The Value of Social Media as a Marketing Strategy With Jay Harrington

Be honest—are you using your LinkedIn account to its full potential? If all you're doing is sharing content and browsing, then you're missing out on a lot! Remember: you can harness the power of social media as a marketing strategy. For example, LinkedIn can be your testing ground for ideas, and it’s an excellent way to connect with a network of opportunities.

In this episode, Jay Harrington joins us to talk about how LinkedIn is a crucial part of establishing thought leadership. Likewise, he shares the value of having theme pillars to guide your content creation process. Learning to listen to your audience is also the key to your success. Jay shares unique and easy-to-apply tips so that you can maximize using social media as a marketing strategy for your practice.

If you want to know more about social media as a marketing strategy, this episode is for you.

Here are three reasons why you should listen to this episode

1. Understand how you can use social media as a marketing strategy and as a thought leadership platform.
2. Learn the simple process to help you get started on content creation. 
3. Discover the power of creating meaningful connections and engagement.  

Resources

• This episode is sponsored by Smith.ai. Curious how you can use a receptionist service at your law firm? Download the Smith.ai free eBook: Are you Lawyering or Laboring? 7 Steps for Running a Highly Productive Law Firm with Virtual Receptionists.
• This episode is sponsored by Get Staffed Up. Learn more at www.getstaffedup.com/VIP
• Get yourself a Free Coaching Session and learn more about the 90 Day Law Firm Turnaround Coaching Program.
• Atomic Habits by James Clear
• Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod
• Episode 29 - Why Choosing A Niche Will Skyrocket Your Firm 
• Episode 197 - Living Your Legacy Instead of Someday
• Connect with Jay: Website | LinkedIn
• Harrington Communications
• The Thought Leadership Project with Jay Harrington
• Thought Leader Collaborative, Jay’s LinkedIn Training Community
• Jay’s LinkedIn post on building a profitable legal practice
• Check out Jay’s books: 

• The Essential Associate: Step Up, Stand Out, And Rise To The Top As A Young Lawyer

• The Productivity Pivot: Build A Profitable Legal Practice By Selling Yourself One Hour Every Day
• One Of A Kind: A Proven Path To A Profitable Law Practice

Episode Highlights

Jay’s Background

Jay Harrington shares that he pursued law after undergraduate studies and went to start his small firm.  You can be very entrepreneurial within a law firm in legal practice. 

Jay started Harrington Communications, a marketing agency specifically for lawyers and law firms. Jay was able to take his agency virtual. In doing so, he built his business around his life.

With his work on thought leadership, Jay’s following in LinkedIn has ballooned. His engagement on the platform is always high. 

Go Big by Thinking Small

Jay shares that it's essential to cultivate a network of people who care about what you have to say and offer first. 

• This will help you make content that will resonate with your network. Once you have this down, you need to be consistent with your posts. 
• Show up frequently enough, and you’ll become familiar with people. In time, people will seek out your content. 
• If you support other people’s content, they’re more likely to be supportive of yours as well. 
• Remember that once something becomes popular, it becomes even more popular. You need to build your engagement to that level. 

Jay: “So when I think about LinkedIn, the first step in that process is, are you cultivating a network of people who care about what you have to say? So being very intentional and strategic about who you connect with, you know, how you then engage with that audience.”

Using LinkedIn as a Thought Leadership Platform

• Don’t use LinkedIn exclusively as a platform to share content from outside sources. 
• Instead, use LinkedIn as your blog and create content specifically on the platform. 
• When you promote content outside LinkedIn, the platform won’t give it a lot of visibility. Learn to mix content. 

Understanding Thought Leadership

• Thought leadership is a form of marketing that is all about sharing your ideas, expertise, and thoughts as a form of content. 
• An important purpose of thought leadership is to situate yourself as an expert. This long game approach will generate new opportunities in time. 
• You need to build awareness and trust in prospective clients. Thought leadership is a way of making these happen over time. 
• There is a level of effort and time you need to commit to this marketing. While you can outsource some of the work, you need to establish your ideas and voice. 

Jay: “You want to be in a position where your brand [or] yourself is associated with some a set of ideas, such that when a prospective client faces a challenge or an opportunity, they start to think of you as the expert who can help either overcome that challenge or capitalize on that opportunity.”

Content Creation and Engagement When Using Social Media as a Marketing Strategy

Jay: “Making the investment in finding who are the other thought leaders in your space... requires a bit of strategic thinking and research. But once you do, it doesn't require massive amounts of effort, [you can] engage with someone else's post like once a week, or maybe twice a week, and that's enough to get you on their radar screen.”

• You can use social media as a marketing strategy using as little as 30 minutes every day. This process includes creating a post and engaging with other people and content. 
• Be mindful of the way you engage with other content. Keep in mind who can bring more visibility to your content and who would be worth investing in. 
• Know your content pillars. These are the 3 to 5 themes in your area of expertise and relatable to your target audience.
• Once you’re clear with what you want to share, it’s easier to be inspired. Take notes every time you have an idea. 
• Create your content in batches. 
• Learn to listen to your audience. Understand their pain points and what they want to know. 

Jay: “Throughout everything I'm doing all week, the work I’m doing, the things I’m listening to, things I’m reading - I'm running that content that I'm consuming through these filters that I've established for myself, the pillar. So ideas will start coming from everywhere.” 

Create Meaningful Connections

Jay: “People connect with other people... you’re going to see a much greater distribution of your content if you're sharing it through your personal page.” 

• Don’t forget, LinkedIn is a social network; it promotes connecting people. 
• All your content creation should be on your page and not your company page. 
• When trying to connect with someone, remember the value that you’re bringing to the table. What is something you have that they can find beneficial? 

Moshe: “It's also unlocking what is the pain point or the need of the other person on the other side. That if you pitch this the right way, it's going to be a no brainer for them to say, ‘Oh, this is somebody I need in my life, I need to connect with them and learn more about them.’” 

On Consistency and Community 

• The more you’re consistent, the faster you’ll understand the kind of posts that will be effective. 
• It takes time to build traction; just keep working on it. 
• Take time to find influential people in the target audience you want to reach. Form a connection with them. 
• You may be overwhelmed with the number of users in LinkedIn. However, it is made up of micro-communities. 
• Find your micro-community and get involved with the people.  

Listen Well and Test Ideas

• Marketing is all about ideas that resonate with your audience. 
• You can use LinkedIn as a starting point for your marketing. By using social media as a marketing strategy, you can test out ideas and content.  

Jay shares that he gauges the audience’s reaction to the content and decides if he can build it to a longer form of content. 

• Don’t think that social media is a waste of time; it can lead to a wealth of other opportunities. 
• Sometimes, we don’t realize how huge the potential is until we start trying something out. 

Focus Your Efforts

• You don’t need to be on every social media platform. Learn where to focus your time and effort. 
• It’s not going to be an effective use of your time if you try to build multiple platforms. 
• Streamline your process, so you still have time to serve your clients. 

Jay: ”Focus in on things that you do well. Develop that skill over time, and you'll benefit from that. But if you dilute yourself too much like you said, you're gonna have a really hard time getting any traction anywhere.”

Prepare for Future Trends

• In the digital age, you need to become a micro-influencer and have people who resonate with you to do business. 
• There will be a rise in referral business since we have less social interaction due to the pandemic. 
• More people will look to online platforms for referrals. And if you’re active, it will be easier to find you. 

Jay advises on finding time to develop yourself and for your long-term goals. 

Jay: “We can all find 10% of our time, maybe again, that one hour every day, maybe it's half an hour. Whatever it is, be consistent in finding the time to prioritize your long-term objectives, such that you can make those small incremental steps forward, just like small deposits in a 401K account, that will start compounding over time.”

About Jay

Jay Harrington is the co-founder and chief strategist of Harrington Communications. This agency specializes in thought leadership marketing. They are dedicated to helping lawyers and law firms stand out in a crowded marketplace. 

Jay firmly believes in defining and dominating niche markets by first identifying business objectives, defining target markets, building awareness and influence online.

For over a decade, the agency has helped several lawyers craft their unique branding and get more business opportunities. The agency specialized in various marketing services, including thought leadership strategy, writing, podcasting, video marketing, and visual storytelling. 

Jay has written three books to help lawyers. These are The Essential Associate, The Productivity Pivot, and One Of A Kind. 

Jay also hosts The Thought Leadership Project Podcast. Here, he interviews industry leaders and shares insights to help lawyers further improve their practice. 

Are you interested to know more about Jay Harrington's work? Check out his website and connect with him on LinkedIn!

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