Begin with the end in mind.

For a recent JD Supra Office Hours (our ongoing series of Zoom training sessions for clients), we welcomed Kaylee Walstad, Chief Strategy Officer of EDRM. Bonus surprise: EDRM’s CEO, Mary Mack, joined us as well, as we discussed content strategy and editorial best practices.

When EDRM joined our platform in early 2022, Kaylee had a goal in mind: to earn a JD Supra Readers' Choice Award in the eDiscovery category for 2023. She did it – and then some! Both Kaylee and Mary were recognized as the top two eDiscovery writers in the 2023 awards, and EDRM was recognized in our firm awards for the year.

Our conversation about smart thought leadership was framed by this great accomplishment. How did you do it? Three easily adopted takeaways I want to share from Kaylee's answer(s):

1. Keep your fingers on the pulse of content

Kaylee employs a multi-pronged approach to keeping informed of the news and topics within e-discovery, including:

• using an email digest,
• tracking the previous month's popular content (both looking at EDRM’s JD Supra analytics and Beacon Insights, for site-wide readership insights)
• looking at trending authors (right column of www.jdsupra.com homepage, and Beacon),
• monitoring the larger public conversation: what are people talking about? What events are going on in the world?

She also follows a habit I frequently suggest: explore the work of trending authors that matter to you (aka write on matters related to your practice or profession) to discover how frequently they write and understand what they are covering (and how). Consider applying any of their framing/topics/cadence to your own strategy. Learn from the leaders!

2. Remind your authors that content distribution is “a gift”

I asked Kaylee: as it relates to legal marketers working with reluctant attorneys, what advice would you give to a marketer who is looking to elicit more content from attorneys?

Kaylee recommended sharing the details about the potential audience they can reach through distribution on your firm’s various platforms, including email, website, social media and, of course, JD Supra.

Helping authors understand the potential pool of clients and prospects gives credibility to your ask. Once you do have the content, keep them engaged by sharing their readership stats and encouraging them to build on the success of their first post. JD Supra provides guidance on keeping your authors engaged via our Resource Center along with custom trainings that can be recorded and stored on your intranet/shared with new authors.

3. Use a mix of content

“People are ingesting information in many different channels.”

Meet them where they are. Match the content that best suits the needs of your audience, and in some cases, the needs of your authors.

EDRM uses a variety of formats to meet their goal of raising up the voices of their community and authors including: webinars, podcasts, blog posts, and whitepapers.

One of the organization's most well read pieces, Professional Responsibility Considerations in AI for eDiscovery: Competence, Confidentiality, Privacy and Ownership, is a white paper.

In particular, we discussed the format of EDRM’s Illumination Zone Podcast which features a conversation with members of the EDRM community.

If you are a JD Supra client and would like to watch the complete recording of this session: log in and follow for the Office Hours link on your dashboard. Many thanks to Kaylee and Mary for joining us!

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Paul Ryplewski is JD Supra's VP of Client Services. Connect with him on LinkedIn. Follow his latest writings on JD Supra.