Steve Jobs’ resignation: what it means for your law practice
Steve Jobs' abrupt resignation days gone by had social media buzzing about the news and what it means for Apple (which saw its stock immediately drop, and then rebound) and for the tech world. Every news channel and blog had something to say and the tweets and wall posts abounded.
But what does his resignation mean for attorneys? How will this affect your law practice?
Well, unless you work for Apple or one of their affiliates, it won't affect your practice at all.
So. . . why the tease? Was my headline a gimmick to get more clicks?
Well, yes and no.
It's right that I don't have whatever business to say about how this news tale will really affect your practice, and while that smacks of gimmickry, there is a lesson in this.
The headline that brought you here illustrates an vital marketing technique: tying your message–blog post, tweet, post, email–to something already on the minds of your readers or followers. According to a new Kindle ebook by Dan Zarrella, about the science and metrics behind social media, this is called "priming". Zarrella says,
"If a theme is exposed to something related to your thought before he really encounters your thought, he'll be more sensitive to it, and this makes it simpler to catch his attention. . . .
"The simplest way to make priming work for your thought is to make timely content. If there is a topic or news tale currently making the rounds in your butt consultation, relate your thought to that topic, and the zeitgeist will do the priming for you."
And so, primed as you were by the news of Jobs' resignation, you were more inclined to click through to read this tale. Yes, I cheated a bit with my headline and yes, it would have been better if I had something to say about how the resignation affected the legal profession, but then this would have been a very uncommon blog post.
Zarrella's book is brief, not at all dry, and has some fantastic insights and data, such as the most and smallest amount re-tweetable words and the best era and days to tweet, blog, post to Facebbok, and send email. "In many cases, the most effective era to send are the less well loved era. Because your messages have less clutter to compete with, they break through."
Zarrella also says that people share on social media not for altruistic reasons but because the information they share reinforces their reputation. People prefer to share breaking news, for example, because it is scarce, rather than humor or opinion which is all too common.
Some might say that putting news in your headlines to piggyback on what's already on the minds of your readers isn't a new thought, and they would be right. I'm sure this post, with the headline, "Man Accidentally Impregnates Goat," is getting lots of traffic. Like my post, the lesson is in the headline, not the tale. (Be sure to download the free ebook he mentions, "How to Write Headlines That go Viral with Social Media".)
So, not a new concept. What's new is that now, social media metrics let us quantify what we always suspected, while chief us to learn thoughts that never crossed our minds.
Zarrella's book is also free, through August 27.