The good news? Your good ideas are lurking in your subconscious, you just need to identify the right triggers to wake them up.

Most people start, logically enough, by identifying and describing the main categories of your business, including details that feel “humdrum.” In the infographic below, that’s the “Old School” approach that should yield some food for thought.  You can take the “Old School” queries even further by conducting a roundtable where you ask colleagues or clients to compare notes on how they would answer those questions.

But…you’ll be a better content marketer and storyteller if you ask the “New School” version of those questions:

What questions help you overcome Blank Sheet Syndrome and create great marketing ideas?

To reach Elizabeth:

Phone: 212.840.0017
Email: elizabeth@blisspr.com
Twitter: @elizabethsosnow
LinkedIn: Elizabeth Sosnow

Spenser Baretz of Hellerman Baretz Communications LLC helped Ford & Harrison start the blog in 2006, and used it as a case study during the recent Law Firm Media Professionals (LFMP) social media panel discussion. Other panelists at the event included Russell Lawson of Sands Anderson (who also blogs about “Progressive Marketing” here) and the ubiquitous Peter Shankman of HARO; both of whom echoed the value of blogs in marketing for law firms and other professional services organizations.

But why are professional service and law firms such good candidates for blogging as opposed to other forms of social media? Lawson used a popular analogy to describe getting his firm started on social media: “it was like trying to drink from a fire hose.” (For more on this, check out the BlissPR blog post from Elizabeth Sosnow: 11 reasons why law firms should experiment with social media). To make the transition more manageable, Lawson limited the firm’s scope to blogs, and added Twitter and LinkedIn once they got more comfortable in the space. In addition to being perhaps the most manageable first step into the social media world, blogging is also a great medium to promote the ideas that are the backbone of what professional services firms are essentially “selling”.

Baretz also reinforced that social media is about promoting ideas and thought leadership that will be valued by clients. A blog is a great way to do this, as Ford & Harrison quickly found out. According to Baretz, associates at the firm were assigned blog posts each week, and were required to make updates immediately following each episode. This allowed them to capitalize on the high search volume for the term “The Office” thereby skyrocketing the firm’s SEO, and showcasing their employment law expertise to an audience of current and prospective clients. 

“That’s What She Said” has been a great success, and its strategy can be replicated for other professional services blogs. There seem to be three key pieces to the puzzle:

1. MAN POWER – A successful blog requires an extensive time commitment on behalf of the bloggers, usually the firm’s leadership. This blog is sustainable because it is driven by multiple associates at the firm, not just one person, and not by the partners who often do not have the bandwidth to regularly update a blog.  
2. FLOW OF CONTENT – Because this blog is linked to a weekly TV show, there is a regular flow of content sparking new ideas and raising new issues to blog about. This makes life a lot easier on the bloggers. What in your industry (or outside of it) could be used to spark regular content?
3. TIMING – Updates were posted immediately following each episode of The Office, keeping the blog relevant and SEO-friendly. Timing is critical across so many channels of media and PR, and linking a blog to something that will be newsworthy and relevant from a timing standpoint can be a key driver of success, as Ford & Harrison have demonstrated. 

Has your firm created a successful blog? If so, does it have any of the components listed above? What else helps to drive your blog’s success?

To reach Emily:

Phone: 212.840.8079
Email: Emily@blisspr.com
Twitter: @eweinman
LinkedIn: Emily Weinman

1. Do you have dedicated experts with an interest in promoting their industry knowledge and affiliation in the media? People may be industry experts but, if they don’t want to be identified with a sector or client set in the media, don’t bother. It is also helpful to have more than one person available to comment. While industries may be specific, the topics/specialty topic areas within are not.
2. Can your services be adapted specifically for an industry segment? Many professional services businesses have one service that they replicate across several different industries and then tout “industry expertise.” While this is an okay business strategy,the media will see right through it. Ensure your service offerings can be somewhat specialized for the specific industries you want to speak to.
3. Can the firm or industry practice leverage PR and media materials in a business development capacity? While inclusion in periodicals, websites and TV programs is excellent, you want to ensure a mechanism is in place to capitalize fully on those opportunities. Newsletters, email blasts, industry specific thought leadership and your website are great places for this content to “live” on.
4. Are there a large group of reporters covering the industry either nationally or locally? For example – most national and regional business publications have a dedicated real estate reporter, however very few have a dedicated nonprofit reporter.
5. Is there a wide range of applicable trade publications to target that are read by your client and prospect targets? If not, an industry focused media relations program may not be worth the effort.
6. Are there “breaking news” angles that can be of interest to both the business community and broader groups of consumers/buyers? While this is not always essential, it can help you get more variety in your PR communications. Reporters, even B2B reporters, like to hear about how a new service, piece of legislation or economic trend will impact the individual user or buyer.

What other questions do you recommend asking before embarking on an industry-specific PR program?

To reach Cortney:

Phone: 212.840.1661
Email: cortney@blisspr.com
Twitter: @cortneyr
LinkedIn: Cortney Rhoads Stapleton

Recently, we supported MetLife as they planned and launched an event tailored for the dynamic online parenting community also known as mommy and daddy bloggers. As a group, this blogger community is passionate, savvy and outspoken –and we wanted to talk to them on their turf: social media.

As the nation’s largest life insurer, MetLife has done extensive research on the life insurance purchase process and the hurdles that consumers often encounter when trying to obtain this important protection for their families. Through that research, they confirmed that many individuals go online to look for information and answers to their questions.

Parenthood is often an impetus for individuals to think about purchasing life insurance.  However, since life insurance is just one of the many financial considerations that new parents have to navigate, MetLife decided to host a live webcast to address a variety of money-related issues for this audience.  Among the topics discussed was a presentation by MetLife’s chief marketing officer, Beth Hirschhorn, a mom of two, about the basics of life insurance for new parents including how much life insurance consumers really need and, importantly, how much it will cost.  In terms of metrics, the goal was to have 50 bloggers register for the webcast (MetLife had 75).

Importantly, the team learned valuable lessons about what it takes to engage in social media and get an event like this off the ground, which will be integral to MetLife’s future interactions in the social space.

Here are some of the steps that helped us to be successful:

• Invite outside speakers. In addition to MetLife’s Beth Hirschhorn, we extended invitations to two authors (and new parents) with insights to share on family budgeting: Stacey Bradford (The Wall Street Journal Financial Guidebook for New Parents) and David Port (The Caveman’s Guide to Baby’s First Year). The invitation also promoted that the first 100 registrants to the webcast would receive free copies of both their books.
• Leave the logistics to the experts. MetLife partnered with Thomson Reuters, who helped them to create a customized media player for the event, managed the mechanics of registration, and hosted the online event, which was broadcast live from MetLife’s on-site studio.
• Listen before you leap.  MetLife PR had been following blogger conversations for more than six months to get a sense of their interest in issues such as family finance, insurance, etc. (a best practice before engaging).
• Spread the word on Twitter. Our colleagues at MetLife PR, Toni Griffin and Judi Mahaney, joined Twitter to participate in conversations about family budgeting and finance in the months leading up to the webcast. They also created a hashtag, #straightstory, which allowed participants in the event to weigh in on the presenters’ material and share their own tips for new parents.
• Promote the event through Facebook.  MetLife launched targeted advertising through Facebook to invite those interesting in blogging, family finance and parenting, among other interests, to view the webcast.
• Target relevant bloggers and reach out accordingly. The parenting blog community is one of the biggest on the web and encompasses a HUGE variety of subjects and styles. We identified and reached out to bloggers who have touched on family finance issues and/or offered advice to new parents.
• Create a home base for related content.  MetLife put together a micro site landing page devoted to the Family Finance webcast, where anyone who was interested in the event could go to learn more about the presenters, access their presentations, explore MetLife’s new life insurance tools and tips, and watch a replay of the webcast – which made it easy for anyone who missed the event or wanted more information to get everything they needed in one place.

We’re really pleased to have partnered with MetLife on this innovative social media program.  As more consumers and influencers search for financial information online, we expect our most innovative clients to continue to develop (and hone) their approaches to social media.

What lessons have you learned about social media engagement by experimenting with new initiatives and formats?

To reach Kelly:

Phone: 212.840.1661
Email: kellyd@blisspr.com
Twitter: @kellydavis226
LinkedIn: Kelly Davis

Last week, I had the opportunity to make a presentation to the St. Louis chapter of PRSA on this topic – which is based on multiple conversations with my fellow BlissPR colleagues about how we help our clients achieve their business goals. 

B2B service companies are great clients because they stretch us to come up with a clear vantage point on technical and often enterprise level matters.   But they can also be tough clients because they are very busy, as well as risk averse and slow to adopt change.   When we are faced with creating a new campaign, here are some of the things we think about to get out of the traditional “lather, rinse, repeat” kind of PR.  Here is what I said in St. Louis – what have I missed?  (Want to make sure you see this, @tressalynne)

1. Raise the Altitude.  First, get up above product.  If you are discussing the features and benefits of what the company sells, you won’t get the audience’s full attention.  It’s like looking at photos of someone else’s kids.  Find out what the audience truly cares about, and focus on that.  Here’s a great example of a major financial company surfacing the issues of concern to its customers, who are heads of HR:  MetLife’s 8th Annual Employee Benefits Trends Study.
2. Carve out an Issue to Own.  Second, don’t be afraid to make an idea the hero of the moment.  The idea can be an issue, a trend, a topic area – think “privacy” or “motivation” or “risk” or “capital flows” — but it’s not the product.  Then build a microsite or a blog or a strong point of view around that.  We have seen consulting firms take this tack, and predict that corporations will do so as well.  
3. Be of Service to the Communities you Care About.  What does your client know that can help the communities that they serve?   How can you help them do their own business better?  Often, research, benchmark data, opinion, counsel can be packaged in a way that galvanizes decision-making.  Here’s an example: BDO’s Retail Survey.
4. Enter the Ongoing Conversation. If your client is discussing a topic that matters, and has a point of view or research that extends the conversation, then you better be finding the right dialogues, and the people (bloggers) who are influencing them.  Addict-o-matic is a great way to find them. 
5. Learn to Share.  Once you have created your content, deliver it in many forms and formats.  SMPRs, video, data nuggets, how to advice, predictions.   And don’t be afraid to partner with a media outlet to deliver all that content goodness.  Here’s an example of what we mean:  Bloomberg BusinessWeek.com/Hay Group Study Identifies Best Companies for Leadership.
6. Don’t Hog the Microphone.  When your client is the only one talking –even if he or she is the smartest person in the room, it’s less interesting than if you invite other voices in to the discussion.  Open it up and more people will listen.    That’s what they found at McKinsey’s whatmatters microsite.   
7. Get Local.  If there’s a national trend – movement of some kind, whether it’s a rule change, a regulation, legislation – there will likely be local fallout.  Capture it!  People care about changes and problems happening in their own backyards, and are more likely to pick up the phone and call someone in their own area for help.
8. Build Your own Community.  In the old days, we used trade media to reach niche markets.  Not so much anymore.  Plus niche markets are getting nichier.  Sometimes you find them, sometimes you have to help your clients create them.  So if it’s CFOs of Canadian natural resources companies, or hospital facilities managers in the southwest, or med students who care about TB,  or meeting planners for financial services companies, sometimes it’s easiest to build your own audience.  

That’s what I came up with – what steps would you add? Click here to see the full deck or feel free to email me at abby@blisspr.com.

To reach Abby:

Phone: 212.840.0088
Email: abby@blisspr.com
Twitter: @abbycarr
LinkedIn: Abby Carr

Part of the problem, of course, is media fragmentation. Americans get their news today from many different sources – traditional journalists, professional bloggers, citizen journalists, political pundits and social web creators. This makes it hard to piece together a coherent, non-partisan story. Compounding the issue is our sound-bite culture. News cycles have been reduced to hours. Editorial staffs have been downsized. And, reader attention spans have narrowed significantly.

The result is a culture of headlines and hype – a culture in which it’s easy to pull a quote out of context.

One knee-jerk response to this ‘crisis of context’ is to stay clear of the media. Lie low. Don’t make any formal announcements. Fly under the radar. The problem with this response is that – in a world of bloggers and citizen journalists – it’s nearly impossible to fly under the radar (at least if you’re doing something worthy of attention). Every meeting, every speech, every public appearance can be captured and posted by critics or competitors.

A better line of defense is to take control of the storyline – to proactively define and communicate the big picture. When we know and tell others what we stand for, we make it harder for detractors to hijack public thinking. “If you don’t stand for something,” Peter Marshall reputedly said, “then you will fall for anything.” And so will the public.

There are many ways to develop and communicate your storyline. Among the basics:

1. Meaning: Identify what you want to be known for – i.e., what do you do better than others?
2. Point-of-View: Identify how you are different from others in your field. What new twists or insights do you bring?
3. Plotline: How have your values, actions, words and alliances changed over time? How are they likely to change in the future? How do these changes fit with your story?
4. Supporting Details: What proof points back up your story? What future actions can you take to give your storyline credibility and sticking power?
5. Narration: Where, when and how do you want to tell your story? In what formats?  Through what channels?

Of course, telling your story publically won’t silence all critics. In fact, it may cause some nay-sayers to sit up and take notice. What your story will do is create a context for discussion – and help you proactively frame the terms of debate. 

What are your ideas for closing the content-context gap?

To reach Meg:
Phone:  212.840.0095 
Email: meg@blisspr.com
Twitter: @megwildrick
LinkedIn: Meg Wildrick

1. Understand demographics:  A recent study of Corporate Counsel noted that 37% of the 30-39 year old age group had used Facebook in the past 24 hours and 48% have used it professionally in the past week. Do not forget that your senior partners – and their contacts – will retire sooner than you might think. Marketing will not always stay the same, even if you really, really want it to.
2. Harness LinkedIn:  There are probably more lawyers on this network than any other group combined. Your firm needs a profile and your partners need to take advantage of the networking opportunities, which will only increase over time.
3.  Deploy a targeted Search Engine Optimization (SEO) pilot: Your attorneys may not want to leap onto Facebook, but almost anyone is interested in the efficiency of their website traffic. What kinds of visitors come to the site? How long do they stay? What kind of content moves them to action? Take a look at what your Google Analytics are trying to tell you, then pick an important practice as a test case. Create content, deploy the right keywords and see if the traffic grows – that will get the attention of more than a few within the firm.
4. Improve your alumni and recruiting efforts: If you are a large firm, this is likely to be where you have a social media investment, if you’ve made one at all. Are they just a group you send information “at,” or are you building a genuine community?
5. Harvest analytics from every place you can find them: Email blasts, websites, search engine rankings and social networks each offer law firms a chance to finally analyze and “own” quantitative marketing information. Seize it!
6. Leverage legal marketing resources: There are lots of great thinkers in this space – set up a Google Reader so you can listen in. Some of my favorites are Jane Navarre, Heather Milligan, Nancy Myrland, Adrian Dayton and Kevin O’Keefe.

I’ve spent most of my career thinking about public relations for law firms…Now I wonder if I’ll spend the rest of my career thinking about social media for law firms? What about you?

To reach Elizabeth:

Phone:  212.840.0017
Email: elizabeth@blisspr.com
Twitter: @elizabethsosnow
LinkedIn: Elizabeth Sosnow

After all, most attorneys market in order to do one thing: identify new business “leads.” But that’s not the only reason to develop an online marketing strategy.  What about positioning key practices as leaders on client sector trends?  Is it important to strengthen the firm’s brand equity in emerging markets? Can we extend the life of our current thought leadership with a new distribution system?

In short, you can. Here’s a copy of the presentation, if you’d like a deeper dive:

In the meantime, here are my first 5 tips for getting started:

1. Recognize that you don’t have to start by getting “social:” While it may be sacrilegious to say, it’s possible to derive a huge amount of value from social media without ever becoming, well, social. Instead, think of it as your firm’s competitive intelligence engine.  You have an opportunity to gain sector, competitor and client market insights – why would you pass that up?
2. Benchmark and compare trends over time: What happens if you check once and your competitor hasn’t entered the space? Does that mean they never will? Of course not. 96 of the AmLaw 200 are now blogging…only 39 were in August 2007. Keep gathering data to guide your marketing decisions and investments.
3. Evaluate aspirational marketing leaders: Large law firms know how to do many things well, from attracting laterals to extending global scope. But it’s still possible to learn from smaller firms who can sometimes be more nimble and almost certainly have been experimenting longer. Don’t make marketing decisions based on what your exact peers are doing. It’s short-sighted.
4. Construct early warning systems:  You already have Google Alerts set up to monitor your partners, practices and peers. Take it a step further and look for comments on blogs and message boards.
5. Think small: Somewhere in your firm there are emerging rainmakers that have the trust of senior partners. They are already essential in critical deals, they have keen insights about the direction of their marketplace and they are hungry for advancement. To top it off, they have a little more time than your major rainmakers. Why not let them experiment with some targeted engagement on a network such as Legal OnRamp?

Tomorrow I’ll give you six more reasons to consider if social media has a place for your law firm. But what would you add to the list so far?

To reach Elizabeth:

Phone:  212.840.0017
Email: elizabeth@blisspr.com
Twitter: @elizabethsosnow
LinkedIn: Elizabeth Sosnow

According to a new survey – conducted by BlissPR, Bloom Group and the Association of Management Consulting Firms (AMCF) – consultants spend roughly 18% of their thought marketing budgets on social channels, up from 5% in 2005.  Over the next five years, firms expect the percentage to climb to roughly 33%.

While challenges abound – including cultural issues, resource constraints and the need for integrated traditional/social marketing plans – savvy firms recognize that social media is here to stay and are adapting accordingly.

Among the major benefits:

1. Professional firms are rich in content (data, methodologies, trend commentary, insights, stories), and content is the currency of social media.   At a minimum, social outposts (Twitter, Facebook, Slideshare, LinkedIn) are a natural way to extend the reach of existing content.
2. Social media reinforces traditional thought leadership marketing activities such as speeches, seminars, studies and books.  Firms that are experimenting with social media and breaking new ground (e.g., McKinsey, Cognizant), have found that online engagement increases attendance at offline conferences and readership of articles, white papers and studies.  It’s not an “either/ or.”   Social media and traditional marketing reinforce one another.
3.  Blogs and microsites enable firms to build a dedicated group of followers with deep interest on particular issues.   Microsites also allow firms to aggregate their thought leadership on a given topic, which makes the information easier to find via search engines.
4. Social and digital channels give professionals a cost-effective way to stress-test their ideas and collaborate with colleagues.  Increasingly, professionals are using social channels to develop thought leadership – as well as to promote it.
5. Social media is a cost-effective way to build personal and organizational brands, spread ideas and bring together decision-makers from around the globe. It’s also relatively easy to measure impact/reach, which satisfies leadership’s desire for quantification on ROI. 

Social media is already reshaping the way that many professional firms build relationships, promote ideas and, ultimately, go-to-market. 

How quickly do you think professional services firms will cross the digital divide?

To reach Meg:
Phone:  212.840.0095 
Email: meg@blisspr.com
Twitter: @megwildrick
LinkedIn: Meg Wildrick

1. Data does not equal strategy. Data is available at our finger tips, which makes it powerful to B2B organizations; however the click of a mouse does not automatically equal strategy or give companies a competitive advantage.  
2. Strategy at the speed of light with the life of a firefly.  Kiechel offers that “in the 1980s it was expected that consulting services would yield a strategy in eight months, today that time line has been shortened to six weeks, including deliverables.”  Strategy sets goals and designs actions to achieve those goals – it is not born, nor does it die over night – the best strategies stick to a thread but are open to a constant evolution.
3. Are directors of strategy necessary? According to Kiechel and his colleagues, if a consulting firm is asking this question, it has missed the boat.  Professional services firms’ today have a more decentralized notion of strategy and so it might not be wise to pin all the responsibility on one person. A central person can be useful to ensure continuity but it is important that ideas are collaborated on and collected across the organizations. Marketing directors, CEOs, heads of PR, directors of thought leadership are all involved in strategy and the sharing and dissemination of ideas across an organization.
4. Don’t underestimate creativity. There are a lot of left brain thinkers in businesses, thank goodness, but right brained thinkers are just as vital to an organization. And being creative isn’t about playing an instrument or being able to draw – it is a way of thinking and viewing the world.  Darrell Rigby from Bain & Company believes that “the pairing of creative and more business minded people creates longer term ROI in companies.” I agree – some of the best and most innovative brainstorms I have been a part of include both types of thinkers. And innovation is the special sauce in most strategies.

What considerations are most important to you in developing B2B strategy?

To reach Cortney:

Phone: 212.840.1661
Email: cortney@blisspr.com
Twitter: @cortneyr
LinkedIn: Cortney Rhoads Stapleton