Get Noticed, Get Heard, Get Seen

There's no one “silver bullet” that will make you successful with social media, but the six C's are a good primer for understanding how to put your best foot forward in social media:

1. Content: In social media, content really is “king” ' it's what drives social media. Although there is a lot of noise in social media and a lot of “who cares?” stuff that gets posted and tweeted and linked, if you can provide quality content, you'll get noticed.
2. Community: By definition, being “social” involves interacting with others ' which naturally creates communities. While some believe that social media (and the Internet, for that matter) can be alienating and cause people to isolate themselves, there's a lot of evidence that social media actually encourages social behavior. And that leads directly to '
3. Conversation: Social media is all about talking and sharing. “News” used to be delivered and received in a really passive way. Now it's a much more dynamic process. The age of the Citizen Journalist has changed the way we get news and information from a monologue to a dialogue.
4. Constancy: Social media never sleeps and needs to be fed constantly. The 24-hour news cycle is partly to blame ' but access to information and basic human curiosity are the real drivers.
5. Clarity: Short attention spans and character limits make it critical that you strive for succinctness and clarity in what you share through social media.
6. Communication: It's what social media is all about.

'

Five-Minute Media Training

Another piece of context that's helpful is understanding the basic ground rules of working with the press. The following “Five-Minute Media Training” isn't exhaustive and isn't designed to prepare someone for cross-examination on 60 Minutes ' but it will help you understand some of the basics. Also, the following isn't geared specifically to social media, though most of these suggestions work across the board.

Respond within the hour. The idea here is respond to a reporter's call ASAP. Even if you're busy and can't help, let them know that ' or refer them to someone who can help them ' even if it's to an attorney at another firm. Everybody wins when you try and help a reporter: he or she finds a source, the attorney you refer the reporter to owes you one, and you get brownie points with a reporter.

Be focused. Identify three critical “takeaways.” Have three important points you want to make, write them down, and basically repeat them over and over again during the interview.

On the record/off the record/on background/deep background. Generally speaking, “on the record” means the reporter can uses anything you say in her article. “Off the record” means that the reporter can use what you say, but not attribute it to you. “On background” means that the reporter can use what you say, but he can't attribute it to you and he must get it confirmed by a second source. “Deep background” means the reporter can't use anything you say in any way; you're just providing background and context for him or her.

• Ask to review a quote, especially about a complex matter/issue. They won't always let you review a quote, but you can always ask.
• “Just say 'no'” to “no comment.” This is really for situations that are confrontational in nature. There are lots of other ways to say the same thing.
• For attribution: check name and firm. Make sure they have the correct spelling of your name and the firm's name.
• Follow up and build the relationship. After the article/post/etc. runs, contact the reporter and thank her ' and then touch base with her periodically.
• Be patient. It takes time to build your visibility in the press. It can happen quickly on occasion, but you have to be patient and persistent.

The Business Case

So what's the business case for using social media to raise your visibility with the press? The results of a variety of surveys of journalists clearly demonstrate that social media is part of their daily professional lives. For example: 1) 89% of journalists use blogs for story research (2010 Cision/GWU Survey); 2) 55% use Twitter and Facebook to find stories from known sources; 3) 43% verified existing stories using social media (2012 Oriella Digital Journalism Study); 4) 92% of journalists have LinkedIn accounts, 5) 85% have Facebook pages, and 6) 84% have a Twitter account (2011 Arketi Web Watch Media Survey).

The “insider's perspective” reinforces the importance of social media. A 2012 survey of attorneys and legal marketers (“Fans, Followers and Connections: Social Media ROI for Law Firms”), conducted by Marketing The Law Firm's parent company ALM, showed that more than 40% of those surveyed said that blogs and social media networks helped to
increase the number of calls their firms receive from reporters in traditional and new media. The survey also revealed that blogs and social media networks were generally considered very effective in raising the firm's public profile and establishing attorneys as thought leaders.

With statistics like these (and the percentages appear to be increasing annually), it's clear that social media must be a part of any public/media relations/visibility plan.

How Journalists Use Social Media

So now that we know the press uses social media, how specifically do they use the various tools? Here are a few ways, though there are probably hundreds more:

Reporters Google for sources and they use Google Alerts to track trends, companies and individuals. They follow people on Twitter and read their blogs. They read comments and posts connected to stories they've written. Some journalists use filters on Twitter to help them identify what's trending ' and then they use that for story ideas and spokespeople.

Some major online news outlets (NBC News, for example) routinely feature tweets (most often from celebrities or political figures) in stories. Twitter is perfect for posting queries and getting LOTS of responses ' and if you tweet back a good answer, you may get selected to be quoted or to be interviewed. HARO (helpareporter.com) is a free service offered to journalists so that they can go out to a very broad audience. Reporters post queries on HARO and you respond directly to them with a pitch.'

Some reporters post rough drafts of articles on their blogs and then ask for feedback and comments via Twitter. LinkedIn is a great source for reporters who are looking for experts, because LinkedIn profiles are often just expanded versions of resumes (and it's free).

The How To's

Just as there are perhaps hundreds of ways that journalists use social media, there are hundreds of ways to effectively use social media to get in front of the press. Here are 10 simple tips that can help you quickly start to build your visibility with the media using various social media platforms:

1) The first (and most important) thing you should do is familiarize yourself with your firm's social media guidelines and policies. Ignorance is no excuse if you make a social media blunder. 2) Set up Google Alerts to follow your areas of expertise. 3) Use Feedly or Digg Reader to follow journalists' blogs and websites. 4) Read the blogs that your clients are reading and comment. 5) Post frequently on your firm's blogs. 6) Regularly update your LinkedIn profile by linking to articles and presentations (especially if they're on the firm's website) and by starting conversations. 7) Invite journalists to connect on LinkedIn once you've worked with them. 8) Follow reporters on Twitter and tweet or comment on what they tweet and comment on. 9) Tweet links back to articles you've written, presentations you've given or content posted on the firm's website (use bity.ly.com for linking). 10) Cross-pollinate your social media platforms. The more links, the better.

Success Stories

Now that you've seen the statistics and have some good background on the “whys” and “how to's,” here are a few success stories (some of them from personal experience) that show how you can use social media to make yourself visible in the press:

An attorney at my current firm wrote a short blog post on “How to use an Advisory Board” and about three months later a reporter from Inc. Magazine requested an interview about the topic. Another attorney at my current firm posted on our California Land Use blog, and a reporter from Law360 contacted us within days. The attorney was quoted throughout a lengthy article.

A writer for The Huffington Post needed someone to comment on former Supreme Court Justice Paul Souter's retirement and his replacement, Justice Sotomayor, so she approached a conservative attorney on Facebook whom she'd never met and was not in her Facebook network. She saw that he had organized a New York-based attorney networking group on Facebook and thought he might be a good source. She actually ended up quoting a haiku he wrote about the changes on the Supreme Court.

A solo ERISA practitioner on Long Island posted his opinion regarding the use of exchange traded funds in 401(k) plans on Twitter.Two months later he was quoted in The Wall Street Journal.

John J. Buchanan is Director of Marketing & Public Relations at Perkins Coie LLP, a 900-plus-lawyer law firm with offices in 19 cities across the U.S. and Asia.

It goes without saying that social media is ubiquitous. It's everywhere and everyone (from presidents to popes) is using it. You can use social media for a variety of both professional and personal activities, but one of the less understood and less utilized features is how social media can provide a great platform for raising your visibility in the press.

Before diving into the “whys” and “how to's,” there are a few basics about social media and working with the press that can be helpful as background.

The 6 C's of Social Media Success

There's no one “silver bullet” that will make you successful with social media, but the six C's are a good primer for understanding how to put your best foot forward in social media:

1. Content: In social media, content really is “king” ' it's what drives social media. Although there is a lot of noise in social media and a lot of “who cares?” stuff that gets posted and tweeted and linked, if you can provide quality content, you'll get noticed.
2. Community: By definition, being “social” involves interacting with others ' which naturally creates communities. While some believe that social media (and the Internet, for that matter) can be alienating and cause people to isolate themselves, there's a lot of evidence that social media actually encourages social behavior. And that leads directly to '
3. Conversation: Social media is all about talking and sharing. “News” used to be delivered and received in a really passive way. Now it's a much more dynamic process. The age of the Citizen Journalist has changed the way we get news and information from a monologue to a dialogue.
4. Constancy: Social media never sleeps and needs to be fed constantly. The 24-hour news cycle is partly to blame ' but access to information and basic human curiosity are the real drivers.
5. Clarity: Short attention spans and character limits make it critical that you strive for succinctness and clarity in what you share through social media.
6. Communication: It's what social media is all about.

'

Five-Minute Media Training

Another piece of context that's helpful is understanding the basic ground rules of working with the press. The following “Five-Minute Media Training” isn't exhaustive and isn't designed to prepare someone for cross-examination on 60 Minutes ' but it will help you understand some of the basics. Also, the following isn't geared specifically to social media, though most of these suggestions work across the board.

Respond within the hour. The idea here is respond to a reporter's call ASAP. Even if you're busy and can't help, let them know that ' or refer them to someone who can help them ' even if it's to an attorney at another firm. Everybody wins when you try and help a reporter: he or she finds a source, the attorney you refer the reporter to owes you one, and you get brownie points with a reporter.

Be focused. Identify three critical “takeaways.” Have three important points you want to make, write them down, and basically repeat them over and over again during the interview.

On the record/off the record/on background/deep background. Generally speaking, “on the record” means the reporter can uses anything you say in her article. “Off the record” means that the reporter can use what you say, but not attribute it to you. “On background” means that the reporter can use what you say, but he can't attribute it to you and he must get it confirmed by a second source. “Deep background” means the reporter can't use anything you say in any way; you're just providing background and context for him or her.

• Ask to review a quote, especially about a complex matter/issue. They won't always let you review a quote, but you can always ask.
• “Just say 'no'” to “no comment.” This is really for situations that are confrontational in nature. There are lots of other ways to say the same thing.
• For attribution: check name and firm. Make sure they have the correct spelling of your name and the firm's name.
• Follow up and build the relationship. After the article/post/etc. runs, contact the reporter and thank her ' and then touch base with her periodically.
• Be patient. It takes time to build your visibility in the press. It can happen quickly on occasion, but you have to be patient and persistent.

The Business Case

So what's the business case for using social media to raise your visibility with the press? The results of a variety of surveys of journalists clearly demonstrate that social media is part of their daily professional lives. For example: 1) 89% of journalists use blogs for story research (2010 Cision/GWU Survey); 2) 55% use Twitter and Facebook to find stories from known sources; 3) 43% verified existing stories using social media (2012 Oriella Digital Journalism Study); 4) 92% of journalists have LinkedIn accounts, 5) 85% have Facebook pages, and 6) 84% have a Twitter account (2011 Arketi Web Watch Media Survey).

The “insider's perspective” reinforces the importance of social media. A 2012 survey of attorneys and legal marketers (“Fans, Followers and Connections: Social Media ROI for Law Firms”), conducted by Marketing The Law Firm's parent company ALM, showed that more than 40% of those surveyed said that blogs and social media networks helped to
increase the number of calls their firms receive from reporters in traditional and new media. The survey also revealed that blogs and social media networks were generally considered very effective in raising the firm's public profile and establishing attorneys as thought leaders.

With statistics like these (and the percentages appear to be increasing annually), it's clear that social media must be a part of any public/media relations/visibility plan.

How Journalists Use Social Media

So now that we know the press uses social media, how specifically do they use the various tools? Here are a few ways, though there are probably hundreds more:

Reporters Google for sources and they use Google Alerts to track trends, companies and individuals. They follow people on Twitter and read their blogs. They read comments and posts connected to stories they've written. Some journalists use filters on Twitter to help them identify what's trending ' and then they use that for story ideas and spokespeople.

Some major online news outlets (NBC News, for example) routinely feature tweets (most often from celebrities or political figures) in stories. Twitter is perfect for posting queries and getting LOTS of responses ' and if you tweet back a good answer, you may get selected to be quoted or to be interviewed. HARO (helpareporter.com) is a free service offered to journalists so that they can go out to a very broad audience. Reporters post queries on HARO and you respond directly to them with a pitch.'

Some reporters post rough drafts of articles on their blogs and then ask for feedback and comments via Twitter. LinkedIn is a great source for reporters who are looking for experts, because LinkedIn profiles are often just expanded versions of resumes (and it's free).

The How To's

Just as there are perhaps hundreds of ways that journalists use social media, there are hundreds of ways to effectively use social media to get in front of the press. Here are 10 simple tips that can help you quickly start to build your visibility with the media using various social media platforms:

1) The first (and most important) thing you should do is familiarize yourself with your firm's social media guidelines and policies. Ignorance is no excuse if you make a social media blunder. 2) Set up Google Alerts to follow your areas of expertise. 3) Use Feedly or Digg Reader to follow journalists' blogs and websites. 4) Read the blogs that your clients are reading and comment. 5) Post frequently on your firm's blogs. 6) Regularly update your LinkedIn profile by linking to articles and presentations (especially if they're on the firm's website) and by starting conversations. 7) Invite journalists to connect on LinkedIn once you've worked with them. 8) Follow reporters on Twitter and tweet or comment on what they tweet and comment on. 9) Tweet links back to articles you've written, presentations you've given or content posted on the firm's website (use bity.ly.com for linking). 10) Cross-pollinate your social media platforms. The more links, the better.

Success Stories

Now that you've seen the statistics and have some good background on the “whys” and “how to's,” here are a few success stories (some of them from personal experience) that show how you can use social media to make yourself visible in the press:

An attorney at my current firm wrote a short blog post on “How to use an Advisory Board” and about three months later a reporter from Inc. Magazine requested an interview about the topic. Another attorney at my current firm posted on our California Land Use blog, and a reporter from Law360 contacted us within days. The attorney was quoted throughout a lengthy article.

A writer for The Huffington Post needed someone to comment on former Supreme Court Justice Paul Souter's retirement and his replacement, Justice Sotomayor, so she approached a conservative attorney on Facebook whom she'd never met and was not in her Facebook network. She saw that he had organized a New York-based attorney networking group on Facebook and thought he might be a good source. She actually ended up quoting a haiku he wrote about the changes on the Supreme Court.

A solo ERISA practitioner on Long Island posted his opinion regarding the use of exchange traded funds in 401(k) plans on Twitter.Two months later he was quoted in The Wall Street Journal.

John J. Buchanan is Director of Marketing & Public Relations at Perkins Coie LLP, a 900-plus-lawyer law firm with offices in 19 cities across the U.S. and Asia.