#159: LinkedIn Marketing Content Creation Secrets

[00:01:47] Well, hey there, everybody. This is Heather Mulder, host of the Life & Law Podcast. And if I had just $1 for every time I heard the phrase “I want to start posting on LinkedIn”, yet that person never, ever got to posting on LinkedIn, or at least a year, two and three years later, I’m checking on them, and they still haven’t started, I think I’d be pretty rich, y’all.

Although most lawyers know that LinkedIn can be used for marketing, they’re a bit fuzzy on precisely how to use it in a way that’s compelling and actually gets the right eyeballs on their posts. And they know nothing at all about content creation or about being a thought leader. And these might be new terms to you today, hearing me talk about them right now, especially that whole thought leadership thing. So let’s address that really quickly.

What Is Thought Leadership (& Why Is It Important For LinkedIn Marketing & General Legal Marketing Purposes)?

Thought leadership involves sharing your ideas, expertise, opinions, and insights on something you know a lot about. The purpose for it is to become known for it, to position yourself as an expert in that field. And one of the ways to do that is through LinkedIn marketing.

[00:02:53] Now, you can also do this by writing longer form articles for journals and newspapers and magazines and online places. You can do this through speaking. You can do this through getting interviewed on podcasts and so on.

[00:03:09] But you can also do this on LinkedIn. And you’ve probably seen lawyers who do it right. You see these lawyers who write about, sometimes more, their personal lives. That’s. Those are kind of like branding posts sometimes. It’s about attorney well being.

I have a client who one of her content pillars, which we’re going to get into today, what content pillars are, is actually attorney well being, in addition to her practice related stuff that’s there for clients.

And you probably think, you know, how do these people do it? Well, we’re going to get into those LinkedIn marketing secrets today because there is a way to get really organized with it. And it’s not just organized, but it’s kind of a process or a framework for how to come up with a lot of topic ideas that are compelling to your audience, that your audience will be interested in, that will get more eyeballs, and that might actually grow your book of business.

And honestly, I don’t. I say might because it sometimes depends on what your purpose for it is. If your purpose is not for that, then, no, that’s not what you want. If your purpose is for that, then, yes, it absolutely can work that way. But you need to do it the right way. So we will get into that today.

[00:04:20] So you might be thinking, okay, that all sounds great. And yes, I thought about writing on LinkedIn, but I’m not completely sold. I’m not sold on having to do this thing. Well, first off, you don’t have to do anything.

[00:04:34] But let me just tell you – why not LinkedIn, or better yet, why LinkedIn marketing?

Why Consider LinkedIn Marketing?

[00:04:43] So here’s the deal, y’all. No matter how much or how little you utilize LinkedIn, your clients and prospective clients use it a lot. They use it to learn through thought leadership, that buzz phrase we just learned about.

[00:04:59] They use it to vet law firms and individual lawyers. They use it to research issues, and the stats say it all. So here are some statistics I want you to understand.

• 64% of C suite leaders and 57% of in house counsel, say that they value LinkedIn for business, industry and legal news and information.
• 68% of those people, C suite leaders and in house counsel, say they view LinkedIn as a leading content distribution platform for obtaining relevant business information. And let me note, business information, relevant business information for them would include the types of things you would be talking about, because those things impact their business, right?
• C suite leaders and in house lawyers view LinkedIn on par with law firm bios and websites for purposes of vetting.

[00:05:52] And they place premier importance not just on your profile. Yes, your profile matters, but they also place importance on thought leadership content. So your clients and prospective clients are on LinkedIn. They are looking for information from you and people like you. So the question is, are you there? Why not be there?

[00:06:14] Now, the LinkedIn marketing content creation strategy I’m going to teach you today is going to help you become a thought leader on LinkedIn without spending a ton of time doing it. But let me be clear, it’s going to take some time, especially at the outset.

[00:06:31] Here’s the deal. The thing I’m going to teach you today will be a little clunky. It’s going to take you some initial real thought time and thinking time.

[00:06:41] But as you start to utilize it, it will get easier, it will simplify things. That’s the point of this process. It’s to simplify things. You’re going to get better, it will get faster. And note, it’s worth it.

What You Can Get Out of LinkedIn Marketing

[00:06:57] My clients who do utilize LinkedIn, sometimes they get new clients directly from it. Oftentimes they get referrals, people who refer business to them. They also get tons of other networking and marketing opportunities. That does lead to real business things like speaking at conferences and for events. Okay? All via their LinkedIn thought leadership. You too can do this, but only if you utilize it appropriately.

[00:07:26] And when I say utilize it appropriately, the first place to start is knowing what to write about, right? You need to have a bunch of topics and ideas so you don’t sit down and have that paralysis that an overwhelm we all have about, oh my God, what do I write about? There’s so many things. There’s nothing is kind of where the brain goes, right?

Quick Tip (That’s Great News): Be Repetitive

[00:07:48] How do I come up with things to say? How do I come up with things and then not run out? Right. We all are afraid. Well, the good news is a and I want you to learn this because this is a quick tip. You can repeat yourself. Now, when I say repeat yourself, I do not mean take a previous post and cut and paste it. I mean take a previous post, look at it and rewrite it almost. But the same topic can be talked about a million and one times. Because here’s the catch, y’all, only a very small percentage of the people who follow you will see any one host that you have.

[00:08:25] So you get to repurpose your material over and over and over again. So again, this process will help you come up with all those initial ideas, and then over time, you’ll just start repurposing more of it and talking about it a little bit differently. And you’ll pay attention to what does and does not resonate, and you’ll tweak it a little bit, and you’ll get better and better and better, and it will get faster and faster and faster.

You Can Use The LinkedIn Content Creation Strategy For Other Legal Marketing

[00:08:48] The other thing that I will say is this isn’t just usable for LinkedIn marketing.

[00:08:56] Yes, this is. I’m saying this is a LinkedIn marketing content creation process. And the reason I specifically say for LinkedIn marketing is because we tend to post smaller things on there, right? They’re shorter, they’re sweeter. That’s one of the benefits of LinkedIn. You can post something that’s just 250 to 350 words and be done, not some 1500 to 5000 word article that takes a whole lot more of your time.

[00:09:24] These are small, short, sweet, concise, very specific posts. But when you brainstorm the way I’m going to teach you, it’s going to give you ideas for how to put some of this stuff together for longer form content. So this will help you in coming up with more compelling topics for speeches, more compelling topics for presentations, for clients, for article writing. Okay. If you have a blog or if you’re article writing for another publication, this will help with that as well. Okay.

LinkedIn Marketing Content Creation Process

[00:09:58] The secret to effective LinkedIn marketing content creation is to break it all down into a simple process. So step one.

Step one, decide who you are speaking to.

Who do you want to be reading what you’re going to be posting about, who is your ideal person? Okay.

[00:10:18] And what is the purpose of your content to them.

[00:10:22] So this is going to depend somewhat on your practice and how you build business and also your purpose for posting on LinkedIn.

So, for example, that client I mentioned earlier who talked about attorney well being, well, she’s been talking about that for years. Since she was a lower level associate. She is now a partner. She still talks about it, but a little bit differently. She’s talking about it because she feels passionate about it, right? And she always was talking about it because she felt passionate about it. But now she’s starting to talk more, also about other things that are more marketing related to her perfect clients. But she doesn’t want to drop the attorney well being because she is so passionate about it.

[00:11:07] And so those posts are particularly talking to younger attorneys and also fellow partners. We all have our fair share of self care challenges, right?

[00:11:18] Because she wants them to do better. Because she wants them to be better. She is talking specifically to those people with those specific posts. But guess what? She’s also letting her perfect clients know that she’s passionate about this. She’s sharing her values and what’s important to her.

[00:11:35] That’s branding, y’all.

[00:11:38] So know who you’re talking to. Generally speaking, all of your posts are usually going to be talking to the same person, but sometimes not with this client. So all of her posts, except that are mostly targeted to her perfect clients.

[00:11:53] That type of post is going to be targeted not just to them, but also to her fellow attorneys who she feels strongly needs to hear the message that she’s giving them. So who are you talking to?

Now, this is important also because are you talking to people who can directly hire you or are you talking to potential referral sources? Again, where do you get your business? What makes most sense? The exact things you’re talking about about may change a little bit depending on who that audience is, right?

And let’s say you’re talking to people directly that you would be working with. Well, will they be the decision makers on hiring you and or your firm? Or are you actually talking to people who are one to two levels down from them that help make those decisions? Right, that help get you in the door? Are you talking to the general counsel? Are you talking to a business person, CFO or the CEO?

This will help determine what to talk about and how to talk about it. So do not skip this because this is really important to step number two.

Step number two is to choose your content pillars.

So what do I mean by content pillars? Content pillars are the topics you want to write and speak about regularly. Okay? Whether you’re writing, whether you’re speaking here, we’re talking about writing. This is going to help you to narrow your focus and give you a more clear direction on what to talk about. So it keeps you in a lane.

[00:13:24] And the benefit of this is your marketing is more focused and clear. You’re not going to confuse anybody because you stay in your lane. It helps to elevate your credibility more quickly because you’re consistently evidencing your expertise in one or a couple of areas that are related.

[00:13:41] And it gives you more cohesive messaging across all your marketing assets.

[00:13:46] So most lawyers are going to want at least three content pillars, maybe even up to five. I do not recommend more than that, certainly not at the outset for most attorneys.

[00:13:58] Now, if you are creating pillars for your entire firm. So I recently did a workshop for a firm where we came up with the pillars for their entire firm. You’re going to have more than that, probably maybe three to five per practice area that then the lawyers within each practice area will stick to those pillars within their practice area.

Determining Your Content Pillars

[00:14:18] So the next question is, well, what should your content pillars be? How do you even get started? So again, think about your industry. Think about those clients you want to be speaking to and attract or whether it’s referrals, right? Who are you talking to? And think about your own approach.

[00:14:36] So you always start with who are you trying to attract through your marketing? This is why that first step is so foundational.

[00:14:44] What do they struggle with? What do they have questions about? What do they need to know before they can come to you or send work towards you? Okay, when do they typically reach out to you or someone like you?

[00:15:01] When should they reach out versus when do they, what approach do you take? What is your style? All of these things are important to helping you to pick your content pillars. What are your strengths? How might you showcase them?

[00:15:14] Some of my clients will have a strength based content pillar. So for example, I have a client who’s super organized and disciplined, and she helps to manage very, very large litigation. And she wants to showcase that because it’s important to what she does and why her clients hire her, why they bring her on in the role that she plays.

[00:15:37] So she has a pillar that is more organizational related in respect of litigation to show that strength. Okay?

[00:15:46] So you can create a content pillar that’s based on an industry that’s product focused, that’s legal issue focused, that’s strengths focused and so on.

[00:15:58] And also, as I mentioned earlier, you can have one pillar that’s mostly branding focused that shares a little bit about you, how you show up for your clients, something that’s very personal to you.

So I have that client I talked about with the attorney well being, that’s a branding piece or a branding pillar. I have another client that likes to talk about the lessons she’s learned by being a mom and how that helps her to be a better lawyer. That’s also a branding content pillar.

So let me give you some examples.

Okay, let’s start with me. One could probably sum up my main content pillars as business growth, professional development and personal development. Now those are big, big, big categories, because if you went into business growth, I can talk about networking, marketing, sales, growing pain, scaling, management problems, you know, leadership problems. Some of that stuff veers into the professional development as well because the professional development is like emotional intelligence, leadership skills, communication skills, client management, stuff like that. Personal development would cover like the mindset stuff, the values, the boundaries, the balance, the self care.

[00:17:07] So one could say I have way more than three categories because I do break them out into all of those subcategories. Now let me tell you, I do a heck of a lot more LinkedIn marketing than you will do. I post practically every weekday and on some weekends because of my business, it’s more online. Right. A lot of people find me through the podcast and through LinkedIn or through a Google search.

[00:17:31] So I am going to have a lot more categories than you need. Again, you only need three to five, but that gives you an idea of what I’m talking about.

[00:17:39] And by the way, I don’t expect you to post that often. Maybe start with once per week, maybe try to build to twice per week. Eventually you don’t need to do more than that.

[00:17:49] Let me give you some examples from clients.

So a real estate litigation attorney, her pillars are breach of contract, fraud, a branding, personal one, and then psychographics. And psychographics, if you don’t know, is the psychological considerations that you want to keep in mind within litigation. And she’s really strong in that and leads with that. And so she wants to emphasize her strength in that area. So those are hers.

I have another, this is a litigator, a more general litigator that talks about time management and productivity and how that comes into her case management. I mentioned that earlier, more litigation specific, like when and why to get counsel involved, things that you don’t know that matter, that type of thing.

[00:18:41] And then well being for lawyers, just three.

[00:18:45] I have a white collar crime client that does a lot of whistleblower claims. He talks about compliance on the front end and why that matters. Talks about the process of what happens if you are subject to the whistleblower act. So everything that goes under the whistleblower act from the time you, you know, somebody makes a claim on through. And then the third would be worst case scenarios that can be avoided and kind of comparisons. Those are the three content pillars.

[00:19:14] So hopefully this gives you an idea of the types of things that you can do. So what are your content pillars?

[00:19:21] What I want you to do with this step is just start brainstorming it. And by the way, don’t try to be perfect. Let me just tell you, I started with different content pillars and I’ve morphed them over time several of my clients have changed theirs over time.

As you start to write and do, you’re actually going to get some engagement. You’re going to learn more. You’re going to learn what resonates. You’re going to learn what you love to talk about. You can change these. You just got to start somewhere because that starting point is what you really need the most help with. And then the ideas start flowing.

[00:19:55] All right, so that was step two.

Step three is to start brainstorming post ideas for each content pillar.

[00:20:03] Think about your content pillars and brainstorm the things that just come to mind quickly that you could talk about under each one.

[00:20:13] So my rule of thumb is to start with five or more. I say more because sometimes you get to five and all of a sudden another ten come and it’s quick, right? Like all of a sudden a couple of ideas give you more, and then that gives you more and give your, you know, write that down. Try to get five or more topics under each pillar.

The Questions To Ask When Brainstorming Your LinkedIn Marketing Content Pillars

[00:20:35] So ask yourself things like what questions do clients or people often ask that I could write about? What questions do they not ask that they should?

[00:20:46] What are some common mistakes, assumptions, risks, problems, etcetera that come up over and over again?

[00:20:53] Think about the past year or two specific client cases, closings going to depend matters that you’ve worked on.

[00:21:04] Think about things you’ve worked on and what you observed on the other side, and stories you could tell around that, around wins, issues, problems, risk aversion, making mistakes, failures, anything.

[00:21:17] What should people learn from those? Now note about that. That doesn’t mean you have to share TMI or confidential information. It just gives you ideas for the types of things you could write about. There are ways to write about this type of stuff without divulging things you can’t or don’t want to. Start writing it down and you can find ways to write about it. I promise that.

[00:21:41] Also, what do you wish every client who first hires you already knew, bought into, realized, etcetera?

[00:21:51] What educational information would you like them to know?

Other Ways For Brainstorming Your LinkedIn Marketing Topics

[00:21:57] If you’re having trouble brainstorming in this area and getting to that five for each content pillar, start going to past articles and speeches that you’ve written or given or taken part of. Like, you know, maybe you went to a conference and you took part in a panel. Go back to that and think through, well, what did people talk about?

It doesn’t have to just be you also pay attention to what others are writing and talking about in your area. And don’t. Don’t write exactly what they write, but get ideas for oh, that’s an issue. And that spurs an idea because this happened with a client, etcetera.

Okay, now be sure as you’re brainstorming that you’re thinking, again, who am I talking to that’s going to help you hone in on the way you want to talk about something and make sure it fits within one or more of your content pillars.

[00:22:50] Final note on this, be super specific when you start writing, okay? If you could write an entire article on it, you need to break it up into five or more posts, especially depending on the article. If you could write a 5000 word article, you can probably break that sucker up into ten or more posts.

[00:23:08] So how could you break it up?

[00:23:11] Which, by the way, if you go back to things you’ve written, you can probably create a ton of posts. I do that for my clients. Sometimes I ask them to give me past articles they’ve written and I pull things out and create five or more posts from each article that they could then post on LinkedIn.

[00:23:28] Okay, so an initial set of brainstorming is step three.

Step four, you want to decide on the tone or the take.

[00:23:39] So let me go through what I mean by this because there’s a different tone to the way you want to post on each topic.

Tell It Like It Is/Hard Truth

[00:23:47] You could do a tell it like it is or hard truth kind of a post. This is definitively need to know content for your perfect audience with a style that’s kind of in your face and very honestly, it’s usually used for the topics that clients don’t like hearing yet. Absolutely need to. They need to accept it, they need to hear it, they need to understand it, they need to follow it. That kind of a thing. Tell it like it is.

Educational Post/How-To

[00:24:13] The second type is pure educational teaching. It’s content that aims to answer common questions, gives a how to breakdown, or asks a did you know? Question with some clarifying information about what they need to know and why.

What’s The Cost?

[00:24:28] The third is what I like to call what’s the cost? Post this will focus on common mistakes, tedious things clients don’t like to pay attention to, but should you know the kind of stuff they also need to know.

[00:24:43] But the tone of this isn’t usually as in your face as a tell it like it is or hard truth piece. It’s got a little of that naturally due to the theme, but it’s more education oriented and it really highlights the cost.

[00:24:56] So if you have something that tends to cost people.

[00:25:00] So for example, my whistleblower act client, he could do an amazing post and we’re kind of working around this right now on a speech of his where he can highlight the differentiation between somebody who has a robust compliance plan that they’ve actually put into place and integrated within their organization versus somebody who just has a, you know, some paper, but they haven’t done anything with it. There’s a cost associated with the not doing. If something bad happens. He can highlight that. That’s a, what’s the cost? Type of a piece.

Proof Post

[00:25:36] The fourth is a proof post. Proof content relies heavily on case studies and examples.

[00:25:43] It’s often combined with one of the other approaches, so it tends to be more, what’s the cost? Educational. Tell it like it is, but with the added benefit of specificity, in fact, so they can see it in action. And I personally recommend this one be used as often as possible.

This is where storytelling comes into play. And by the way, telling stories is one of the best ways you could possibly sell what you do, how you help people and really attract the right people to you.

[00:26:12] And yes, you can do this without divulging confidential information. And you do not need to share too much to get your point across.

Okay, again, that example I gave you earlier of compliance versus non compliance, well, that client has plenty of examples that he’s seen both in clients, but both in the general, you know, workforce. So he could come up with a set of facts that shows what he’s talking about. It’s kind of based from more than just one client, and it doesn’t divulge too much, but it gives enough to get the point across in.

FYI, I do plan later this season to have an entire podcast around storytelling, how to pull stories from real life, from client experiences, from what you’ve observed, and utilize them in your content. So be on the lookout for that, and we’ll get into a how to identify those stories and what to do with them and how to utilize them properly. Okay, so you’ve gone through step four. Now it’s time for step five.

Step 5 is to create a grid/matrix.

[00:27:13] You want to create an actual grid. This is where you take it to the next level. You haven’t just brainstormed, you haven’t just started to think through. Okay, what’s the tone or the approach I might want to take with these first few pieces? This is where you put it into a grid and you keep track of what you’ve already written about and what you want to write about.

[00:27:35] This is what helps you stay on track, stay consistent, and always coming up with ideas without running out of anything.

[00:27:44] So you want to create a grid.

[00:27:46] The left hand column will be your content pillars.

[00:27:50] The top row will be your approach. Right?

[00:27:55] And you start by fitting your brainstorming in your current brainstorming that we just did based on what I’ve just told you. Into your grid, you decide the specific topic, your approach, and what specifically you’re going to say. This is your starting point for writing.

[00:28:11] This is where you actually start writing. But this brainstorming is how you come up with all your LinkedIn marketing content, okay? It’s how you always have ideas.

[00:28:24] And I’m going to, I’m going to put a link in the show notes that will take you to an example grid, okay? So that you can see exactly what I’m talking about.

[00:28:40] Let me give you a couple of examples.

[00:28:42] So let’s say I want to talk about non billable time. I had, surprisingly to me, one of my most popular season three podcasts was all about non billable time, how much non billable time you should be spending, and on what areas of non billable time, because there’s different kind of areas where you can spend your non billable time.

And I might want to talk about tell it like it is post, right? So I could take the tack of you’re not spending enough non billable time, and it isn’t even on what you think. So what most people think when we think of non billables where they’re not spending their time are things like client development, which is, I will say, an area where a lot of people don’t spend enough time.

[00:29:28] But you know, where else you need to be spending your non billable time?

[00:29:32] You need to be doing some of your own professional development, learning more about the business of your clients, not just cle, by the way, non Cle, professional development or maybe mentoring, management time, leadership development, that kind of a thing.

[00:29:51] So it could be more of a contrarian post around that it’s not what you think, right. And it’s a tell it like it is in your face. Sorry to tell you, but you need to be doing more of this.

[00:30:03] Or I could have a, you know, a educational post of, well, what makes most sense based on your level, for where to spend your non billable time. And a breakout of young associates would be doing x percent of this, x percent of this, x percent of this. Get into your mid year, then this, get into your more senior, then this, get into partnership, then this. Very basic educational. Right. Those are two different takes talking about the same topic, but in very different ways.

[00:30:34] Let’s go into a personal development that comes up a lot. Productivity. We lawyers love to be productive, right? We want to always be more productive. We want to be efficient with our time, use our time wisely, get as much done as possible in as little time, etcetera, etcetera.

So three different posts. Let’s go with a more in your face contrarian. You don’t have a productivity problem. You really have a prioritization problem.

Or an educational five steps to improve your daily productivity.

[00:31:02] Or what’s the cost? What’s the cost on not taking time off on your productivity? Notice that’s a surprising semi contrarian, but done in the what’s the cost? Type of way. The approach is different. So that’s what I’m talking about. Right? You have a specific topic that you want to talk about, let’s say breach of contract.

[00:31:23] Go through each type. Okay. How can I tell what’s important about it? That’s a tell it like it is. What’s a hard truth they need to know about this specific area?

[00:31:37] Well, what’s a teaching type post? What are they just like, what’s a common question that relates to breach of contract where I could just teach, well, what’s that? What’s the cost post?

[00:31:49] I don’t want to be as in your face with this and tell it like it is, but I really want to highlight the cost of this mistake.

[00:31:56] And then what’s a proof post?

[00:31:58] Where’s a scenario where something happened that relates to a breach of contract that I really need to show and I can give some facts, some data, some proof?

[00:32:12] You can have four posts just about that one thing, right? They’re very different.

[00:32:17] So you have this grid, this grid, and thinking of it this way is going to massively, and I mean massively, help you come up with a lot more brainstorming on topics.

[00:32:34] And you’ll never run out of topics because the more you do this, and here’s the cool thing, when you actually start posting and you start getting feedback and you start hearing from people, it will give you more ideas.

[00:32:48] And again, as I mentioned earlier, you can take past posts and tweak them and re reuse them.

Attention Private Practice Lawyers Wanting To Grow Your Business

[00:32:56] All right, before I let you go, let me just note this is the type of guidance and support that I give inside of my mastermind. Elevate.

[00:33:06] I only offer the mastermind once per year and doors will open to the general public this fall, come October. But you can get early access and bonus benefits as early as September if you join the waitlist.

[00:33:20] If that sounds like something you’re interested in, I invite you to go check out elevate. I will put a link to it in the show notes. It’s designed to help you exponentially grow your business.

[00:33:31] You will get strategic guidance, peer support, and structured accountability inside of elevate so that you can actually get to where you want to be. All right, that’s it for today. We will be talking again next week.

Bye for now.