Ep. 7 Thought Leadership Success With Lawyer Mark Cohen

First a little background on Mark Cohen's journey before digging in to how he used writing and social media to develop a thought leadership platform. Mark was a trial lawyer for almost 30 years. He started out as an Assistant U.S. Attorney, became a big law partner, then left to start a national boutique firm where he learned how technology could be used more effectively to manage legal services, After a conversation with Thomas L. Friedman, author of the book, The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century, about whether some what what was in the book would apply to the legal vertical, Mark started Clearspire, a virtual law firm and legal services company that upended the traditional law firm business model, to provide services to clients that wanted it delivered better, faster, cheaper. After closing shop, Mark founded Legal Mosaic, which is where this thought leadership story built around writing and social media, starts: Mark shares some of the lessons he learned along the way: - Mark discovered that Twitter allows you to connect with other like minded people and participate in a global community in a way that’s very helpful for one’s career. - It's all about finding a voice and getting it out there. - It’s important to be patient. One does not create a social media presence and brand overnight. It takes time and thoughtfulness and effort. - Social media is a two-way street. It’s not all about you. You have to participate in the community. Find who has interesting ideas and engage with them and promote them. It becomes reciprocal though not the intention going in. - You don’t need a tremendous amount of content to develop a brand or thought leadership platform. You can become a thoughtful aggregator by summarizing some of the greatest hits articles and giving it a spin of your own with some interesting commentary. - You have to be authentic in what you message is and how you’re getting it across. Don’t put on airs. - Stick with it. Social media is a long-term play. And, some of the results: -Mark's development of a thought leadership platform led to being a columnist on Forbes, publishing a popular blog, and speaking opportunities around the world. - What’s gratifying is not the numbers - followers and likes and connections - but the dialog that the content has generated.