Posting on this site has taken a back seat for me in recent weeks. I’m busy at work. I’ve also been busy working to improve the content on this site. It’s necessary to take a step away in order to take a step forward.
One of the projects was an article for the Hartford Business Journal. When I told my Mom that the article was published, her response was “did a copy come in the mail?” I told her that I learned of its publication through a post by Dan Schwartz on Facebook.
Here’s part of the article:
“Social media is no different than traditional ways lawyers have attracted business in the past namely through meeting and connecting with other people,” said Ryan McKeen, an attorney with Leone, Throwe, Teller & Nagle in East Hartford. “Social media is just another venue for that to happen. I can source business directly to my blog (aconnecticutlawblog.com), Facebook account, and Twitter.”
McKeen says that new technologies are changing the very way lawyers work, particularly in their ability to process and organize large amounts of information rapidly from any location — eliminating the traditional reliance on paper.
While many lawyers see social media as just another marketing tool, McKeen says it is much more.
“Marketing is the wrong way to think about how to use social media,” he said. “Be it a blog or Twitter or Facebook — it’s about connecting to your audience and them connecting to you.”
One increasingly popular way to connect is with blogs such as McKeen’s. Blog posts not only allow lawyers to reach an enormous potential customer base, but also allow them to position themselves as thought leaders.
McKeen believes firm leaders should wholeheartedly promote the sharing of ideas.
“I’m all for unstructured,’’ McKeen said. “Leadership should let its talented lawyers do great things across platforms and benefit from the results. The worst blogs are boring blogs. Rules make for boring blogs. Many lawyers write well and are uniquely situated to share insights on issues that benefit others. Lawyers should do that and firm leaders should encourage them to do so.”