More often than not I agree with Kevin O’Keefe, but not today. I think Kevin’s off in his recent post, Telling lawyers to build a personal brand may be a big mistake:
I’ve presented at law schools, bar societies, bar associations, and association conferences of legal professionals talking about building one’s personal brand.
Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “Happiness is not a goal; it is a by-product.” It had me thinking about my life and how happy I am. Like many people, that hasn’t always been the case, so I started wondering, in the light of Eleanor Roosevelt’s sentiments, what have I done to generate this much happiness? To
I can’t believe I have to say this again: Politics, social networking and business development DON’T MIX!! Never. Ever. Ever. I don’t care if you’re talking about saving puppies and unicorns, I caution you to self-edit what you say on Facebook, Twitter, or even on locked-down message boards. Why? According to the
For those in the know, and on my personal Facebook page, I’ve been in Vegas celebrating my birthday with some friends and family. The pictures were being posted to Facebook almost as fast as they were being taken … and yet, I am quite comfortable that if my boss, a client, a conference organizer or
| Track | Session | Time | LMA Tweeters |
| One: Professional Development | Enhancing Your Leadership role Within Your Firm — Establishing and Gaining Credibility | 09:00 – 10:00 | @kateh32 |
| Two: Business Development | Creating and Implementing a Sales and Business Development Culture in Your Firm | 09:00 – 10:00 | @lalaland999 |
| Three: Strategy | Developing Metrics for Measuring Your Marketing |
| Track | Session | Time | LMA Tweeters |
| General Session | Opening Remarks & LMA Annual Report | 08:30 – 8:45 | @meganmckeon |
| General Session | Your Honor Awards | 08:45 – 9:00 | @meganmckeon |
| General Session | Keynote Address | 09:00 10:30 | @gerkmana |
| One: Business of Law | Recovery: Refocusing the Inside Counsel/Outside Counsel Partnership to Maximize Profitability | 11:15-12:00 | @lindsaygriffith |
| One: Business |
| Track | Session | Time | LMA Tweeters |
| General Session | Quick Start | 9:00 – 5:00 | @gaillamarche |
| General Session | Masterminds | 9:00 – 5:00 | @meganmckeon |
Next month I’ll be speaking at the Legal Marketing Association’s annual conference on … drum roll, please … Social Media Strategies for Small to Mid-Sized Law Firms (along with the esteemed Jayne Navarre and Russ Lawson).In addition, I have partners speaking or attending conferences across the country on issues that impact their client base. So, I really appreciated Jaffe PR‘s latest newsletter post: The Event Isn’t Over Once You’ve Finished Speaking.
The best way is to create a follow-up plan prior to attending and implement it immediately following the event. Prior to attending the event, ask the conference organizer what kind of information can be shared with you. Sometimes speakers are given full contact information and allowed a one-time use; other times this information is only available to sponsors. If that’s the case, you and your firm may decide a small sponsorship is worth it.
- If you are able to reach out to attendees prior to the event, have a plan for when you follow up and decide what information you will give them to continue the conversation.
- Network — as much as you can. Talk to the people who attended your presentation, get business cards, connect with them on LinkedIn. You never know what might lead to new business.
- Draft a brief summary of the event and post it to your LinkedIn profile.
- Use Twitter to reference your presentation and post a link to it.
- Send a summary of the event, with a presentation link to clients that you think might be interested.
- Participate in any post-event activities that the conference has planned and stay in touch with the conference organizer for future engagements.
I’m going to add a few more bullets to this list:
Continue Reading Maximize that speaking opportunity!
I was chatting recently with an attorney who is preparing for a hearing on an issue that could have industry-wide implications. The issues have already received media attention, so the question was “what should he do?” Here’s the advice I gave to the attorney — Get out in front of the story:
I will be co-presenting at the Legal Marketing Association‘s annual conference (March 10-12 | Denver, CO), along with the esteemed Jayne Navarre and Russell Lawson on Social Media Strategies for Small to Mid-sized Law Firms (Thursday, 4:00 – 4:45). Each of us jumped into social media and social networking with both feet and we