Developing legal business through publishing is in large part about developing relationships.
The content is merely the currency of the engagement that builds and nurtures relationships. The content enables you to engage someone.
Maybe it’s the networking you do with someone who likes or networks with content, yours or someone else’s, that you share on LinkedIn.
Maybe it’s meeting someone whose article you shared on Twitter.
Maybe it’s the discussion that ensues from your emailing a client or prospective client something you or someone else wrote.
Taking it up a notch, one could use an aggregation and curation engine, ala LexBlog’s Syndication Portal product, to showcase a large number of content publishers and organizations.
How so?
Look at Sheppard Mullin’s ‘In The Know’ aggregating and curating blog posts from the firm’s over thirty legal blogs or the firm’s Coronavirus Insights publication which aggregates or curates their lawyer’s blog posts relating to the virus and pandemic.
Now imagine a publication along the lines of those two aggregating and curating the blog posts and content written by third parties?
Why and how so?
To build relationships and a strong reputation.
If you’re doing IP work in the pharmaceutical industry, imagine aggregating relevant content published by pharmaceuticals, scientists, academics, associations, financiers or even other lawyers.
You’ll receive thanks and kudos presenting you with ample opportunities for engagement and discussions leading to relationships.
You’ll build a reputation for caring for others and for having a strong interest in staying up to speed with developments and people in the niche.
All of this with out heavy lifting via RSS feeds from consenting publishers (who wouldn’t consent for the visibility) coming into a common data base for syndication onto a niche publication sponsored and published by you.
Publishing is valuable for business development. But keep in mind what you publish need not be your own content. You can generate a reputation and relationships by publishing content by third parties.