How to Schedule a Post on LexBlog’s WordPress Configuration

Posted on May 14, 2013 by Kristina Corbitt (@kriscorbitt)

I once subscribed to the belief that maintaining a blog was an impossible task for any busy person. Essentially, I thought that if you were a “blogger” that was your job – period. LexBlog (or, more specifically, our clients) taught me I was wrong. You can blog and still have time for your profession and life.

In order to publish regularly, you need not log-in every day or week. You can draft posts as you find time, store them in the back end, and schedule them to be published regularly. Here’s a walk-through of scheduling a post (with pictures!) if you are on our WordPress-based network:

Step 1: Draft your post and/or paste pre-drafted content (including title, post body, images, categories, and tags). You might consider following our blueprint for this step.

Step 2: Save your draft by clicking the “Save Draft” button in the “Publish” box.

Step 3: In the publish box, click the “Edit” link next to “Publish immediately”.

Step 4: Revise the date and time to reflect when you want the post to be published.

Step 5: Click the “OK” button.

Step 5a: Notice the change of the publish box buttons from “Publish” to “Schedule”.

Step 6: Click “Schedule”.

Step 7: Relax. Your post is now scheduled.

Many of our clients take advantage of this and have found their blogging “groove” by dedicating a couple hours every weekend or every few weekends to writing posts and scheduling them to be published within the following day or week. This frees them up from worrying about adding a post and keeps them focused, during the week, on their most important work.

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How to Clear Browser Cache and Cookies

Posted on May 9, 2013 by Neil O'Shaughnessy

Given how frequently some web sites change, at some point you will probably have occasion to clear out the cache and temporary files from your browser. It’s also a common request from technical support people when dealing with a browser-related issue.

Below are instructions for clearing the cache and cookies from most modern web browsers. Do note that over the years there have been many versions of each of these browsers, so if you’re running an older one, these instructions might not be totally accurate. They should be pretty close though, and generally just taking a quick look though the options you see under the “Tools” menu will expose the one for clearing cache and cookies.

Also note that some of these will default to clearing other things as well, like browsing history and saved passwords. If you don’t want those items cleared, do make sure to remove the check marks corresponding with the items you don’t want to be cleared.

On a Windows machine running:

Internet Explorer: Hold down (in the following order) Ctrl + Shift + Del. In the Dialog box that appears, ensure that both “Temporary Internet Files” and “Cookies” have checks in the boxes next to them (they likely will by default). Then click the “Delete” button at the bottom of that dialog box.

Mozilla FireFox: Hold down (in the following order) Ctrl + Shift + Del and a dialog box will appear. From the drop-down menu inside of it, change the timeframe to “Everything”. Ensure that there are check marks in the boxes next to “Cookies” and “Cache” and then hit the “Clear Now” button.

Google Chrome: Hold down (in the following order) Ctrl + Shift + Del and a dialog box will appear. From the drop-down menu inside of it, change the timeframe to “The Beginning of Time”. Ensure that there are check marks in the boxes next to “Delete Cookies and other site and plug-in data” and “Empty the cache” then hit the “Clear browsing data” button.

On a Mac running:

Safari: Go to the “Safari” menu and choose “Reset Safari”. From the dialog box that appears, ensure that there are check marks in the boxes next to “Remove all website data”. Click the “Reset” button at the bottom of the dialog box.

Mozilla FireFox: Hold down (in the following order) command + Shift + Del and a dialog box will appear. Ensure that there are check marks in the boxes next to “Cookies” and “Cache” and then hit the “Clear Now” button.

Google Chrome: Hold down (in the following order) command + Shift + Del and a dialog box will appear. Ensure that there are check marks in the boxes next to Delete Cookies and other site and plug-in data” and “Empty the cache” and then hit the “Clear browsing data” button.

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How to Copy & Paste from Word into WordPress

Posted on May 7, 2013 by Christopher Rachal

So you have a post in Word, and you’re wondering how to go about converting this into a blog post. For a novice blogger you would think you could just copy and paste it into the editor, but as our more experienced bloggers are aware, this results in extraneous invisible code you are also pasting into your post, which can create all sorts of problems. To avoid this you have two options: #1 (and what I recommend) would be to use the Paste as Plain Text button.

Yes, this will do exactly what you think, it will paste as plain text. The downside here is of course all the formatting you completed in Word will be removed. However, it will prevent Words styles from being used on your site (you want your post to have the same font/style as all the other posts right?)

Once you choose the Paste as Plain Text button a box will appear:

Paste your text here and click Insert. This will carry your text into your blog editor window where you can bold, italicize and link to your heart’s content. Once you’ve formatted your post you can Publish it without worrying about it matching all your other posts.

For those who would like to use the fonts and styles used in their Word document you’ll want to do option #2, which is basically the same as #1 except using the Paste from Word button:

Once chosen a box will appear where you can paste your text and click Insert:

Either approach will work and will avoid a post that includes funny characters, mixed up fonts, and formatting that distract from the actual content.

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Three Tips to Improve Your Professional Network – LexBlog’s One Night Stand with Sree Sreenivasan

Posted on March 25, 2013 by Kristina Corbitt (@kriscorbitt)

As someone who considers myself to be a passive observer on social networking, looking to add myself more to the conversation and expand my networking reach via Twitter and LinkedIn, the “dirty secret” of social media shared Monday night was equally a relief and disappointment:

Almost everyone will miss almost everything you do on social media.

I was relieved to know that if I “mess up” in some way (I am a crazed perfectionist), not everyone will see it. On the other hand, doesn’t this mean my efforts networking online will be a waste?

This past monday, several members of the LexBlog team participated in “Social Media: One Night Stand“, an evening with Sree Sreenivasan (@sree), Chief Digital Officer at Columbia University and Professor at Columbia Journalism School. So much information was shared – tools to use, best practices to follow, and occasional social media philosophy that analyzed, realistically, the real social media world we’re in today – that keeping the highlights brief seems impossible.

Three clear takeaways stood out to me as actionable and most relevant to my situation (a situation, by the way, which I find aligns closely with that of our clients just getting started).

1. Start Doing It
Much like anything else in life, the only way to get the hang of participating in social media is just to do it. Setting an easy starter goal, like, one blog post per month, might be just the thing to get you started. I also realized that if I look back at first blog posts from some of our leading attorney-authors (on our network), they too took a while to “get the hang of it”.

2. Always Be Collecting (Share As Appropriate)
Even when not actively tweeting, blogging, or finding new LinkedIn connections, life doesn’t stop. As you stumble across interesting content, or even a photograph-worthy event, save it in some way. As Sree says, “You should always be collecting. Then, as appropriate, share it.” This might mean you collect several things you don’t end up using – that’s okay.

3. Completing Your Article is Only the Beginning
I should note that this event was put on by the Communication Leadership department at UW (@COMMLead). I mention this because this third takeaway was actually intended for the journalists in the audience (who comprised, I think, at least half). Sree explained that turning in your news story, in today’s world, is only the beginning. After that you should be sharing it with your relevant followers/audience. But, from my perspective, this advice is a PERFECT fit for our attorney-authors who are often hung up on getting everything “just perfect”. Then, once the entry is posted, don’t take the extra time to share content with potential influencers.

Of course, the event was over three hours, packed with even more information – relevant to novices all the way up to seasoned social media / internet networking professionals. If you’re curious to learn more, check out:

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3 Killer Concepts to Sharpen your Professional Blog’s Strategy

Posted on February 5, 2013 by Drew Duncan

Anyone new to blogging will tell you their first challenges occur at a technical level.  Whether its knowing how to do a block quote, add media to a post or simply engaging with commentors on your blog; the technical hurdles can be discouraging to new blog writers.

“Good!! Adaptation, improvisation but your weakness is not your technique.” — Morpheus (The Matrix, 1999)

Your Weakness Is Not Your Blogging Technique

Your Weakness Is Not Your Blogging Technique.

Finding new challenge in a blog post’s construction, using the right voice and engaging with a social audience are a Blogger’s only rewards for mastering the technical learning curve to advance to the next level.

Shouldn’t that be enough proof that you’ve mastered the blog style?

Maybe you’ve mastered the technical aspects of writing in a blog style format.  You write like you talk now.  And your authentic commentary brings scores of like-minded readers to engage and share in the conversations you curate.  Are you done?

Or have you Guru’d yourself into a corner by preaching to the converted too many times?

Challenge yourself by engaging people outside your comfort zone to grow in more colorful ways.

Playing it ‘safe’ limits you.

To answer that, I’ve enlisted the help of Kevin McKeown, who’s own blog, ‘Leadership Close Up‘ provides us three related concepts to consider, alongside any technical aspects needed to successfully maintain a professional blog of quality.

Blogging: Most Definitive Medium For Demonstrating Expertise On The Web is up first and deftly summarizes the strategic importance of building your 
expert reputation throughout the blogging process.

Your Readers, NOT the Authors, control the type, relevance and priority of high-quality content shared to 
their networks.  Within one to two clicks, the average reader can quickly identify sources of expertise, filter out noise and assign it a social currency value before sharing your commentary to their own network.

“Blogging is one of the best ways to demonstrate expertise and become a trusted authority. Building expert status online helps drive your business development especially among your weaker social ties. This is all about proving that you’re worth knowing.”

The Power of Online Word-of-Mouth in the Social Networking Era (Ignore at Your Peril) suggests that WOM online or (eWOM) not ONLY happens online; it happens infinitely.  If your content is credible and relevant then eWOM potentially continues forever; a result of the high value assigned it by your social network.

Have you ever shared a funny email with a friend only to find they’ve seen it years before on its first go-round?

As it becomes harder to trust online content, your expert reputation is a critical measurement of influence on electronic word of mouth in a social network.  Respect the control your readers’ have over the distribution and significance given to your blog content in their own networks.  The way your expertise takes shape correlates to how the content is viewed outside your network’s stronger social ties.

“Gaining a deeper understanding for how a personal network operates enables you to more strategically deploy that network to generate online word-of-mouth referrals.”

The Strength of Weak Ties in Social Networking: Seek to be Worth Knowing demonstrates how your social networks function and the built-in potential value if you learn to leverage the Weak Social Ties in the social networks you cultivate.

Strong Social Ties in your network may help you choose the right detergent for your laundry, vote in a better politician or even select a better career path.

Try harnessing your network’s Weak Social Ties instead.  Strategically, its like opening a window when the room is stuffy.

If you can see the value in what fresh air does for the human body, its no stretch to accept that a rich network of strong AND weak social ties will grow your networks in ways you never thought possible.

 

 

“Indeed, it might not be who or what you know that creates advantage, but rather more simply, who you become by dint of how you hang out—the disadvantaged hang out with folks just like themselves, while the advantaged engage folks of diverse opinion and practice.”

Blend these 3 elements into your blog strategy to achieve a mastery seldom found in the blog style format.

1. Create a vibrant social network of friends and strangers.

2. Engage them with topical relevance as an authentic source.

3. Respect their ability to shape your reputation as they share to their own groups.

In the blogosphere, the students of the ‘Get it fast’ style defeat those who ‘Get it right’ more often than they’ve got a right to do.  Whatever the level you’re training to master, if your content isn’t clear in purpose, a credible source or relevant to a reader’s social network…

 Are you really adding value to their conversations?

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Effective blogging (in a nutshell)

Posted on January 16, 2013 by Helen Pitlick

Like law, blogging is both a science and an art — there are some rules and best practices, which are generally common sense.

The “art” part is about demonstrating your expertise on a subject matter and establishing yourself as an expert your target audience can trust. 
This is what will have an impact on your client development efforts.

The “science” part grabs and keeps their attention.

Briefly, here are the three most important practices of good blogging:

  1. Writing for online readers: formatting, SEO, and voice/tone.
  2. Engaging in the conversation: effective linking and listening.
  3. Providing solid takeaways for your target audience in each post.

Formatting is very important when writing for online readers — we don’t read things online like we do in print. Instead, we scan because our eyes get tired easily and we’re pressed for time and information.

Here’s what to keep in mind with formatting:

  • Short posts: 3 – 5 paragraphs are ideal, and make the paragraphs short — one to five sentences. Thick walls of text turn readers off.
  • Bullet/number lists
  • Use of emphasis: bold key points, bold your take away point but don’t overdo it; less is definitely more.
  • Use the language, acronyms, and terminology that your
 specific audience will understand — your target audience isn’t always going to be
 other lawyers, and even if it is, you want to make sure your content caters to both crowds. Be conversational – a blog isn’t just about what you know: it also gives potential clients a glimpse of what you would be like to work with.

Second, effective linking. In some ways, linking is counterintuitive. Why would you want to send someone away from your blog?

When you link out in your posts, you are:

  • Doing your readers a favor by giving them background information, or context on something you’re referring to. You don’t just tell your readers something — you show them, and you do this with a link. Your readers can Google something themselves, but a link in your post is a recommendation from you.
  • It’s a way to get noticed by other bloggers, as well as the influencers and amplifiers that impact client development. Your blog will show up in their analytics and possibly come through as a pingback.
  • It’s also great for search engine optimization (because the search engines view linked text as more important than regular text).

Finally, provide expert commentary/analysis — this probably the single most important element of blogging.

You are the legal experts on this subject, so:

  • Takeaways are important — tell readers something they don’t know. Make them think. Tell them why a law, decision, or current 
event matters to them – what do they need to know about it? How will it 
affect them?
  • Act as intelligence agent by tracking new developments or 
identifying trends.
  • Engage in a conversation—or even a debate–with another blogger, 
thought leader, or journalist. 
This is the type of content that will get you noticed and keep readers coming back to your blog.
image by steffenz via Flickr Creative Commons
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Listening to Social Media Can Keep Your Blog Current

Posted on January 9, 2013 by Lyda Hawes

Like any of our bloggers, we too have to be intentional about keeping the content of this blog current. I decided to take some of our own advice and practice a little online listening. In the process I found a great post on the very subject. Gabriella Sannino writes in How To Get Great Blogging Ideas From Social Media about the importance of listening in generating content ideas.

Social media is a window into your target audience; it’s a constant flow of their thoughts, ideas, concerns, needs, wants, and so on.

She also touches on an important element of the act of listening:

Of course, if you’re going to pay attention to those you follow, it behooves you to make sure you’re following the right people, doesn’t it?

It’s easy for social media channels to be crowded and noisy. Trying to hear all the voices can be the online equivalent of going to a crowded coffee shop and hoping that you’ll overhear some interesting conversation that will lead to a business opportunity. It’s theoretically possible, but not very likely.  On the other hand, you stand a much higher chance of success going to a networking event for your area of expertise and talking with people who share common interests. Use that same approach when listening online and target your approach to your interests and expertise.

The other key piece of advice Gabriella offers is to inject a little discipline into the process. It’s easy to think you’ll get around to that social media thing eventually, but the reality is setting specific goals is the true path to success.

You have to treat social media listening as a business process. Set up a routine. Discipline yourself to committing one-to-two hours per day on your research and development.

The good news is that you don’t have to try and use every social media tool starting today. Any one of the many tools available can be a portal to finding and following connections. If Facebook isn’t your cup of tea, try using groups in LinkedIn. Don’t have time for either of those? Maybe Zite on your iPad is a better option. As for this post, I used Tweetdeck to search twitter on blogging subjects. Whatever tool you choose, just be sure that listening is as much a part of your routine as sharing – you’d be surprised at what gem you might find when you do.

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The importance of storytelling in legal blogging

Posted on November 6, 2012 by Helen Pitlick

Shared stories create a connection to others that builds a sense of belonging to a particular community.

- Dan Siegel

I had the pleasure of attending a LMA Luncheon at the Washington Athletic Club last week and listening to Hanson Hosein, director of the Master of Communication in Digital Media program at the University of Washington, discuss his views on social media and the law. I’m a graduate of this program and was curious to see what he would say to the legal field. My colleague Kara McKenna also attended, and posted a great wrap-up on Gen Y Biz Dev.

Hanson is both a lawyer and a journalist by background — a former CNN correspondant, no less — which makes his perspective on this matter all the more interesting and relevant.

Hanson is also a master storyteller. He traveled the country with his wife to convey the importance of mom and pop stores in modern America, examined the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, and explored the tragedy of Detroit.

So, it may be no surprise that the biggest takeaway from his talk is the relevance of storytelling in legal blogging. This applies to any sort of blogging (or modern media), but Hanson sees a missed opportunity for lawyers to tell stories in their online writing.

What is storytelling?

People no longer trust marketing and are very aware of branding, so content that comes off as overtly promotional ends up turning off readers.

Hanson’s definition of storytelling is “narrative plus engagement.”

Storytellers create a flow out of events. Rather than just reporting actions and outcomes, a storyteller crafts those actions and outcomes into situations that the reader (or listener, or viewer) can relate to — storytelling bridges gaps between data and experience.

A great example of storytelling is a video about a little boy in Los Angeles and his hobby of building arcade games out of cardboard boxes.

Watch it, but be warned — it moved some members of the audience to tears.

The director of this short harnessed the power of storytelling to raise thousands of dollars for Caine’s college fund. Had he merely asked for donations, most of these donors would have not have opened their wallets. However, by providing insight into Caine’s situation and showing America what a smart, capable child Caine is, many viewers felt moved to help.

How can you use storytelling in your legal blog?

Many law bloggers face the same challenges as a deodorant company or a compact budget car: their product itself just isn’t that exciting, but this doesn’t mean that the lifestyle associated with it or the problems these products help solve aren’t attractive.

For instance (via Hanson), Degree deodorant’s Adrenalist campaign shows the adventurous possibilities that abound when not hampered by the threat of perspiration. Ford Motor wanted to revamp its image, so it invited young social media mavens to showcase the fun of its Fiesta. Milk helps moms and dads make breakfast easier.

None of these products are sexy, but the image that a little storytelling creates is.

Lawyers can do this too: focus not on the details of the law, case, decision, etc., but on how it can improve the lives of their clients. Your audience will generally connect with you much more if you can explain to them how a case will save them money or how certain actions can keep them out of a lawsuit than if you bore them with minute details.

Here are some tips:

  • Provide useful information — engage with your audience now, help them out, and when they need a lawyer, they will hopefully remember your story.
  • Have an action idea: the mission statement of your entire story.
  • Use your posts to establish trust and connection with your audience. Interact with them.
  • Write “to” people — not “at” them.
  • Find stories internally that might be interesting to others.

Examples

For every lawyer who tells me he can’t make his content more interesting because his field just isn’t that interesting, there’s a lawyer in the same field writing conversational content that a reader can relate to.

I’m a huge fan of what Charlie Sartain at Looper Reed is doing with his Energy and the Law blog to make energy law in Texas more approachable. For example, he might ask a reader to put themselves in the position of someone who has bought interest in over-produced oil wells.

Robin Shea at Constangy’s Employment and Labor Insider consistently ties in legal issues with current events in a way that is never boring.

Karen Koehler, The Velvet Hammer, provides insight into the life of a trial lawyer while still providing usable information. She takes an unconventional approach to what might otherwise be mundane, such as a case involving a freeway collision.

What stories do you have to tell?

 

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Why Jury Duty Matters

Posted on October 5, 2012 by Lyda Hawes

I was out of the office for the better part of two days this week, having been summoned for jury duty. I have always believed that jury duty is a civic responsibility and I made arrangements to be there, but I was not exactly excited at the prospect of having to find non-existent time in my already packed schedule to serve. In the end, I was excused from having to sit on a jury, but regardless, I must say that I discovered a new found respect for our judicial system through my experience.

As someone who is immersed daily in conversations with our clients regarding how they conduct the business of law, it can be easy to forget that everything we do here at LexBlog ultimately supports the practice of law. When I first joined LexBlog (exactly 2 years ago, Sunday), I noticed how much it helped me to actually go visit law firms and see their actual day-to-day goings on. Spending a couple of days in the midst of the legal system only served to deepen that appreciation even more.

It is easy to be cynical about the US justice system and of course it is not without it’s flaws, but I was struck by the efforts we go to in this country to ensure folks are given as fair a trial as possible. Serving jury duty is basically the Constitutional right to a trial by a jury of your peers come to life. I was also moved by just how human and emotional the jury selection process can be. In the day and a half I sat through the voir dire process, there were tears, laughter, confusion, anger, and respect all represented amongst the potential jurors. Some folks were glad to be there, others wanted any excuse to leave, but yet all took the responsibility to appear seriously, whether they wanted to be there or not.

It also occurred to me that the ability to have a jury of your peers requires the expertise of those educated in the law.  Without lawyers to translate our complex rules and regulations into something any of us can understand (and, too, without judges to keep order in the proceedings), the process might as well be relegated to the type of vigilante justice sometimes seen in the court of social media. To those of our clients who serve our courts in this capacity, I thank you.

And, what ran through my mind more than anything else as I contemplated being called to serve on a jury was how I might feel if I was on the other side of the table. None of us can know what events in the future might put us in the position of needing a jury of our peers to decide our fate. I can only hope should that day ever come for me, that the people summoned will show the same respect for the process that I endeavored to show.

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Strategic sharing: How to share your blog posts without turning people off — webinar recording available

Posted on September 28, 2012 by Helen Pitlick

Thanks to all who attended yesterday’s webinar, “Strategic sharing: How to share your blog posts without turning people off.” If you missed it, you can watch the recording above or on the LexBlog Support YouTube page — the audio changes about 25 seconds in due to some technical difficulties, which I edited out. The presentation is also available.

In “Strategic sharing: How to share your blog posts without turning people off,” LexBlog’s Editorial Manager Colin O’Keefe and I discussed strategies for sharing your blog posts in existing social networks and with journalists and other influencers, as well as how to tastefully encourage folks to subscribe.

Since a good deal of effective social networking includes sharing other people’s content, Colin mentioned a few listening tools:

Please feel free to reach out to Colin or me with any questions! Hope you can join us for our next webinar on October 25.

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