By: Jay Harrington, Esq.
Most sophisticated professional services providers, such as lawyers, consultants, and accountants, aspire to be thought of as thought leaders. Thought leaders grab attention. They shape the narrative. Their ideas drive action. And their reputations lead to business opportunities. They’re trusted, admired, and sought after.
The moniker of thought leadership cannot be bought, it must earned through hard work. The work primarily involved in becoming a thought leader is the sharing of compelling, interesting, and opinion-shifting insights in the marketplace of ideas. Some thought leaders write. Others speak. Most do both.
Thought leaders come in all shapes and sizes—from bombastic, colorful extroverts most comfortable on stage, to the introverts among us who prefer the quiet solitude of a keyboard and a cup of coffee.
However, one thing all thought leaders have in common is that they have taken the time and committed the energy necessary to build a “platform,” which is the means through which a thought leader broadcasts his or her ideas to a target audience. If your ideas are going to spread, you need to build a following around them.
As Michael Hyatt, former CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers, writes, “In the old days, you could stand on a small hill or a wooden stage to be heard. That was your platform.” Today, we think of platforms far differently. Instead of a small wooden stage, thought leaders leverage a variety of tools and resources to spread their ideas, including an email list, social media following, blog, professional network, access to media outlets, and relationships with industry influencers.
Too many professionals mistakenly believe that all they need to do is create high-quality content, post it on their firm’s website or newsletter, and it will make an impact. Good luck with that. Consumers of information have too many options and outlets available to them, so you can’t reasonably expect them to find your content—your content needs to find them.
To reach members your target audience, you need to hit them from all angles. You need to meet them where they are. You need to entice them to opt-in to receive your content. You need to build a platform.
ACTIONS YOU CAN TAKE TO BUILD YOUR PLATFORM
To give you a sense of what it takes to build a platform, allow me to share my own experience related to the launch of my most recent book. Having been through the process of publishing books before, I had the benefit of understanding that a book, like an article or blog post, will merely languish if not marketed through an omni-channel approach.
In the months leading up to my latest book launch, I took active steps to make sure that I had a platform in place to get the word out. Some of these steps included:
- Bulking up my LinkedIn network by adding connections in the legal professional development space
- Forming a launch team of attorneys and other legal professionals who shared the book with their own networks and wrote reviews on Amazon
- Actively growing my email list
- Writing content on my blog, on third-party sites such as Attorney at Work and JD Supra, and on LinkedIn, all for the purpose of introducing concepts from the book
- Securing podcast interviews
- Giving away the first chapter of the book to pique interest and gow my email list
- Sending advance copies to media outlets to obtain coverage and reviews
- Earning the opportunity to write a monthly expert opinion column on the issue of associate professional development on Law.com
- Lining up speaking opportunities at conferences focused on attorney professional development
By taking these steps, I had an effective platform in place through which to spread my ideas and market the book. The hard work has paid dividends. Six months after launching the book—and keep in mind that most books quickly lose momentum shortly after launch—it’s on track in September for its best monthly sales performance. My platform is providing fuel for lasting success. The alternative would have been to publish and pray; to hope that somehow, some way, someone else would step in and assume responsibility for marketing my ideas.
If you want to become a thought leader, you need to start building a platform. Now. Platform-building doesn’t happen overnight. It takes diligence and patience.
But here’s some good news: You don’t need to build a massive platform in order to stand out and reap dividends yourself. If you have a niche focus to your practice, you can channel all of your platform-building efforts toward a niche audience. Indeed, if you know who you’re trying to get your ideas in front of, your platform doesn’t need to be big and broad, it can (and should) be narrow and densely populated with people that matter. A big platform is merely an unhelpful vanity metric if it’s not serving the purpose generating business development opportunities for you.
Kevin Kelly, the founder of Wired magazine, came up with a theory he calls “1,000 True Fans” to explain how big of an audience, or platform, is required to make an impact. He writes, “A creator, such as an artist, musician, photographer, craftsperson, performer, animator, designer, videomaker, or author—in other words, anyone producing works of art—needs to acquire only 1,000 True Fans to make a living.” I would argue that the same principle applies when it comes to providing professional services given that in this industry one particular client or referral source who is a “True Fan” has the potential to make a significant impact on your bottom-line.About the Author:Jay Harrington is the owner of Harrington Communications, a leading creative services and business development training agency for lawyers and law firms. Jay is a graduate of the University of Michigan Law School, and previously he was a commercial litigator and corporate bankruptcy attorney at Skadden Arps and Foley & Lardner, and also founded his own small firm in Detroit.
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Quick Tip!!By: Steven H. Heisler, Esq.
Marketing expert Jay Abraham opines that developing relationships with businesses that do business with your ideal clients BEFORE and AFTER they come to you can lead to endless possibilities for your practice.
Sit down right now and make a list of those companies that your prospects and clients use prior to and after they hire you and then find a way to reach them. Let them know you have a service that can help these people. This will lead to countless referrals.
That’s it for this week. I’ll have a brand new issue for you this time next week. Also, if you have any questions or comments about the content in this newsletter please email me at sheisler@injurylawyermd.com ~SHH
