Recently, InsideLegals' Jobst Elster had an article published in ILTA's Peer to Peer publication on the topic of "New Ways to Maxminize Your Media Exposure." We originally moderated a related session at ILTA 2011 and joined by accomplished co-panelists Randi Mayes, ILTA's Executive Director; and Ayelette Robinson, Director of Knowledge Technology at Littler. It was a well rounded conversation that spoke to making the decision on whether or not you'd want to (or need to) make the investment to begin writing for legal IT and general IT publications. With that said, Ayelette in particular, spent quite a bit of that time articulating the benefits of being published based on her personal success as a legal IT author and presenter. Reasons to start writing included elevating your name and reputation; positioning and representing your firm as forward thinkers, and giving your clients to engage and educate themselves vis a vis your subject matter expertise and thought leadership.  

As described in the Peer to Peer article, there are numerous obvious and less obvious ways to maximize the exposure you have worked so hard to create.

Here are 4 easy (obvious) tips for maximizing your media expsosure:

• Bolster Your Web Presence: Post your freshly published content within your firm’s or department’s “news” section and add it to your online profile. If you don’t have a profile with vitals including a biography, articles written, presentations given and areas of expertise, create one and keep it current.
• Share with Clients, Prospects, Partners and Colleagues: Seek reprint permission for your content, so you can share articles at will with those who want to know (colleagues, firm management, clients, friends and partners) and those who ought to know (prospects, investors and other legal influencers).
• Embrace Social Media: Post new content on your Facebook page; pick some relevant LinkedIn groups and add your topic as a new discussion thread; extract interesting facts and tweet about them with a link to the original article; and send your content to bloggers you know, admire or would like to know for comment and feedback.
• Enhance Firm Presentations: Based on relevancy, make sure your articles and subject-matter expertise make their way into new business presentations and prospect pitches. Work with your marketing folks to figure out the right mix of self-promotion and thought leadership.

And 7 more that are perhaps a bit less obvious but equally 'do able':

• Turn the Article into a Webinar or Podcast: Inexpensive technology tools now enable us to quite easily extend a static article into a multimedia bundle of content. Your article on a cloud-based DMS can be transformed into a 45-minute podcast on the same topic with the inclusion of experts that can share more information than the original article.
• Contact the Editor or Publisher About Contributing on a Regular Basis: If you enjoyed writing your article and like what you see on the exposure and feedback front, it might behoove you to seek a permanent contributor role with the publication. Many legal publishers are understaffed and low on resources, and often times they are happy to add a regular columnist to help fill their pages.
• Offer Your Services to Others: Look for other media outlets (magazines, blogs, websites, e-zines and newsletters) that might be interested in what you have to say. Send them the article as an “FYI” and offer yourself up as a subject-matter expert. They’ll know who to call the next time they need an expert who deals with, for example, cloud-based security risks.
• Encourage Feedback by Rewarding It: Editors love to know what their readers think about certain articles and topics, but usually only those with complaints take the time to voice their opinions. Turn this paradigm on its head, and foster collaboration among your readers by rewarding them for being vocal. When promoting your content via social media tools, incent your community to comment on your blog post by offering up affordable freebies such as gift cards, t-shirts or other promotional items.
• Manage Your Online Identity: As you begin to amass content and increase your online exposure, take sometime to manage your online presence. Companies such as Vizibility, for example, will help individuals or companies organize and share their online identities, including personalized Google search results and handpicked professional profiles. This provides a “one-stop, one search”look at all your content and contributions.
• Leverage QR Codes: A Quick Response (QR) code typically points to an online resource, such as an individual’s profile or related articles, quickly accessed via smartphones and mobile devices. A recent Vizibility survey, “Infographic: QR Code Usage in Legal Marketing,” found that 86 percent of law firms plan to use QR codes to market their individual attorneys, with more than half pointing individual QR codes to biographical information and contact details. Why not use QR codes for your articles as well?
• Integrate It All: While achieving an integrated marketing approach to everything you publish will most likely require some heavy lifting from your marketing group, the value of having everything you say and do in one place, with the same message, accessible to a diverse target audience is incredible. Case in point: Fulbright & Jaworski recently published its latest “Litigation Trends Survey Report” and made it accessible via a dedicated Web page with options to attend a results-focused webinar, join a LinkedIn and Facebook discussion or follow key stats via their Twitter feed. The website also included links to official press announcements, as well as articles and blog posts dedicated to the topic.

You can read the remainder of Jobst's article and the full December 2011 issue of ILTA's Peer to Peer publication here.

Also, you can view the original "Generating Media Exposure for IT Leadership" presentation from the original ILTA11 webinar here.

Feel free to contact Jobst if you would like to discuss this topic and how you can make a bigger splash with your writing and speaking efforts.