Page 53 - MASTER COPY LEADERS BOOK 9editedJKK (24)_Neat
P. 53
Leaders in Legal Business
The Process for Building Your Social Media Plan
Start with the basics. This process resembles the process you undertake to create a marketing and business
development plan.
Benchmark your and your competitors’ digital presence.
Set realistic goals based on existing plans.
Decide how you are going to measure success.
Decide what your social media brand is going to be.
Identify clients, influencers, and advocates.
Decide what position you are targeting in your clients’ and prospects’ minds.
Create a strategy for each target audience you want to reach.
Decide what messages you want each target to hear and understand about you.
Create an editorial calendar.
Seek training for those social networking basics and practices that need to be in place for all of this to
work smoothly.
Final Words of Advice
Don’t overthink it.
By this, I mean don’t make it more difficult than it needs to be. You want people to come to know and
trust you, and to understand how you can help them. That is one of the main benefits of social networking. It can
pave the way for advancing your business relationship. Remember to act like you would anywhere else where
you are in front of people.
Listen and speak to people.
Listen to what people are saying and writing online. Ask them questions, following up on what they’ve
written or said. Share their thoughts and content with others. Be interesting by providing feedback and perspective
on issues that have to do with your practice area. Have some fun with your connections, which doesn’t mean
throwing caution to the wind, but simply to show a side of you that is approachable and easy to talk to. Then,
every once in a while, after you’ve done all of this for a time, you may have then earned the right and the trust to
talk about yourself now and then.
Play nicely.
Be sensible, kind, wise, and ethical in your online interaction with others. Don’t get involved in heated
debates and arguments unless that is the brand you have decided you want to convey online, and only then if it
serves your practice well. Many use their keyboard and the safety of their digital screens as a buffer zone that
allows them to engage people when they wouldn’t otherwise do so if they were face to face. This is not a best
practice.
Remember that social networking is a contact sport.
Social networking can’t survive on its own. It takes more than one person to be effective. It is definitely
not broadcast media where you shout and promote in a one-sided manner. It is a process of consistent interaction
with those you care about in order to discover ways to serve them. Always strive to find ways to bring value to
46
The Process for Building Your Social Media Plan
Start with the basics. This process resembles the process you undertake to create a marketing and business
development plan.
Benchmark your and your competitors’ digital presence.
Set realistic goals based on existing plans.
Decide how you are going to measure success.
Decide what your social media brand is going to be.
Identify clients, influencers, and advocates.
Decide what position you are targeting in your clients’ and prospects’ minds.
Create a strategy for each target audience you want to reach.
Decide what messages you want each target to hear and understand about you.
Create an editorial calendar.
Seek training for those social networking basics and practices that need to be in place for all of this to
work smoothly.
Final Words of Advice
Don’t overthink it.
By this, I mean don’t make it more difficult than it needs to be. You want people to come to know and
trust you, and to understand how you can help them. That is one of the main benefits of social networking. It can
pave the way for advancing your business relationship. Remember to act like you would anywhere else where
you are in front of people.
Listen and speak to people.
Listen to what people are saying and writing online. Ask them questions, following up on what they’ve
written or said. Share their thoughts and content with others. Be interesting by providing feedback and perspective
on issues that have to do with your practice area. Have some fun with your connections, which doesn’t mean
throwing caution to the wind, but simply to show a side of you that is approachable and easy to talk to. Then,
every once in a while, after you’ve done all of this for a time, you may have then earned the right and the trust to
talk about yourself now and then.
Play nicely.
Be sensible, kind, wise, and ethical in your online interaction with others. Don’t get involved in heated
debates and arguments unless that is the brand you have decided you want to convey online, and only then if it
serves your practice well. Many use their keyboard and the safety of their digital screens as a buffer zone that
allows them to engage people when they wouldn’t otherwise do so if they were face to face. This is not a best
practice.
Remember that social networking is a contact sport.
Social networking can’t survive on its own. It takes more than one person to be effective. It is definitely
not broadcast media where you shout and promote in a one-sided manner. It is a process of consistent interaction
with those you care about in order to discover ways to serve them. Always strive to find ways to bring value to
46
