[JD Supra is happy once again to publish the "12 Days of Social & Digital Media" series, a year-end labor of love from LMA's Social & Digital Media SIG. The first post comes from the inimitable Stefanie Knapp:]

As co-chair of the Social & Digital Media SIG, I'm excited to kick things off this year! You'll notice we've tweaked things a bit from previous years. We've focused on bringing you posts from experts in a variety of social and digital media areas and given them free rein to write about what they think we should all know going into 2018. As a result, we changed our titles to reflect this Leap Ahead mentality while staying within our traditional 12 days' schedule. We hope you find the changes beneficial in preparing for the New Year!

1. Take Stock

This time of year is always a time for reflection. What did I accomplish this year? Where did I fall short? What are my goals for next year? As you're preparing your year-end reports on all of your digital and social media efforts, I urge you to set aside some time and answer these questions honestly. Discuss it with your team. Discuss it with your lawyers. Really try to understand the reason behind the numbers. Maybe your team held a training session at the beginning of the year on writing better headlines for alerts. As a result, you saw a huge uptick in alert opens over the rest of the year. Are there similar trainings you can do in 2018? Maybe you had planned to do a large social media campaign, but it never happened. Can you remove the roadblocks that prevented it from running so that you can tackle that project tin 2018? Or do you need to devise a different tactic?

2. Get Creative

Now that you know where you stand for 2017 and where you'd like to go for 2018, allow yourself and your team some time to develop the ideas for the tactics that will complete your strategy. Provide an environment that allows for creativity. Some people may want the freedom to talk through a bunch of ideas, some may need time to really think it through, some may need to read up on the topic (our posts over the next 11 days will provide great inspiration), and some may need to focus on something else entirely (playing pool, going for a walk) to get their creative juices flowing. For more ideas on creating a culture of creativity, watch this presentation from Refinery29 Co-Founder Piera Gelardi or read Ed Catmull's "Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration."

3. Test and Document

Now that you have your strategy and tactics in place, write it down. Share the document with your team and refer to it often throughout the year. Measure the success of your tactics against your goals. Test your ideas and document your results. Don't wait until the end of the year to evaluate your progress, make it a part of your process.

Here’s to leaping ahead in 2018!

We will be posting each weekday until December 19th - be sure to check back to hear from some amazing legal marketing minds.

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[Stefanie Knapp is the online marketing manager for Allen Matkins, a California-based law firm serving the real estate industry. Stefanie manages the firm's online communications initiatives, including the firm's website, videos, email marketing, blogs, and social media campaigns.]