Blogging and social media for lawyers is not a zero sum game
Marketer and author, Seth Godin, asks this morning why is it that authors don’t compete where as other companies would kill to own a category in a store.
…[N]ot only do authors get along, they spend time and energy blurbing each other’s books. Authors don’t try to eliminate others from the shelf, in fact, they seek out the most crowded shelves they can find to place their books. They eagerly pay to read what everyone else is writing…
Can you imagine Tim Cook at Apple giving a generous, positive blurb to an Android phone?
And yet authors do it all the time.
Lawyers and law firms are often appalled when I suggest they quote blog posts from another firm in their blogs. They can’t figure out why I advise sharing on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook blog posts and insight from other lawyers.
Lawyers and law firms look at things as a zero sum game. If I share another lawyer’s content, it detracts from me. “What if someone follows a link to another blog and hires that lawyer?”
If you’re that insecure about your stature and ability to land and retain clients, you have far greater problems than linking and sharing online.
Seth says non-competition is one of things he likes about being a writer.
The universal recognition that there’s plenty of room for more authors, and that more reading is better than less reading, even if what’s getting read isn’t ours.
It’s not a zero-sum game. It’s an infinite game, one where we each seek to help ideas spread and lives change.
When you share and cite another lawyer’s content you do at least three things.
One, you build social media equity. Information, including your blog posts, move socially by others sharing your posts.
No one likes to share the posts of someone who only shares their own content. Everyone likes to share the posts of someone who shares much more of other’s content than their own. It’s called giving.
Second, as Seth says, you’re “…[S]ending a signal about trust and confidence and most of all, about feeding the community first.”
When you are liberally quoting someone who others may view as competitor and sharing their posts, it shows the world you’re comfortable in your own skin. “I like my stature, I get good legal work, I enjoy the collegiality among other thought leaders.”
Three, you show people you stay up to speed and learn from your network. Look at the content I read and digest. Other lawyers may be doing some of it, but not transparently.
If you’re looking to rise from the pack and get the most from blogging and social as a lawyer, cite and share liberally items from peers locally and nationally.
You’ll be the better for it. And so will the community at large.
Image courtesy of Flickr by OakleyOriginals