitter is a wonderful thing for business development and great for raising your personal profile or your firm's profile, but - used without strategic direction - ultimately a brilliant time-waster.

So, a word from the wise - before you jump in - consider what you're trying to achieve. I'm not suggesting you should write a 1000 word strategy document, just have a think about what you want to achieve by joining Twitter; an ROI if you will.

I didn't do this when I joined - but then I was quite an early adopter. Back then, I'm not sure any of us knew what we were doing. Nowadays, I know that I can use Twitter for the following:

1. Breaking news: time and time again I discover things on Twitter before they are reported anywhere else. Often hours before. 
2. Meeting people (yes really): By responding to tweets and chatting away with people I don't know, I build on-line relationships. I then take these off-line and start to grow 'proper' relationships IRL (in real life).
3. Business development: I say this cautiously. I don't sell on Twitter. Never have, never will. However, I do promote this blog there, and I also have a dedicated LexRex account which I sometimes use to spread good news and business achievements. I suppose really this heading should be 'raise awareness of LexRex'. Whatever. *Another word to the wise - don't sell on Twitter.
4. Spreading news: A lot of people do this on Twitter now, and it's a quick and easy way for you, or your firm to be associated with a certain industry, theme or trend. I try and tweet breaking legal news - it's of interest to the people I want to appeal to, and it means I'm associated with the legal profession. 

So - Twitter strategy. Do you have one?

By Victoria Moffatt