What is Legal PR? Part 3: Everything Else...

What is Legal PR?

In parts 1 and 2 of this series, I covered media relations and social media. This, the third instalment, describes some of the other supporting services we provide to clients on a day to day basis.

Awards: many lawyers recognise the value of being 'an award winning law firm', when it comes to attracting new clients. Others are cynical about their value, and some feel they are handed out 'willy-nilly' to mates and sponsors of the organising body.

Now it's certainly the case that not all awards are born equal. However, that's not in itself a reason to dismiss them in their entirety. The Law Society Excellence Awards for example are fairly judged, neutral and well respected. Others, are unfortunately less so. If you're interested in a case study on our awards service - here's one.

My advice when it comes to awards is: don't dismiss them out of hand, but take professional advice on the ones to enter and those to skip. Of course, it goes without saying that submissions must be well drafted and compliant with the T&C's of entry...

Copywriting: we also draft outstanding content - standalone commissions such as updates to clients' websites, ongoing and regular content for technical client blogs, as well as newsletters, white papers, reports and of course the media relations content described in part 1 of this series.

Events: everybody loves a good party, and we are certainly no exception to that rule! We provide consultancy and detailed party planning for our clients. Our past events have included conferences, birthday parties, launch events, breakfast seminars and hosted events for our clients' clients.

Directories: their mention typically prompts multiple eye-rolls across all departments, nevertheless the Legal 500 and Chambers directories continue to have a hold over the legal profession. For the haters out there - as well as for those who recognise the value in a ranking, but find it difficult to find the time or vocabulary to draft their submissions - we jump right in and do the hard word.

So that completes the series on Legal PR. I hope you found it interesting and if you learnt something new - let us know by leaving a comment!

By Victoria Moffatt

LexRex is a specialist consultancy providing strategic PR and marketing support to law firms and businesses that operate within the legal sector. Our services include media relations, social media support and training, award entries, legal directory submissions and copywriting.

If you would like to know more about our services, please drop us an email on info@lexrexcommunications.com. You can also tweet us LexRexComms or @vicmoffatt.

What is legal PR? Part 2: Social Media

What is Legal PR?

No doubt that even just 10 years ago, the answer to that question would have been quite different. Media relations, which we covered in our last post, is still fundamental and is now supported by a whole host of other elements. One of those is social media, and we'll cover the others in later posts.

We most commonly help law firms to get their message across using Twitter and LinkedIn, but that's not to say that Facebook doesn't have its place.

So what do we actually DO? Well, initially, we map out a client's brand on a strategic basis - to understand what they stand for, who they want to reach and where the business is going over the course of the next 6 - 12 months. Once we understand all of this, we create and start to implement a supporting social media strategy.

Twitter is a great place to start with social media, as it's a bit like entering a giant networking event. You really never know who you're going to meet there! We help our clients to build a following of dedicated fans - but we don't believe it's purely about the numbers. In our experience* it's far better to have a smaller, focussed following made up of target individuals who are interested in what you have to say, who may actually buy from you in the future. On that note - people do buy on Twitter, and don't let anybody tell you that they don't.

With regards to LinkedIn, our role is to enable clients to present the best version of themselves to the world. Who wants to read a stuffy CV-based profile? I want to know the person behind the photograph (you do have a professional headshot on there don't you?), and if you have a personalised profile that actually tells me something about you, I'm more likely to warm to you, and correspondingly, instruct or at least meet with you. We also train clients on how best to use LinkedIn, particularly to build business.

On a firm-wide basis, we create and manage company pages - these are often criminally under-utilised, and create and share content to drive web traffic and new enquiries.

Facebook isn't for every firm... but for those that can harness its power strategically, it's a no-brainer. As with Twitter, we help our clients to build an army of loyal followers, people who will like and share content, provide comments and engage publicly. If your mates like something, well it's got to be worth checking out, right?

So that was our whirlwind tour of social media... If you enjoyed it, please do leave a comment and if you found it useful, why not check out the others on our blog.

*As one of the first practising lawyers on Twitter, Vic knows a thing or two about Twitter

By Victoria Moffatt

LexRex is a specialist consultancy providing strategic PR and marketing support to law firms and businesses that operate within the legal sector. Our services include media relations, social media support and training, award entries, legal directory submissions and copywriting.

If you would like to know more about our services, please drop us an email on info@lexrexcommunications.com. You can also tweet us LexRexComms or @vicmoffatt.

What is Legal PR? Part 1: Media Relations

What is Legal PR?

So it's been a little while since I last blogged, and with good reason. In May 2014 I produced a little person, and since then, I've enjoyed taking some time off. But now I'm back. A little bit like the Terminator, but hopefully slightly less sinister.

Anyway, because it's been a while I thought I would ease myself back into writing with a series of back-to-basics posts on what it is we do at LexRex Towers. It's easy for us to say 'we specialise in Legal PR', but what does that actually mean?

So first up, it's the daddy, the dark art, our bread and butter... It's Media Relations.

Media relations is basically anything to do with the media. Duh - sounds obvious right? Well, yes and no. We do draft and issue press releases on the usual subjects: financials, new appointments/promotions, ground-breaking/interesting claims, mergers, directory listings etc etc.

We also prepare what we call 'forward feature' calendars mapping out which of our clients' target media are writing about their specialisms and when. We use these to help to plan their PR year and to ensure we make the most of any planned opportunities.

We build relationships between journalists and clients through meetings, interview opportunities, introductions at conferences, Q&A's and roundtables. We know the journalists our clients need to know, and if it's appropriate we'll connect them.

We also pitch in and write bylined articles. These are the pieces written by lawyers that are typically seen in trade publications. These are not 'paid for' pieces or advertorials, but they are usually advisory in nature. Because we are all newshounds here, we know exactly what is topping the news agenda at any particular time, and we approach journalists with ideas for columns or articles on our clients' behalf. As well as print and online media, we also create and exploit opportunities on the TV and radio.

So, media relations. Hopefully it's all just become a little clearer...

By Victoria Moffatt

If you found this post useful, why not check out the others on our blog.

LexRex is a specialist consultancy providing strategic PR and marketing support to law firms and businesses that operate within the legal sector. Our services include media relations, social media support and training, award entries, legal directory submissions and copywriting.

If you would like to know more about our services, please drop us an email on info@lexrexcommunications.com or call us on 0161 850 5556. You can also tweet us LexRexComms or @vicmoffatt.